Quote Originally Posted by nick_tassie View Post
An interesting piece from a forum discussion on Miles running CSX3002 at Lakeside. Wonder what this computer was all about, would they have had simplistic engine, shocker or suspension data recorders in 65?? How on earth they might have sent data back to the US in those days is intriguing, fax/phone link!?! pigeon maybe! Has anyone else heard of this "computer" run by Shelby American and know of what data it recorded or how it even worked.

He was there that day as a guest from a relevant sports car club and insists Ken Miles took him for a lap of Lakeside. It was an experience that frightened him and he maintains that car was by far the fastest thing he'd ever sat his bum in. One point he made was that this car has some sort of computer hooked up to it and they could actually deliver info to the US and wait for suggestions on what to "tweak" from either Shelby or Ford to make it a better thing to drive. There were other details also, but I can't recall them with enough accuracy.He did insist that Ken was an absolute gentleman and one hell of a driver
I know drivers and mechanics back then were renowned for playing practical jokes, especially on the media, it seems likely Miles was probably doing this. Consider how limited computers were back then compared with today. Mark Donohue relates in one of his books about how they took their '68 Penske Camaro to General Motors proving grounds so GM could gather info about it to pass on to privateer Camaro race teams in the Trans-Am.

The car had cables and wiring running all over the place, and there were a couple of guys sat nearby in a van full of computers that were gathering data about the car as it drove around. All pretty clumsy stuff, and certainly took a team of computer technicians to run it. And this was General-Motors, in 1968, so you know this would have been cutting edge stuff at the time.