Legends: Harry Miller – American Race Car Designer and Builder (Part 1)

The legendary American race car designer and builder Harry Miller was known as "the greatest creative figure in the history of the American racing car." His cars and engines dominated the American oval-track racing scene for almost half a century.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the Wheel, under the Hood and beyond with
car Stuff from how Stuff Works dot Com and welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott and and then we are
of course joined by our super producer team of Noel
Brown and Dylan nickname T. B. A. Fagan. Yeah, we'll

(00:24):
come up one. We'll come up with one night. And
I've been pretty good about getting back to that recently,
haven't we. Yes, we have, I think out of them
many times we've promised to come back and figure out
a nickname. We've we've gotten it there two or three times,
which is great for us. We're getting better, We're getting better. Yeah,
if we can't come up with the one right up front,
you know, because sometimes we can do that. But in
this case, I think we should hang on because it

(00:45):
seems like there's a lot of potential in this episode.
There's a there's a there's a lot of really really
interesting things happening with this, with this character they're gonna
talk about today, and man, he has a character too,
there's there's where where do we begin? Maybe that's the question.
Maybe we should start with what inspired us to find this?
Oh good idea? All right? So well, yeah, this is
a listener email or that that it come in. Uh, well,

(01:07):
chiefs boy, it's almost been a year at this point.
I sheepishly say that it's been the most a year
because this happens a lot. You know, where we put
something on the list, we say we put it on
the list, and it's really there. Um. But by the
time we get around to researching something that's uh kind
of heavy like this, there's a lot of material here. Um.
Sometimes it takes a long time for us to kind
of bring that item to the top. You know. The
I guess, the shorter, the simpler ones are the ones

(01:29):
we try to try to knock out or something that
we have personal familiarity with, right, So these research heavy
ones are ones that sort of get pushed back a
little bit, but we eventually get to them. That's the
good news. Today. Today is the day for for Matt C.
Who wrote in, Um, you know, I think it was
April seen so again almost a year ago. Um. So
hang in there, everybody. You know, if you hurt your

(01:51):
topic and uh, I don't know, three or four years,
you know, you never know, it might come around. So
Matt wrote in and said, high Scott and Ben, my
name is Matt, and I find your podcast recently, which
hopefully still around listening. Yeah, thanks man, Yeah, Matt uh,
he said, Since I found it, I've listened to many podcasts,
and thank you for your great work. It's very nice.
Thank you, But he says also, I asked my ideas
for future shows that I'd like to share, and there's

(02:12):
two that I want to mention here. The first one
is the one that we're going to do today. Another
one that is tan gentle, but but I think it's
also a value. I think we might get to this
one as well. Number one request here is how about
a whole episode on the great race car designer and
designer of other cool Things, Harry Miller. So that's today's topic,
of course. But the second one is I find it

(02:33):
really interesting that many of the early automotive entrepreneurs and
race car drivers were bicycle racers or mechanics before race
cars were common, or before cars were common even um,
I think it would be really neat to learn more
about how this happened and how some of these individuals
compared uh these two types of contract contraptions at the
same time. So like just as automobiles were kind of

(02:53):
coming up, in popularity. A lot of people were really
fascinated with bicycles at the time, and we saw that
over well, we've seen that in many of these cases
where we talk about historical figures that that's kind of
where their start happened. They were bicycle mechanics, or they
were bicycle racers, or um, there was there was a
strange connection there. And um, I'll give this away right now.

(03:14):
Why not Harry Miller was a bicycle I guess mechanic
if you want to call it that he was. He
was placing engines on bicycles very early, and some even
claim that he was the first. And we're gonna claim
a lot of first in this in this podcast, and
maybe we should even just take a moment. Well, first
of all, that's kind of the end of the email,
but he says, keep up the good work that you

(03:36):
know best, Matt. So thanks Matt, Thanks Matt, and I'm
glad we finally got around of the topic for you.
But we're going to claim a lot of first in
this episode. And that's something we're a little bit uncomfortable
doing because it can come back to bite you. Really, Yes,
we know that we know that the thing about most
great inventions and innovations is that they generally occur in

(04:01):
incremental degrees. They they stand on the shoulder of preceding giants.
You know, so whenever we come up with the first
historically and longtime listeners, you will you'll have picked up
on this. Uh, we have a mountain of caveats. I mean,
it looks like a pharmaceutical commercial or something. The fall

(04:21):
the fine print, And I don't know if we'll we'll
really like be labor to this this point today or anything,
but you know, as we come to each individual example.
But um, just know that you know, sometimes it's like
it's all on how it's written to. It's like the
first occurrence of this in a race car, first occurrence
of this in a four cylinder vehicle that was used
in the southeast, or you know, the first occurrence of

(04:42):
this in a production vehicle that is a big one.
And there'll be a few of those mentioned in this.
You know that a lot of like, um, you know,
first attempt at this in a in a race car
engine on an oval track or something like that. So
if we don't get every single modifier in there, know,
that's that's our own fault, you know, our mistake and
we've over you know, skipped over in the notes or whatever.

(05:04):
But there are a lot of first claimed here that
I'm not entirely comfortable with. But we'll see. I mean,
we'll talk about and this is not giving a whole
lot away here, but we'll talk about aluminum pistons. We're
gonna talk about front wheel drive race cars and four
wheel drive race cars and new alloys and all kinds
of stuff. So um, there are a lot of a
lot of first that will come up today that we'll
we'll get to. But first, Ben, can I tell you

(05:27):
one quick thing before we really jump into this. I
feel the story coming on. It is I'm gonna derail
us just a bit here early on because I saw
something remarkable this week that I've never seen before. Is
this an episode of stuff Scott C's well potentially, Oh, Dylan,
can we get a stuff Scott se sound effect perfect? Yeah?

(05:52):
Can you believe that guy? I don't know how he
does it, but it's a it's a great match. Okay.
So so here's what happened. This happened I guess be
two days ago now from when we're recording. I we
live in a county here where I have to go
in and have the emissions tested on my vehicle. It's
a it's a new enough vehicle that you have to
go in and have emissions uh certification done before you
can renew your tags or your license plate stickers. Right,

(06:15):
So I pull into my local spot, you know, I've
gone there a couple of times in the past over
the years, and I'm in line. I'm third in line.
So there's a car that's being tested red crossover minivan
or something in front of me and uh and then myself.
And it's an outdoor place, you know. It has it's
kind of like a almost like a car port really
just covered on just the top really, and I'm sure

(06:35):
they've got doors they can bring down and bring the
equipment in and everything, but um, it's an older place.
Two bays and only one was being used. So I
pull in. The lady in front of me, after about
I don't know, it seems like a minute backed out
and left, you know, So I thought that that's whatever.
She might have been waiting here for a while, something's
going on with the testing. But I figured, well that
that shortens my way time anyway, So I pulled up

(06:56):
and got behind the car that it's currently being tested.
It was a camera, a Toyota camera, and it was
an older vehicle and they were doing you know, the
test for the older vehicles, which involves them getting on
the uh the rollers. There's rollers for the front front
wheels because the fron wheel drive car kind of like
um picture like Dino rollers. You know, there's two rollers
and the wheel is kind of balanced between the two

(07:16):
and it's spinning. So the guy's got the car hooked up,
he's got the probe and the tail pipe and he's, uh,
the de tester is in the driver's seat and he's
he's watching the monitor over to the passenger side and
he's you know, reven the engine and the wheels are
spinning on the wheels are the Dino wheels, and it
seems like the test is just about done because you know,
they's they've been there doing that for a while and

(07:38):
everything's going fine. And just as the guy goes to
get out of the car, I don't know if he
bumped the steering wheel or what happened, but the car
is still being accelerated because you don't have to take
it through these this rev line, so the car is
still accelerating, and the car kind of like just shifts completely,
like really hard to the right, and it it smashes

(07:59):
right into this box, this big metal box, and all
the all the test equipment that's right there. The guy.
I mean, it's like one of those Dino accidents that
you see online, you know, when you when you you know,
search on eBay or an eBay on YouTube for for
a Dino accidents. It was kind of the same thing,
except they don't have it strapped down. It's just sitting there.
It's it's like they must have the break apply or something.

(08:19):
Um So, I've never seen that before. I mean, there's
a horrible sound, you're, like a grinding sound as the
lug nuts, you know, kind of pounded into this metal
box that was over there. I don't know what damage
was done to the rest of the testing equipment. I
left almost immediately. I watched for about ten seconds to
see what was gonna happen, and then I decided I'm
getting out of here. I didn't want to want this
guy touched my car at Also, I have yet to

(08:42):
have my missions test done, but I've never seen anybody
like I don't know if you'd say crash a car,
run a car. But I have an accident like that
on one of these omissions testers ever before. This is
the kind of a first for me. Happened, happened right
in front of me. You hear about it, and you
can see some stuff on you know YouTube, but what not. Well,
I guess I'm glad you're okay. Well, I don't guess

(09:04):
that I know, and I hope the person involved was
all right. Well, that's the thing, Like I was trying
to think, like who you know that there was a
guy standing next to a white van that was, you know,
right near there, But I didn't see another owner. They
might have been in spite of like a little tiny
lounge area that they have their you know, it's just
like a little almost like a trailer that's on the lot. Really. Yeah,
a lot of places, a lot of mission places down

(09:25):
here like that. Yeah, so there's a chance that somebody
was waiting in this kind of little lounge place when
that happened. But I didn't really Again, I didn't stick
around to see the aftermath of this whole thing. But um,
the damage couldn't have been too significant. But still, it's
it's just tailed it. I left right away. Yes, yeah,
I didn't feel comfortable allowing that person to test the vehicle.
Well now you're a person of interest. Oh yeah, sure, yeah,

(09:47):
I witnessed the witnessed the crime right now, and then
he sped away. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, it wasn't there
really wasn't significant damage like that, but it was just
unsettling to see. I've a I saw them unsettling stuff
recently because you know, the street I live on is
a little bit wild. Uh, there's a there's a biker

(10:09):
bar about a block and a half up from about yeah,
about a block or two up from our office right here,
and I will uh take take a walk, you know,
after work, go to the grocery store, chill out at
a coffee place or whatever. And the the the grocery

(10:32):
store and the coffee place both required me to walk
past the biker bar, which is sometimes a really cool
thing when they've got everybody together and they're you know,
they're traveling in the pack in the convoy kind of
little rock us over there, maybe yeah, man, in a
really cool way too, because a lot of these bikes

(10:53):
are tricked out, uh you know, they I guess I
would describe them as a nondenominate national biker bar, because
I see Harley's there, but I see Kwasaki's and stuff too.
I haven't seen any like Triumphs or anything, but my
eyes out for him. Non denominational biker bar this way, thanks,
but I believe it. I don't know if that's the

(11:13):
correct term, because I have myself. I'm not a biker.
But I saw this one bike I was. I was
walking to return some books to the library. A wild
Friday for me, sound yeah, and uh, this guy with
this big with this big broadhog that I didn't get.
I wasn't close enough to identify, but he had these

(11:34):
uh he had running like laser lights on the thing
that had this like oscillating pattern that they would shoot out. Yeah,
and he had these he's had these huge speakers. And
I saw the guy and let's let's be honest. I'm
kind of a nerd and I've dealt with that. But well,
just because you're on your way to the library on

(11:54):
Friday night, I mean, hey, I have student classify yourself.
I have. They were cool books, man, I don't want
to get the fees anyway. There were books on how
to how to party right, Um, But anyway, I was
walking by and see this guy and he's got super
loud music and then he's starting to rev up the engine.

(12:15):
It's kind of, uh, just trying to impress people. Uh.
And it was a group of women in a camera
and traffic is really bad on the street, so they
were stopped because there's some construction there. He's like revving
it and looking at him, and uh, this lady rolls
down her window and he's like pretty obviously looking forward

(12:38):
to the conversation, and then she yells at him to
get a life, and he turned off his bike and
went inside. It was just the little most like heartbreaking
down her thing I had seen. That's pretty sad, I know, man,
but that bike was awesome. To tell me that reven
his engine and playing his music loud didn't attract the female.
How you track the female? Well, I just feel like,
if you're driving on this street, I don't I don't

(12:59):
think you to roll down your window and yell at somewhat.
They're already probably I don't have to rethink everything that
I do from this point forward. Yeah, yeah, did you
already get your light kit? My, my, my, my laser
light kit. Yeah, that's a that's an unusual one. That's strange,
that is. But I I do recommend if you are ever,
if you're ever in this part of time and you

(13:19):
like bikes, if you're in the Atlanta area on ponstant lyon,
then check out drive by a place called Duggan's. I
don't know if it's gonna be a place where you
want to grab a burger or whatever. Duggan's. Yeah, that
doesn't sound like a biker I don't know why that
doesn't sound like a biker bar to me, but but
it just doesn't. I don't know, man, I've never met Dugan.
I don't know what he's about. Sounds like just like
a family Irish pub or something like, Yeah, yeah, it's

(13:42):
it's definitely. It's definitely like a sports bar restaurant where
you can see at least twice a month, like groups
of bike clubs numbering like thirty plus but fair enough.
But do they race? Probably is this podcast related. We're

(14:03):
fifteen minutes in, we're still not really into our topic.
Maybe that's what happens. And you know what I was
going to point out too before we begin, it's it's
important to note, oh, oh, my friend there is no
way we're going to be able to explore do this
any justice in one episode. Yeah, I think we're already
resigned to the fact that this is gonna be a

(14:24):
two part episode because this guy, there's just there's far
too much to cover here, there really is. It's one
of those characters kind of like Preston Tucker. We started
to record our Preston Tucker episode, I think didn't Preston
Tucker go into three parts, I believe, And we hadn't
planned that at all. I think we had planned that
to be just a single episode, like it was just
gonna be one podcast and and that's it. But this

(14:46):
guy is is very similar in the way and oddly
enough their their paths cross, so he's part of this
story as well. But who's path Okay, here's a question. Yeah,
whose path does Harold Arminius Miller not cross? That's true. Yeah,
there's a lot of There are a lot of people.
There are a lot of historical figures that we'll talk

(15:07):
about in this episode or episodes. Uh that would be surprised.
You may raise your eyebrows. Really, so, just to give
some context, if there's if there are any of any
listeners who maybe you're a little younger or maybe not
super into racing. Who haven't heard of Harry Miller. He

(15:28):
has been called, quote, the greatest creative figure in the
history of the American racing car. But why we'd like
to give you a little context before we even get
into his biography and everything with some of those racing highlights. Yeah,
we're gonna talk about racing highlights. But I think, you
know what, even though it's early on, I think maybe
we need to take a quick break for a word
from our sponsor and we're back. Great calls, Well you

(15:58):
have to do it, you know, Yeah, we have a
Well it's a great call because with our fifteen minute
shooting the breeze, well yeah, I mean kind of get
off the handle there. But um, all right, So we're
talking about racing highlights though, and there's there's a lot
of them, and I'll tell you right now, we're gonna
go through, you know, like his history really and we're
gonna talk about him as a as a person and
his development over the years. But I think it is

(16:20):
important that we talked about these racing highlights because this
really gives you a um an insight into what his
overall career, like the the arc of his career really
because he's involved in a little bit of everything. Of course, oval,
oval track racing, board track racing, UM, he designed engines
for boats, land speed record cars, UM. Just a little
bit of everything with the competition, some of these Grand

(16:41):
Prix cars and Grand pre drivers that he worked with. UM.
So let's just start here at the beginning, and we
shouldn't spend too much time on this, but it's kind
of a long list of things, but it will give
you a real idea of of who this guy was.
So and we'll talk about the connections between a lot
of these people too along the way. So Miller Offenhauser
won the Indy five hundred fifteen times in the twenty

(17:04):
year period from ninety one to nineteen forty one. Fifteen times,
that's undred. That's his chief machinist, Fred offenhaus Yeah. Yeah,
Now Miller first raced at Indianapolis in one and we
should point out that, you know after the nineteen four
the reason that he ended this the stretch of winds
is because from nineteen forty five they there were no

(17:26):
races in Indy because of World War Two. So you
know that's one thing right there. But man and he
continued on his his um, his designs carried on as
we'll talk about into almost into the nineteen eighties. Really,
Um okay, the next one is Tommy Milton drove a
Miller three two hundred and fifty one point to six
mile per hour International Class D record at Murrock Dry

(17:46):
Lake on April fourth, nineteen twenty four. So this is
a land speed record. I'm not gonna list all the
land speed records because they're just there's a whole bunch
of them here. Um so land speed records on sand
on um, you know, dry dry lakes. I guess that's
another one record for the fastest single lap driven on
a board track, set by Frank Lockhart on the Atlantic

(18:06):
City Track and made seven seven in a Miller rear drive. Yeah,
and the average speed is one hundred and forty seven
point two to nine miles per hour. I can remember
what we talked about with the board tracks. Yeah, so
imagine driving nearly a hundred and fifty miles an hour
on a board track because remember cars were a big
part of this. Yeah, and that's maybe the most impressive

(18:27):
part about it. This is when you consider the time
frame that we're talking about seven going that fast on
a board track that's taken your life in your own hands.
It really is. I mean it's it's danger. It's a
danger sport. If if you haven't listened to our board
track episode for context, go back and listen to that
one just to kind of understand what that really means
when you when someone says they were a board track,

(18:48):
you know phenomena for for whatever reason, they were really
I mean they were really hanging it all out there.
These are wooden boards, guys. For anyone who hasn't seen
that that track, and nearly nearly at a ninety greengle
weren't they were? I think it was sixty seven degrees. Yeah,
that was the steepest one in the whole series. Um,
let's see, Okay, there's day a few Daytona records that

(19:11):
were broken. I'm we're talking about Daytona Beach, you know
land speed records, And there was one that was a
famous one. Um on April Daytona Frank Lockhart Um in
his black Hawk LSR car, which land speed record car
was powered by two Miller nine and it was clocked
at one hundred and ninety eight point two nine miles
per hour UM on a warm up pass though, however,

(19:32):
and on his first serious run at the world speed
record he was going about two hundred and twenty miles
per hour again on sand two twenty miles per hour
in UM and he was still accelerating when a rear
tire blue and there's a fatal crash. So, uh, Frank
Lockhart did make it out of that one. But um,
there's I think there's film of that accident happening. It's
just it's a really violent wreck. But you get a

(19:54):
sense of the speed that's involved in that car was
powered by two Miller engines. Um. Okay, there's more board
track racing information here, and this is incredible, and we're
talking about cars at this point. Out of the one
hundred and sixty four board track races held between nineteen
fifteen and nineteen thirty one, Miller's won seventy one times.
Dusenbergs were second at forty four wins. Yeah, so he

(20:18):
and and not only that, he's topping Dusenberg's, right, that's
pretty incredible competition. So out of the one thousand, nine
eighty five cars that started in those in those one
and sixty four races UH eight hundred and two of
those cars were Miller's. Dusenbergs were second with five twenty four.
So again he's got the most cars out there, he's
got the most wins. He's he's really a prolific builder

(20:40):
at this time in this in this timeframe. Um. Alright,
So the French Grand Prix was won by a guy
named Jimmy Murphy driving at Dusenberge three, and he took
the same car to the Indianapolis five hundred in nineteen
twenty two the next year, but he replaced the motor
with the Miller one eight three and then won the race.
And that's kind of what began this dynasty e four um,

(21:01):
you know for Harry Miller, because that's that n race
really was like his second you know shot at the
victory here in Indianapolis anyways, Um, in Indianapolis offt UH
five Bugatti type thirties, three Mercedes, three Packards and one
Dusenberg and eleven Miller's on the track battled out. Miller's

(21:22):
took the top four spots in nineteen again insane. It's
it's also a loss for words. It's difficult to really
articulate just how profound and pervasive. Miller's influence on racing
is at this point in time. Yeah, and think about
who he's going up against. He's going to be against Mercedes, Packard, Duisenberg, Bugatti.

(21:43):
He's going up against these guys. And this is a
guy that kind of well, you'll find he has very
humble beginnings, but but his career took off very fast.
He's a smart guy. Um, Okay, there's more European history
there was. Um, oh, here's here's something maybe the most
interesting thing, the whole thing. And we talked about all
hernative history just a little bit. Um a moment ago
before we came on air. Um, there were two Miller

(22:05):
ninety ones that raced at the Italian Grand Prix by
by Leon Dray and they both broke the track record
and qualifying but did not finish. Now, Um, the founder
of Buggatti, A Torrey Buggatti, bought both the Millers and
copied the engine design for his tight fifty and tight
fifty one engine. So Bugghatti early on, you know, the

(22:26):
founder of the Buggatti company saw exactly what you know,
what Miller was doing was was kind of the direction
that he wanted his company to go, copied the design
and uh and then made those those vehicles into winners
for himself for his own company. Um oh, here's another one.
Miller was and this is maybe the last little bit
of interesting stuff here before we get onto uh, you know,

(22:46):
I should say interesting less a little bit of race
history before we get into the man himself. Miller was
the first four wheel drive car to raising a Grand
Prix and that was in nineteen thirty four at the
Grand Prix Tripoli. Now the car only finished in seventh place.
There's a driver named Peter DePaulo who was driving now
that same exact car from the nineteen thirty four race
with the same driver, Peter DePaulo. He was racing at

(23:08):
the Avis Track in Berlin in ninety four and uh
also in n four, I should say, and while he
was running third, the motor exploded right in front of
Hitler's viewing stand and flying parts from that car almost
hit him. Now this is our our alternate history part. Yes,
what would have happened had parts of that race car
flown off and ahead of World War Two killed Hitler

(23:32):
during the during the Grand Prix race. How strange I
mean this this could have been history changing right here. Yeah,
and then there's a question too that we have to
ask whenever we getting involved with speculation on history. One
of the one of the weirdest questions here is would
the situation who played out into a World War two thing?
Just a different person in that position possible? You know,

(23:55):
second command takes over and uh and does the exact
same thing that was the plan all along, right, because
have happened. But you know, anyways, we talked about alternate
histories and what are what are possibilities and that's probably
another podcast, right man. That's probably a different, different show,
different different topics. So anyways, this that kind of gives
you just a a quick brief history. And I know

(24:17):
that sounded like a long list, but that was actually
brief for what this guy has accomplished in his life.
There are so many things as we go through his
life history and to give credit where credits do here.
I found a lot of this information at a place
called the Miller Offenhauser Historical Society. And that's uh, if
you want to follow along, it's Miller Offee dot com.
That's the website. O f f Y, Yeah, o f

(24:37):
f Y. And Oftenhausen or often Houser brother. We'll come
up later in the stories. Who find out who Fred
Offenhauser is. Um, Preston Tucker is gonna come up. Evan
Rud's gonna be in here as well. There's a lot
of people that that again he crosses pass with or
they they seek him out, um for his expertise at
some point. So we'll find uh. We'll find a lot

(24:58):
of historic figures in this episode. And speaking of history,
let's look at the man himself. The legend we call
Harry Miller today was born, as we mentioned earlier, Harold
Arminius Miller. I love that middle name, Arminius Arminius, on
December ninth, eighteen seventy five, in the town of uh Menimoni, Wisconsin,

(25:20):
which I hope I am not mispronouncing. Uh Wisconsin residents
are those familiar. I'm just gonna say Wisconsin. Please feel
free to correct me. Let's just say Wisconsin from this
point forward. We'll say Wisconsin from this point forward. Eighteen
seventy five. His parents name were names were Jacob and
Martha Miller, and his father was a school teacher, a musician,

(25:40):
a painter. But but Harry was more interested in h
in like the mechanical things, anything you know that was
headed with machinery, he was fascinated with and from an
early age he was kind of tinkering around with a
lot of stuff. And even even early early on him,
I think I think it was when he was fifteen,
he dropped out of high school and took a job
at a place called the nap Stout and Company machine shop.

(26:02):
And a couple of years, just a couple of years later,
he left, you know, his his hometown in Wisconsin and
moved out to Salt Lake City. And you're gonna find
that this character moves all over the place, so we
lose if we lose track of where he's living at
the time. Again, this this kind of mirrors what Preston
Tucker did. He moved so many times all over the place,
we had a hard time tracking exactly where he wasn't when,

(26:22):
But um, Harry Miller is a lot like that. So
early early on he left for Salt Lake City, and
it wasn't long after that then that he moved to
Los Angeles in about eighteen nine, somewhere in there, right. Yeah.
He also, this is important, he worked as a mechanic
in the nine before he got into racing. Uh he

(26:46):
you know, sometimes we talked about other figures who sort
of start out always wanting to raise a vehicle. His
original focus would be carburetors. Yeah, but you know what
led him to that though, is when he was in California,
he was working at a bicycle shop. Now we talked about, well,
he he worked at a bicycle shop in l a.

(27:07):
And that's where he met and married his first it
was his wife, I guess Edna and nez Lewis was
her name. And then from there they moved back to
Wisconsin again and that's when he picked up the carburetor interest.
He started he started really tinkering around with the idea that, um,
he could improve on current carburetor designs. Right, And in
December of nineteen o nine, he received his first patent

(27:31):
on one of his carburetor designs, just about a week
after his thirty fourth birthday. And from that point on,
this guy was just a huge success. I mean everything
he did seem to be successful, um, you know, right
up until the end. Really. Uh So, only just a
couple of years later, um, he formed something called the
well another carburetor company, right, Master Carburetor Company. The Master

(27:52):
Carbureator Company. And that was because his other carburetor company
had been purchased by the sons of Charles Charles Fairbanks,
and that company had moved to Indianapolis. So assuming I'm
assuming here at this point that UM that Harry Miller
moved along with the company and continue to work there,
you know, to you know, development engineering whatever, UM in

(28:12):
Indianapolis as well, because a lot of this story takes
place in Indianapolis, of course, close to you know, the
the Oval track that he wanted really to to compete
in compete at that. Yeah. So this this Master Carburetor
Company was you know, something that he had um branched
out on his own again in nineteen I think we
said a l but it was actually when he incorporated

(28:34):
the Master Carburetor Company, UM and it was the uh
like a brand new design I guess for carburetors. And
they started to well they were they were dominant I
guess in racing right UM from the West coast and
they spread all the way over to the Atlantic coast.
And as a UM, I don't get it. As a
way of um um evolution, maybe that's the best, the

(28:57):
best way to say it. They started to become a
success in passenger car industry and the passenger car industry
as well, along with aeronautical and marine fields too. So
he's kind of already starting to interest people in a
lot of different different facets of motor support. Really, yeah,
he's he's starting to do something brilliant, which I I

(29:19):
call with immense respect, I call it the Taco Bell effect.
I can back this up. No, no, sus I can
back it up. It up. You're you're comparing Harry Miller
and his accomplishments early on, and I and I'm comparing
Preston Tucker, and I'm comparing Henry Forth. Okay, all right,
let's you're comparing good inventors in general, a lot of entrepreneurs.

(29:40):
So for anyone who has seen a Taco Bell menu,
right if you're at a drive through, for instance, they
got the big, big plastic sign with what looks like
fifty things on there, or you know, thirty things or whatever,
But really they have maybe six or seven ingredients. They've
just figured out these combinations and now they're figuring out

(30:02):
different applications. That is a strategy for success. I called
the Taco Bell theory just because I was at a
Taco Bell when I went, hang on, there's not that
much stuff actually here. You're just you're finding different platforms
for distribution. It's the same thing with a different shell
and a different sauce. Yes, exactly, that's it, right, So
you do develop more sauces. He developed more shells. You've

(30:25):
got unlimited products that you can come up, right. And
I don't mean that as an advertisement for Taco Bell,
and I don't mean it as a pejorative for anybody involved.
I just think it's a clever strategy that applies across things.
And the reason I'm bringing it up is because one
of perhaps the best examples in this prolific inventor's life
arrives very early in nine when he makes a substance

(30:50):
that he calls alloy in them. Yeah, and we'll talk
about that after we come back from a WORDSM sponsors
and we're back, all right. So he's thinking about, how
do I how do I build a better carburetor? Right?

(31:12):
How do I build a carburetor that is even better
than the designs I've made previously? And he starts delving
into material science. So what is this alloy and um stuff? Well,
it's an original blend of aluminum, nickel, and copper. And
again he called it a lay in um, I think
is how we're going to pronounce it. Really, but it's
a brand new something. He creates his own alloy for

(31:34):
his own carburetor design. I mean, the guy's gotta handle
on everything here. He's not really beholden to anybody. This
is this is his company, his design, his metal really
that he's created. This is a this is an unbelievable
success for him. It's a it's a huge, huge part
of his history because, um this makes him a pile
of money. He becomes very, very wealthy on carburetors alone.

(31:56):
And this is only the beginning of his story. Really,
and here's the Taco bell mobile. That's right. Well, he
starts taking the idea that hey, wait, this is this
alloy is better for for things other than just carburetors.
To um. So he's he's kind of experimented with a
lot of different carburetors you know, the single, double, fourth roat,
even eight roat carburetors. Um he is he's decided that

(32:19):
you know, I'm gonna take this metal, this this new
alloy that I've created, and I'm gonna use it in pistons.
So in nineteen thirteen, I believe it was right when
he started the Master Carburetor Company, he starts taking that
same alloy and using it to create these pistons and
and sell them for races. He's gonna put them in
performance engines and and aero engines because, um, you know,

(32:39):
in the aeronutics, it's it's very important to remain lightweight
and strong. Everything has to be very dependable. And that's
exactly the properties that this thing had. It had the
right properties for airplane engines or Yeah, I guess, I
guess the fastest and best of the day. Yeah. And
eventually these became the gold standards, you know, as you said, Scott,
the best and the fastest. Uh. And in spite of

(33:02):
selling the Master Company, he continued fabricating these UH special carburetors,
these high ind carburetors and inlet manifolds as well for
tremendous power output. And you know what, I'm gonna go
back on something I just said. I had assumed that
he had moved to Indianapolis at this point. I think
he's still on the West coast because we've talked about
how the the I guess the the you know, the

(33:26):
commercial success of this thing kind of went from uh,
you know, the West Coast is spread over the Atlantic,
and now they're saying that, um, Harry Miller, the Harry
Miller Manufacturing Company, which is now his his latest company.
So um, he's got all these companies that he starts
and sells and starts the sells. So again that's another
thing we have to try to keep up with here.
He's got so many I haven't listed them out in
a in a laundry list anywhere. But this, this place,

(33:49):
this this Harry Miller Manufacturing Company becomes sort of like
the West Coast mecca for anybody that's um, that has
an interest in performance on land, water, air anything. So
by nineteen fifteen, at the age of forty, this guy
is a tremendous success already. Yeah, absolutely, he had arrived,
as they say, yeah, in nineteen fifteen. That's an important

(34:09):
year two because this is the year that the first
you know, I guess original Miller engine was commissioned. At
this point. It was an inline six inline six cylinder engine,
and it was a single overad cam aircraft engine that
was designed around the current you know thought process behind
the Errol Mercedes engine, so it had the same kind
of general design aesthetics, maybe that's the best way to

(34:32):
say it. And then an engine followed for a guy
named while Bob Berman. Now his connecting rod broke in
his nineteen Grand Prix Pougeot, and aside from a few
bits that they could, you know, kind of recuperate from this,
this pougeot that had blown itself apart um, an entirely
new engine and chassis was constructed for this guy, so
that the first owner of a true Um Miller well

(34:56):
I guess Miller racing car engine was this wild Bob Berman. Now,
Berman of course was pleased with what had happened there,
and he ordered a completely new car, so no pougeot
parts in this next one. This would be a completely
new car. He ordered a brand new vehicle and engine combination.
But he never saw it because this guy, this said,
this Burman guy was involved in a fatal accident in

(35:16):
the Corona in nineteen sixteen, so he never saw what
he had ordered. But Miller had built it. And that's
a shame too, because the second Berman engine was a
radically different design, uh from any other twin cam at
the time. Yeah, And that's the thing is that this
Harry Miller guy, he's he's continually just taking he can't
stop thinking about things I've read where um he said

(35:38):
that he would often, you know, lay at night, awake
and he couldn't shut his mind off. He was just
constantly thinking about how to make something, you know, stronger, lighter, faster.
And he was always thinking like that. And that's something
that his his wife later on said that you know,
he had almost like he had something guiding him. Yeah,
personality wise. You know, I'm really glad you mentioned that,
because there's an interesting quote about this, uh that will

(36:00):
go ahead and read. This is from the Miller office site.
He was a funny man, his wife said, meaning that
he was clairvoyant. Someone's telling me what to do, he
told intelligently, sensitive Leo Ghoson, I have a control and
I count on it. And that's fascinating because this is
a little bit off the beaten path here. But when

(36:23):
we do research into the biographies of so many great
people of their time, so many people who are you know, prolific,
brilliant inventors, brilliant statesman, you name it, right, we find
that a surprising amount of them believe that they are

(36:45):
set on some sort of path or being some out
guided Winston Churchill I read I was reading a biography
of him recently. Winston Churchill was convinced that he had
heard voices at times that since like childhood or something
that would tell him what to do. Isn't it funny?
It's like if they have this guiding light, you know,
guiding guiding voice, you know whatever. His guide is guiding

(37:07):
him in that way. And he, like he said, he
can't shut it off, he can't stop it. It's like
the ideas just continually come to him. I mean he
may have to, you know, think about it, but something
is telling him to continue to press on that there's
a better way to do something. And his wife said,
you know, it's like he's being pushed by something. It's
like something is is really it's taking over his his character.
It's it's making him create and do better things all

(37:30):
the time. It's compelling him. But also apparently if you
wanted to travel back in time, uh, on your way
to attempt to kill Hitler, right and uh, and wanted
to stop by and speak with Mr Miller, Uh, he
would not have very much to say to you unless
you wanted to talk about machinery or specifically engines. Oh yeah,

(37:52):
that's right. Yeah, he's he's That's pretty much all his
focus was, really, I mean he was he was so
intently focused on what he was doing that even um,
outside of you know, the shop, I guess whenever he
was working. Uh, he was really a quiet person. He
didn't say a whole lot. He was very shy, um,
which you know, wouldn't you wouldn't think that. I mean,
here's this brilliant inventor, you know, somebody who's got probably

(38:12):
a lot to share, really a lot to say. But
he wasn't really very talkative unless you were somebody that
was kind of, um, maybe on his level of engineering,
somebody that could have a really good conversation with it.
Maybe other race car drivers, somebody that he could you know,
extrapolate information from in order to create better parts. Um.
But those are the type of people that he liked
to talk to. He liked to converse with people that

(38:34):
were kind of I guess maybe on his level. And
is that is that arrogant? Maybe probably, But but again
he just didn't really I feel like he was a
guy that just didn't waste time on anything that was
kind of frivolous or Yeah, I would say, I would
even argue that maybe it's yeah, it's it's maximizing production. Yeah,
that's yeah. I think that's what it was. He was

(38:54):
just so focused on on um, you know, the goal.
I guess maybe whatever that goal was in his head.
And again, one other thing that I read here is
that UM and I think there's a common trade among
people that are that are like this, that are continually
you know, working on something and improving something, is that
this guy couldn't focus on one project at one time.
So he didn't take one project from start to finish

(39:16):
and then start the next thing. He had all kinds
of projects going on at one time, and he was
thinking about so many different things. And that's probably what
kept him up at night, is that he's trying to
solve you know, four problems, not not seven problems. You know,
he couldn't he couldn't narrow it down and did too.
I've got to have this ready by tomorrow. You know
what can I do to fix this? He thinks, he's thinking,

(39:36):
I've got fifteen projects going. I gotta get all these
done because I've got other projects I want to start. Well, also,
if if you're that passionate about something of courcially with
simultaneous projects, because you're always having that ah moment, that
Eureka lightbulb moment. Yeah. Yeah, So this guy, I mean
no doubt, he's the guy that probably kept a notebook
by his his nightstand. Yeah, right down ideas, you know,

(39:58):
late night ideas. Uh, what's we're not even We're not
even a nineteen twenty yet, Ben, and this guy is fascinating.
So what do you think? Do you think? Do you
think this is the time for us to to wrap
the first episode or do you want to do you
want to carry on just a little bit longer. Maybe
let's go a little bit longer, because let's let's look
at uh some more of the distribution of his new alloy. Right,

(40:22):
so let's get to so he follows these two engines
he built for h the ill fated wild Bob Berman,
with a series of two eight nine cubic inch single
overhead camp shaft sixteen valve fours constructed of this alloy. Uh,
and they had wet steel liners. Among racing engines. These

(40:45):
are the first Okay, I've tried to mark all the
first here in my notes, and and this is one
of the first I guess, so again, you know, these
wet steel liners the first among racing engines. That's that's
critical to say among racing engines. And one of these
engines was destined to go into to a vehicle that
was going to kind of live and uh, I don't
know what you call it infamy, I don't know. In history,

(41:05):
it's a historical piece, right. Um. It was placed in
a vehicle that was called the Miller Golden Submarine. And
this was designed and built in nineteen seventeen, and it
was really it's really the first streamlined car. This is,
this is an incredible thing. It's it doesn't it doesn't
have the appearance of what you would think a streamlined
car would have because later they became much much more refined. Uh,

(41:27):
it is definitely streamlined, but it's a lot higher and
a lot bigger than what you might think initially if
you have to look at a photo and understand what
I mean. But it was entirely enclosed and it was
like then, I don't know, an aerodynamic race car, and
it was just a sensation everywhere it went. There were
there were people that, um, Um, we're very excited about it.
There was there looks like he's taken a few cues

(41:49):
from uh aeronautics design. Yeah, and you know you can
hear me shuffling through my notes here. I knew there
was another note on this I wanted to read here. Um,
this was this, This was a project that was kind
of co developed between Miller and racer Barney Oldfeld. Now
they created this this car that they called they said

(42:12):
it was crash proof, which it's not really crash proof,
but it had a roll cage and an enclosed tear
drop shape. Of course, as we talked about, you know
this this uh the streamlining sort of um, and it
was going again nicknamed the Golden Submarine. And they say,
well it was fast, it wasn't seaworthy. And here's how
they know. It was crashed in an infield. I guess

(42:32):
it was flooded at one point at some racetrack and
the driver almost drowned inside his vehicle that they called
the Golden Submarine. Isn't it strange? A weird little twist
on this story? Huh? So is that how it got
the nicknames? No? No, no, Actually the nickname came before
crashed in this flooded infield. But but how strange it
would it be to drown in a vehicle that was, uh,
you know, named after some Anyways, it's I thought that

(42:53):
was a strange, strange thing. But one interesting detail about
this I'm gonna shoot you a picture of the interior
you hadn't seen it is this is a coupe, but
it uses staggered seating. Oh that's interesting. So the driver's
the driver's seat is closer to the wheel, and the
shotguns seat is uh less than a foot but noticeably

(43:17):
like back. And I wonder if that is because of
the narrow design of that vehicle, because a very skinny.
Later we'll talk about the thin design of these cars,
because when we get to the indie car days, when
he's actually designing the bodies of these cars, Uh, they're
extremely thin and uh and I want to mention how
thin they are later on, Well we'll talk about it, um.

(43:38):
But anyways, we're still back in nineteen seventeen, and of
course there's this this kind of phenomena, I guess, and
there's a sister car to this one, and Miller had
fitted hydraulic front brakes for nineteen nineteen, so again nineteen nineteen,
making it the first known appearance of such breaks in
a racing car. So again another first hydraulic front brakes

(43:59):
in a racing car in nineteen nineteen. So we're already
not what We're not even a nineteen twenty. We've got
several first that I've already been mentioned here. Um, well,
let's talk about his last car of the decade. Yeah,
and again another first. His last car of the decade
was another first, uh, the T N T car with
a three cubic inch four cylinder. It was named the

(44:20):
world's first twin cam engine to use light alloy construction
along with these wet cylinder liners. Yeah. And if you
look at the patent for this vehicle, the pattern shows
flat spoke wheels, which are five years ahead of the
bug the Bugatti design. I remember Buggatti had taken the
Miller engines years before this and kind of torn them
down and deconstruct them, kind of made them into his design. Um.

(44:43):
There were also four wheel brakes and lightened brake drums,
and the engine was a stress chassis member and the
profile of what would become the classic shape of the
American oval track race car bodies for at least a
couple of decades to come. So this is the the
onset of the uh, the body design that we're gonna
see at Indianapolis for I don't know, twenty more years

(45:04):
at least, and then you're gonna see that, Um, you're
gonna see that that design morphs into what becomes in
you know, the more modern version I guess you know,
twenty years later. But for a while, Miller's designed this,
this uh, this T N T car um is the
kind of the basis for just about everything we saw
in oval track racing in the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties.

(45:26):
It's impressive. His whole career is like this, everything every
little bit as impressive. And that's why we decided to
make this a multi part episode, because as I went
through his history, I find I was highlighting every line
of this uh, this biography of him. Can you imagine
if we tried to squeeze that into uh to one episode, especially,
I mean, even even if we cut all this stuff

(45:50):
about you know, the ill fated emissions, uh, we probably
could have done that, and that poor broken hearted laser biker, yeah,
we still wouldn't have would have been abled Now and
you know, when I say the biography of him, I
guess I'm uh kind of maybe glossing over exactly what
we're looking at here, because we remember I said we
went to the Miller Offenhauser Historical Society to get this information. Well,

(46:13):
this is really a compilation of two books. So there's
like seven hundred pages of material that they've boiled down
into maybe fifteen pages, and we're trying to you know,
summarize that. And uh, and this is this is coming
from a book that was written by a guy named
Griffith Borgenson and he wrote a book called Miller and
it was published back in and he's the source of

(46:34):
our quote. Yeah. And then also Millard D's who wrote
something called the Millard Dynasty and that was from back
in and then all this was kind of compiled and
edited and put together by a guy named Harold Peters
from Miller Offee dot com. So um, there's there's again,
there's so much information about this character that there's no
way we're gonna get it in today and to this episode.

(46:55):
So maybe now that we're at nineteen, maybe it's time
that we we take a break on the Miller story
and come back next week with maybe the the Indie
history really, because this is where it really takes off
for him. Yes, but before we go, there are a
couple of things we have to do. Number one, Scott,
we have to figure out a nickname for Dylton. Oh boy,

(47:17):
let's see. Uh the Golden Submarine. That's not gonna work.
What about twin Cam. Twin Cam, that's a good one.
That's not like, let's go with twin Camp. Yeah, no,
I'm not gonna never mind. There are a couple that
maybe I'll just I'll forget. You can send off air.
I do have one additional piece of uh listener mail

(47:41):
I would like to read before we head out. Let's
do it all right, So, Dennis C. Writes to us,
and I want to know if you think this is sincere.
Someone's trying to poke the beehive a little here with
the bear. Uh. Dennis C. Writes in and says, Hi, guys,
I just finished your podcast on twenty seventeen models that
will be desirable in ten years, and I can't believe

(48:03):
you omitted the most obvious one, the two thousand and
seventeen Honda Odyssey. Oh boy, look at those beautiful lines.
Potent two forty eight horsepower V six power plant and
seating for eight. Clearly one for the ages. Oh, there's
no doubt about this. That guy is uh, he's he's
using a stick to poke the badger. That's what he's

(48:25):
doing in the bag. Yeah, he's uh, what's another one like, Hey,
he's he's throwing rocks at the polar bear. I don't know, Yeah, right,
he's uh, he's throwing a boomerang at the kangaroo. Yeah,
something like that. He's definitely he's trying to he's trying
to get you riled up. Did it work? I read this?
I read this and I laughed out loud, and I and, uh,

(48:48):
you're turning a little red red over there? Maybe um
color with mirth. Sure, I looked at you know, I
would say I laughed out loud. Nos. Surprised pleasantly by
the horsepower V six Not bad for minivan, not bad,
not bad. What what kind of torque that thing has?
I mean, can you haul a big trick? Can you

(49:10):
pull a stump out with a Honda Odyssey? I don't
think you can? I you know, I don't know. Let's
just used for pure top end speed. Really, that's what
it is when you're on the you know, on the track. Yeah,
because it's so nimble. Uh, I want to let you know.
Uh yeah, yeah, I that that emo made my day.

(49:31):
I left all out for people who are listening for
the first time. Honda Odyssey. Just and I do not
get along. No, no, no, haven't always. We've made our peace.
We're civil to each other on the road. Now. I
didn't know that. I thought you're still kind of hostile.
I am not. You know what I am gonna say
that I am no longer a hostile driver. Good for you. Yeah,

(49:54):
it's not as fun, but yeah, Actually, must just meditate.
Is that what's going on? You're like, it's a it's
a meditation thing, like you find a way to calm
yourself in the presence of an odyssey. I'll tell you what,
you know. Part of it was, um, part of it
was last time was in New York and at a call,

(50:14):
calves all around the place, right, uh. And I looked
at the numbers, and it's not even that it's a
little more expensive to rent a car. It's that it's
more expensive to find a place to put that rental.
You know, That's what really, that's where they really get you,
so I would still make save money just using calves.

(50:35):
And these cab drivers, man, a lot of them have
like made their peace. They are they are not afraid
for it to end on this ride at this intersection
and this murder. Yea. The problem is they're gonna take
you with them. You know. I was thinking about that too,
and uh, I was thinking about that too, and I
had what what they call in the South often come

(50:58):
to Jesus moment where it's like, well, if I lived
my life to the best of my ability, because we're
going downtown, buddy. Um. But seeing, you know, seeing a
place where people do have to a degree, have to
drive aggressively made me really appreciate that there are parts
of Atlanta that are exactly like that, right, um, especially

(51:21):
when you get out to some of the other inner States.
But now, man, I'm just I've decided I'm trying to
turn over a new leaf in seventeen and it's I'm
I'm hoping that if I just leave early for things,
then I'll never I'll never feel rushed, because that's when
it that's when it gets to you. Yeah, you know, yeah,

(51:41):
that's the one and that's the one that always gets
in your way too, right, So you know, if you're
feeling rushed and you have to get around whatever character
that would be in front of you too to make
us your destination, it would always be a hot of odyssey, right, Yeah,
what I did. But if you've got time to spare
and there's a hot of odyssey in front of you,
I just won't bother you. That's what I'll ever on them.
But I thought you said that this was a new leaf.

(52:04):
This isn't new lead a fair enough one day at
a time. Uh, well, yeah, you got me, You got
me fair and square, Dennis. So I want to read
that on the air. It did, It did make my day.
That was pretty I chuckled, chuckled. Uh. But if you
want to take a page from Matt and Dennis's book
and write to us, you can find us on the internet.

(52:26):
We're on Facebook and Twitter as car Stuff h s W.
If you want to catch up with some of the
other episodes that we mentioned, or track racing Preston Tucker
and so on, you can find every single audio episode
that Scott and I have ever done right on our website,
Car Stuff Show dot com. And if you say, oh,

(52:47):
I've got I've got a great fact about Harry Miller.
I've got a great suggestion for something you should cover
in the future, or um, you know been, let the
Honda thing go, you know, whatever's on your mind. Solid advice, solid,
solid advice, solid advice. I should take my own advice sometimes,
what I swear man, they keep finding. Okay, okay, all right, okay, well, anyway,

(53:09):
point is, point is The point is Our email addresses
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