John Miles RIP

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Discussion

Tim M DB7V

Original Poster:

92 posts

185 months

Monday 9th April 2018
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Sad to hear that John Miles (Lotus driver and engineer) has died at 75.
He didn't get far in F1 but then went on to be a superb suspension tester and designer, mostly with Lotus I think.

lotus72

777 posts

277 months

Monday 9th April 2018
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I met John on three occasions, the first of which was to film an interview for my Lotus 72 documentary. He and his wife were most hospitable to us, we had a great afternoon, he gave us lots of info on the new 72 (not a good car) and also gave us a specific piece explaining anti-squat and anti-dive at the end of which it was for me, a light bulb moment-so that's how it works! But explained in layman's language, brilliant stuff. At the end of our shoot we had a cup of tea to finish off and I think he was pleased to learn that my interest in the theatre was really kick started by a childhood school visit to the Mermaid Theatre in London which had been started by his father, Sir Bernard Miles. I next met him at a Lotus weekend that Michael Oliver and I arranged a few years later, again he was such interesting company. I'm very sad this evening.

lotus72

777 posts

277 months

Monday 9th April 2018
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Oh, PS. what a great looking car in that pic!

f1rob

317 posts

187 months

Monday 9th April 2018
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Sad news
Genuine nice guy who would talk to anyone when he was at team lotus

rubystone

11,254 posts

270 months

Tuesday 10th April 2018
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Oh that’s a shame, met him several times over the past few years. A gentleman indeed.

Eric Mc

123,259 posts

276 months

Tuesday 10th April 2018
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Sad news.

He always looked to me like a kindly geography or science teacher - not like the more typical playboy racing driver of the era.

sideways man

1,450 posts

148 months

Wednesday 11th April 2018
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Sad news indeed.
He was a staff writer at Autocar in the late 1970’s;and his column ‘Miles Behind The Wheel’ was just superb. It specialised in testing modified cars, from touring cars to single seaters, he then analysed what made that model special or otherwise.... What seemed to me from memory to be a real favourite of his was a 3.0 Capri and he also tested the first Renault Turbo F1 car for that series. If they ever did a compilation of all those articles it would make a great read.

davidgt4

239 posts

257 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
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Sad news

As in the above post I always loved his Autocar writings, and that Capri was the first thing that sprung into my head when I saw the news of his passing...


David

Halmyre

11,752 posts

150 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
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I wonder if his career at Lotus might have progressed differently if he hadn't been tasked with developing the woeful 4WD Lotus 63. Although being number two at Lotus was never an easy career path in the first place.