Choices

The new Miata came with some really nice light wheels, Konig Dial-Ins in Matte Gray, and very sticky tires, 195/50 x 15″ Toyo Proxies R1Rs, that look really good on the silver car. Unsprung weight on a lightweight sports car like the Miata is important and that combination weights 30.4 pounds.

Because David also gave me the original wheels that were on this car when he bought it I have an extra set of wheels to play with. Those wheels were the OEM 15″ wheels that came on the car with some 195/50 x 15″ Dayton Daytona SR tires. Based on the amount of tread wear on them they probably were bought by the previous owner new to put on the car when he sold it to David. Then he promptly replaced them with a real sports car tires that he put on some new wheels of his choosing. For the heck of it I weighed this combo too – surprisingly they came in at 30.2 lbs.

I opted to put those stock wheels with the Daytona SR tires on the now dethroned Emperor because I’m selling it, this left his old wheels, the 16″ Drag DR-19 with 205/50 x 16″ Yokohama S.Drive tires as an option to put on the new car. So while I had the Car To Be Named Later sitting there I rolled a set of these up next to it to see what they looked like. Not too bad, sort of brightened up the look some. Go hover your mouse over the image above, if you haven’t already accidentally done it, to see what it looks like. Because these are 16″ wheels and tires the combo weighs more at 34.8 lbs.

I went ahead and put this combo on the car. When we went a small drive this morning to go get some breakfast the car actually felt different. A little clunkier over bumps and slightly slower feeling turning corners. You wouldn’t think that 4.4 lbs a corner would be noticeable, but it is. Not sure I like it, may just go back to the Konig/Toyo combo that was on the car, but for now the heavier Drag/Yokohama combo will stay on. At least until next weekend.

Think of it of like wearing some clunky work boots around all day at work and then slipping on a pair of lightweight running shoes to go home in. If you wore nothing but the boots all the time or you wore the running shoes all the time you would get used to whichever and never know any different.

Tuxedo Cummerbund Color

Continuing the school girl crush analogy from the other day…

Now that I have been asked to the prom and I have convinced my date to go with a silver tux to compliment my gown, we just need to pick out our accent color. To help me visualize what he’ll look like walking towards me I photo-shopped three images. one with a dark gray, one with a maroon and one with a blue.

Because I knew when we were dancing cheek to cheek in the spotlight on the gym floor all the other girls would be jealous because of my date’s muscular, football toned backside, I photo-shopped the same three colors onto the rear view.

Donna and I had talked about maybe putting stripes on a new Miata if we bought a white one, so I wanted to take a quick look at some stripes on a silver car. A good place to see all kinds of stripes in various colors on various color Miatas is the Feztastic Stripe Gallery. After looking trough all 11 pages of silver cars using the somewhat clunky interface I found this car with the right sized stripes. The gray is what is in the original photos, I just tweaked them to come up with some other possible options. The maroon is supposed to represent the old Miata and the blue is there because that is my favorite color.

Not so sure I want to do the stripe thing, but we both are in agreement that the silver is kind of dull looking compared to all the other cars we’ve ever owned1. We need to live with the car for longer that three days before we make that kind of change. After all, I didn’t think I’d ever like the Garnet Red color of the Emperor, but after about 6 or 7 years I actually started to like it.

1. With the exception of Donna’s first car which was a 1972 VW Super Beetle in khaki.

Now That’s Embarrassing

This morning as we backed out of the driveway, I got into the street and when I shifted from reverse to first – I stalled it. Just exactly like the last time I drove when David came over for the swapping test drive thing. I am sure I will probably get used to giving it a little more gas before letting out the clutch because of the lightweight flywheel. Just as sure as I am I will get used to the 1/2″ higher take up point of the clutch. Hopefully sooner than later.

At 6:30 in the AM around here there is hardly anybody awake except for usually one other neighbor going to work in the opposite direction from us and sometimes a person out walking. It was kind of damp and misty morning, but I could easily see a neighbor up ahead coming towards walking his two mouse-sized dogs. So I restarted the engine and while I did, simultaneously started turning the steering wheel to the left to go around him.

This time I gave the car a little more gas and got the clutch engagement just right, so I got a smooth forward motion, but it was accompanied the sounds of a large pack of excited howler monkeys emanating from engine compartment. I pushed in the clutch and coasted by the dog walker with a meek wave and only one or two monkeys saying hello to him as well. About this time, Donna joined in on the screaming too as she was mortified at the noise we were making (me too, just not so loudly.)

I shut the car off and the belts stopped squealing and then Donna did too. I started the car back up and the monkeys were still at it a little, so I slowed down a bit to make a u-turn back to the garage for the belt dressing spray. I pushed in the clutch and the noise stopped, so I slowly let it out and normal quiet had returned to Dunbarton Oaks. I chanced one more start from the stop sign at the end of the block and when the squeal didn’t happen again we kept on going. The car was quiet for the rest of the commmute in.

School Girl Crush

Because the deal was done and the car wasn’t to be delivered to Boardman Road1 until Tuesday evening, I spent yesterday afternoon at work like a school girl with a crush on a boy who was going to ask her to the senior prom. But instead of idly writing my first name with his last name in the margin of my Biology II book, I recolored my windows login picture from maroon to silver and added a roll bar to it…

Windows 10 Profile Pictures

 

1. Seriously, how good a deal was this? When was the last time you bought a used car and they delivered it to you?

The Emperor’s Reign Ends

The King

Sunday night at 8:00 PM fellow MMC member David Adcock spammed the Club with an email that he needed garage space and was selling his 2002 Miata. Twenty minutes later I noticed it in my inbox. Two minutes later after conferring with Donna, I made an offer. Fifteen minutes later David countered somewhere in the middle. Ten seconds later I agreed.

David’s car rolled off the assembly line in February 2002 and the Emperor followed in August of the same year, so although different model year cars, they were actually built only a half a year apart.

David (who now I really have to mention in the will) bought the car with a mere 43,000 miles on it a year and a half ago. When he bought the car he did a bunch of updates that practically paralleled what we have done to the Emperor in the last year or so – shocks, springs, clutch & brakes. The differences were he replaced the radiator and hoses (which was on our short list) and the Emperor has a year old top while the car-to-be-named-later still has the original (and it is still in great shape.)

Because I have driven this car before recently, I really didn’t need to test drive it, but he insisted and rightly so because Donna hadn’t ridden it yet. We took it for a quick neighborhood spin, but because it was misting I didn’t do anything stupid. Donna said the same thing I did after a drive in it, “Boy, it’s nice to be in a quieter car again.” This car is exactly what Dr. Kildare prescribed for us, its just like the Emperor only 120,000 miles newer.

Making Everyone’s Dreams Come True

Posting has once again gotten really light, another whole week between posts, but behind the scenes the pace at Life of Brian HQ has been hectic. The Board has met with the regional and local VPs. Managers have powwowed with minions. And through the power of group knowledge (and a little luck) we have solved the unsolvable conundrum.

Brian & Donna dreamed of a trouble free Miata. Brian dreamed of no Check Engine Lights. Donna dreamed of not having a monthly car payment for the next 5 years. Brian and Donna dreamed of a Miata that was just like the one they have, only better. David dreamed of more garage space.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 209

Dealer Inventory

For the longest time the Mazda dealer in Augusta has only had 3 or 4 Miatas on the lot at one time. In the beginning, they were all automatics, but now the manual transmissions are starting to come into the mix. Plus the number of cars showing in their inventory on the web has steadily been growing. When I looked the weekend before last they had a dozen Miatas in various colors and trims.

The Sport model which I would prefer because it has less of all superfluous driving aids, including a satellite radio that I would not pay for after the trial, but would leave the ugly antenna still prominent on the trunk lid forever, but mainly because it is the least expensive one. This model is only available in 4 colors, red, white, ceramic (semi-gloss white-ish gray) and black. So in the spirit of martial harmony and compromise we played Remove-a-Color with Donna going first. She predictably chose black and I predictably choose red. We had sort of previously compromised on white, but she wanted a look at the ceramic.

A check of inventory showed the same 12 cars over at Gerald Jones Mazda, so Sunday morning we drove over to look at the two remaining choices. On the same lot with Mazda is a Gerald Jones VW as well, so for kicks I looked to see how many Beetle convertibles they had. Donna has always had a soft spot for them (I wonder why?) and it is more about the convertible experience than the Miata experience. They showed two, a special Denim edition (light blue with denim top) and a bronze with a tan top.

Out on the gi-normous lot there were exactly 3 new Miatas (red, black and ceramic) and 2 Beetle convertibles (both used.) Pressed our faces against the showroom windows of the two dealers and there weren’t any cars in either one. So the trip over was pretty much a waste. Not a total one though as Donna didn’t like the ceramic color at all. I still would like to see the Arctic White in person though.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 208