Ken Miles – in miniature. That’s a contradiction in terms. Ken Miles was a giant of a man; engineer and race driver, the creator of everything from the Pebble Beach Road Race star the MG Flying Shingle to the Ford GT40, the car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Miles and Shelby’s efforts at Le Mans were dramatized in the 2019 Oscar-winning film Ford v Ferrari. Read more about Ken Miles at the foot of this page, below the gallery.
Our friend in England Paul House wrote to us in early 2026 about his collection of models of cars that Ken Miles raced. Paul’s consuming passion; to build a model of every car that Ken Miles ever raced. This article, with photos of many of the race cars, is the result.
We’ve all seen model collections built around a theme: maybe the four cars that were in the Cobra Caravan, or the starting grid of GT40s at Le Mans in 1966. But you’ve never seen anything like this! When Paul was a teenager, he and his parents would visit his grandparents every week.
In Paul’s words… “My uncle Richard was living with them at that time, and he was a car guy. He had built a hot rod of his own, and a custom car he built had been featured in a British magazine called Custom Car. On one of their visits, my uncle told me about a sports car called an AC Cobra. This car, he said, held the record for fastest acceleration and stopping, and was featured in the ‘Guinness Book of Records.’ On that same visit my uncle gave me an unmade model of a Cobra produced by a company called Frog. I was hooked.
“Later that year I was walking down the main road near where I live and heard the distinct sound of a V8. I turned around and it was a 289 Cobra. It was dirty and the flimsy top was up because it was raining. This was about 1980, and from that moment on I decided to collect Cobra models.
Cobras, Cobras and Cobras. “I began collecting books on Cobras and frequently attended classic car shows and the AC Owners Club event days. I discovered that Brighton held a speed trial event once a year, so I became a frequent spectator at these events, too. The books and magazines I was collecting had pictures and articles not only of the cars but also of the drivers and I became interested in them: Phil Hill, Dave MacDonald, Bob Bondurant, Dan Gurney and, in particular. Ken Miles. Maybe it was because of the many Cobra victories he had. And maybe it was because I loved the specials he had built before his Cobra days. He seemed to be a very interesting – and cool – guy. He made a massive input at Shelby American. There were others, of course, like Peter Brock and Phil Remington, but Miles could do it all.
Ken Miles’s 1950s race cars. “My friend in the States, Jim Sitz knew Ken Miles in the 1950s and shared with me his memories of Ken’s racing exploits. He told me about the MG specials which Miles built and raced with much success. My model collection, today, has expanded somewhat from AC/Shelby/Cobras to models of the early cars Ken Miles built and/or raced. In researching his racing career, I found that he raced a wide variety of cars, some of which were not available as scale models. This resulted in a small portion of my models being scratch-built or created from modifying available kits.
Building models from scratch… “There are several models in my collection that had to be built from scratch: the Elektron Nash, Dolphin International, Triangle Special and the Troutman and Barnes Special. To build these cars involved many hours of research and even contacting owners to get correct measurements in order to scale them down to make the carved shapes out of a special wood (called Jelutong). I wasn’t skilled at this but I just “went for it.” A model-making friend casts my wooden bucks into resin and then the fun begins. Once the bucks are returned, I cut, file and sand them for many hours to get the correct shape. It is a long process but one I find very satisfying. Other models in my collection have simply been assembled or modified but the scratch-building is a lot different. I have been building models for 50 years or so. I’m not prolific, and I’m only going to add models that appeal to me. Next on my list will be the Cobra Daytona Coupe prototype that Miles tested at Riverside in 1964.”
Paul is English. He is a family man and says that his hobby takes up a lot of his time, when he’s not driving a truck for Royal Mail. He also enjoys listening to music, so he is not one-dimensional. He also enjoys reading 1950s and 1960s racing history related books. His son also shares his passion for motor racing and has become an excellent photographer at race events. The Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival meets have provided him with a terrific opportunity to meet some of his racing heroes, such as Carroll Shelby and John Morton. His wife encourages his hobby but she sometimes gets a little miffed by the paint and glue fumes emanating from the kitchen table. Word has it that she is pressuring Paul to build a small workshop at the edge of the garden in the rear of the house. But then she might never see him!
You can contact Paul at pdhse@aol.com. We thank Shelby American magazine, Winter 2012, for their rendering of much of the text here. Download their complete article here. This page was compiled and edited by Marcus Bicknell with Paul’s input and help, March 2026
We show here photos of the models of cars in the period that interests us at Pebble Beach Road Racers (Del Monte Trophy Race Group) but you can imagine Paul has made or found models of all of Ken Miles’s later steads like the Cobra and GT40 of which we show three here, the last three images. Taking photos of models is usually very difficult (small depth of focus) but he has just used his Samsung phone. To browse the gallery, click on an image and then scroll left or right…
More about Ken Miles...
Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles (1 November 1918 – 17 August 1966) was an English sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the U.S. and with American teams on the international scene. As an automotive engineer, he is known for developing, along with driver and designer Carroll Shelby, the Ford GT40, the car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Miles and Shelby’s efforts at Le Mans were dramatized in the 2019 Oscar-winning film Ford v Ferrari.
After the war, Miles raced Bugattis, Alfa Romeos, and Alvises with the Vintage Sports Car Club. He then turned to a Ford V8 Frazer-Nash. In 1952, Miles moved from England to the U.S. and settled in Los Angeles, California, as a service manager for Gough Industries, the Southern California MG distributor. In 1953, he won 14 straight victories in SCCA racing in an MG-based special of his own design and construction.
For the 1955 season, Miles designed, constructed, and campaigned a second special based on MG components that was known as the “Flying Shingle”. It was very successful in the SCCA F modified class on the West Coast. Miles raced the “Flying Shingle” at Palm Springs in late March, finishing first overall against veteran driver Cy Yedor, also in an MG Special, and novice driver, actor James Dean in a Porsche 356 Speedster. Miles was later disqualified on a technical infraction because his fenders were too wide, thus allowing Yedor and Dean to get ‘bumped up’ to first and second. During 1956, Miles raced John von Neumann’s Porsche 550 Spyder at most of the Cal Club and SCCA events
For the 1957 season (in co-operation with Otto Zipper), Miles engineered the installation of a Porsche 550S engine and transmission in a 1956 Cooper chassis and body. It was the second successful race car to be known on the West Coast as “the Pooper”, the first being an early 1950s Cooper chassis and body powered by a Porsche 356 power train that was built and campaigned by Pete Lovely of Tacoma, Washington. The resulting car dominated the F Modified class of SCCA on the West Coast in the 1957 and 1958 seasons with Miles driving.
With thanks to Wikipedia
