AN UNSUNG HERO! The Full Story of Ken Miles (1918-1966)

[Music] [Music] hi everybody its Aydin here once again and it's time for the happy little accident that is story time the series that turned this channel from purely simracing channel into the home of the weird wonderful wacky aunt now that's supposed to be on fire stories from the real automotive sport today I've got the story of someone who for many it's just that fella played by Christian Bale in that movie that coincidentally got announced just after I did the story of Ford vs. Ferrari on this channel I'm still waited by a royalty check people that story is the full story of Ken miles kenneth henry miles was born on the 1st of november 1918 in Sutton Coldfield a suburban town that is now part of Birmingham and just up the road from me as it so happens my uncle lives there as a young boy Ken was interested in mechanics and engineering and pretty much only wanted to work with something to do with cars in his teens he tried to run away to the United States but instead returned to England doing an apprenticeship at was Lee motors in a Zoli Park in Birmingham instead of doing what most would consider a proper education Wellesley sent in to a Technical College but just before he was about to start full-time work world war ii broke out and miles was part of the territorial army spending the next seven years fixing tanks by 1946 he was a staff sergeant and while in the TA race motorbikes in his free time but after the war the pilots were all out of work the mechanics were surplus to requirements and the people that designed the aircraft are also looking for work and this is how the booming motor racing took off shortly after World War two it ended the designers turn their attention to designing racing cars using the aerodynamic lessons learned while designing the planes the mechanics then built the cars and the pilots raced them as being seen to do something brave after the war was the thing to do Ken's first racing car was a Fraser Nash into which he put a Ford v8 and was able to win some local club events and hill climbs he tried to design a build some front-wheel drive Formula 3 but the project never took off so in 1952 he took up a job offer to move to California and become the service manager for mg in California he started racing again and managed to attract attention due to him being a racer and a mechanic back then if you could find a driver that could do both it was a highly lucrative job for the person driving the car a far cry from today when he needs seven engineering degrees in 30 laptops just to start the things up the mg special driven by Ken won the first racer ever raced in at Pebble Beach and Ken quickly became regarded as the fastest under 1500 CC driver in the West the mile special as it became known went on to be very successful and inspired many home-built racing cars to come out of California over the next few years the reason for this is because it was so uncomplicated front-engine live for air axle stock gearbox and very few in the way of bells and whistles by the standards of the time it was bomb-proof he then built the flying shingle which was lighter and lower and faster compared to the original but was no more or no less complicated but it wasn't as successful but it was enough for people to notice Ken and how decent he was behind the wheel but times and motorsport were changing the mg had a cast-iron engine and Porsche was on the up at the 1956 Santa Barbara race miles raced against the Cooper Porsche and although Ken weren't by virtue of a more reliable car people were turning their attentions to Porsche the shingle was sold and nobody really knows what happened to it beyond the new owner trying to fit a Chevrolet v8 into it ken then switch to Porsche Spyders driving for Johnny von Neumann who was the Porsche distributor for Southern California it once six hour race at Torrey Pines Ken was in practice when he got off the road hit a ditch and flipped the car miraculously it landed on its wheels and he got out to look at the damage before hitching a lift back to the pits with Phil Hill he didn't take part in the 6-hour race on the Saturday but on the Sunday in another spider he won the under 1,500 cc event but he didn't stop fiddling with cars there was one more mile special a modified Cooper Porsche while he working for von Neumann it was so good that he was winning races in the over 1,500 cc category despite the lower displacement he had to get rid of it though because Porsche didn't like how some privateer was beating the factory entries but Ken continued racing Porsches for von Neumann and then later for Otto zipper are the only times he lost but when his opponents had something new a direct from the factory miles gained more than just one nickname in his time in California with his thick Brummie accent and sardonic sense of humor he a lien ated son but won the friendship of others his American crew called him Teddy t-bag freeze tea drinking and side bike because he talked out the side of his mouth but he also gained the nickname the flying limey when he started working for brash Texan and legend in his own lunchtime Carroll Shelby Shelby had wanted to work with miles because of his ability to drive and work on the cars miles had even said I'm a mechanic that's what I've been my whole working life driving is a hobby like golf ease for others I'd like to drive a Formula One car one day not for the winning but to see what it's like I reckon it would be fun that's a Brummie accent ladies and gentlemen in 1963 miles joined the test team for shelby american shelby was impressed with miles ability to create notes in his head about the car and feedback the information to the team while there was a bunch of engineers working on the Mustang gt350 that miles was driving it later became his baby working with the others to improve the suspension and reduce the weight in pictures where he's actually racing there are many instances where all four wheels are off the ground and that's where the nickname the flying limey came from spectators noted how smooth his gear shifting was and since he'd worked so much on the car he knew more than anybody else about how it worked and could anticipate it better despite the stiff steering and the high center of gravity miles just drove around it the Mustang gt350 took its first win in 1965 in Green Valley Texas and Jerry Titus who took over from Mars after he joined Shelby's LeMond project said that Mars was more Road Racing savvy than any other man on the continent and that Ken went like hell in any kind of racing car and if you've been to a cinema in the last three or four months you'll know what happens next Ford went to marinella to buy Ferrari Enzo wanted control of the racing team Ford said they wanted the whole lot and Enzo told them to piss off Ford returned to Detroit and said that they had to kick ends those Italian ass at LeMond weather ends I said that Ford built boring cars in a boring factory or not is up for debate but I don't think many would put it past him but anyway Ford originally outsource the production of what became the gt40 out to Lola and Eric broadly but the 1964 car was unreliable and had poor handling partly due to the differences between Ford and Lola Ford said it needs to be this or Lola said that won't work and Ford insisted Ford was pissed and handed development over to shelby instead miles and she'll be kept on testing and hone in the car but at the last minute Ford decided to put a different engine in and once again at LeMond it retired Mars was looking at being part of a very expensive failure but in 1966 miles and Shelby wanted to end Ferraris whole career as the mean goes miles of phil remington took the gt40 to Willow Springs in California to see what was going wrong they later discovered that the gt40 was losing up to 75 horsepower because the air ducting was so bad so they fitted some better cooling ducts some lighter wheels some better tires and thought best to put better brakes on the car as it would be going much faster into places like Mulsanne corner miles had actually raced Ferraris in the past one of which being a 375 Spyder in 1955 in which he finished third behind Ernie McAfee and Phil Hill Hill would later join Shelby's team along with names like Bob Bondurant Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren and with the new gt40 miles took wins at Daytona and Sebring Shelby was running three cars for the 1966 race at LeMond miles was partnered with Danny home who would go on to win next year's fullmetal One World Championship but later died of a heart attack at that wheel at the 1992 Bathurst 1000 Ford gave Shelby in the Ford NASCAR team that was running three more cars a lot of as the whole idea for Lamont 1966 was simply to beat Ferrari it didn't start well for miles though his door wouldn't shut properly and he had to pit to get it fixed which is one of the things the film gets right and wasn't added for dramatic effect at all but he quickly climbed up back through the field so that by the halfway point of the race a Ford gt40 was in the top eight spots but who would take the victory was up for debate Ken started shattering lap times and he and Dan Gurney were battling for position as if it was a sprint race just as Hawthorn of Fangio had done 11 years prior before the accident gurney and Mars had done the same thing at Sebring so much so that Shelby had threatened 4-2 with a hammer if they did it knock it off at LeMond though gurney had blown a head gaskets of victory was all but assured for the Brummie Ford then decided to really rub it in Enzo's face so they thought they'd stage a form finish ken wasn't happy about it but went with it anyway and do what was best for forward rather than himself thoughts plan worked a miles and Bruce McLaren crossed the line at the same time but when they got to the winner's circle miles gt40 was told to go away this is because in the event of a tie at LeMond the car which has traveled the furthest is declared the winner McLaren had started the race just 26 feet or 8 meters further back on the starting grid that's all there was in it it denied miles the opportunity to take endurance racing's Triple Crown of Daytona Sebring and LeMond in one year those have won the Triple Crown include Jacky Ickx Timur Bernhardt and AJ Foyt while miles Mario Andretti and Allan McNish have been unlucky enough to miss out as you can probably imagine miles and Shelby were pissed Shelby regretted it for the rest of his life but Ford's marketing director Leo Beebe is the one who gets the fingers pointed at in the ACO had originally said we you can do your football finish only to go back on the decision and telling BB so in the final hour not if you do a photo finish the Kiwis win Bibi did not relay this information back to Shelby and later admitted that he didn't tell Shelby because he thought McLaren and Amon deserved the win over miles and Hill as the Kiwis that dinner's over told while Mars had ignored orders to slow down at Sebring but miles and Shelby didn't waste any time they started work on the J car which later became the gt40 mark for the Jake I had been shelled briefly for Ford to work more on the mark twos and also because of the death of Walt hangsen Shelby's team picked up the development wants more following the end of the 1966 endurance season it experimented with new honeycomb body panels that were intended to lighten and strengthen the car as well as came back aerodynamic theories to make the car more streamlined and testing was going well but at Riverside International Raceway in California just two months after the 1966 lemon race miles was approaching the end of the back straight at around 200 miles an hour in the film you just see a cloud of dust implying Mars had made a mistake but in reality the car flipped several times and caught fire miles was ejected from the crash and killed instantly with the car suffering the sort of crash the honeycomb panels were designed to prevent the j-type as it so happens was one of the first racing cars to have a black box fitted as well as a semi automatic transmission Frank Gardner went back out and recreated miles tests right down to the lapped speeds and the time of day virtually the same distance into the test and at the same corner the transmission seized the difference was Gardner was ready for something going wrong and miles wasn't Shelby was devastated and nearly 400 people attended miles funeral so many that not everybody could fit into the church for following the accident Ford went to NASCAR and got the blueprints with which to install a roll cage into the gt40 which saved the life of Mario Andretti in the 1967 24 Hours of lamont as well as countless others who have rolled 10 tops since Ford still went on to decimate LeMond winning the 1967 with Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt 1968 with petra Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi and in 1969 were Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver and yes Lucien Bianchi is a relation to jour it's his great-uncle unlike Schewel Lucien also lost his life in a racing accident but it wasn't just his racing record of 38 wins from 44 entries between 1958 and 1961 all his contributions to one of the greatest racing machines of all time that need to be looked at miles was important to the formative years of road racing in Southern California he was once president of the California Sports Car Club and was winning the races that he organized for those who attended ken miles was road racing he ran the club his way and didn't really care for the thoughts and opinions of others it was very much right this is how we do it you make two or you [ __ ] off but that said he fought the local SCCA region into the ground he led the other drivers into refusing to race in SCCA races in Los Angeles and took great joy in baiting SCCA officials after leaving the Cowell club the SCCA would reject his membership applications all the time then a revolt in the Cal Club forced him out but he was later a member of the Cal club's Board of Governors when the Los Angeles SCCA was disbanded and the calculate became in SCCA region but despite the make do or go home attitude he was actually rather democratic in his autocratic way of running things new drivers were encouraged to join when membership in the SCCA regions was still based on a system where they rejected you because they you know didn't like the look here under Ken the Cal Club had ten race meetings a year that had proper racing without the socializing interfering with what the club should be about because of the atmosphere and schedule created by miles a crop of SoCal drivers got their start one of whom was Dan Gurney went forward versus Ferrari arrived in cinemas in 2019 there were several pieces on local television about Karen miles the Brummie we'd never heard of with a lot of people in a city in a wider area of two million people not really knowing he existed in the centre of Birmingham on Broad Street is the Birmingham Walk of Stars you know one of those knockoff Hollywood Walk of Fame things that you find in most major cities these days there's all in Toronto Vancouver as welcome to think of it and either side of the street are various stars with famous people from the local area on them Ozzy Osbourne and the rest of Black Sabbath Frank Skinner Trevor Francis Jasper Carrott with motorsport being represented by Murray Walker and Nigel Mansell there isn't one for Ken miles walk all over Birmingham and you won't see anything named after him there is stuff named after Neville Chamberlain the Prime Minister that are famously appeased Hitler well done but at least now thanks to the Ford versus Ferrari film and Christian Bale's convincing berming accent he might actually start getting some recognition not just in Birmingham but from all motorsport fans a proper unsung hero because without his input henry ford ii might not have crushed Enzo and LeMond so this has been the full story of Ken miles if you've enjoyed this video be sure to give it walnut' firm up and if you want to see more well you know what to do thanks has always got to my patrons on patreon and if you want to join them or just follow all my social media [ __ ] then all you need is in the description box for you so until next time I've been a dumb Ord have a great day wherever you are and good bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Aidan Millward

Views: 426,106

Rating: 4.9530711 out of 5

Keywords: ford vs ferrari, le mans 66, matt damon, christian bale, ford gt40, ferrari, henry ford, enzo ferrari, le mans, ken miles, podcast, story time, storytime, documentary, history, motorsport, racing, 1960s, 1966, birmingham, sutton coldfield, west midlands, sporting history, racing history

Id: vyRuvpbLIdU

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/bk_fb]

Ken Miles Racing Legend

[u/xander012]

Eyyy it’s aidan

[u/JRZ24]

Watched the movie yesterday.

[u/i_am_turjo]

I fucking love Aidan and his storytime episodes. Every now and then I just binge through all the videos.

[u/Michal_Baranowski]

After a lecture of "Go Like Hell" and watching "Le Mans '66" I must say, that Ken Miles is now one of my all time favourite racing characters ever.

Say what you want about "Le Mans '66" - it is very good that such legend as Miles gets more publicity, not just within the world of motorsports. Too bad that people like Miles usually get appreciated after passing away...