How Ken Miles Really Died (& Why Ford v Ferrari Changes It)

The Ken Miles death in Ford v Ferrari is remarkably accurate — though the movie changes some details for storytelling purposes. For years, Hollywood wanted to adapt the true story of Ford’s triumph over the perennial champion Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. It’s a fascinating tale of clashing egos, behind-the-scenes machinations, and talented artists struggling to balance creative integrity with commercial viability, all culminating in a thrilling vehicular race where one false step could mean a horrific crash and possibly immediate death for the drivers involved. Christian Bale, who had previously worked with director James Mangold on his 3:10 to Yuma remake, costars as Ken Miles, the highly talented but hot-tempered World War II vet-turned-professional driver whom Shelby (being an old acquaintance) enlists to help him.

The film sadly depicts how, just a few months after Ford defeated Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans (and he missed out on being the individual winner on a technicality), the Ken Miles death saw him killed while testing out a new Ford vehicle (the J-car) at the Riverside International Raceway in Southern California. In real life, the car suddenly flipped, crashed, and caught fire for reasons that have never been fully determined to this day, ejecting Miles from the vehicle and immediately killing him. This occurred just as the driver was approaching the end of the track and after an entire day’s worth of test runs. It’s a brutal blow to viewers as things are being tied up in Ford v Ferrari’s latter half.

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Why Ford v Ferrari Changed Ken Miles’ Death

Alternately, in the film, the vehicle crashes after experiencing brake failure, and Miles’s Ford v Ferrari character is killed in the ensuing fire, resulting in the Ken Miles death scene. Miles was the second test driver to be killed while testing a J-car in the span of five months, with the previous driver, Walt Hansgen, being killed before Miles. The J-car testing was halted before resuming with Miles at the wheel. Following the Ken Miles death, the car was renamed Ford Mk IV and was heavily modified.

The Ken Miles death in Ford v Ferrari was justifiably tweaked to deliver a narrative payoff. The scene in question revolves around Miles, Shelby, and their team testing out the GT40 MkII, only for the vehicle’s brakes to fail and the car to catch fire, very nearly killing Miles in the process. Both Miles’ wife, Mollie (Caitriona Balfe), and his young son Pete (Noah Jupe) are present for the crash. It’s a pivotal moment for the latter, and though Ford v Ferrari changes a bit of the true story, his character comes to appreciate just how dangerous his dad’s line of work truly is. By comparison, Miles’ real-life death led to Ford installing a NASCAR-style rollover cage in their race cars and favoring the use of younger drivers moving forward, something that wouldn’t have had the same effect in the film as it was a self-serving move for Ford rather than a respectful or personal one for Miles.

Seeing as Ford v Ferrari is really more the story of Shelby and Miles’ tempestuous friendship than it is one about Ford’s racing program, it makes sense that the movie alters a few real-life details in order to keep the focus on how the Ken Miles death impacted Shelby and his loved ones, rather than getting into the minutiae of how things began to change at Ford after that. It also allows the previous sequence involving Batman actor Christian Bale’s Ken Miles’ near-death to act as proper foreshadowing and for the film as a whole to show the high price that race car drivers can pay for putting their lives at risk, but which spectators often don’t see. There isn’t a film out there based on a true story that doesn’t exaggerate or tweak the details of events to deliver an emotional payoff or make the theatrical narrative smoother, and the same was the case for Ford v Ferrari. And as much as Hollywood loves including an uplifting ending to biopics, Ford v Ferrari subverts those expectations and reminds everyone that race car drivers don’t always make it out of the car alive.

Ken Miles Son Collaborated With Christian Bale

The Ken Miles death scene is important, only adding more weight to Christian Bale’s performance as the real-life figure. Reportedly, actor Christian Bale worked closely with Ken’s son, Peter Miles, to make sure that his characterization of the race car icon was as true to life as possible. Bale is no stranger to taking on roles that represent real people, such as that of Dick Cheney in Vice and John Rolfe in The New World, but Ken Miles was a special case. Unlike other public figures from which there was a wealth of information to draw from, Ken Miles did not have a lot of video footage or interviews to his name. Therefore, Bale had to rely heavily on Peter’s recollection. In an interview (via LeMans.org), Peter Miles had this to say of his own contributions:

I gave Christian Bale info about my dad from press clippings and magazine articles, and I showed him personal photos and shared audio recordings with him. Bale was looking to remain as faithful as possible to my father. I also met Caitriona Balfe and gave her snapshots of my mother and described her as best as I could.

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The Real-Life Racing Movies In Pole Position

There are plenty of other, often-real-life-based racing movies on-par with Ford v Ferrari’s caliber. One such film is 2013’s Rush. Overseen by legendary movie director Ron Howard, actors Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl star in the film depiction of Formula One racers James Hunt and Niki Lauda. The British and Austrian racers had a famous rivalry in the 1970s, and the well-executed film chronicles the story well, which has been reflected over the years in its mostly-positive critical response.

Another racing movie that more than holds its own is Days Of Thunder, which stars notably young Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Robert Duvall while telling the story of a young American racer named Cole Trickle. The three aforementioned actors all give memorable performances, especially Duvall’s gruff-yet-wise character of Harry Hogge – who famously informs Cole that “there’s nothing stock about a stock car.” Last, but not least, on this list of great racing movies like Ford v Ferrari is 1971’s Le Mans. Featuring iconic movie star Steve McQueen, this aptly-named racing flick stars — among other important characters — McQueen as Porsche team racer Michael Delaney and Ferrari driver Erich Stahler (Siegfried Rauch). Like other previously mentioned racing films, Le Mans deals with the weighty, ever-present risks affixed to life as a professional racecar driver.

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