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Miller ‘230’ & ’303’ (1931)

by Michael Ferner

Whatever the Schofield managers had in mind to steer Miller (the company) over the rocky roads ahead without Miller (the man) was never revealed, as the company went bust in December 1930, shortly after one of its major shareholders was convicted of a juicy embezzlement of bank funds. Most of the staff switched over to Harry Miller’s new shop, a couple of miles to the west (if they hadn’t already done so), and by March everything was back to “normal”, as Louie Meyer debuted the first product of Miller’s new plant, a 3.8-litre eight-cylinder engine, albeit in his Miller 91 single-seater chassis for the time being. Actually, it wasn’t really the first new product, as Miller had already tried to peddle an unsuccessful Ford conversion job and a 16-cylinder front-drive passenger car, but in the context of this thread both projects may be happily glossed over.

The new engine proved very satisfactory in Pacific Coast Championship events, and for Indy Miller built three cars to a new standard pattern, two of which were meant to take the new “big eight”, and one a modified version of the V16 from the passenger car project. The new chassis were quite advanced, with a de Dion rear axle and two quarter elliptic springs on each corner, not unlike the front suspension of of the earlier front-drive racing cars, and the two eights were very competitive and successful over the next five or six years, but the V16 proved a disappointment, probably because it was not a pur sang racing engine in the first place. The cars, though basically identical, were known as the Miller 230 and Miller 303, respectively, relating to the type numbers of the respective engines.

Miller ’303’

- 1931 #2 Harry Miller, white/red, Miller 303, W. S. White, Shorty Cantlon (ret Indy)
- 1932 #27 Harry Miller, cream, Miller 303, W. S. White, Bryan Saulpaugh (ret Indy)
broken up and rebuilt as Miller 255

Miller ’230’, chassis ’1’

- 1931 #14 Boyle Valve, cream/black/red, Miller 230, M. J. Boyle, Pete de Paolo => Lou Moore (ret Indy, 1st Altoona, dns Altoona, 1st Syracuse)
- 1932 #8 => #10 Boyle Products, white/red/blue, Miller 268, M. J. Boyle, Lou Moore (ret Indy), Bill Cummings (ret Detroit, 3rd Chicago, 3rd Syracuse, 2nd Detroit, 1st Oakland)
- 1933 #5 Boyle Products, white/red, Miller 268, M. J. Boyle, Bill Cummings (ret Indy with relief from Frank Brisko, 1st Detroit, 1st Syracuse)
- 1934 #18 Boyle Products, white/red, Miller 268, M. J. Boyle, George Barringer (ret Indy with relief from Chet Gardner, ret Springfield with relief from Bill Cummings, 4th Syracuse, ret Los Angeles)
- 1935 #3 => #1 Boyle Products, white/red/blue, Miller 268, M. J. Boyle, Russ Snowberger (ret Indy), Bill Cummings (2nd Saint Paul, 2nd Syracuse, 6th Altoona, ret Los Angeles)
- 1936 #1 => #2 Boyle Products, white, Miller 268, M. J. Boyle, Bill Cummings (5th Oakland, 4th Los Angeles, 11th Goshen, ret Syracuse, 7th Vanderbilt)
- 1937 #2 Boyle, silver/red, Miller 268, M. J. Boyle, Louie Meyer (4th Indy), Jimmy Snyder (ret Vanderbilt)
sold to Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and used as tyre test car

Miller ’230’, chassis ’2’

- 1931 #19 Harry Miller, brown, Miller 230, R. Hepburn, Ralph Hepburn (3rd Indy with relief from Pete Kreis, 4th Detroit, dns Altoona, dnq Altoona, ret Syracuse)
- 1932 #3 Miller => Veedol => Bowes Seal Fast => Red Lion, cream/red, Miller 230, R. Hepburn, Wilbur Shaw (ret Indy, 9th Detroit), Lou Schneider (11th Syracuse), Howdy Wilcox (ret Detroit), Wilbur Shaw (5th Oakland)
- 1933 #36 Tydol, cream/red, Miller 259, R. Hepburn, Louie Meyer (1st Indy, 10th Detroit), Chet Gardner (3rd Syracuse)
- 1934 #31 Miller => Cycol, cream/red, Miller 259, R. Hepburn, Ralph Hepburn (ret Indy with relief from Louie Meyer, 3rd Los Angeles with relief from Floyd Roberts)
- 1935 #21 => #3 Veedol, cream/red, Miller 259, R. Hepburn, Ralph Hepburn (5th Indy with relief from Gene Haustein), Russ Snowberger (9th Saint Paul, 7th Syracuse, ret Altoona)
- 1936 #3 => #9 Miller => Art Rose, white, Offenhauser 255, R. Hepburn, Wilbur Shaw (ret Los Angeles), Ralph Hepburn (12th Indy)
reputedly broken up and rebuilt as passenger car

Last updated by Michael Ferner on 11 Jul 2012.

All text is copyright Michael Ferner 2012 - 2024.