{"id":459638,"date":"2002-01-01T19:00:37","date_gmt":"2002-01-02T03:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=115240"},"modified":"2024-02-11T17:58:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T17:58:33","slug":"ken-miles-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/ken-miles-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Miles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ken Miles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of the cars he drove \u2013 and in fact helped develop \u2013 are among the best known and most recognized racecars in motorsport history, names like the Shelby Cobra, Ford GT40, Sunbeam Tiger and Porsche Spyder, just to name a few. Yet, the contributions of Ken Miles to postwar racing have been all but overlooked by history.<\/p>\n

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Ken Miles, at the wheel of his first R-1 MG special, enroute to victory at Reeves Field, Long Beach in 1953. Miles designed and built the car himself using a mild steel ladder frame and modified Morris Minor front suspension and steering. At the time, MG was attempting to break several speed records at Bonneville, which resulted in Miles obtaining a special factory block that featured a larger than normal 72 mm bore.
Photo: Jim Sitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cOne of his great strengths as a driver was his ability to focus. He took racing very seriously… it was the most important thing in his life. Also, he was very mechanically oriented, which I think was more of an asset back then.\u201d John Morton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Ken Miles\u00d5 last race in his \u00d2Flying Shingle\u00d3 R-2 Special at Torrey Pines on Oct. 23, 1955. By the end of 1953, the R-1 was having difficulty in keeping ahead of the Porsche and OSCA opposition. The overstressed MG engine couldn\u00d5t yield any more power, so Miles chose to make a lighter car to increase his chances. The result was the R-2 \u00d2Flying Shingle,\u00d3 which featured a tubular space frame and low center of gravity. Though the R-2 won its debut race, Miles struggled all year long with the very fast \u00d2Pooper\u00d3 of Pete Lovely.
Photo: Jim Sitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in Sutton Coldfield, England, in 1918, Ken Miles showed proficiency for things mechanical at an early age. After World War II, where he served as a sergeant in a British armored tank regiment, Miles began constructing a Mercury-powered Frazer Nash \u201cChain Gang\u201d special. Unfortunately, with little success to show for his efforts, by 1952, Miles\u2019 racing exploits had pushed his and his new family\u2019s fortunes to the brink of ruin. As a result, he took an offer from a military friend to move to California and become the service manager for Gough Industries, a West Coast MG distributor.<\/p>\n

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Ken Miles was likely one of the most successful Porsche Spyder drivers of the era, with 38 wins out of 44 starts. Here, he is seen sliding his RSK through turn 8 at Riverside Raceway during the 1961 Times Grand Prix.
Photo: Bob Tronolone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cMiles was a real physical fitness nut. He was way ahead of his time… nobody back then did that stuff. Even on race weekends he\u2019d want to get up and run 5 miles, but nobody except me would run with him. Everyone thought he was crazy.\u201d John Morton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Miles\u00d5 career also included a number of Porsche-powered specials. After selling his R-2, he drove a number of cars for West Coast Porsche importer John von Neumann. One of these racecars was a Porsche-powered Cooper Bobtail, seen here at Paramount Ranch in 1956. Miles was so competitive in the Porsche-powered Cooper that it was rumored the Porsche factory tried to pressure he and von Neumann into retiring the car, so as not to make the factory cars look bad.
Photo: Allen Kuhn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

However, the change of scenery and fortune couldn\u2019t deter Miles\u2019 competitive nature, and shortly after taking up his new position, he began racing again \u2013 now with a MG TD. Miles\u2019 success with the TD soon convinced his employer to give him a number of parts (including a race motor out of one of the MG Land Speed Record cars) to build his own MG special, subsequently known as the R-1. Miles\u2019 first race in the new special was at Pebble Beach in 1953 and commenced his virtual domination of the class that year, including 8 wins in 10 starts.<\/p>\n

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Miles, in a Larry Reed-sponsored Sunbeam Alpine (#50), fights off the Alpines of Willie West (#63) and Lew Spencer (#45).
Photo: Allen Kuhn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cOne thing that always impressed me about him was that he never showed any fear. He would have these huge, hair-raising spins and accidents and they never seemed to bother him.\u201d John Morton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Among the varied racecars that Ken Miles drove was this Jaguar D-Type during a 6-Hour enduro at the Pomona Fairgrounds on November 23, 1958.
Photo: Bob Tronolone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following year, Miles created his second MG special affectionately known as the \u201cFlying Shingle,\u201d which featured a low-slung space frame, canted engine and flowing bodywork. Very quickly Miles\u2019 successes with the two MG specials had propelled him to the top of the burgeoning West Coast road racing scene. He raced a wide variety of cars during the following decade, but one of his most successful racing relationships of the period was with the Competition Motors team of Otto Zipper and Bob Estes. From the mid-\u201950s to early-\u201960s, Miles drove a variety of Porsche Spyders and Porsche-powered racecars for the Zipper team, resulting in an astounding record of 38 wins out of 44 starts. But it was only a matter of time before Carroll Shelby began to see the potential of having a great racing driver, who was also a savvy engineer, as part of his new Shelby American racing team.<\/p>\n

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Miles drove Chuck Parson\u00d5s unusual Buick V-8-powered Mercedes SLS (the extra \u00d2S\u00d3 stood for scrap yard, because that is where Parson discovered the car), in a 1960 SCCA regional race in Santa Barbara.
Photo: Bob Tronolone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cHe had a good sense of humor, but I\u2019m sure he wasn\u2019t the easiest guy to live with. I think people respected him more than they liked him.\u201d John Morton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Miles at the wheel of the Otto Zipper-owned, Porsche-powered Dolphin sports racer at Pomona in 1963.
Photo: Allen Kuhn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From 1963-1966, Miles came into full blossom at Shelby\u2019s (despite being now in his mid-40s). Miles racked up success after success, first with the new Cobra and then with the Ford GT40 project. In 1965, Miles and codriver Lloyd Ruby drove the GT40 to its maiden victory in a 2000-km endurance race at Daytona. Later that year, Miles was paired up with Bruce McLaren for the 12-Hours of Sebring, where the duo finished second overall. The following year, 1966, would prove to be both the best of Miles\u2019 career and, tragically, his last.<\/p>\n

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After winning the 24-Hours of Daytona and the 12-Hours of Sebring in 1966, Ken Miles seemed poised to endurance racing\u00d5s great triple-crown, if he could win at Le Mans. Teamed with codriver Denny Hulme, the pair led 23 of 24 hours and looked assured of victory at the Sarthe. However, in one of the greatest foul-ups in motorsport history, the Ford brass insisted that the top three finishing GT 40s complete the last lap together for a 1-2-3 photograph. In so doing, Miles and Hulme crossed the finish line just ahead of the second place car of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. Unfortunately, what no one had realized was that the organizers calculated the winner based on total distance covered, and since the Miles\/Hulme car started 20 feet ahead on the starting line, they would have to be more than 20 feet ahead at the finish to win. As this photo demonstrates, they finished nearly side-by-side and the victory was ironically awarded to McLaren and Amon. According to Morton, \u00d2Miles was really pissed off about Le Mans… I don\u00d5t know that he ever really got over it.\u00d3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he cared, particularly, whether he was well liked.\u201d John Morton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

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Sebring, 1964. After destroying the front end of his prototype 427 Cobra on a tree during practice, Miles, codriver John Morton (wearing glasses) and several Shelby Crew members spent the next 48 hours pounding out the bodywork and rebuilding the front end in time for the race.
Photo: Dave Friedman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The year started off on a high note with him and Lloyd Ruby driving their GT40 Mk II to victory in the 24-Hours of Daytona. The winning pair then went on to win the 12-Hours of Sebring a month later. However, while testing the Ford J-car prototype at Riverside Raceway on August 17, a mechanical failure (believed to be a failure in the experimental honeycomb monocoque) caused the car to lose control, veer down an embankment and literally disintegrate, hurling Miles from the cockpit to his death.<\/p>\n

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Miles was instrumental in both the development and the on-track success of the Shelby Cobras. Here, he is seen taking the checkered flag and the win at Riverside in 1963.
Photo: Allen Kuhn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cThere was only one tree at Sebring… and in 1964, he found it in the Cobra. After that, some of the guys on the team started calling him \u2018Teddy Tree-bagger\u2019.\u201d John Morton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The remarkable career of Ken Miles \u2013 oftentimes referred to as \u201cTeddy Teabagger\u201d due to his insistence for tea at the track \u2013 has by and large been given short shrift compared to many of his contemporaries. To this day, his overall win record stands as one of the best in sports car racing. Yet, if little has been remembered about his achievements, even less has been remembered about the man himself.<\/p>\n

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Known as \u00d2Teddy Teabagger,\u00d3 Miles was always the quintessential British expatriate, as evidenced by his garb seen here at Laguna Seca in 1963, where he is chatting with Augie Pabst (left) and Phil Hill (left of Pabst). According to Morton, \u00d2Within the Shelby team, he also had the nickname \u00d4Side Bite,\u00d5 partly because of his sideways driving style and partly because he often spoke out of the side of his mouth!\u00d3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1964, while working on the Cobra project, Miles befriended a young kid trying to become a racecar driver \u2013 that kid was future SCCA and Trans-Am champion John Morton. On the following pages, some of Morton\u2019s thoughts and impressions of Miles accompany a pictorial tribute to Ken Miles\u2019 diverse career.<\/p>\n

Text by Casey Annis<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of the cars he drove \u2013 and in fact helped develop \u2013 are among the best known and most recognized racecars in motorsport history, names like the Shelby Cobra, Ford GT40, Sunbeam Tiger and Porsche Spyder, just to name a few. Yet, the contributions of Ken Miles to postwar racing have been all but overlooked by history. \u201cOne of his great strengths as a driver was his ability to focus. He took racing very seriously… it was the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":813350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,18114,18330],"tags":[17152,18435,11773,18107,16791],"class_list":["post-459638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-people","category-profiles-car-culture","tag-car-culture","tag-people","tag-ken-miles","tag-people-profiles","tag-profiles"],"yoast_head":"\nKen Miles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We pay a pictorial tribute to the career of \u201950s and \u201960s sports car racer Ken Miles, with memories from Shelby teammate John Morton.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/ken-miles-2\/\" 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