When we purchased our first Miata in 1989 I was just in my infancy of becoming a “Car Guy.” When the OEM tires on that Smurf Blue car needed replacing I really didn’t know what to buy. One of the first ads (maybe even the inside cover) in the early Miata Magazines were for a Dunlop D40 tire that came in the stock size of 185/60 x R14. So that is what I bought, and after reading this I now know the person responsible.
Member Spotlight
Dunlop Dave Shelton
How does Dave Shelton know so much? Because he’s not just a dinner speaker, he’s also a member.
David Shelton didn’t become “Dunlop Dave” until coming to an MCA event nine years ago. “When I first came to Dunlop we’d gotten a letter from Barbara Beach trying to get us involved with the magazine,” Shelton recalls. “I said to Woody Arnold, our VP of marketing at the time, ‘This club is in its infancy. Let’s be the one tire company in there.’ So we took an ad.”
“Well, you know Barbara’s level of enthusiasm; the next thing I knew she was inviting me to an event! I went, and it just felt good—I felt good with the people, they felt good with us. The Miata folks seemed like they were really thirsting for knowledge, thirsting for fun, so I just kept coming back. I don’t exactly when it was that she finally introduced me as ‘Dunlop Dave,’ but once she did, it stuck.”
That it did. Mentioning “David Shelton, Performance-T1re Marketing Manager” to the average Miata fan gets you a polite look of interest. Mentioning “Dunlop Dave” starts stories and memories flowing. In nearly a decade of MCA events, Dunlop Dave has probably taught more Miata owners to drive, given them more tech briefings, and helped more of them get the most from their roadsters than any other person.
Shelton brings a long history of testing, teaching, and performance driving to these events. “Two decades ago I got out of college with a BBA in accounting. Then one day I looked at it and said, ‘Wait a minute—I don’t want to sit behind a desk all my life.”
“So even though I’d just taken a job putting together a wholesale parts system for a megadealer, I wound up building racecars for him instead. After that I joined the National Academy for Police Driving— now it’s ‘Professional Driving’—and did driving schools and product launches for another 13 years. Essentially, we taught people to be at one with their cars—how to enjoy them and drive more efficiently. I worked with the RX7 club, the Corvette club, the Porsche club, some vintage-racing organizations, Audi, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, the Z-Car club…just about everybody.”
“Then, after moving to Dunlop a decade ago, I continued to have the privilege of playing around with enthusiast-based car and light-truck clubs. And out of all of that, the Miata Club seems to have the people and the car that I feel most akin to.”
“I can drive the Porsches and the RX7s, but the people and the Miata are truly fun. I just enjoy being around ’em.”
“Plus, this is really the first time since I got out of college that I’ve had a car that’s just for me. As you go through the family thing you need a passenger car for one thing, a pickup for this, a van for that. Now that my daughter’s off in college I have a chance to reclaim some of the fun I had with sports cars when I was growing up.”
But while that’s all well and good, don’t most professional performance drivers buy that 911 or Ferrari when they finally come of age? “Well, when I was young it was neat to lean across the fender and have to gap the points and clean the carburetors and all that. But you know what’s really nice about the Miata? You just stick the key in and it goes. You flog the heck out of it, and it’s still smiling at the end. It does everything you want, and then you just wash it. It’s like getting the pleasure without the pain.
“I bought a black ’94 with tan leather and all the deluxe stuff. The old owner lived in Dallas and got transferred to Chicago. He didn’t want to take the car, so I bought it and took it back to Buffalo NY to be my everyday driver.”
How’s that worked out? “Actually, it’s been great. The Torsen diff is fabulous in the winter. I can do things in the Miata that four-wheel-drive owners wouldn’t attempt.”
“I also learned that you should read the Magazine, particularly that part about not touching the plastic rear window when it’s two degrees outside. Other than that it’s simply been wonderful. While you can watch other cars rusting away from the salt around here, it hasn’t even started on the Miata.”
Of course the real question is whether owning an MX5 will change Dave from a speaker to an attendee at the next MCA event? “I’ll keep going officially as long as I can, but whenever that runs out I’ll start doing it personally. One of the things my life has developed around is wanting to help people enjoy their cars by safely getting the most from them. Whether I’m there as a participant or to help with the event, I get a lot of gratification. We’ve got all the support we could want for Dallas, but I’d be there no matter what.”
Copyright 1999, Miata Magazine. Reprinted without permission.
We are converting, and when I say we I mean we hired some professionals, our fiberglass step in shower enclosure to a roomier, roll in tiled one. Seeing as we are sprucing up elsewhere in the bathroom as well we bought a new toilet for it. We also bought a second matching toilet for the hall bathroom too.
