The Shelby American (Fall 2021)

The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2021 18 KEN MILES - The Shelby American Years by Dave Friedman. 11˝ x 8 1/2˝ softcover; 240 pages; 43 color photos, 310 black & white. $38.95. Published by Car Tech, Forest Lake, MN www.cartechbooks.com Dave Friedman has written the best book about Ken Miles that you will ever read. It covers his time at Shelby American from 1963 to his death in 1966 and it uses just about every photograph of Miles that Fried- man (who was Shelby American’s in- house photographer) ever took. The book is ordered chronologically so you can see the how the projects and cars evolved. Each race is briefly discussed and every picture is captioned, with Friedman’s recollections along with the comments and remembrances from former Shelby employees who are still with us. Sadly, many have taken that final checkered flag and can’t provide their impressions and ex- periences. That shortcoming is no fault of Friedman’s. Ken Miles is something of an enigma to Shelby American fans be- cause his life was cut short so early in what could have been a long and suc- cessful career. As a result, it was an unfinished work. It is like leaving a movie halfway through or only read- ing half of a book. You are left to won- der what happened next. So, we are grateful for any new scrap of informa- tion we can find, and this book is a ver- itable treasure trove. The fairly large format (11˝ x 8 1/2˝) allows most of the pictures to be printed in a full-page format and they are all uniformly in perfect focus, making the smallest de- tails visible. The book covers what are probably the two most intriguing subjects that surround Ken Miles. One is the 1966 LeMans finish, where Ford orches- trated a “photo-finish” of the three leading GT40s. The cars were all on different laps by the finish of the 3,000-mile event: Miles was first, Bruce McLaren was a lap back and third place finisher Dick Hutcherson was 12 laps behind. However, after the last driver change, with victory almost assured, Ford was worried that the post-race headlines would all scream that “Miles Won” and was the first Triple Crown winner (Daytona, Se- bring and LeMans) instead of “Ford Won.” So after a hasty “What should we do?” conference, a couple of suits from Ford were dispatched to the event’s timing and scoring tower and convinced them that a mistake had been made and the Miles car was not a lap ahead. Prior to that, the large overhead scoreboard visible from the pits clearly showed Miles leading by a lap. As the cars crossed the finish line, Miles backed off slightly and McLaren was declared the winner due to his having traveled about 30-feet farther (Miles had started 2nd, McLaren 4th). The other subject piquing most people’s interest is Miles’ death at Riverside while testing a J-Car. The cause of the accident has never been determined but everyone has ruled out driver error. With Ken Miles, that was simply unthinkable. The accident happened on the last test session of the day, on the last lap, and on the last turn. The rear end of J-2 appears to have locked up, the car left the track at 160 mph, broke in two and burst into flames. Miles was thrown clear, dying instantly. No photos of the wrecked car have ever been released. Dave Friedman’s book is simply ex- cellent. It is one that everyone with an interest in Ken Miles and Shelby American must read. The photo- graphs, alone, are worth the price but there is so much revealed in the text that it’s hard to pick out any one thing. The book must be considered as a whole, and in doing that it is a success beyond words. These are the last two pictures of J-2 be- fore the fateful wreck.