"Ken Miles: The Shelby American Years" book signing

[Steven43]

Was lucky enough to attend the book singing of Dave Friedman's "Ken Miles--the Shelby American Years" at the OVC (Original Venice Crew) shop in Gardenia this past Sat. The paperback-240 page--mostly black & white photos with captions--is easily worth the $38 (Amazon). Though most of the photos have appeared in other Friedman books, there were some shots I had never seen before. The print quality/paper is better than his books of 20 years ago. And yes, there are five photos of Miles racing Sunbeams. The book singing was hosted by OVC and the LA Shelby Club. Guests included Peter Miles, Charlie Agapiou, Friedman and other former Shelby employees (most who are now in their 80's).
Steven Alcala

 

[Steven43]

More Photos

 

[Warren]

That was on the 19th. 3 things to do on that day . The club meeting, The A.D.M. British day show in El Segundo and the book signing. Nice to be back to Abbey Normal 3 Tiger's at the Automotive Driving Museum . You're pictures are like being there great posting Steve.

 

[66TigerMK1A]

Nice !!! My copy hasn't shipped yet

 

[michael-king]

Thanks for sharing the photos Steve. Looks like a great book.. And launch

 

[at the beach]

Claudia spoke to John about the even a few days before and made our apologies for not being able to attend due to her CAT Secretarial duties.
We found the Carlsbad museum fascinating but we'd hope to get back north in time to catch the end of the Gardena festivities. The traffic on 5 erased any chance of that. So here's a trivia question. Which person in the pictures wearing a blue Shelby American shirt is a Tiger owner? Bonus question: what car did he sell before he bought the Tiger?

 

[spmdr]

I did a quick thumb through the Book and verified the picture quality is very good.

I wonder about the binding holding up to much use.

And found the captions/Text has a bit of History revisionist/Memory failure overtones.

One Bit of Tiger History that was changed was the Road America Badger 200 race.

In some places it was the "300", and the worst part, Ken went from Winning the BP Class and second over all,

To NOT finishing the race with engine problems... Hmmm ....sigh...

My guess is the Book was rushed a bit TOO much, But then, Who is getting any younger?

Still and all, I'm Very happy to have it!

DW

 

[at the beach]

We've seen the author's previous Tiger efforts and this sounds, unfortunately, like it fits right in.
Obviously this time he confused Ken's September outing at Road America (when Don Sesslar could not drive the Tiger due to breaking some ribs) with Ken's blown engine event a month later at Riverside.

I was amazed at how many on this book signing panel had worked on the Shelby race Tiger including Ted Sutton, John Morton and both Agapiou brothers, not to forget photographer Dave.

 

[hottigr]

I don't think there is any doubt that Dave now realizes that the street prototype Tiger was real. Not too long ago, I asked if he'd like a copy of the presentation that George and Carroll made about that Tiger. He simply said he doesn't remember the car. Pretty interesting to think the Shelby prototype was squirreled away in a corner of Shelby's shop for weeks and his official photographer didn't have a clue!

 

[at the beach]

Dave was a part time photographer. The Tiger prototype was a secret project built in a walled off area of the shop to keep it hidden from all eyes. John Morton still recounts how George Boskoff physically shoved him out of the the "Tiger" area as George had been given orders to keep others out. It's easy to understand how Dave missed it.

 

[hottigr]

Yes, it’s easy for you and I to see how Dave missed it. He just has a hard time with that!

 

[at the beach]

The stuff he really would like to have a "do over" for was his book on the history of Shelby racing. He missed 2/3 of the races that the Shelby Tiger ran. At one point Dave showed a picture of Lew Spencer's crash at Laguna Seca in May. It was captioned that after this crash Lew never raced the Tiger again. On the next page there's a picture at Willow in June captioned as Lew winning the Tiger's first race. Lew raced the Tiger in July, August and September before it was turned over to Sports Car Forum who raced the rest of the 1964 season.

 

[hottigr]

Sadly true. The Tiger project was just a blip on Dave's career, I'm surprised he remembers anything at all. Good thing we have John Morton around to keep the record straight