04/10/2022
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=463412222482200&id=100064402791036
Ken Miles (1918 - 1966)
Few facts about Ken Miles by Jan Millard Laguna
According to Miles, he was always "a mechanic first before a race driver". And to him, driving was a way to relax, and he treated it as a hobby, similar to how golfing is to others.
Miles served in the British Territorial Army as a staff sergeant during World War 2, and was assigned to an anti-aircraft unit during his apprenticeship at Wolseley Motors.
He even took part in the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944, serving in a tank unit. When the war ended, Miles got hired as an engineer at Morris Motors, as seen in the Ford vs. Ferrari movie, where he had a specialist shop for MG roadsters in the United States.
Ken Miles raced motorcycles before he got into cars, and rode a 350cc Trials Special Triumph bike when he was just 11 years old. However, he had a crash which broke his nose and knocked out three teeth.
His motorcycle career did not end there, as he fixed up an 1100cc Salmson motorcycle and used it for racing.
At the age of 15, Miles switched to cars, it was around the same time he met his future wife Mollie. He built an Austin 7 Special and named the car "Nellie", featuring mechanical modifications that would later on become a trademark of the cars he developed.
Mollie helped Miles build the car, and even painted it in British Racing Green. After the war ended, Miles sold "Nellie" before moving to LA to become a service manager for MG.
There was a scene in the movie Ford vs. Ferrari where Carroll Shelby was talking about Miles' record in SCCA. Those lines were not fabricated, as Ken Miles already built up a successful SCCA career long before he joined Shelby-American.
In 1953, in his very own MG-based special, he took 14 straight victories, sweeping the under-1500cc class that year. From 1958 to 1963, he won 38 of the 44 races he entered.
In 1963, he was swiftly picked up by Carroll Shelby to become Shelby-American's chief test driver. It was a role he held until his untimely death in 1966.
During his tenure as a chief test driver, he tested and raced the Shelby Cobra, as well as the Daytona Coupe, which Miles believed could have been better than the GT40, had he lived longer. Of course, he's now well and truly known as the engineer who turned the Ford GT40 into a Le Mans winner from being a car that wanted to take off at high speeds.
Like many people now know, Ken Miles was a genius when it came to setting up race cars. However, people who have raced against Miles were the only ones who have seen how much of a gentleman driver he was, earning the nickname "Stirling Moss of the West Coast".
Miles was regarded for being a clean driver, probably due to the fact that he had an amazing feel for the car and its limit, that prevented him from having contact while dueling with other drivers at the track.
In what would be his final year competing in motorsports, Ken Miles was at the top of his game, even though he was already 47 years old at the time. Together with Lloyd Ruby, the pair won the 1966 Daytona 24 Hours and the 12 Hours of Sebring, which was, at the time, two legs of the triple crown of endurance racing.
Miles and Denny Hulme was all set to take the victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans until, of course, Leo Beebe decided to do a publicity photo with all three GT40s crossing the finish line all at once, denying Miles a unique achievement of winning all the three prestigious endurance races in the same year.
The disappointment of coming up short in winning the Le Mans 24 Hours didn't faze Miles one bit in further improving the Ford GT40, and his death was even more influential to the development of the car, as after his fatal crash while testing the J-car, Ford ordered a NASCAR-style steel tube rollover cage to be installed in the future generations of the GT40.
This proved effective as Mario Andretti got involved in a huge crash a year later, where he walked away unscathed. After Ken Miles' death, Shelby-American withdrew from Le Mans racing after 1967, and hasn't returned since.
Ken Miles was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001, an award he shared with Carroll Shelby, who was first inducted in 1992.
Prior to the Ford vs. Ferrari movie, most people never knew who Ken Miles was. But now, he is finally receiving the attention and recognition he duly deserved. Ken's name will be remembered for as long as the GT40 lives, for his engineering expertise and driving genius gave birth to America's greatest sports car. (ph: Reddit, Facts: Hotcars.com)
