Harry A. Miller Club Board of Directors

Founder, Director - David V. Uihlein, Sr.

President -
Dana Mecum
Director - Brian Brunkhorst
Director - Tom Malloy
Director - Herbert Lederer D.V.M.

Who Was Harry Miller?
“Harry Miller was, quite simply, the greatest creative figure in the history of the American racing car."


His engines dominated American oval-track racing for almost half a
century. Most of the speed records which there were to be had on land
and water were held at one time or another by those engines. He created
the school of American thoroughbred engine design, which was faithfully
followed by those who sought to outdo him. He was the originator, in
the United States, of the racing car as an art object. He had a passion
for metalwork and machinery that soared above and beyond all practical
consideration. Parts of his machines that never would be seen by eyes
other than those of the builders were formed and finished with loving
care. His dedication to artistic and noble workmanship drew to his
organization other technicians who believed in these same values. A
whole sub-culture spread from the Miller nucleus, to become a permanent
and integral part of innovative, artistic Southern California culture
as a whole. It spilled over into the aircraft industry and it shook the
automotive industry worldwide.

Miller created the first really streamlined closed car in the United
States, and one of the first in the world. That was in 1917, and he was
already telling journalists about using airfoil sections for improving
the traction of super-light cars. He created unsupercharged engines of
fantastic efficiency. Then he became the master of supercharging,
achieving far more fantastic results, making the world passenger-car
industry look archaic. He gave the world front-wheel-drive as a
practical reality. He created really tractable and practical four-wheel
drive racing cars in the early Thirties, decades before almost anyone
could appreciate the value of the principle. He always lived in the
future, up to the time of his death in 1943.” – Mark Dees