Harry Arminius Miller (1875–1943) was the greatest individual designer and builder of racing cars and engines of the 20th century, a statement I write advisedly, fully aware of the many brilliant individuals who have contributed to the sport of speed over the previous 100 years.
Harry Miller began his career as a riding mechanic with Buick’s Vanderbilt Cup team in 1906. He died in Detroit during World War II, after working on an engine for an ill-fated fighter plane being peddled to the Air Corps by Preston Tucker. In between, he built the fastest, most sophisticated and clearly the most beautiful racing cars ever to turn a wheel. One car that he built in 1928 held the one-lap record at Indianapolis for an amazing nine years. His 8-cylinder engines won at Indianapolis nine times between 1922 and 1933 and in 1930 he designed a 4-cylinder twin-cam engine that—only moderately updated and renamed “Offenhauser”—won at Indianapolis 32 times until racing politics did it in after its 1976 victory.
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