Cooling, Camaraderie, and the Cayman GT4: Jon Miller's Motorsports Mastery

In this episode of the Late to Grid podcast, we sit down with Jon Miller—autocrosser, rally racer, and performance cooling expert from Mishimoto. Jon shares his deep-rooted motorsports journey, which began with his grandparents racing SCCA rallies in the '50s and '60s, and an early secret lesson in driving a manual transmission Ford SHO.

Jon dives into his experience across multiple disciplines, from a chaotic, unsupervised first track day at Nelson Ledges to his favorite form of racing: stage rally. He shares candid advice on why investing in a high-quality driving school is the best way to save time and money, and how making time to wrench is his form of therapy. Finally, we get an insider's look at Mishimoto, discussing why bigger isn't always better when it comes to cooling, and when a driver needs to upgrade from an OEM radiator.

00:00 Intro
00:55 Early Motorsports Influences
02:09 Secret Driving Lesson
03:46 Entry into Motorsports: Autocross
05:57 Unsupervised First Track Day
07:37 Biggest Surprise: Braking
08:25 Moving to Wheel-to-Wheel
09:36 The Volvo Amazon Vintage Racer
11:52 Challenge of Period-Correct Parts
13:09 The Hillclimb Community
14:27 Sacrificing Time to Wrench
16:02 Why the Motorsports Community is Great
17:50 Advice for Aspiring Racers
19:34 Favorite Discipline: Stage Rally
21:06 How Racing Fueled His Career
22:56 Networking Advice
24:28 Biggest Career Regret
25:48 Mishimoto High-Level Overview
27:43 Is a Bigger Radiator Always Better?
28:35 When to Upgrade Your Radiator
30:43 Diesel Performance Line
31:37 Off-Road Recovery Products
34:44 Biggest Upgrade Mistake
36:06 New Product Lines & R&D
38:14 Miata to Boxster Story
40:05 Next Race Car Wish List
41:16 Vehicle Hoarding Confession
43:38 Online Research Resources
44:37 Late to Grid Story (Early is Late)