The Harry A. Miller Club Vintage Indy Car Exhibition was held for only one day this year, due to track availability conflicts.  Saturday, July 6, was a beautiful and clear day and there was plenty of track and pit action.   Virtually all the cars in attendance made it onto the track and thrilled the onlookers with their sounds.

The Club continues to create 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 in attendance included:
 

1964 Federal Engineering Special	Boyce
1927 Bugatti, Type 35B	Brunkhorst
1932 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750GS	Brunkhorst
1934 MG NA Special	Butler
1911 Marmon 32	Chicago Museum of Science & Industry
1927 Miller 91 rear-drive	Davis
1931 Miller V16	Davis
1931 Duesenberg	Davis
1935 Miller-Ford	Davis
1952 Kurtis Kraft 4000	Dittman
1956 Watson	Dittman
1912 Cutting	Eby
1935 Miller-Ford	Evans
1938 Sparks-Thorne "Little Six"	Freeman
270 Offy	Hahn
1947 Dreyer	Kaufman
1912 Mercer Raceabout 35	Lederer
1946 Jewell Special	Lederer
1934 Sparks Weirick Miller	Mecum
1951-53 Kurtis 3000	Mueller
1932 Ford V8 Special	Natenshon
1927 Miller 91 front-drive	Rasansky
1927 Miller 91 rear-drive	Rasansky
1938 Adams	Truchan
1947 Truchan-Shanebrook	Truchan
1912 Mercer	Uihlein
1923 Miller	Uihlein
1925 Miller front-drive	Uihlein
1931 Miller-Bowes	Uihlein
1938 Sparks "Big Six"	Uihlein
1960 Watson	Ulinski
1948-49 Pat Clancy Special	Watson
1960 Watson	Windstrup

By now I have photos of almost every restored Miller on the website.  However, each year, someone brings out either a new car or one that's not been seen for awhile.

The black Miller 183 Convertible (from 183 to 122 engine) was the last and fastest 183 Miller built.  It was built for Tommy Milton in early 1924 for the purpose of high-speed record attempts and non-formula match races, using the 183, and for regular contests, using the 122.  Very unusual for this car is its left side exhaust, on both the 183 and 122 variations.  Only the first three 183s built had a left-side exhaust and normal 122s had a right side exhaust.  The engine in the car as seen in these photos is a 122 with the special left-side exhaust.  Note the absence of wheel brakes: the car's only brake is on the driveshaft as can be seen in the cockpit photos.  The car is also the only single-seat 183 ever built and looks very similar to a 122 except with a taller and longer hood (122s were already being built and you can see that this car uses the 122 style chassis).  This car is one of the most original Millers left in existence.

On April 4, 1924, Milton ran the car at Muroc under AAA timing.  With the 183, he was timed at 151.26mph.  This was only 5mph slower than his world speed record in the twin-engined Duesenberg at Daytona.  It was also over 17mph faster than any speed recorded in Europe to that date.
 

The Boyle-Valve Special was originally constructed in 1926 for Harry Hartz.  He sold it to Mike Boyle and it was raced from 1927 to 1930.
 

I've also included photos of some of the rarest of early racing engines.  There are only four 183 engines known to exist - only one has run, that in the TNT car.  There were only three 122 marine engines every built.  There were only two 308 engines built, both for the four-wheel-drive cars.  In the backrgounds of the Miller engines, you can see more rare engines: a 183 single-overhead-cam Duesenberg - four known to exist and a 183 double-overhead-cam Duesenberg - three were made.

Photos
(click on any photo to enlarge to full-size)

Miller 183 Convertible	Miller 183 Convertible	Miller 183 Convertible	Miller 183 Convertible
Miller 183 Convertible	Miller 183 Convertible	Miller 183 Convertible
Miller 91 (Boyle-Valve)	Miller 91 (Boyle-Valve)
Miller 183	Miller 122 marine (Duesenberg 183 in background)	Miller 91 (Duesenberg 183 DO in background)	Miller 308 V8

Sounds

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 V16 (134k - 13 sec) - revs in the pits

Over 20 Offys on starting grid (306k - 30 sec) - historic display at Indy

Sparks-Thorne "Little Six" (567k - 56 sec) - three passes and rolling into pits
 

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