In 1965, he shared a Ford GT Mk II with Bruce McLaren at the 24 Hours of Le Mans but retired with gearbox trouble. Earlier in the year, also with McLaren, he had finished second at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The next year he won the 24 Hours of Daytona, sharing the Ford GT Mk II with Lloyd Ruby, and then won the 12 Hours of Sebring. Several months later, sharing the drive with Denny Hulme, Miles was leading the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans in the #1 car, but Ford Motor Company executive Leo Beebe, desiring a publicity photo of three of Ford's cars crossing the finish line together, instructed Miles to slow down, which he did. Accordingly, on the final lap the next car from Ford driven by Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon and the third-place car from Ford drew up, and they cruised to the line together. The French race officials, after initially agreeing to Ford's dead-heat "photo-finish", reneged during the final hour of the race. Although Miles' #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' car, it had therefore covered 8 meters more distance during the race. Miles was denied the unique achievement of winning Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans in the same year. Death The Ford J-car was intended to be the successor to the Ford GT40 Mk II and, despite reliability problems, showed potential in the springtime Le Mans trials. After the death of Walt Hansgen in a J-car while testing at Le Mans in April, Ford decided to shelve the J-car and focus on the proven Mk IIs. Little development was done for the rest of the 1966 World Sports Car Championship season. In August 1966, Shelby American resumed testing and development work with Miles as primary test driver. The J-car featured a breadvan-shaped rear section experimenting with Kammback aerodynamic theories, and a honeycomb panel design supposed to both lighten and stiffen the car, but the design was unproven with high-speed prototype sports cars. After almost a day of testing at Riverside International Raceway in the very hot Southern California desert, Miles approached the end of the track's downhill back straight at top speed—over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h)—when the car suddenly looped, flipped, crashed, and caught fire. The car broke into pieces and ejected