 | This articleappears to contradict the article1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. Please discuss at thetalk page and do not remove this message until the contradictions are resolved.(May 2023) |
Ken Miles | |
|---|---|
 Ken Miles | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles (1918-11-01)1 November 1918 Sutton Coldfield,Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 17 August 1966(1966-08-17) (aged 47) |
| Resting place | Hollywood Forever,Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch/service |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1939–1946 |
| Rank | Staff sergeant |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles (1 November 1918 – 17 August 1966) was an English sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the U.S. and with American teams on the international scene. He is an inductee to theMotorsports Hall of Fame of America. As an automotive engineer, he is known for developing, along with driver and designerCarroll Shelby, theFord GT40, the car that won the24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Miles and Shelby's efforts at Le Mans were dramatized in the2019Oscar-winning filmFord v Ferrari.
Miles was born on 1 November 1918 inSutton Coldfield, then inWarwickshire, now in the city ofBirmingham.[1] He was the son of Eric Miles and Clarice Jarvis.[2] After a failed attempt to run away to the United States,[3] Miles left school at the age of 15 to work as an apprentice atWolseley Motors,[2] who sent him to a technical school to broaden his knowledge of vehicle construction.[3] He raced motorcycles before joining theBritish Army, duringWorld War II.[2]
Miles' first role in the military was driving instructor in theTerritorial Army.[4] On 1 October 1942, as an armamentartificer, he was among the founding members of theRoyal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), and transferred to the REME Training Establishment.[4] The following year Miles was posted toGuards Armoured Division Workshops, followed by the29th Armoured Brigade Workshop.[4] Helanded in Normandy on 15 June 1944, and later that year was posted to theLight Aid Detachment of the15th/19th King’s Royal Hussars.[4] Miles served in North West Europe until the end of the war,[1][2] by which time he had achieved the rank ofstaff sergeant.[1][2] He served as a tank commander, and the experience is said to have fuelled a new love in Miles for high-performance engineering. He was discharged to the reserves on 1 April 1946.[4]
After the war, Miles racedBugattis,Alfa Romeos, andAlvises with theVintage Sports Car Club. He then turned to a Ford V8Frazer-Nash.
In 1952, Miles moved from England to the U.S. and settled inLos Angeles,California, as a service manager for Gough Industries, the Southern California MG distributor.[5][6][7] In 1953, he won 14 straight victories inSCCA racing in an MG-based special of his own design and construction.
For the 1955 season, he designed, constructed, and campaigned a second special based onMG 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, actorJames Dean in aPorsche 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'sPorsche 550 Spyder at most of the Cal Club and SCCA events.[8]
For the 1957 season (in co-operation with Otto Zipper), Miles engineered the installation of a Porsche 550S engine and transmission in a 1956Cooper 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 byPete 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 significant member of theShelby/Cobra race team in the early 1960s. Miles described himself this way:[9]
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 pronouncedBrummie 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 major role in the development and success of the racing versions of theShelby Cobra 289 in SCCA, USRRC, and FIA sports car racing between 1962 and 1965, as well as theDaytona Coupe and 427 versions of the Cobra and theFord GT (GT40).
He became the chief test driver ofShelby-American in 1963.[7]
Miles had a "reputation for courtesy on the track" and was sometimes called the "Stirling Moss of the West Coast".[10] While a member of the AC-Cobra Ford Team, Miles entered aLotus 23 in the 1964 Player's 200 atMosport.
.jpg)
In 1965, he shared aFord GT Mk II withBruce McLaren at the24 Hours of Le Mans, but retired with gearbox trouble. Earlier in the year, also with McLaren, he had finished second at the12 Hours of Sebring, and won the 12 Hours Of Daytona that same year, withLloyd Ruby.
The next year, he won the24 Hours of Daytona, sharing the Ford GT Mk II withLloyd Ruby, and then won the 12 Hours of Sebring. Several months later, sharing the drive withDenny Hulme, Miles was leading the1966 24 Hours of Le Mans in the #1 car, but Ford executives, desiring a publicity photo of three of Ford's cars crossing the finish line together, instructed Miles to slow down, which he did.[11] Accordingly, on the final lap 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.[12] The French race officials, after initially agreeing to Ford's dead-heat "photo-finish", reneged during the final hour of the race. Miles's #1 car and McLaren's #2 car crossed the finish line almost at the same time, with photos showing McLaren's #2 as slightly ahead when crossing the line.[13] Additionally, McLaren's #2 started in second position behind Miles's car and had therefore covered 8 meters more distance during the race.[14][11] Regardless of the reason, McLaren's #2 was declared the winner with Miles denied the unique achievement of winning Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans in the same year.
TheFord J-car was intended to be the successor to the Ford GT40 Mk II, and despite reliability problems, showed potential in the springtime Le Mans trials. After the death ofWalt Hansgen in a J-car while testing at Le Mans in April, Ford decided to shelve the J-car and focus on the proven Mk IIs. Little development was done for the rest of the 1966World Sports Car Championship season. In August 1966, Shelby American resumed testing and development work with Miles as primary test driver. The J-car featured abreadvan-shaped rear section experimenting withKammback aerodynamic theories, and a honeycomb panel design supposed to both lighten and stiffen the car, but the design was unproven with high-speed prototype sports cars.
After almost a day of testing at Riverside International Raceway in the very hot Southern California desert, Miles approached the end of the track's one-mile (1.6 km) downhill back straight at top speed—over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h)—when the car suddenly flipped, crashed, and caught fire. The car broke into pieces and ejected Miles, killing him instantly.[15][16][17][18]
After the crash, the aerodynamics of the J-car were greatly modified to correct the rear-end lift generated at race speeds. Years later, Porsche and others had the same problem, as the long, low silhouette of a Kammback-tailed car behaves like an aerofoil aircraft wing and lifts at high speed. Ford executives, under pressure after the second fatal accident in the program in five months, ordered aroll cage similar to those used inNASCAR Grand National competition, be installed in future versions of the car.[19] The significantly revised J-car, renamed theFord Mk IV, won the only two races in which it was entered, the 1967 Sebring 12 Hours, and the1967 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Miles is interred at the Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum of theHollywood Forever Cemetery inHollywood,California.
Miles was posthumously inducted into theMotorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001.[20]He was inducted in theWest Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2020.
| Season | Series | Position | Team | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | USAC Road Racing Championship[21] | 1st | Crandall Industries Incorporated | Porsche 718 RS 61 |
| Season | Date | Event | Location | Team | No | Car | Laps | Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | November, 3, 1963 | Golden State 400 | Riverside International Raceway | Holman-Moody Racing | 281 | Ford Galaxie | 139 | 11th |
(key)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Louise Bryden-Brown | Lotus18 | ClimaxStraight-4 | MON | NED | BEL | FRA | GBR | GER | ITA | USA DNA | NC | 0 |
Source:[22] | |||||||||||||
| 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 |
Source:[23] Source:[24] | |||||||||
| 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[25] |
| 1965 | P+2.0 | 73 | G | Ford GT Mk I Ford 427 V8/90° OHV 7000cc | Shelby American Inc. | Lloyd Ruby | 678 | 1st | 1st[25] |
Source:[23] | |||||||||
| 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 | ||
| 1963 | GT+4.0 | 12 | G | AC Cobra Ford V8/90° 2v OHV 4727cc | Ed Hugus | Phil HillLew Spencer | 192 | 11th | 1st |
| GT+4.0 | 16 | G | AC Cobra Ford V8/90° 2v OHV 4727cc | Shelby American Inc. | Lew SpencerDave MacDonaldFireball 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 OHV 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 |
Source:[23] | |||||||||
Ken Miles was married to Mollie and had a son, Peter Miles (born September 28, 1950). He was also a close friend ofCarroll Shelby. Peter was almost 16 when he witnessed his father's death[26] in the prototype J-car crash 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 inCulver City, California. Peter stayed at the workshop for four years. In 1986, Peter joinedPrecision Performance Inc. (PPI), the Cal Wells-owned Toyota off-road racing operation starting as a fabricator and then a mechanic before becoming the crew chief. Peter was the crew chief forIvan Stewart when Stewart won the 1991Nissan 400 in Nevada.[27] In a 2019 interview, Peter said that the last time he went to Le Mans was in 1965 with his father Ken, and he has not returned since.[28]
Miles is portrayed byChristian Bale in the 2019 filmFord v Ferrari (released under the titleLe Mans '66 in some parts of Europe).[29] Miles' wife Mollie and his son Peter are portrayed byCaitriona Balfe andNoah Jupe, respectively.[30][31]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
