One of the sporadic features the Miata Club of America Magazine was a Chapter Corner which highlighted one of the chapter/clubs from around the country. My old club was too small to make the magazine or perhaps all we had to do was to submit one, but never did. This one is about the club that is located around Cleveland, Ohio. They are still active with both a Facebook group and a standalone website.

Chapter Corner

Northcoast Miata Club

Back in June of 1990, about 30 enthusiastic Miata owners gathered in Kathy Lyle’s garage for the first meeting of the Northcoast Miata Club, so named because of our location. The chapter encompasses the northeast corner of Ohio, on the south shore of the Great Lakes in a region fondly known as the “North Coast.” Our logo shows the shoreline of Lake Erie with a Miata driving down a winding road bordered by a checkered racing flag. A static cling of the Northcoast logo is given to each of our club members to display on their car window. We currently have about 150 Miatas sporting the cling and our monthly meetings are now held at our sponsor dealership, The Cascade Auto Group in Cuyahoga Falls.

Almost right from the beginning we’ve struggled with this dilemma: Is the club too social or is the club too technical? Do we spend too much time planning picnics and outings, or is too much emphasis placed on racing and performance? We try to stay balanced.

The social activities are varied and extensive. Our premier event, which has been held annually since 1991, is the Roadkill Rally. This is an all-day activity that teams Miata members to compete for prizes by completing a predetermined list of events captured on film by members of the team within the allotted time and to the specifications of each photo opportunity. In other words, it’s just a crazy good time. We have had as many as 40 Miatas participate in this popular event each year.
Our club boasts 10 members who compete in SCCA racing, including two National Champions. We have several Northcoast members who have taken their Miatas to drivers’ schools at different tracks, including Mid-Ohio and Summit Point. We recently hosted a restricted practice
weekend at nearby Nelson Ledges Road Course, where our experienced SCCA drivers assisted novice drivers on the ins and outs of the track. After that weekend, one club member wrote, “IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY ENTIRE LIFE” Not to say that I lead a mundane life, I have my share of excitement just like the next gal….but this was not excitement….THIS WAS ADRENALINE!!!!!*

We have several weekend trips each year, including some repeat events. Northcoast Miatas have become a regular sight at Lake Chautauqua in western New York where we enjoy the Chautauqua Institute and fine dining at a favorite B&B, the William Seward Inn. We have also become regulars at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the¬Lake, Ontario. In addition to the theater, we have discovered some excellent wineries in the region. Many bottles of Pillitteri wine have been toted across the border. We consume this fine Canadian wine on “newsletter night,” an evening when several members gather together around editor Beth Kramer’s PC and provide assistance in producing articles for “The Exhaust Notes.”

Our club is steeped in culture. We have attended several theater outings, including interactive theater and a Murder Mystery Weekend. We’ve attended concerts at Blossom Music Center and an opera dinner at a local Italian restaurant. It was there that we discovered the real meaning of the word “Miata.” As quoted by member Jim Simmelink in an article in our newsletter, “The historical truth is that ‘Miata’ is an Italian word that does not translate well into English, but I’ll try. The first part is short for Mama mia! and is always followed by an explanation mark(!). The -ata part is a sigh of mixed emotions of pleasure and anger. All of this explains why the lead singer of a little-known Italian opera shouts out ‘Miata’ during the final scene as his new little roadster drives off center stage and over, a cliff with his mother-in-law still clinging to the wheel.” Our club is an eclectic collection of interesting characters!

The “Northcoast Competition Team” was formed in 1996 by a group of characters who regularly participate in autocrosses in the Cleveland/Akron area. Several members participated in the slalom race in Toronto, and we’ve been invited to Columbus for Solo II racing hosted by the Buckeye Miata Club as well. Our club members have formed friendships with several other chapters. We have joined the Trillium Club on their annual Victoria Day trip to Vermont, and have shared events with the West Penn chapter and the Buckeye Chapter. Several NMC members are active on the Internet and keep us informed about what the Miata network is up to.

Members from our chapter have attended each national event since the first one hosted by the Indy in ’92. In 1995, we hosted a national event —the Rock-n-Roll Rally. We spent nearly two years planning the event, originally scheduled to occur roughly 3 months after the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, construction delays postponed the grand opening until Labor Day Weekend, one week after our national Miata Event!! Panic ensued, but through the persistence of the club’s president (at the time Tom Stan, we were able to get a preview tour of the Hall
of Fame. In fact, the Rock Hall staff used our group to pilot traffic flow for the opening weekend crowds. In addition to that, our venue included hot laps at Nelson Ledges, tours of Amish country, a dinner at the historic Crawford Auto Museum and a scenic boat ride on the Cuyahoga River. Oh, yeah, also a very long food line at a drive-in movie!

We’ve held a number of tech sessions covering everything from oil changes to brakes and timing belts. They always attract many members. We met at a Goodyear dealer in Akron where the we were able to watch as one of our members had a computerized four-wheel alignment. We also had a meeting at the Dent Wizard, where one lucky winner had a small dent removed from her silver beauty. Club members have held oil change parties, speaker installation parties; we even had one member who had a party to install his super charger! We’ll use any excuse to party.

And we use any excuse to drive our Miatas. After reading another chapter’s newsletter last year, we decided to try an evening ‘Bug Splat Rally.” First, we taped paper targets to the front of each car (placement determined by the driver), enjoyed a leisurely dinner while waiting for dusk, and then drove through the buggy dark along some of our favorite country roads. After a pleasant drive, we stopped at an ice cream stand to compare targets and see who had the best splat—we had some very interesting bugs!

We frequently engage in mystery tours. These are gatherings where the host designates a meeting place, then picks some curvy, hilly roads for a caravan of Miatas to drive on. Generally, at the end of the line is a favorite restaurant. As time goes by, we have discovered that an ice cream stop is also an important part of each mystery tour. We firmly support that Miata motto (perhaps by the Trillium Chapter?) “We drive to eat, and eat to drive!”

Towards the end of the Ohio convertible season, which always comes too soon, we find a good location for our annual Fall Foliage Tour. We have both one-day and weekend drives, winding through the countryside of Ohio and Pennsylvania appreciating Mother Nature’s color schemes. The finale of each year is a holiday celebration with a Miata gift exchange and officer elections for the following year. Our club is ever-changing, but always ready for a good time. We look forward to many more Miata events, including the Miata Cruise and the 1998 Miata Mountain Madness in the Poconos. Keep an eye out at future events for the fun-loving “Northcoasters”; we’re the “shy” ones.