Blast From the Past

25 Years Ago – Issue II 1999

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.

 

In The Rearview Mirror

I did the Masters Miata Club newsletter from 1998 until 2006 when I ran out of steam doing all the printing and the mailing. There was a person who said they would take over and then didn’t, followed by two others who wanted to give it a go, but didn’t have the knowledge to do it. The no newsletter was not a total loss because the interweb existed and I had been doing a webpage for the club for several years at that point.

BMW Plant Tour

Date: Friday, February 2, 2001
Time: 7:45 AM
Place: South Carolina Welcome Center
Members Attending: Bob Anderson, John Battles, Bill Baugh, Bonnie Baugh, Brian Bogardus, Donna Bogardus, Karen Breitinger, Kurt Breitinger, Jim Creer, Judy Creer, Lee Davis, Carol Haff, John Haff, Ron Kaufman, Jean Schwalbert, Russ Schwalbert, Stacey Timmerman and Rudy Wilmoth.
Guests Attending: John Nichols, Jeff Timmerman, Bob Taylor and John Wages.

We had a eleven cars, three with hard tops being early February, gather at the welcome center in the early morning cold, even Rudy had his top up! It was Stacey Timmerman’s job, with son Jeff navigating, to keep this many cars together on the trip. Amazingly enough, they did a fine job. We got on the Interstate for a few miles before heading north on back roads to our rest stop in Clinton, SC. Not long after getting on US 25 we picked up the first of two planned additions. John N. & Bob T. in a Merlot with a black hard top.

Just past the mid-point we pulled our caravan into a McDonalds for brunch. Here we picked up our second planned addition, Bob Anderson. Bob had thought he would meet us at the BMW plant, but got an earlier start so he just meet us here.

The rest of the trip was all Interstate, I-26 to I-385 to I-85. As we merged with I-85 near our destination, reports came from the back that a white Miata was passing our group. After passing about half of us, he must have figured we were on our way to have some fun, so he tucked in line.

As we pulled into the BMW parking lot we were now fourteen strong. Our late joiner was John Wages, Vice-president of the Foothills Miata Club. He was out running errands when he happened on our group. We offered him a spot on our tour, but he pleaded poverty, didn’t even have $5. We offered to pay his way in and he took us up on it.

We were about an hour or so early for our tour appointment, so this gave us plenty of time to check out the Zentrum, which I guess is German for a mix of museum, gift shop and snack bar. Lots of interesting variations of BMW production cars, race cars and motorcycles in the museum and all kinds of trinkets and clothing in the gift shop. A lot of us ended up in the snack bar, where you get a cold German beer to help pass the time until it was time for the plant tour.

The tour started with a 20 minute movie that showed you some places that you can’t actually go into in person. There were three screens, one in front and one on each side, and the movie was filmed from the point of view of a car chassis going through the welding of the body and all the painting process. Kind of neat to stand there and get painted red by robotic arms.

After the movie we then donned safety glasses to protect our eyes and headphones so we could hear our perky little tour guide. When they designed and laid out the plant it wasn’t with tours in mind, so we were just wandering around on the assembly floor, staying inside some painted yellow lines though, so as not to get run over by forklifts. There were actually two guides, one up front with the microphone talking and one in the back to make sure you didn’t wander off or try and put a Z3 tail light in your pocket.

We stopped and got to watch them mate a body to the powerplant subassembly (engine, transmission and front suspension) and it took about 2 minutes and 8 bolts. Like everything there it looked too easy, which I guess is a good thing, just not as exciting as I expected. The best part was the final test room where they take the nearly completed car and put it on a dyno-like rollers and shift through all the gears and do some heavy braking. Someone gets in the car and a computer tells them when to shift and brake. That same computer reads the data to see if it meets specs. We watched a white Z3 go through its paces and when it was driven out of the booth an employee reached down and picked up a couple stray bolts and a washer off the floor from underneath where the car was! I hope none of those were one of the 8 holding in the powerplant.

After the tour, most all of us went back one exit on I-85 to eat at a California Dreaming restaurant. Fortunately it was 2:30 PM on a weekday and after a little bit of rearranging, we were seated at a table for 22.

After eating, most all of us went back home. Four cars just went across the street to the Courtyard by Marriott to spend the night, so they could hook up with the Foothills folks in the AM.

North & South Drive

Date: Saturday, February 3, 2001
Time: 9:00 AM
Place: University Square Publix, Greenville, SC
Members Attending: Brian & Donna Bogardus, Karen & Kurt Breitinger, Carol & John Haff and Rudy Wilmoth.
Guests Attending: Sean, Jerry, Tony, Ron & Cat.

Brian figured we need to leave the hotel a little after 8 to make it to the starting point on time. This required an early rise, so we could eat, get checked out and get gas and be ready to go at 9 AM.

Conveniently located in the Publix shopping center is a McDonalds and this is where we parked while waiting. Ron Merrit was the first of the Foothills Club to show and Cat Thomson was the last, which, they said, is how things normally shake out on their runs. So our early rise was all in vain as these folks normally meet, eat and then drive. We finally got moving sometime after 10 AM.

And when we did, we got twisty. They took us on some roads that were only a few miles from the start that were totally awesome. It is almost enough to make you want to move to Greenville. After a circuit around the reservoir we headed up SC-11 and then cut up towards Caesar’s Head State Park. After a brief break in the park’s parking lot we went back to zooming around windy roads until we came Highlands, NC where we made ourselves at home in the Sagebrush Steak House for some grub.

After lunch we were all pretty much wore out, so we just headed back to Greenville and then on to Augusta. Fortunately, we couldn’t get home without traversing some very snaky roads.

February Meeting

I did the Aiken Bicycle Club newsletter from 1993 until 1998 when the club decided to move to the web, which I of course volunteered to do. I created a rudimentary website by today’s standards on the now defunct Geocities.com. To fill my not so free hours in the evening and satisfy my need to write witty things, I took over the newsletter of the local Miata club I was in.

Date: Thursday, February 1, 2001
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: Old Country Buffet
Members Attending: Bill Baugh, Bonnie Baugh, Brian Bogardus, Donna Bogardus, Kurt Breitinger, Tony Cappucci, John Haff, Gail Smith, Tom Smith and Rudy Wilmoth.

No meeting room and no Treasurer’s report this month. But we did get the Smiths to join us, we haven’t seen them since last year’s anniversary dinner. Also, a chance meeting at an Interstate rest area brought someone else to the meeting who would have missed it. (I’ve left the names out to protect the guilty.)

Old Business:
1) New Logo. Still again no progress on this front. Wendy seems to have forgotten us. Brian brought along a doctored up copy of Rembrandt van Rijn’s painting “The Syndics of the Cloth Guild” as a tongue-in-check offering of a new Club Logo. (In case you are unfamiliar with the painting, it was the basis for the images used on the boxes and in the advertising for Dutch Master’s Cigars.

New Business:
1) We chatted about a few of the upcoming events. Kurt floated a trial balloon up on maybe attending an Augusta Lynx game. It was well received, so he is going to proceed with arrangements.

2) Brian read the first, and he thought, easiest, of his two proposed amendments to the bylaws. Section A. under Article III, Meetings, states “General membership meetings shall be held monthly, on the last Saturday of each month, unless otherwise determined by majority of a quorum vote of the general membership.” Brian would like to change, “last Saturday” to “first Thursday,” because that is what we are doing now anyway. After quite a bit of discussion on what a quorum was, not putting a day in at all, and other stuff, Brian was about to withdraw his proposal. Hating to see a grown man pout, the rest agreed to let Brian fulfill his obligation under Article XII of the bylaws entitled Amendments, i.e. read the change to the membership so it can be voted on at the next meeting.

3) Brian then read his 2nd proposed bylaw change. With the all but official demise of the Miata Club of America, he would like to change the Club’s name from Master’s Miata Chapter to Master’s Miata Club. And remove the line “This organization shall be a local chapter chartered by the Miata Club of America.” from Article I, Name, of our bylaws. Everyone just shrugged and said, “Whatever.”

Th-that‘s all f-f-folks, the February meeting was adjourned and the weary went home.

January’s Meeting Minutes

One last post from the February 1994 newsletter of the Aiken Bicycle Club. Like the Whence & Whither, the meeting minutes, are from the previous month. The meeting minutes are compiled by the Club Secretary. And like the ride reports, quite a bit of the time that position was held by Donna or I, so it was easy to add them to the newsletter. And even if the Secretary wasn’t one of us, I would always take their meeting minutes and Brian-ize them.

MEETING MINUTES:
New President Woody Huffines called January’s meeting to order at 7:30 P.M. at the home of Brian & Donna Bogardus. An astounding 23 members were present. The 24th member arrived fashionably late, mid-old business. The New-as-well Treasurer Donna Bogardus reported a new year balance in the Club’s account of $788.42. Alice Walker (who is not even the Old Secretary) was subbing for the New Secretary, Sherri Lott, who was absent so as to attend to her ailing “in-fink.” So he won’t feel left out, I’ll also mention the New Vice President Ed Leibfarth.

Old Business:
1) Chairperson Gene Luder reported that the Annual Aiken Bicycle Club Checking Account Audit Committee, or AABCCAAC, had found zero errors in the financial books of the club under Dennis Ducate’s talented treasurership. This report was approved by acclimation of those present.

2) The long anticipated Club jerseys are a reality. If you ordered one, they are at Cyclesport, and can be taken home for the sum of $28.

New Business:
1) President Woody Huffines gave the assembled (and to you too, now that you are reading this) their homework for the month. To wit, he would like everyone to think about participating in some worthwhile non-riding projects for the coming year. In other words, we should perhaps fulfill some of the items mentioned in Article II of the Club Bylaws besides just bicycling. A couple that he proposed, would be for us to turn some of our bank account and some solicited donations into bicycle helmets for local kids and the other would be to help in conjunction with the Aiken Department of Public Safety (ADPS) in a bicycle safety course for kids prior to school letting out for the summer. Bobby Harison suggested that maybe we could purchase a bicycle and donate it to the newly formed bike patrol of the ADPS. If you would like to help with any of these projects or have one of your own for consideration, please attend the next meeting to have your voice heard.

2) May 8th is closer than you think. It is not to early to start soliciting donations for our spring century. Rae Felix, Jaye Pearce and Gene Luder volunteered to take on the task. Last year we asked for $50 dollars and the sponsors got their logo on the T-shirt and mention before the beginning of the ride. Bobby Harison suggested that we accept smaller donations form proportionally smaller businesses. As of now when the sponsors are solicited, they will be told that the money is for century T-shirts, but that some of the proceeds might end up going towards other worthwhile cycling projects. Ed Leibfarth has spoken to the ham radio folks and they said they may be able to offer their support again this year, but could not guarantee it because of the Mother’s Day date. A new loop 4 it still an issue. A way to avoid a very busy and no shouldered Pine Log Road for the last 4 miles or so needs to be found. One suggestion was to turn right at the Exxon station after the first 3/4 of a mile and wind in the back way. Bill Young has an idea about a route that uses Hatchaway Bridge Road which he will try. Woody Proposed that the March/April ride leaders check out some new rides. Gene Luder mentioned that safety should be the #1 concern on a new loop, as cyclists are the most tired by then. Diane Gilden suggested that the Police, both city and county be made aware of the century. The President said he would see to it.

3) The winners of the Never Tires T-shirt Contest were presented with their well deserved Never Tires T-shirts. The shirts were yellow in color, decorated with the club logos and embellished with Never Tires T-shirt Contest Winner wording. Alice Walker was the Women’s Division winner with a total of 362 miles and Bill Young was the Men’s Division victor with 420 miles. Curiously enough it was Alice who named the contest and Bill who suggested the format. Bill suggested we keep the same format and Alice suggested (and the members present approved) the name be Sunday Wonder T-shirt Contest for this year. Will history repeat itself? Stay tuned…

4) Jaye Pearce would like for posted ride leaders to call a substitute if they can’t make it. Woody Huffines suggested that we have a backup ride leader assigned for a certain period of time. Somehow the discussion drifted into having 2 Sunday rides with one being more difficult for the people who have to work on Saturday. The miles for both rides would count as the same for the T-shirt contest. Maybe this would occur only once a month. Brian Bogardus tried to reel in the conversation with a suggestion that he could publish the ride leader’s phone number in the newsletter if that would help. Those present agreed to this. Then Doug Walker pointed out the solution to this was just as Jaye said, in the unwritten rules that govern bike club ride leaders everywhere, rule number one is if you can’t make it, find someone who can.

5) Ed Leibfarth pointed out that now that we are outfitted in the new club jerseys that bear our names we should ride in a more courteous manner. Bill Young interjected the point that there is a single file law in South Carolina and that we should always give way to cars in this respect.

6) Clint Johnson said that he would like to lead Sunday mountain bike rides and he wondered about mileage credit. This brought up the whole T-shirt thing, again. An official motion was made to keep the T-shirt Contest rules the same as last year and it was passed. So you dirty off road riders can ride all you want on Sundays, but you ain’t gettin’ no shirt!

7) Gene Luder then reported on the first meeting of the Palmetto Cycling Coalition. He had in his hand a copy of the opening speech made by Tom Dodds the South Carolina State Bicycle and Pedestrian coordinator, all 4 pages of it. Gene thoughtfully gave us the Reader’s Digest condensed version. In a 1989 article, the League of American Wheelmen ranked the states in their bicycle friendliness, and guess where we finished? That’s right, dead last with a score of 15 out of a possible 215. In the 4 years since that article, we have made great strides. If we were counting up the points today we would be at 92, a 400% increase. While though this is good we still have a long way to go. Hopefully the P.C.C. will help in achieving a higher mark in the future. He then gave an update on the figures for safety. Through mid November on S.C. roads, there have been 829 motor vehicle accidents in which a bicycle has been involved: 23 people have died, 22 of which were cyclists; 692 have been injured, of which 665 have been cyclists. Gene then gave a brief synopsis of the actual meeting. He said as soon as he gets a typed copy of the minutes that they would be available for anyone to look at.

There being no further business, the February ride schedule was penciled in and the leftovers were divvied up.

January’s Ride Report

Every ride leader was supposed to submit a list of folks who were on the ride and give a brief description of anything interesting that happened to the newsletter editor/publisher. For a majority of the rides, either Donna or I or both of us were usually in the group thereby freeing the ride leader from those reports. This was another place to interject my personality into the newsletter.

WHENCE & WHITHER:
…Dec 31, Brian Bogardus led Donna Bogardus, Clint Johnson, Sherri Lott, Steve Nolan and Ohio branch member Bud Puskarich on one of the quicker Moonlight Levee Rides in club history. Everyone, except Bud, felt it was a little on the cold side, the temperature was around freezing. He said it was positively sub-tropical compared to the weather he left behind in the Buckeye state. In celebration of the evening, two roman candles (1 dud) and a large bottle rocket were launched back at the South Carolina side of the Savannah River.

…Jan 1, Bud Puskarich, Jay Rumsey, Jaye Pearce, ride leader and cookie bringer Doug Walker, Joey Hopkins and all three of the club’s two seaters, the Bogardi, Steve Nolan & Sherri Lott and Gene & Gloria Luder gathered for the traditional ride to Aiken State Park. Unfortunately, mid-gather, it started to rain. After waiting and waiting, hoping for a clear spot in the skies, it was decided that it wasn’t going to happen today. Donna Bogardus elicited from those who could, a promise to meet at the same time tomorrow and try again. Even though we did not ride, we still ate those delicious homemade Walker cookies. We might have been dumb to attempt to ride in the marginal weather in the first place, but we were not stupid.

…Jan 2, Seven of yesterday’s eleven, plus three different riders rode to Aiken State Park and back today under much better conditions. On arrival they had to settle for store bought cookies, some of which were so tasteless and unappetizing that an orphaned and nearly starved hunting dog (ol’ 293) refused to eat them. Gene & Gloria Luder, Diane Gilden and Bobby Harison went on the official Sunday Fun Ride and staked their early claim on 1994’s Sunday Wonder T-shirt with 10 big miles.

…Jan 8, The Bogardi and Jay Noonkester showed for the mountain bike ride today. They made a single, cold and slightly muddy loop of the Horn Creek Trail at Lick Fork Lake.

…Jan 9, “It was no summer progress. A cold coming they had of it, at this time of the year; just, the worst time of the year, to take a journey, and specially a long journey, in. The ways deep, the weather sharp, the days short, the sun farthest off in solstitio brumali, the very dead of Winter.” Bishop Lancelot Andrewes

…Jan 15, In weather that was at least ten degrees below the legal limit (so it really didn’t officially happen and I shouldn’t even be writing about it) one other rider showed up to join leader Gene Luder in a 20 mile ride, Jaye Pearce.

…Jan 16, “The parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th’ effect of fire.” John Milton

…Jan 22, Crystal clear blue skies and upper 40’s greeted the group today. Unfortunately today’s ride leader Woody Huffines had a dose of the flu and couldn’t come out and play. But before his voice totally gave out he deputized Doug Felix as substitute ride leader. Doug found the Bogardi, Jaye Pearce, Bill Young and Clint Webb eagerly awaiting him at Odell Weeks. With so little route preparation time and the posted distance being 25 miles, a century loop was in order, and #4 it was.

…Jan 23, On what started as a sunny ride Alice Walker lead husband Doug, Steve Nolan, Bill Young, Dennis Ducate, The Bogardi, Clint Johnson and all three of the Club’s Js (Noonkester, Pearce & Rumsey) out through Couchton and Montmorenci , then home. Three people showed up with handwriting samples, and Dennis had the early lead in the sloppiest contest until Steve showed up with a note that he either worked on all night or had Jeffrey forge for him two minutes before the ride.

For the January 23rd ride, the title and description I totally made up were: Handwriting Day Ride Please bring a hand written note to Alice Walker telling her why you would like to ride in today’s ride. Prizes will be awarded for the neatest and also the sloppiest handwriting.

February Ride Schedule

I was the editor/publisher of the newsletter for the Aiken (South Carolina) Bicycle Club for most of the 90’s. The best part about it was creating the ride schedule because I kept the format my predecessor created, giving the rides names that referenced something that happened on that particular date. The club did a ride on both Saturday and Sunday. Ride leaders volunteered for the day and the the length of the ride at the monthly meeting of the previous month but I made up the ride title. Here is the ride schedule for February 1994…

Sat. Feb 5 – 8:00 AM
Track Kitchen Ride. The Cold Weather Rule is suspended for this 8:00 am ride. Don your warm woollies and cycle with Woody Huffines <642-7257> on this 1.5 miler to the Track Kitchen, a horsy Aiken institution, to put on the breakfast feedbag. (3 miles/E)

Sun Feb 6 – 1:00 PM
Longest Drive Ride. Donna Bogardus <642-0767> will lead this edition of the Sunday Fun Ride, 23 years after Alan Shepard hit the longest golf drive ever. It was also the longest drive to get to the course, 239,000 miles. (10-15 miles/E)

Sat Feb 12 – 1:00 PM
The Vanishing Red M&M’s Ride. Doug Walker <649-5929> will lead today’s ride on the 18th anniversary of the FDA’s banning of red dye #2 in food, drugs & cosmetics. (30-40 miles/M)

Sun Feb – 1:00 PM
Disavow Your Copernican Beliefs Ride. Ride along with Doug Felix <649-1780> as he retraces Galileo’s route into Rome to stand trial before the Inquisition in 1633 for his belief in the heliocentric theory of planetary movement. (10-15 miles/E)

Sat Feb 19 – 1:00 PM
Diathermy Machine Ride. Come ride with Bill Young <648-3898>, as he offers up his idea for a new loop 4 today. Hopefully, when finished, no one will need the services of this device first used 70 years ago on this date. (25 miles/M)

Sun Feb 20 – 10:00 AM
Bankruptcy Ride. Clint Johnson <649-4972> will lead a careful off-road ride so as not to duplicate Austria’s trick of going belly up back in 1811. Put your MTB on the car rack for the ride to a local trail. (10-12 miles/E-M)

Sun Feb 20 – 1:00 PM
First American in Orbit Ride. Join John Glenn lookalike ABC V.P. Ed Leibfarth <279-9161> on a fun ride that promises to be shorter than Friendship 7’s 4-hour & 56-minute flight in 1962, but no less exciting. (10-15 miles/E)

Fri Feb 25 – 6:15 PM
Moonlight Levee Ride. Brian Bogardus <642-0767> will lead this night trip along the Augusta Canal. Meet at Weeks @ 6:15 for the caravan-o’-cars over to, or meet at the Confederate Powder Works Chimney @ 7:00. (12 miles/E)

Sat Feb 26 – 12:00 Noon
National Currency Act Ride. Jaye Pearce <642-3856> leads her second ABC ride, 131 years after President Abraham Lincoln assured his place on the $5 note by signing this bill into law. (40 miles/M)

Sun Feb 27 -1:00 PM
Double Golden Ride. Come out and help Leslie Romano <649-6204> celebrate what she says, is her and husband Joe’s 100th wedding anniversary, by riding approximately 1/10 of a mile for every year of what, up until now, Joe thought was matrimonial bliss. (10-15 miles/E)

25 Years Ago – Issue I 1999

With my love of blue cars I really wanted one of these back in 1999. But I had just paid off the 1995 Laguna Blue and had it modified to my taste, so the only way I would get one then was to to win the one there were giving away as a door prize at the Miata Club of America’s national meet in Dallas, TX. Donna and I attended that weekend Miata extravaganza and we came away with a door prize of leather seat covers for our car, but no blue 10AE Miata.

Party of the Decade

It’s the next Miata special: the first on the M2 body; and a guaranteed collector frenzy. Lev Goldfarb moves the clock ahead to Ten A.M.

A decade at the top is a long streak for anyone, but for an automobile it is almost an eternity. The Miata has been the best car of its type—and often the only car of its type—ever since it was introduced in 1989, so this year marks a very important anniversary. Now that Miata Mania is turning ten years old, Mazda wants to celebrate with a new special edition conceived purely for Miata Maniacs.

Surprising? Well, yes and no. Remember, five years ago Mazda celebrated the MX5’s fifth birthday with international events (including the Miata Homecoming at Irvine), the introduction of the M-Edition and R-Package, the California Edition in Britain, and a host of Miata-based show cars. They did not, however, release a five-year-anniversary model per se. That makes this new package the first Miata ever dolled up to celebrate a specific event. (Purists might argue that England’s 24-unit run of MxX5 Le Mans Commemorative Editions also fits this definition, but I disagree. As a private venture between Mazda’s UK importer and BBR Turbosystems, the Le Mans Edition seems more appropriately considered a tuner car, not a factory special.)

The “10th Anniversary Model”—or “Ten A.M.” to the wags—is a different kind of special edition; it’s like nothing that Mazda has sent to America before. First, it’s an international model; aside from the spec and legal changes required by various countries, each of the 7500 copies in the world will look and feel the same. Whether you’re in Japan (500 units), the United States and Canada (3150), Europe (3700), or Oceania and Asia (the rest), your 10th Anniversary Model Miata will feature unique Innocent Blue Mica paint, a sequential badge on the fender carrying the car’s build number, 15-inch polished Mazda alloys, and a color-keyed blue-gray roof and top boot.

In the interior, carbon-look inserts and chrome gauge surrounds set off the dash, while suede-like blue trim covers the seat inserts, steering wheel grips, and shift boot. The Ten A.M. also features deep-pile blue carpets, power door locks, and a top-end Bose AM-FM receiver/CD player. Even the ignition key is a unique commemorative special. Each car built will also come with a numerical owner’s certificate signed by Mazda Corporation president James E. Miller.

So far, so good; what would a Miata special edition be without lots of trinkets and eye candy? The Ten A.M., however, is going to turn out being more than that, at least for Americans and Europeans. Its other standard feature is Mazda’s close ratio six-speed manual, which up until now has been unavailable outside Japan. Better still, by using this upmarket special edition as a wedge to get the new gearbox certified in other markets, it will also make it possible to offer the six-speed in cheaper Miatas down the line. (Whether Mazda will choose to do that, of course, remains an open question….)

Developed by Japanese gearbox specialist Aisin, the new Type YL6OMD six-speed fits in the same space as the current 5-speed (Type M15MD) and is
just three-and-a-quarter pounds heavier. (Dropping one into any Miata, new or old—would be child’s play.) Though the gearbox is based on an Aisin design, both companies went on to develop its shift action and meshing rate to match or beat those of the MX5’s existing five-speed.

As soon as the Ten A.M. was revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show, Miata fans in the know noticed how similar its color treatment was to Tom Matano’s personal M1 “Gray-Haired Miata.” Though the color schemes weren’t an exact match, they were certainly close enough in concept to make people wonder. Was the much-anticipated, highly secret tenth-anniversary model staring us in the face all along? This seems to be the case cosmetically. Mechanically, on the other hand, we always expected a six-speed; we just never really thought we’d get it.

The Miata 10th Anniversary Model hadn’t been priced as this issue went to press, but start saving your nickels and dimes. It’s unlikely to be cheap.

Copyright 1999, Miata Magazine. Reprinted without permission.