Another gem from the Mullin Museum Collection was this 1927 Earl Cooper and Harry Miller Special, Chassis #2. The car was originally built and campaigned by Cooper (one year before his retirement) & Miller under the sponsorship of the Buick Motorcar ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Thanks for sharing this. I can't seem to ever recall seeing a Miller with a Buick-like grille shell before. Since it was apart for awhile, I suppose that would stand to reason. I have always been surprised that during the 1920's and 30's that Buick and Packard didn't get into a patent fight about their grille shell similarities. Either way, the Mullin Museum is on my must-see list if I ever get back out that way. Thanks again-Mark
Were there a lot of other high performance cars of the era that were front wheel drive? I know the Cord was FWD, and some Cord models were supercharged. Just wondering how pervasive FWD was back then. I'm not going to say anything about my wifes 2006 Dodge Caravan being traditional, but it is a front wheel drive machine.....
In this case form follows function and the result is pure beauty. The Miller 91 (pictured at Indy below) has always been one of my very favorites.
It looks like there were 4 or 5 of these built and according to Michael Ferner in the prewar racing thread only one (possibly Cooper's who didn't qualify) was a rebuilt derby Miller made to look like the others. Also of note Harry Hartz relieved Kreis to drive laps 101-123 and the best finishing Cooper of McDonogh (#14 pictured) was driven from lap 113 to 200 and 6th by DePaolo. This is said to be the Kreis car at the 27 Italian GP where he relieved Cooper to finish 3rd...
That car isn't a Miller, it is a copy built by Earl Cooper with initial backing of Buick (hence the grille shape, they backed out before it was finished). Cooper based his cars on a Miller he owned. SANY2208 by Jimmy Bs 1925 Chev, on Flickr SANY2199 by Jimmy Bs 1925 Chev, on Flickr Car was later rebuilt in the 40s and raced at Indy with an Offy. Later again it was rebuilt for the street. This is the body. DSCF1359 by Jimmy Bs 1925 Chev, on Flickr DSCF1360 by Jimmy Bs 1925 Chev, on Flickr