Event Coverage Miller Time at the Milwaukee Mile

Got up early and drove up to see the Miller Club event, sleepy head left the camera battery on the kitchen counter, here’s some iPhone photos.

Here’s some detail shots of the Joel Thorne/Art Sparks Little Six car.

Thorne had money for nothing but the best, and Sparks delivered- he engineered and built both Little and Big sixes. The craftsmanship is what catches my eye, the finely finned ductwork from the blower, one-off suspension pieces and more.

Next up is the Russell Snowberger Huppmobile engined entry built for the ‘32 Indy 500. The engine was returned to the factory after the race (or maybe the season?)
and somehow it was eventually reunited with the car.
The owner, James Mills, said it’s a work in progress, he’s still adding some small details to complete it. Could have fooled me, it looked great.

Kelsey-Hayes wires with the Hupp logo added.

The Hupp factory gave Russ Snowberger free reign to modify their engine and he made many changes. Many parts were recast in aluminum, a manifold was designed for the four Miller carbs, a special crankshaft was produced, forged aluminum pistons, aluminum heads were cast, a hotter cam, the aluminum front motor plate mounted a Bosch magneto, and the new oil pan held 18 quarts.

The Granatelli Bros. entered this former ‘35 Miller-Ford in the 1948 Indy 500. It suffered some body modifications and was powered by an Offy. (not that there’s anything wrong with that)


They changed the cable operated brakes to hydraulic.

Not sure, but these may be original decals on the frame, applied in 1948.

Every time I attend there’s one entry that stands out. Sure, there are plenty of great cars there but this 4WD Miller being re-created stopped me in my tracks, just for the magnitude of the project.








Some guys scratch build scale models and some work in 1:1. Unreal.
There might be more to follow, gotta go now.

 

I went to several of these shows, 10+ years ago. Fabulous! And to hear them run!

 

Thanks for the pictures! Sorry I did not make it this year especially with today’s perfect weather. Normally it’s very hot and sunny at “The Mile”.

 

Made it out today.....Saturday......Perfect. Always a great event. I did get to see that Miller re-creation last year and I think I went back to it ten times !!

 

Thanks for the photos and build details. I didn't make it this year.

 

Last up from today-

Some of the Indy Roadsters present were either new builds to mimic ‘50’s-‘60’s Roadsters or were originals with later shocks and Wilwood brakes added.




The John Fray Champ Car had period correct Monroe’s and Halibrand single spot calipers.

This car was a bit of an anomaly, it sat by the trailer it arrived in away from the other cars.
I don’t know why because it sure looks like the FWD car that Leon Duray bought from Harry Miller for $15,000 on 1927.




Should have taken more photos of this one!

And lastly another look at this Miller-Ford, last year I posted some detail shots of the car.








The notation on the dash pretty much sums things up.

 

A Lovely bunch of Hot Rods, Thanks!

 

Thanks ! Great Pics ! That show is always outstanding and an Offy down the straights is music to me, I grew up going to the Wisconsin State Fair Park , watched many races there with my Dad, early 50's into the 70's.

 

Thanks for the pics!!!

 

Awesome cars. Was there Friday and got to drive the #66 1935 flathead powered Indy car. What a thrill.

 

That one is going to stay on my bucket list until I run out of bucket. I was pretty young when I started listening to the Indy 500 on the radio with my dad or with my stepfather after my folks split. I could even get my grand father to let me listen to it in his car and he was about the furthest thing from a car guy you can imagine.

Thanks for sharing the photos and especially the detail shots. Great stuff. Those are the cars I think of when I think Indy car.

 

i am lucky enough to have some small involvement in this project. I have done the welding on the front and rear axles, some work on spindles and some work on the trans cases, and repaired one of the headers

 

@flatjack , Rex and Lou were excited to see their racer photo on the HAMB.

 

Here I will just dump a few photos off of my phone. First are photos of the car on Mecum’s trailer. The hood was not open in the car I really wanted to see the carburetor on that car. View attachment 5451187

 

FourWD 8 cylinder

 

Miller-Ford racecars have always intrigued me. The story is really something how Harry is gonna make 10 Fords in like 10 weeks, with Henry’s backing. Only to have the cars fail at the race from a U joint steering knuckle failure, all the stories I have read said steering box failure which is a major thing compared to a knuckle getting hot. Henry got mad and took possession of all the cars.

 

Here is the failure joint by the manifold. I have heard that someone is going to produce reproductions of the Harry Miller Ford flathead exhaust manifold.

 

Cool!

 

I've never really been tuned into the Indy scene. I would liked to have known about this
before the fact. Oh well...

 

This is an annual event, always near the middle of July. Very low key, considering some of the cars are very valuable. You can walk right up to the cars and owners in the 'pit' area.

https://harrymillerclub.com/

 

As @pprather said it’s very low key and owners are very approachable and accommodating. I asked the gentleman that owned the Hupp Comet if he might open the hood so I could get a few photos. He not only did that, but we then sat and talked for a while while he showed me old photos of the car.
He owns what is basically a one of one but treated me like an old friend.
If you can attend some year do it, you won’t regret it.

 

Thanks for the great pictures! Really liked the detail.

 

Great vintage racing machine's and great photos as well !
Thank you for sharing !

 

Thanks for the great pictures, I became Miller crazy after being L29 and 810 812 Cord crazy. Thank You for posting. JW

 

Simply awesome Fordors, Thanks for posting

 

brjnielson,

It's hard to find many, if any good pics of the Duray Miller engine, but here is the idea:

 

Here IS a shot of the Duray Miller 91 engine