Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles (1 November 1918 – 17 August 1966) was a British-American sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the US and with American teams on the international scene. He is an inductee to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Early life Miles was born on 1 November 1918 in Sutton Coldfield, then in Warwickshire, now in the city of Birmingham. He was the son of Eric Miles and Clarice Jarvis. After a failed attempt to run away to the United States, Miles left school at the age of 15 to work as an apprentice at Wolseley Motors, who sent him to a technical school to broaden his knowledge of vehicle construction. He raced motorcycles before joining the British Army, during World War II. Miles' first role in the military was driving instructor in Territorial Army. On 1 October 1942, as an armament artificer, he was among the founding members of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), and transferred to the REME Training Establishment. The following year Miles was posted to Guards Armoured Division Workshops, followed by the 29th Armoured Brigade Workshop. He landed in Normandy on 15 June 1944, and later that year was posted to the Light Aid Detachment of the 15th/19th King’s Royal Hussars. Miles served in North West Europe until the end of the war, by which time he had achieved the rank of staff sergeant. He served as a tank commander, and the experience is said to have fuelled a new love in Miles for high-performance engineering. He was discharged to the reserves on 1 April 1946. Racing career 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 US, 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, he 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