Formula One record books show that John Miles started 12 Grands Prix with Lotus, scored points just once and finished 19th in the 1970 World Championship. But the text does not reveal facts that are chilling, even by the sport's more hazardous and cavalier standards of the day.
Miles, who died on Monday at the age of 74, used his substantial skills as an engineer and driver to make a Lotus Elan quick enough to score nine consecutive wins and claim a British GT championship in 1966. The reserved, bespectacled Englishman may have looked like a studious accountant rather than a racing driver but his progress on the track was good enough to attract the attention of Colin Chapman and the offer of F3 and F2 drives with Lotus.