The Harry A. Miller Club Vintage Indy Car Exhibition was held July 8-9th at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in West Allis, Wisc.  The Milwaukee Mile track is purported to be the oldest continuously operating race track in North America, operating as early as 1907.

It rained hard on Saturday morning but the track was dry by noon and there was plenty of track action.  Sunday saw more cars on the track and a special feature consisting of a film shoot of all the Miller race cars in attendance on the track at the same time.  Each year continues to bring out different cars, many of which are seen at no other event.  Virtually all the cars in attendance made it onto the track and thrilled the onlookers with their sounds.

The Club has done a great job of preserving a wonderfully cordial and open atmosphere for all attendees.  At what other event can you stand in pit row and watch and listen to the best historical race cars from around the world and then go and chat with the owners, drivers, and restorers at leisure?
 

Cars on the attendance list included:

    1933 Hudson Martz Spl # 29              Bauman
    1926 Amilcar                                    Butler
    1948 Talbot Lago T26C GP                Butler
    1931 Miller V16                                 Davis
    1953 Kurtis-Chrysler # 25                   Davis
    1931 Brandfon Duesenberg # 66         Davis
    1935 Miller-Ford # 23                         Davis
    1951 Kurtis 4000/Offy # 5                   Dittman
    1913 Mercer # 18                              Eby
    1957 Kurtis G2-6 Offy                        Ford
    1911 Marmon # 6                              Gill
    1935 Miller-Ford # 42                         Evans
    c-1950 dirt Offy                                  Hahn
    1964 Fed Engr # 15 (Meskowski)        Johnson
    1912 Mercer Model 35                        Lederer
    1964 Kuzma Offy                                Lyons
    1937 Miller # 1                                    Malloy
    1962 Watson Offy # 76                        Malloy
    1948 Clancy 6-wheeler # 19                 Watson
    1923 Mercedes/Miller                          McConnell
    1963 Watson/Offy  #1                         McConnell
    1934 Sparks-Weirick Miller # 33           Mecum
    1951 KK3000/Offy # 77                        Mueller
    1924 Miller 122 rear drive                     Nearburg
    1952 Turner champ car # 73 (McNamara)               Rasansky
    1963 Elder/Offy # 28                            Revennaugh
    1959 Watson/Offy #5                           Ryan
    1959 Cornis/Offy # 51                          Scheuerman
    1961 Chenoweth/Chevy # 82                Schleppi
    1952 KK4000/Offy # 1                          Schroeder (Hanks car)
    1933 Ford # 49                                    Schwab
    1947 Indy car # 2 w/ Miller 220              Truchan
    1964 Watson/Offy # 94                         Truchan
    1925 Miller FD # 25                              Uihlein
    1931 Bowes/Miller # 23                         Uihlein
    1932 Alfa P3                                        Uihlein
    1933 Alfa Monza                                   Uihlein
    1938 Thorne/Sparks "Big Six."               Uihlein
 

The Miller 122 front-drive in the photos is one of two 122 front-drives built, is supercharged, and was completed in 1925.  Harry Miller built it for himself and it was sold shortly thereafter to the Packard Motor Company for their research into front-wheel drive.  The other 122 front-drive, Jimmy Murphy's car, is at the Indianapolis Speedway Museum and is featured in AQ Vol. 21 No. 4.

The Bowes Seal Fast is the 1931 Indy 500 winner.  The engine is a Miller 122 bored out to 151 cu in and the body was built by Myron Stevens.

The Miller V16 is the 1931 and 1932 Indy car.  Miller originally built the 303 cu in motor for his Cord L-29. The race car's amazing restoration is featured in AQ Vol. 40 No. 1.

The Miller-Ford is one of the ten cars that Ford had built for them by Miller, via Tucker, for the 1935 Indy 500.

The Miller-Gulf 255 cu in engine is a design originally penned for Ira Vail in 1937 for two rear-drive combination dirt-track and champ cars.  Gulf Oil bought out Ira Vail shortly after construction was started and built the Miller-Gulf 6 cylinder racing cars.  However, work continued on the 4 cylinder cars and they tried but did not qualify for the 1938 Indy. Gulf later sold the cars to Tucker who used the engines in his failed attempt to produce a military aircraft.

If you look carefully at the different photos of the Millers on the track, you can see the dramatic design differences in the cars.  The pictures were taken from the mechanic's seat in the Miller-Ford.

Miller 122 front-drive	Miller 122 front-drive	Miller 122 front-drive	Miller 122 front-drive	Miller 122 front-drive
Bowes Seal Fast	Bowes Seal Fast	Bowes Seal Fast (Miller engine)	Miller V16	Miller V16
Miller V16	Miller-Ford	Miller-Ford	Miller-Ford	Miller-Ford
Miller-Gulf engine	Miller-Gulf engine	Miller 122 front-drive; Miller-Ford; Bowes	Bowes; Miller 122 rear-drive	Miller V16; Miller 122 rear-drive
Miller V16	Miller 122 front-drive	Miller 122 front-drive	Miller 122 rear-drive	Miller-Ford
	Millers on the track	Millers on the track	Millers on the track

These audio tracks were recorded on a MiniDisc recorder. They are in stereo and are saved at the widest possible frequency response (20Hz - 16kHz) available within RealPlayer (hence the large file size). RealPlayer (rm) was chosen over Windows advanced streaming format (asf) because the accuracy of the sound is noticeably better. The track sounds should all run clearly from right to left: sometimes streaming audio mixes this up during playback and you hear left to right or just mono. Replaying the sound again after the first playback usually gets it to play correctly. To really hear how the cars sounded, hook up a pair of full-range, high quality home speakers or high quality headphones rather than just using typical computer speakers.

The recording location was directly across from the grandstands, facing the track. The cars accelerate out of the turn off to the right, come down the grandstand straight from right to left, and then decelerate for the next turn. You can occasionally hear voices and other cars in the pit row that was right behind the recording location. The recordings for the cockpit audio tracks were taken while riding in the mechanic's seat.
 

Miller 122 front-drive (508k - 50 sec) - two passes, a great engine

Miller 122 rear-drive (172k - 17 sec) - shifting at high revs coming out of the turn, great burbles on deceleration

Miller V16 (165k - 16 sec) - a unique sound because this engine simultaneously fires two cylinders on opposite banks

Miller V16 cockpit, on the track (305k - 30 sec) - hear the whole powertrain and engine clearly

Miller V16 and Bowes Seal Fast (102k - 10 sec) - the V16 is followed closely by the Bowes - very smooth

Miller V16 and Miller 122 rear-drive (199k - 20 sec) - the V16 is passed by the 122 right in front of the stands

Miller-Ford (104k - 10 sec) - smooth

Miller-Ford cockpit, on the track (643k - 1 min) - starting, up through the gears, up to about 110mph

Sparks Big Six (146k - 14 sec) - a completely different sound

A Miller T-shirt was designed and sold at the exhibition.

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