Ran across this article online today and thought I would share it here for those that would like to read it. https://www.fuelcurve.com/ak-miller/
Ak's had several similar threads on here over the years. For instance, this particular one goes back to 2007. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/ak-millers-mexico-race-car.217559/
Never heard that bit about how he worked in the Nixon grocery store when he was a kid, that's pretty funny.
A fact that some might find interesting; Ak's life long best friend, and Co Piloto of the El Caballo, Doug Harrison, met a girl while they were in Mexico, fell in love with her, and married her. He also fell in love with the laid back life style, and lived the rest of his life in Mexico. Ak would go down and visit Doug once or twice a year, and try to talk him into moving back to the states. But Doug told Ak he had never been happier, and would have none of moving back.
Great story. A friend of mine, Al Bradshaw, worked at Ak's garage. The Flying Caduceus was built there for Dr. Nathan Ostich.
I went on a week and a half long trip to Pikes Peak many years back with Ak as the driver of the Chaffey College Mustang. One crazy fun weekend. We had to pull the heads off of the Mustang as SOON as we got there...in the rain, (though we did finally obtain shop space) because one of his guys put the heads on backward (left to right, right to left), which caused a severe lack of coolant flow. Ak had a real "politically incorrect"...sense of humor, and he used it on most everyone. Mike
It's a small world. Al Bradshaw is my wife's uncle; Uncle Al. I knew him fairly well, though they lived out of state so I only talked with him on occasion. My wife tells me about seeing the Flying Caduceus in the driveway of his house, I think it might've been in La Mirada. Al told a lot of stories about the gang with Ak and Brock, usually very funny; it seems the guys all had a great sense of humor, and loved pulling pranks on each other and other people. Thanks for mentioning that you knew him.
I first met Al when he came to Southern Illinois to put on a class. After that he was on the advisory board of Southern Illinois University automotive program where I was teaching . I also saw him when I worked at a Dodge dealership. A good buddy went to work for Al at the Chrysler Training Center in St Louis. He did tell a lot of stories about Ak's garage. He also had a lot of stories about keeping the Chrysler turbine cars running while they were "loaned" out. I bought a Omni GLH off of Al when I lived in St Louis. A great guy. I found this picture of him on the internet a few years ago. When I first met Al at the school, he told about working on the Flying Caduceus. I remembered reading about the car in Hot Rod Magazine. I went home and dug out the old copy and sure enough it had Al's name in the story.
The wife also remembers seeing him driving one of the turbine cars. Al got another uncle, Bob Baier, a job with Chrysler, doing the same job, different territory. I married into a Mopar family....
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