GT40 Mk II front. Miles' car that won the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, giving Ford its first victory in a 24 hour race. (Serial Number GT-40 P 1015 Mk. II)

GT40 Mk II rear

Ken Miles (born 1 November 1918 in Sutton Coldfield, England - died 17 August 1966) was a sports car driver. Image File history File links Ford_GT40_(front). ... Image File history File links Ford_GT40_(front). ... The Rolex 24 at Daytona is an sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. ... Photograph of the rear of a Ford GT40 taken by SamH at the 2003 Goodwood Festival of Speed. ... Photograph of the rear of a Ford GT40 taken by SamH at the 2003 Goodwood Festival of Speed. ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...

Background

Miles raced motorcycles before he served as a tank sergeant in the British Army in World War II. Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organisations around the world. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...

Career

After the war he raced Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and Alvis with the Vintage Sports Car Club. He then turned to a Ford V-8 Frazer-Nash. Bugatti is one of the most celebrated marques of automobile and one of the most exclusive Italian car producers of all time. ... Alfa Romeo is an Italian automobile manufacturing company, founded as Darracq Italiana by Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan in partnership with the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq. ... Alvis (All-Wise) in Norse mythology was a dwarf. ... Frazer Nash (sometimes spelled Frazer-Nash) was an automobile manufacturer and Formula One constructor from the United Kingdom. ...

He moved to the State of California in the United States in 1952. Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ...

In 1953 he won 14 straight victories in an MG Special. MG is a British marque that has produced sports cars since 1924, although none have been made since MG Rover went bankrupt in the spring of 2005. ...

In 1966 he won the 24 Hours of Daytona (pictured) with Lloyd Ruby, and the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Ford GT40. Miles was leading at the end of the 24 hours of Le Mans that year, when the Ford team, desiring a publicity photo of the three GT40s crossing the finish line together, ordered him to slow down until he was only leading the second place car, driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, by half a car length at the checkered flag. Unknown to Ford, however, the scoring system at Le Mans takes into account the differing distances covered by the cars due to differing positions on the starting grid, and so the McLaren-Amon car, having started further back, became the official winner. Miles was thus denied the unique achievement of winning Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans in the same year. The Rolex 24 at Daytona is an sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. ... Lloyd Ruby was a Formula One driver from the United States. ... The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race held at Sebring Raceway, a former Air Force base in Sebring, Florida. ... [ GT redirects here. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Ford may mean a number of things: A ford is a river crossing. ... Bruce Leslie McLaren (30 August 1937–2 June 1970), born in Auckland, New Zealand, was a race-car designer, driver, engineer and inventor. ... Christopher Arthur Amon MBE (born July 20, 1943 in Bulls, New Zealand) is a former Formula 1 (F1) racing driver active in the 1960s and 1970s. ... The checkered flag is used in auto and motorcycle racing to indicate the end of the race. ...

Test driver/car developer

His early career got Carroll Shelby's attention, who hired Miles as a test driver in the early 1960s. Miles helped Shelby with developing the Shelby Cobra. He also is credited with helping Shelby develop the GT40 and the Mustang GT350. Carroll Hall Shelby, (born January 11, 1923 in Leesburg, Texas) is an American racing and automotive design legend. ... 427 A/C Shelby America CSX 4109 Cobra Signature Series #3 of 4 The AC Cobra was a powerful Anglo-American sports car built in the 1960s. ... [ GT redirects here. ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ...

Death

Miles was testing the J-car on 17 August 1966 at the Riverside International Raceway when the car suddenly looped, flipped and crashed. As a result, the aerodynamics of the J-car were heavily modified to reduce lift, and the car was renamed the GT-40 Mk IV, which went on to great success. August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... Riverside International Raceway (Sometimes known as RIR or Riverside Raceway) was a racing track or road course in Riverside, California. ... Aerodynamics (shaping of objects that affect the flow of air, liquid or gas) is a branch of fluid dynamics concerned with the study of forces and gas flows. ... Lift consists of the sum of all the fluid dynamic forces on a body perpendicular to the direction of the external flow approaching that body. ...

Award

• He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001.

The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America is a Hall of Fame and museum in Novi, Michigan for American motorsports legends. ...

External link

• Biography is located under sportscars