Talk:Ken Miles

decent photo

image search for ken miles and you will find dozens of excellent historical portrait photographs. the photo you have now is not quite in the same league as the typical wikipedia photo of someone at comic con or on a sound stage with a microphone in front of their face: it's worse. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drollere (talk • contribs) 02:15, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Untitled

Miles did not cross the finishing line at Le Mans in 1966 in a dead-heat with Bruce McLaren; there was clear daylight between them, as is evident from film footage. Ford had been told that a dead-heat was impossible but ordered the finish anyway, perhaps wanting to take the story away from Miles achieving the sportscar triple crown and towards Ford winning. Miles deliberately slowed down right on the line, probably in protest at Ford's decision. In Vitrio (talk) 11:00, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Why do people always have to assign ulterior motives to normal events ? Ford spent a whole bunch of money getting to LeMns, now they had the top three places, is that a photo opportunity or what ? Of course they wanted the three GT40's to cross the finish line in one shot. What more could the advertising department ask for ? As for Ford "wanting to take the story away", what a crock. He was a respected and valuable driver, friends with Shelby. They messed up, not realizing that the officials would count the race from the pre-start position rather than the start-finish line, costing Miles the win, but it certainly was not intentional. 203.160.69.103 (talk) 12:28, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

J-Car

The article states incorrectly that Walt Hansgen was killed in a J-Car - he was actually killed in a GT40 Mk II ((GT40P1011) during the LeMans practice session held in the spring before the race. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.58.192.198 (talk) 17:25, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

External links modified

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References

I am going to place some references here that I did not put in the article in case anyone has use for them. Kees08 (Talk) 06:34, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

• '64 manufacturer's race win
• talks about his Daytona qualifying record
• information on first 8 hours of Le Mans

NASCAR

Miles did drive in NASCAR, in the 1963 Grand National at Riverside. We should add his race results for that to the other results [1]. ♟♙ (talk) 16:18, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

@MWright96: Thoughts on this? Kees08 (Talk) 16:43, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

@Kees08: I believe it would be preferable to write it in text rather than a table. Then again a few other articles have similar tables containing a solitary career race in NASCAR. MWright96 (talk) 18:19, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Birth date disagreement

The date of birth is listed as November 1 in the information box and November 3 in the narrative. Both list 1918 as the year of birth. Neither has a citation. Michaelaoash (talk) 11:55, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

I've corrected the DOB in the narrative. The reference is https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a29790086/ken-miles-biography-ford-le-mans/, located at the end of the sentence in the narrative. Thanks for highlighting the error. DH85868993 (talk) 20:56, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

"Brummie accent"

Odd. Christian Bale winningly played him with a great mild and dry West Midlands / Brummie accent in "Ford vs Ferrari" (neither here nor there, as it's a film) but this quote from the article, "With a very pronounced Brummie accent (from his hometown of Birmingham, renowned for car manufacturing)..." now seems incorrect and wide of the mark after actually hearing Miles speak with a vaguely old-school military, slightly below-par RP accent in the following clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vUmHEeuIKM (8:09) - No trace of a Birmingham accent. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7F:C482:7500:813A:C9E9:5C07:DFD0 (talk) 02:33, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

'66 Le Mans finish

The 2016 documentary The 24 Hours War explains why the FIA declared McLaren #1 and Miles #2; including the actual audio of the official declaration. The explanation differs from what this article claims. Since McLaren started further back than Miles, he traveled the greater distance during the allotted 24 hours (by about 18 ft.). 107.15.157.44 (talk) 00:34, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

It's a curly one. What you say is true, but what the article says is also true, that McLaren crossed the finish line first. Moriori (talk) 01:07, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

Racing Record

In the Racing Record section there is Many links which do not have an article in Wikipedia..We Can help by removing those links. Panchajanya5 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 07:14, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

@Panchajanya5: Some red links are OK - see WP:REDLINK for more info. DH85868993 (talk) 21:56, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

Oh DH85868993 thank you for Informing... i did not know that. Panchajanya5 (talk)

@Panchajanya5: No problem. I've been here 13 years and I still learn new stuff all the time... DH85868993 (talk) 10:06, 22 April 2021 (UTC)

@DH85868993: Okay! Thank you though.Panchajanya5 (talk)

Ending to the 1966 Le Mans

The articles Ken Miles and 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans appear to contradict each other twice. According to this article, The French race officials, after initially agreeing to Ford's dead-heat "photo-finish", reneged during the final hour of the race while the race article says With the field covered it was now that Leo Beebe, Ford racing director, contrived to stage a dead heat by having his two lead cars cross the line simultaneously. The ACO told him this would not be possible — given the staggered starting formation, the #2 car would have covered 20 metres further, and thus be the race winner. But Beebe pushed on with his plan anyway. In one article, the officials gave the teams the okay to the dead heat, while in the other the officials said it would be a problem and the team's racing director still when ahead with it.

A second issue comes up with regards to the winner. This article says Although Miles's #1 car and McLaren's #2 car crossed the finish line together, McLaren's #2 was declared the winner because having started in second position behind Miles's car, it had therefore covered 8 meters more distance during the race while the race article says As it turned out McLaren's #2 car crossed the finish line just ahead and was declared the winner. Miles, upset about the team orders, lifted off to allow McLaren to finish a length ahead. In one article, Miles and McLaren crossed the line together with McLaren declared the winner because of covering more distance during the race, while in the other article McLaren cross the line first and was declared the winner for it. --Super Goku V (talk) 08:55, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

I have no information on the first issue, but on the second (the winner), I believe the race article is correct and that McLaren's #2 crossed the line first, per this photo. DH85868993 (talk) 10:35, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

That source also says that ...the timekeepers announced that McLaren and Amon had won, a dead-heat being impossible as the cars had started at 4 p.m. on Saturday with the Miles/Hulme car already some yards ahead on the starting grid, so that as they had arrived side-by-side on the same lap on Sunday at 4 p.m. the McLaren/Amon car must have covered a greater distance in the 24 hours, the difference being quoted as twenty metres. So maybe it is a historical inaccuracy rather than a contradiction for the reason why McLaren won. Though, that image should have been enough back then to say that McLaren won by crossing the line first. --Super Goku V (talk) 21:46, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Well it seems the facts are McLaren was a) behind Miles at the start and b) before Miles at the end. So “officialy” McLaren was first. However we all know that real life is more complex. So the true fact is that Miles gave McLaren his first place because Ford ordered him to. So McLaren is indeed first, officially and truly, but Miles gave him the win. Wikipedia should give all the facts. Highlander1694 (talk) 22:55, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

The politics of the time meant that the French would do absolutely anything possible to stop an Englishman becoming the first ever triple winner of the three big ticket endurance races in a single year. The rest of it is semantics. 148.252.158.99 (talk) 12:23, 18 April 2024 (UTC)