Did You Know These Guys?

PDHse · #1 (**permalink**) 09-22-2002, 08:45 AM

Hi,Did any of you guys out there ever meet the late Ken Miles or the late Dave Mcdonald ?or maybe you knew them.
If so have you any memories you,d like to share with clubcobra.

bonyhadi · #2 (**permalink**) 09-22-2002, 09:25 AM

Met Ken Miles many times, never knew him very well, recall the MG Shingle. He was a fixture on the West Coast racing seen. Dave McDonald was a very close friend of my God Brother, remember his Corvette battles with Frank Search and Herb Kaplan more than his Cobra drives. Feel that Mickey Thompson was responsible for his death at Indy, McDonald was very uncomfortable with the 4 wheel steering car. That was my first and last time at Indy, horrible memory. Shelby was
the big act to admire on the West Coast, the first time we saw a real factory effort. Then guys like Penske entered the seen with a total professional approach. Finally it became such big $$ that
only the very wealthy or sponsored could compete.

Cal Metal · #3 (**permalink**) 09-22-2002, 03:03 PM

Bony is showing his age. Most CC members were pretty young or just a 'glimmer' when these guys met their demise; MacDonald in '64 (Indy), Miles in '66, in a J-Car.

Jim Maxwell · #4 (**permalink**) 09-22-2002, 05:46 PM

I never got to meet these two great racers. My father took me to my first Indy 500 in 1964. (I was 12). We had tickets in the grandstands between turns 3 and 4. The black plume of smoke was the only clue there was something wrong at first. Eddie Sachs and Dave McDonald had died. My father never returned to Indy. It was a very sad day. I still have my ticket stub with
Roger Wards picture on it in the bedside table in former my room at my parents house.

bonyhadi · #5 (**permalink**) 09-23-2002, 07:08 AM

Cal,
Yup, new recommendations on walker's and on line resource where to get
the best prices on depends.

Jim
After Indy '64 I lost interest in Indy racing. Then concentrated on my business and during the last ten or twelve years became very interested
in Vintage car racing. Today I have no interest in SCCA or spec car racing.
The 60's was a very black period for racing.

John McMahon · #6 (**permalink**) 09-23-2002, 07:19 AM

Well I met JFK when my dad was still in the service, remember it well, but of course I was still a fetus.

speed220mph · #7 (**permalink**) 10-29-2002, 07:06 AM

As most of you know, Ken miles was killed while testing The J-car at Riverside in 1966. The J-car was rebodied and renamed the GT-40 MkIV. The car was designed by Ed Hull and built at KarKraft in Dearborn, Michigan unlike the previous GT-40s which were built across the pond. After the crash, KarKraft outfitted a surplus GT-40 Mk?? for testing and performed a barrier crash, which I am sure was done because of legal implications, better known as trial lawyers.