1966 Ken Miles' Fatal Test Accident, Riverside

[Jesper Hvid]

http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=170

[caneparo]

i remember i have an article about ken miles in a autocollezioni magazine issue of some years ago that i can't find here at home but i think i have it in a box in the garage. i will check for it asap, even if i don't think that there was picture of the wreck.

[caneparo]

magazine found but no picture of the wreck. i can give you a brief description of the accident if u are interested i will translate it for you

[Jesper Hvid]

magazine found but no picture of the wreck. i can give you a brief description of the accident if u are interested i will translate it for you

Yes, please.

[caneparo]

Riverside aug 17th 1966, Ken Miles is testing the Project J that has after the success of the GT40 has been moved towards the can-am series.
From Autocollezioni Magazine, february 2006, page 87.

Ken is very entusiast by the innovative chassis and even if the new configuration of the J is devoted to the shorrt Can-Am races, Ken has faith to develop the car, with the secret intent to bring it in a new vest to the 1967 Le Mans 24hr. The test start on the famous american track and Miles tries different wheels and tyres combination. From 15'' reduced wgeels he switches to 16'' wheels. Ken is driving a first lap on this combination. He's been already very fast in the first intermediate sectors, and passes at full speed on the straight of Riverside, when he approaches the next bend. The Ford J swerves and loses control, literally creeping on the guard rail, until it takes off and lands in an frightening crash. Ken dies on the scene for the tremendous head injures. The central section of the chassis, broken in half, catches fire. In thousands pieces the Ford J is destroyed, almost dispelled. The 2 times Daytona winner, triumphant at Sebring, loses his life driving a too much futuristic Ford. The project J is immediatly discarded and forgotten. The causes of the accident have never been clear. Almost everybody excludes a driving mistake of the expert Miles. Some think that the lightness of the chassis could have caused it to lose control. Others believe that the strong vibrations caused by the speed to those reduced experimental tyres , might have caused the disaster. Most people agree in the tragic combination of varous causes and events, even attributable to tyres and chassis, notheless to the too exasperated prifile of the Forrd J, maybe at that time not fully understood by the technicians in all its aerodynamic aspects - without an adequate correction with spoilers and winglets - might have caused the grip loss at the origin of that terrible crash