Talk:Ken Miles

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Ken Miles article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.

Add new text under old text.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Start a new topic

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1

While the biographies of living persons policy does not apply directly to the subject of this article, it may contain material that relates to living persons, such as friends and family of persons no longer living, or living persons involved in the subject matter. Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see this noticeboard.

Biography: Sports and Games

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	Sports portal This article is supported by the sports and games work group.

British Motorsport

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject British Motorsport, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Motorsport in the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.British MotorsportWikipedia:WikiProject British MotorsportTemplate:WikiProject British MotorsportBritish Motorsport
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

John von Neumann

I can't edit the article due to its lock, but there should be a link to John von Neumann if Ken Miles did indeed drive the car of *the* John von Neumann. 2001:9E8:E183:300:1A5:CBC6:9917:7537 (talk) 19:14, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently it's a different John von Neumann. DH85868993 (talk) 05:46, 2 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Personal Life

The personal life section is almost exclusively focused on Peter, his son, rather than Ken himself. Mitsukipedia (talk) 23:18, 10 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]