25 Years Ago – Summer 1992

Miata Design Just Won’t Hold Water

– by M. Kevin Parfitt

Several times in my extensive readings concerning the origin of the design of the MX-5 Miata, I came across references to one of the goals of the design phase of Project P729 was to create a shape so that a drop of water placed on any surface would simply roll off. This would not be an engineering test for aerodynamics but a measure of how well the surfaces literally flowed together in harmony as well as function. Considering the aerodynamic shape and overall results of the design, I didn’t give this a second thought….at first.

As time went on, the notion that an automobile could be shaped so that every surface would shed water started to arouse my curiosity. Actually it was worse than that. An architectural engineer by profession, one that combines aesthetics and advanced engineering technology, I actually started to worry about this idea. After all, let’s get real, a car that sheds all water? No way!

Other engineers out there should already see this coming, the “OBSESSION SYNDROME”, that is. A statement such as the one in question cannot be left to stand without a thorough and complete scientific investigation of the highest standards. Alright, at least an experiment that could be carried out in the driveway in front of my garage using sophisticated measuring instruments. OK, OK, in front of my garage with a few crude devices starting with a garden hose and a plastic bucket.

With that resolved, the next step was to make a list of the actual items needed to conduct the experiment. Here’s what I came up with for starters:

1. A Miata. Fortunately, I happen to be the proud owner of a Special Edition BRG Miata No. 1579 which I was willing to wash and rinse for the sake of scientific discovery. ( Not to mention that I was not yet ready to let my 13 year old wash the Miata since I was still recovering from the time he washed the family sedan in frill sun with dishwasher detergent.)
2. Garden hose. No problem, my kids quit using it for a rope to the tree house last week when they discovered Mom’s clothes line works much better. Finding dry towels could be a problem however.
3. Water. Check! When we built the house, the well tested out at 65 gallons per minute. That’s enough water to wash every Mazda at Rider Mazda, the dealer in State College, Pennsylvania who sold me the “test vehicle”.
4. Towels to dry the Miata just in case the water doesn’t roll off. Check the clothes line. No, better make that the dryer.
5. Scientific Fluid Measuring Device (ie. wash bucket).
6. Carpenter’s level. To check for flat part of driveway.
7. Notebook.

For recording the measured data and results. With the necessary equipment assembled, I gave the Miata a close inspection looking for obvious locations where “ponds” of water were sure to develop. After all, you don’t really think I believed all that “shed water” stuff; did you? This task soon became much tougher than I had originally anticipated. How about just behind the crest of the hood bulge? Or, the spot in front of the gentle tail rise on the trunk lid? Maybe it would puddle on top of the front fenders where they begin to flatten out to meet the windshield assembly. These were my best possibilities? This was going to be one tough experiment. Not one to accept defeat easily, I considered leaving the window down a little as I was sure the floor pan would hold….Wait a minute, this is MY Miata!

Finally, I found it, the Achilles heel of Miata water shedding. The spot on the door between the back of the outside mirror base and the “snap” assembly for the tonneau cover. It literally screamed out to be wet down.

So elated was I with my find that I almost forgot this was a “scientific” experiment. Before claiming victory, it would be necessary to actually complete the tests. Okay, let’s get started.

To be fair, I started by giving the Miata a good wax job with Meguiar’s. In order to be totally impartial and not prejudge the results, I convinced my teenage son to wash the car for me by promising him he could ACTUALLY DRIVE THE MIATA when he turns 16 and gets his license. Right…he probably still believes in the Tooth Fairy too. At this point I made a mental note to lock up all the dishwasher detergent in the hall closet and told him to fill the bucket with plenty of cold, dear water.

I found a “perfectly level” spot on the driveway 89.2 inches long, equal to the Miata wheelbase, pulled the Miata out into the sunlight and grabbed my test equipment.

I filled the bucket with water and found a measuring cup from a shelf in the kitchen. Next, I began “stalking” the MX5 from end to end. Working quickly, I poured a few drops on all the obvious locations: the hood, the trunk, the fenders, the top of the rear bumper. They all yielded the same incredible results.

The water rolled off faster than you could say “Bob Hall”! I even tried the spot behind the mirror only to watch it drain forward and then slip away in a trickle.

Discouraged but not defeated, I resigned myself to go to “the next level of scientific inquiry”. That is, just how much water really slides off a Miata anyway? After all, a few droplets always remain even on the somewhat vertical sides of any car door. Not wanting to take any chances this time, I decided to really wet down the mean green machine and measure how much water remained (as opposed to trying to actually figure out how much drains oft) after a randomly selected time of say three minutes.

Cranking up the garden hose, I proceeded to flood the car with water. Yes, I did remember to roll up that window. The Miata was soon drenched. Determined to give the Miata the full three minutes required by the parameters of the experiment, I stared intently at my watch. After what seemed like an eternity, I glanced up at the MX5. Eureka! There were actually tons, well OK, some water droplets beading on the various surfaces.

Now the work could really begin. I started with a highly sophisticated weight measurement device, a “talking” bathroom scale given to us last Christmas by Uncle Fred. Placing several dry cotton towels on the base, I listened quietly as the scale called out…. “one pound, two ounces”. How these towels had managed to escape cleaning up the “Super Blaster” squirt gun battle held earlier in the day by my two youngest boys, I’ll never know.

Working quickly, I dried the Miata from top to bottom. As each to became too moist to efficiently soak up water, I tossed it in a “zip lock” bag to keep it from loosing moisture by evaporation. Finally the job was done. The Miata stood gleaming in the sunlight looking every bit as good as before it had been subjected to this grueling battery of tests. Unlocking the plastic packages, I took the contents over to the scale, dumped them onto the platform and listened. “One pound, six ounces”. “That’s it?” I blurted out in disbelief. Four lousy ounces of water! All that scientific effort and all I got out of it was a brilliantly clean and shining sports car along with a few ounces of water?

Well, that’s science. Tough work, but someone has to test these theories. I decided it was time for a break. Besides, my eldest son Mark was looking at me like he was going to ask to drive the Miata up and down the driveway for practice. Lowering the top, I jumped behind the wheel and told him to get in and buckle up. Within minutes, we were cruising down my favorite section of the Julian Pike. With a sly grin on his face, Mark slipped a Nelson disk in the CD player and punched up track three. “After the Rain” echoed appropriately out of the speakers as I blipped the throttle and downshifted for the next bend.

Copyright 1992, Miata Magazine. Reprinted without permission.

 

I’m Juicing

or ENT Update

I kept my Ear, Nose & Throat appointment last week. Because I was complaining of the hearing diminishing in my left ear, the first thing they wanted was a hearing test. The Audiologist takes a peek inside the left, goes, “Hmmm.” Takes look in the right and goes, “I’m going to send you back to the doctor, you’ve got some wax build-up in that needs to come out.

I go back down the hall and wait again for DR. Ent to come back. When he returns he looks and says you have no issue in the right ear? “Well, I think it is OK, but maybe that is because the left is so wacky.” He goes, “All right hold still, there is going to be a little tug.” So he puts one hand on the side of the my head to steady me, with another hand he pushes some sort of reverse spreading forceps and with his third hand he reaches in with the pliers and wiggles and wiggle and yanks. “Wow, look at that,” as he shows it to me. My first thought was, “That looks like a giant bacon bit.” Guess I won’t be eating salad for lunch today,” he retorts.

I go back down the hall and wait on the bench for the hearing test. Now, a local hospital comes out to the the valve store every year to test the hearing of everyone works in the machining areas to keep track if anyone is going deaf and evaluate what sort of protection they should be using. So I’m used to the testing process. Sit in a little room with a headphones on, press a button every time you still hear the sound. I get in the booth, I get the headphones. I don’t get a button and I don’t see one hanging anywhere. I don’t ask (would she hear me I’m in a soundproof booth?) I’m just gonna roll with it. Dummy, she’d have heard me, if they can pipe in sound, they can pipe it out, er, ever hear of a microphone Brian?

Turns out you answer yes every time you hear the tone. First one ear, up in tone and down in tone in diminishing volume. “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.” After a while I get bored and mix it up, “Yeah, Yesss, YEss, yeSS, Yeaah..” Then bored again and just go back the plain old yeses. There were a couple of places where I quit saying yes so frequently, so I knew there were going to be points of loss. Didn’t stop with the tones either, next up is repeating words back at my tester. First some 2-word phrases: Swimming pool – ironing board – step sister – left field. Then we toss some one worders back at each other through the wall: – ladder – drive – center – phrase – carrot.

Back down the hall to wait on the doctor again. He shows me my little chart. The right ear was pretty good until 12kHZ then dropped off, the left had a small drop at the lowest point, hovered OK, and plummeted at i12kHz. Diagnosis, probable Inflammatory Audio Nerve. The nerve runs through a bony canal from the the ear to the brain, and when it gets swoll’ up (as we say in the south) the nerve presses the bone walls and rubs on there and gets damaged. If caught in the first couple of weeks, they prescribe steroids to reduce the swelling and hopefully things return to as before.

I’m about halfway through a 10-day diminishing dose of Dex-something-or-other and I think I’m doing pretty good. the muddiness is gone and it seems like I’m hearing about like I was. The thing with the steroids is they kind of build up, the first few days on the high doses they didn’t bother me much, but today they kicked in, I was wired all day at work. And as you can tell from the length of this missive I’m still flying along.

Because of the hearing test at work and now a real doctor one I wanted to mash them up and see what the numbers were like compared to last October and now. Probably should have waited until now to try because the steroids might have helped. It took me a couple hours of monkeying with excel over the weekend to come up with the following, but I’m not too sure it is clear enough to convey just anything but colorful stalagmites.

The two tests don’t test all the same frequencies. Four color bars is where they coincide, if you see just two hangers that is only one test. The doctor’s test did the two extremes and work one tested more of the middle frequencies. Blue is right ear, red is the left. I go back on the 29th, so maybe I’ll be able to compare apples to apples then.

Try and contain your excitement.

More Motoring Points

On the way home from yesterday’s Peach Parade we opted to drive back by ourselves and take a couple photos. First up was an old abandoned peach farm barn, first is worth a point. Then a few yards down the road there was nice little sign advertising for the festival in front of a big ol’ orchard, yet another challenge point available.

Peach Parade Pre-Breakfast & One Last Garage Floor Mockup


Today was the MMC’s annual trip to the Twin Lakes airport for breakfast before heading over to Trenton, SC to drive in the Peach Festival Parade. There were 8 Miata lined up in front of the Restaurant but only 6 drove the parade. There was one Club couple along for the drive, but had other obligations so the couldn’t stay. And one random Miata who is a local, and eats that the Airport Grill every Saturday, and we see him there every year. The parade participation seemed kind of light, but mostly is because they were calling for rain all week and it scared away a few groups, but we had a beautiful and a slightly quick parade drive. The crowds along the route seemed diminished too, but we still ran out of candy to toss for the last 50 yards…

I took a couple photos of the garage floor this morning so I could do a quick mock up of the proposed floor in the garage this morning. Not bad. We have some old light blue paint left over from a bathroom, so I may see about laying it over the crappy darker wood paneling on the wall with windows to spruce the place up more.


54,000 Garage Floor Ideas

Sixty-six Black Vented Ultra-Loc Tiles for the center where the CTBNL will sit, surrounded with a checkerboard border of a combination of Graphite & Gunmetal Diamond Grid-Loc Tiles, two tiles wide except three at the back that will be about where the car sits, 94 total. Finishing off the end near the laundry room with the ten of the 3″ edge pieces in red. Total, a little over $450. The only other expense will be about $20 of landscape fabric to quiet the plastic tiles on the concrete floor.

On the way to work this morning the Miata moved past 54,000 miles.

Halfway Home


I vowed to write one post a night for the entire month of June, well today is the 15th, so with this post I am halfway to my goal. On the way to Olar to get a 1927 car for that challenge we passed right through the Town of Denmark. We used a Denmark picture before in the challenge, the first time is was for the “Letter D” in our first Challenge in 2014. This time it was for the “Around the Wold” category (Signs with the names of locations outside of North America.)

I don’t think we’ll use Denmark’s sister Scandinavian country city names (Norway & Sweden) for this year’s Challenge this year though, we have plenty to finish the category just using city streets in Aiken.

Jedi Mind Trick

This morning Donna went along for a ride in the Miata, which she misses, to the local Dunkin Donuts for a quick breakfast. She wanted to go this particular morning for two reasons, 1) the a fore mentioned Miata ride and 2) because the local DD has free copies of the Aiken Standard for customers and Wednesday is the day there are grocery coupons in the paper.

We are getting away cheap because we bring our own drinks and all we buy are a muffin for me and some doughnut holes for her. When the girl waiting on us asked what we wanted I said, “I’ll have a Coffee Cake Muffin and my wife will get 4 Munchkins.” As I was about to say, ‘Two glazed and 2 chocolate glazed’, as that is her go to order for the doughnut hole variety when Donna said, “I want 4 chocolate glazed.” I repeated to the server, “Four chocolate glazed Munchkins”, all the while thinking, ‘She usually gets 2 glazed and 2 chocolate glazed.’

We sat down and when Donna opened her little bag and showed me – 2 glazed and 2 chocolate glazed.

*The force is strong with this one.*