Cobra Proto-prototype? The Ardent Alligator

Carroll Shelby rightly gets credit for the idea of sticking a big American V-8 into a light, European chassis: the Cobra.  But good ideas occur to lots of people, all the time.  The difference is execution.  Shelby made cars for sale, and became an icon.  Miles Collier was just looking for a better stick with which to beat his competition.

 Ardent Alligator, the day after Miles Collier won the 1949 Watkins Glen Grand Prix with it.  When in town, he garaged the car at Schuyler Motors.  Left to right: George Miller Sr., then-owner of the dealership, Collier, George Miller Jr.  Years later, the Cobra race team garaged here too when they raced at the Glen.  Miller Jr., who owned the dealership by then, was not a car buff.  He drove a Country Squire station wagon.  But he loved racers and racing.  He had a hand in starting the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen. 

Collier was one of the founders of the Sports Car Club of America at the end of World War Two.  Like many other founders, he was independently wealthy from his family's real estate investments.  (The Collier [racing car] Museum, owned and run by his heirs, is in Collier County, FL.)  The goal of the SCCA's founders was to road race their exotic cars.  The earliest races were through towns like Watkins Glen and Bridgehampton NY, Elkhart Lake WI, and Torrey Pines, CA.  (All of these towns later had purpose-built  road courses built "next door" to them.)

The original, down-the-main-drag, into the countryside, and back, Watkins Glen course.   Trains were stopped for the duration of practice on Saturday and the race on Sunday.  The current purpose-built course is just off this map at top.

Miles had an idea about how to beat his competition in the big car class.  He had a pre-war Riley Brooklands with a 1.1 liter engine.  Why not Go Big?  He installed a 3.9 liter Mercury flathead V-8 in it, and replaced all running gear, right out to the wire wheels, with Ford parts.  He needed to: the hot-rodded Merc put out 175 horsepower.  (The Merc was chosen over a Ford because it had two more head studs.  Flathead Fords were known for overheating when stressed, warping their heads.)  The car got its name from its green color and its Florida build.

You can guess the high point of this story.  Ardent Alligator won the second Watkins Glen Grand Prix, passing a "BuMerc" and a Ferrari 212 on the last lap to do it.  The BuMerc was a Buick engine in a Mercedes chassis--Miles was not the only one who had thought about an engine swap.  But he built a better mousetrap.  The little Riley handled better than the Mercedes.

The rest of the story is rather sad.  Miles's brother Sam was killed while leading the Watkins Glen Grand Prix a year later.  Miles retired from racing and sold Ardent Alligator.  He himself died young from natural causes in the 1950's.  The Collier legacy is the museum in Naples, FL.

Well...aside from his car.  It has been restored, and makes the vintage race car show rounds.  Miles never had an idea of making a living from racing or selling cars, like Carroll Shelby did.  But the  Ardent Alligator is another "Ford that beat Ferrari"--once.