Ken miles: THE UNTOLD RACING HERO

ITS COMPLETELY ON THE KEN MILES AND HIS HISTORY, WORKS AND TRAGEDY THAT LEADS TO HIS DEATH UNWANTEDLY

1. KEN MILES
(THE UNTOLD FACT OF LIVING RACING LEGEND)



BY: ABHINAVA BANERJEE

2. ABOUT:-
Kenneth Henry Miles (1 November 1918 – 17 August 1966)
was a British sports car racing engineer and driver best
known for his motorsport career in the US and with
American teams on the international scene. He is an
inductee to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America

3. Life and career:-
Miles was born on 1 November 1918 in The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, a short distance from
the city of Birmingham. He was the son of Eric Miles and Clarice Jarvis. After a failed attempt to
run away to the United States, Miles left school at
the age of 15 to work as an apprentice at Wolseley
Motors, who sent him to a technical school to
broaden his knowledge of vehicle construction. He
raced motorcycles before he served in the British
Territorial Army in World War II where he spent the
next seven years working in machinery. Miles earned
the rank of staff sergeant in 1942. He was stationed
in a tank unit that took part in the Normandy
landings in 1944. After the war, he raced Bugattis,
Alfa Romeos, and Alvises with the Vintage Sports Car Club. He then turned to a Ford V8 Frazer-
Nash. In 1952 Miles moved from England to the US, and settled in Los Angeles, California as a
service manager for Gough Industries, the Southern California MG distributor. In 1953, he won 14
straight victories in SCCA racing in an MG-based special of his own design and construction.

4. For the 1955 season, he designed, constructed and campaigned a second special based on MG
components that was known as the "Flying Shingle". It was very successful in the SCCA F
modified class on the west coast. Miles raced the "Flying Shingle" at Palm Springs in late March,
finishing first overall against veteran driver Cy Yedor, also in an MG Special, and novice driver,
actor James Dean in a Porsche 356 Speedster. Miles was later disqualified on a technical
infraction because his fenders were too wide, thus
allowing Yedor and Dean to get 'bumped up' to first
and second. During 1956, Miles raced John von
Neumann's Porsche 550 Spyder at most of the Cal
Club and SCCA
events. For the 1957 season (in co-operation with
Otto Zipper), Miles engineered the installation of a
Porsche 550S engine and transmission in a 1956
Cooper chassis and body. It was the second successful race car to be known on the West Coast as
"the Pooper", the first being an early 1950s Cooper chassis and body powered by a Porsche 356
power train that was built and campaigned by Pete Lovely of Tacoma, Washington. The resulting
car dominated the F Modified class of SCCA on the west coast in the 1957 and 1958 seasons with
Miles driving. Due to his great skill and talent, both as a driver and mechanical engineer, Miles
was a key member of the Shelby/Cobra race team in the early 1960s.

5. Miles described himself this way:

“I am a mechanic. That has been the direction of my entire vocational life. Driving is a hobby, a
relaxation for me, like golfing is to others. I should like to drive a Formula One machine, not for
the grand prize, but just to see what it is like. I should think it would be jolly good fun!”

With a very pronounced Brummie accent (from his
hometown of Birmingham, renowned for car manufacturing)
combined with a seemingly obscure and sardonic sense of
humour, he was affectionately known by his American racing
crew as "Teddy Teabag" (for his tea drinking) or "Sidebite"
(as he talked out of the side of his mouth). He played a key
role in the development and success of the racing versions of the Shelby Cobra 289 in SCCA,
USRRC and FIA sports car racing between 1962 and 1965 as
well as the Daytona Coupe and 427 versions of the Cobra
and the Ford GT (GT40). He became the chief test driver of
Shelby-American in 1963. Miles had a "reputation for
courtesy on the track" and was sometimes called the
"Stirling Moss of the West Coast".

6. While a member of the AC-Cobra Ford Team, Miles
entered a Lotus 23 in the 1964 Player's 200 at
Mosport. In 1965, he shared a Ford GT Mk.II with
Bruce McLaren at the 24 Hours of Le Mans but
retired with gearbox trouble. Earlier in the year, also
with McLaren, he had finished second at the 12
Hours of Sebring. The next year he won the 24 Hours
of Daytona, sharing the Ford GT Mk.II with Lloyd
Ruby, and then won the 12 Hours of Sebring. Several months later, sharing the drive with Denny
Hulme, Miles was leading the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Ford executive Leo Beebe, desiring a
publicity photo of three of their cars crossing the finish line together,
instructed Carroll Shelby to order him to slow down, which Shelby agreed
to. Accordingly, the next car from Ford driven by Bruce McLaren/Chris
Amon and the third-place car from Ford drew up, and they cruised to the
line together.The French race officials, after initially agreeing to Ford's
dead-heat "photo-finish", reneged during the final hour of the race.
McLaren's #2 car crossed the finish line just ahead and was declared the
winner. Miles was denied the unique achievement of winning Sebring,
Daytona, and Le Mans in the same year.

7. Personal life:-
Ken Miles was married to Mollie and had a son, Peter Miles. He
was also a close friend of Carroll Shelby. Peter was almost 15
when he witnessed his father's death during the testing of a
prototype car in 1966. A few months after Ken's death, Peter
went to work for Ken's friend Dick Troutman at the Troutman and
Barnes custom car shop in Culver City, California. Peter stayed at
the workshop for four years. In 1986, Peter joined Precision
Performance Inc. (PPI), starting as a fabricator and then a
mechanic before becoming the crew chief. Peter was the crew
chief for Ivan Stewart when Stewart won the 1991 Nissan 400 in
Nevada. In a 2019 interview with Le Mans, Peter revealed that
the last time he went to Le Mans was in 1965 with his father Ken, and he has not returned since.
Peter is currently an executive administrator of a vintage car
collection belonging to William E. Connor II, believed to be
valued at over $80 million, which included a Ferrari 250
GTO, considered by respected Ferrari historian Marcel
Massini as the best example of all 36 built.

8. Racing records:-
1) USAC Road Racing Championship results
Season Series Position Team Car

1961
USAC Road Racing Championship
1st
Crandall Industries
Incorporated
Porsche 718 RS 61

2) Formula One World Championship results
Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 WDC Points

1961
Louise
Bryden-
Brown
Lotus 18 Climax
Straight- 4

MON

NED

BEL

FRA

GBR

GER

ITA
USA
DNA

NC

0


3) 24 Hours of Daytona results
Year Class No Tyres Car Team Co-Drivers Laps Pos. Class Pos.

1966

P+2.0

98

G
Ford GT Mk II
Ford 427 V8/90° OHV
7000cc
Shelby American Inc. Lloyd Ruby
678

1st

1st[18]

9. 4) 24 Hours of Le Mans results
Year Class No Tyres Car Team Co-Drivers Laps Pos.
Class
Pos.
1955 S1.5 41

MG EX182 MG L4
1489cc
MG Cars Ltd.
John
Lockett
249 12th 5th

1965

P+5.0

1

G
Ford GT Mk II Ford 427
V8/90° OHV 6981cc
Shelby
American Inc.
Bruce
McLaren

45
DNF
Gearbox

1966

P+5.0

1

G
Ford GT Mk II Ford 427
V8/90° OHV 6982cc
Shelby
American Inc.
Denny
Hulme

360

2nd

2nd

5) 12 Hours of Sebring results
Year Class No Tyres Car Team Co-Drivers Laps Pos.
Class
Pos.

1957

S1.5

45

Porsche 550 RS
Porsche F4 2v DOHC
1498cc

J. Kunstle
Jean Pierre
Kunstle

184

9th

2nd

1958

S1.5

45

Porsche 550 RS
Porsche F4 2v DOHC
1498cc
Jean Pierre
Kunstle
Jean Pierre
Kunstle

59
DNF
Clutch
1959 S1.5 35

Porsche 718 RSK
Porsche 1498cc
Precision
Motors
Jack
McAfee
173 8th 3rd
1962 GT1.6 42

Sunbeam Alpine Sunbeam
L4 1592cc
Rootes
Group
Lew
Spencer
25
DNF
Engine





GT+4.0

12

G
AC Cobra
Ford V8/90° 2v OHV
4727cc

Ed Hugus
Phil Hill
Lew Spencer

192

11th

1st

10. 1963

GT+4.0


16


G

AC Cobra
Ford V8/90° 2v OHV
4727cc


Shelby
American Inc.
Lew
Spencer
Dave MacDonald
Fireball
Roberts


56


DNF
Steering Arm

1964

P3+0

1

G
AC Cobra
Ford V8/90° 2v OHV
7000cc
Shelby
American Inc.
John
Morton

81
DNF
Blown Engine

1965

P+5.0

98

G
Ford GT40
Ford 289 V8/90° 2v UHV
4727cc
Shelby
American Inc.
Bruce
McLaren

192

2nd

1st

1966

P+5.0

1

G
Ford GT40 Ford A V8
OHV 7040cc
Shelby
American Inc.

Lloyd Ruby

228

1st

1st

Awards and honours:-
Miles was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of
Fame of America in 2001

11. Death:-
The Ford J-car was intended to be the successor to
the all-conquering Ford GT40 Mk.II and, despite
reliability problems, showed potential in the
springtime Le Mans trials. After the death of Walt
Hansgen in a J-car Ford while testing at Le Mans in
April, the decision was made to shelve the J-car and
focus on the proven Mk IIs, and little development
was done for the rest of the 1966 World Sports Car
Championship season. Finally, in August 1966,
Shelby American resumed testing and development
work with Miles serving as primary test driver. The J-car featured a breadvan-shaped rear section
that experimented with Kammback aerodynamic theories, as well as a revolutionary (but
untested) honeycomb panel design that was supposed to both lighten and stiffen the car, but the
design remained unproved with high-speed prototype sports cars. After almost a day of testing
at Riverside International Raceway in the brutally hot Southern California desert summer
weather, Miles approached the end of the track's 1-mile (1.6 km), downhill back straight at top
speed (200-plus mph) when the car suddenly looped, flipped, crashed and caught fire. The car
broke into pieces and ejected Miles, killing him instantly. As a result, the aerodynamics of the J-

12. car were greatly modified to correct the rear-end lift
generated at race
speeds. Ford executives, under pressure after the
second of two fatal accidents in the program in five
months, also ordered a NASCAR-style steel tube
rollover cage to be installed in future versions of the
car.[13] The death of 47-year-old Miles, following that
of 46-year-old Hansgen, led Ford to favour younger
drivers in subsequent race entries. The significantly
revised J-car, renamed the Ford Mk IV, won the only
two races in which it was entered: the 1967 Sebring
(Fla.) 12 Hours, and the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. The
steel roll cage in the Mk IV (mandated as a direct result
of Miles's
death) probably
saved Mario Andretti's life, when he crashed violently
during the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans but escaped. Miles
is interred at the Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum of the
Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

13. SO THUS IS MY FAVOURITE RACER FOR WHOM I HAVE MADE THIS, SO
WHO IS YOURS???



(***REFERENCE: Palmer, Gayle (18 August 1966). "Famed Race Driver Ken Miles Dies in Flaming Crash at
Riverside" (htt ps://www.newspapers.com/clip/39247716/newspilot/). News-Pilot. San Pedro, California. p. 3 –
via Newspapers.com).