Miller Golden Submarine: aerodynamics and safety on the track

Genius doesn’t always go hand in hand with a university degree. Harry A. Miller, the man who “shaped” the world of American motor sport with his brilliant technical and aerodynamic inventions, is a case in point. After starting his career very young, as a mechanic, Miller went on to become hugely prominent, described by many as America’s Bugatti. Precisely because he was not specialized in any particular area, he was able to consider every single aspect of a car, to the point of conceiving, for Indianapolis, a racing car with a fully enclosed cockpit. How exactly he reached this point is not clear. We don’t know whether he had seen Count Ricotti’s Alfa Romeo, but the tail of his car certainly recalls the teardrop shape of the “Torpedo” developed in Milan.