Ken Miles

Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles was born 1 November 1918 in England and came to the U.S. with a rare double skill: he could tune an engine and pilot it at the edge. Teaming with Carroll Shelby, he helped develop the Ford GT40, the machine built to beat Ferrari at Le Mans. In 1966 the car finally won, but Miles was ordered to stage a photo finish and lost on a technicality. The GT40 went on to take Le Mans in 1967, 1968, and 1969; Miles never saw it. He died testing a prototype on 17 August 1966, two months after the race. He's in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, and the 2019 film Ford v Fer…