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Attached is Brian Miller's Feb edition of the Pylon Press, enjoy the read! Pylon Press Feb 2023 Final Ready to Post.pdf

My learning story was similar only I was in a woefully horrible car and was picking up take off A7s (Hoosier Slicks) to try to be fast on my first year. Several veterans gave me the same advice, sticky tires just help bed in the bad habits I was learning. My second season I switched to a traditional 200 TW tire (Falken 615s at the time, decent but nowhere near as fast as the Rivals) and devoted that year to just driving the car, hitting schools and honing my craft. By the end of that season I was running with the guys on the fast tires and even brought home a third place trophy from Nationals the first time the CAM class ran there... On slower tires than everyone else was running.

A long time ago I started autocrossing around the same time as this other guy. We both started on crappy all seasons. The battle between us to win the novice category for the season was really close, so he ran out and bought some good tires. First time out on them, he beat me by a lot. Second time out, he beat me by a little. Third time, I was slightly ahead(!). The problem is that good tires mask mistakes. You can develop all kinds of bad habits, and the good tires will make those habits feel "fast," but they won't be. Until you have the fundamentals down, your talent will greatly benefit from a tire that makes it very clear when you make a mistake. I wanna temper this advice: you are (hopefully? probably?) here to have fun. So make sure what you choose sounds fun! For me, levelling up my talent was "fun" and a huge reason why I got invested in the sport; I was willing to grind a few seasons on crappy tires to learn more. That doesn't have to be you if you just wanna have fun with cars.

So about a week and a half ago, I was driving to get the BRZ washed and got hit while making a left turn into the parking lot. After the initial shock and frustration it’s the car I JUST bought getting wrecked, I’ve gotten the claim mostly finished. Progressive declared it totaled (without even having an estimate done, they zeroed everything out on the document and didn’t bother), but I’m keeping it and having it repaired minus the salvage value of the car. It actually still drives perfectly normal. I’ve been recommended a body shop, but they might not have availability soon. They’re checking after I sent them pics, but I’d be happy to take backup recommendations. The claim is almost finished to get my payout (just submitted the salvage title summary), so I’d like to get the repairs started as soon as it’s cleared to get it towed over. Anyone have a good body shop, preferably in central Phoenix, Tempe or Scottsdale who can do everything in line with Level III inspection requirements, and may be open to using salvage parts I find online? I’m committed to fixing this one since it was perfect before the crash and has the SSC parts on it (which aren’t damaged to my knowledge).