Presidential Address

– Vince Tidwell

Here’s a new theory I’ve come up with that I call the Rule of Three: If more than three things are wrong with your Miata and you don’t fix them, you will, within the span of six months, become so disenchanted and annoyed by your car that you might even consider getting rid of it.

Yikes!

I came to this conclusion after decades of laziness and automotive frustration. From the age of 25, I’ve had the pleasure of keeping the number of cars I’ve owned equal to the number of years I’ve lived. In reviewing the cars I’m glad I’m rid of, my disenchantment was rarely due to some design flaw. Instead, it was the result of some mechanical failure some mechanical failure which broke the relationship up. In the end, of course, that meant I was to blame, seeing as to how I was the caretaker in question; in essence, I had let the machine down. A deeper thinker might even say I was as disgusted with my own inaction as I was with the cars themselves.

When something acts up on your Miata, it’s performing less than expected. Seeing that happen over and over again only serves to accentuate the problem, for each time you experience it your negative emotions are reinforced. At some point the discontent will even begin to affect your whole attitude toward the car. You might even find yourself taking one of your OTM (Other Than Miata) cars on a short jaunt. These are warning signs not to be ignored.

As my ’90 Miata ages and I occasionally jump in a ’99, the items I need to pay attention to on my older car come right into focus. It’s amazing what we allow ourselves to become accustomed to. A rear window that’s a bit foggy, a door pull that’s gotten loose, that nick in the paint, a floormat that’s past its useful life—they all sort of fade into the background. However, they do add up to diminish the quality of your Miata experience.

I implore you to set aside some time to either fix or have fixed all these niggling problems right now. You only get so many Miata hours a week, so why spend them driving around with problems? One item can be overlooked; two you can usually work around; but when the list grows to three, it is time to “restore” your car. There is nothing on these machines that can’t be fixed, and parts are cheap.

Here’s the argument: If you let your car go so far that you’re in danger of falling out of love with it, you’ll end up selling it. Before you do that, of course, you’ll repair any obvious flaws or defects to get the most money from the next guy. So the new owner gets to enjoy all those new parts, while you were always annoyed with your car because it needed new parts. How kind of you: You’ve just treated the next guy to something you wouldn’t do for yourself!

Wouldn’t it make more sense to accept that you’ll have to do some work anyway, then enjoy the fruits of those labors yourself? It’s a false economy to do anything else.

If you really do get in a pinch, calculate the sales tax alone on a new Miata. Dollars to donuts, that figure alone would fix up your current car nicely. I’m certainly not dismissing the attraction of a brand-new MX5, but you should be moving up for the right reasons—not because you’ve neglected your current car. If that’s the case then your new one will start to look ratty soon enough anyway. Get in the habit of keeping those maintenance accounts short, and you won’t fall into this vicious cycle.

“Physician, heal thyself” is what I’ll be hearing from any of you that have seen the Club’s ’94 Laguna Blue at our Tech Sessions. We’ve had a small tear in the leather driver’s seat for two years now—a tear that even started happening while the car warranty and the fix was free for the asking. Fortunately, that’s the only flaw the car has, besides a few nicks and scratches and some squeaky antiroll-bar bushings.

Uh, oh—that’s three! Guess I need to get out to the shop one of these days….

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There was an article in this issue with the title of “A Boy and His Dog” and after my reminder of the 1975 movie of that name a couple weeks ago, I briefly considered using it here, but it was too long and oddly formatted as to make it more of a hassle OCRing of it. Plus I found this one a little more interesting.

A Vroom Of One’s Own

The Name Game
by Barbara Feinman

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

When Shakespeare penned those words to come out of Juliet’s mouth, he was making the point that the feud between her own family and that of her star-crossed lover was based on something as meaningless and arbitrary as a name. Well, maybe a rose would indeed smell as sweet if you called it anything else, but when it comes to naming automobiles the pros aren’t so sure: By any other name, that which we call a Miata just might not seem so appealing. Joe Grady is a linguistics professor who also acts as a consultant for a California-based company that names products, including new cars. Joe has been part of various creative teams that have named everything from pharmaceuticals to clothes, household goods, and computer stuff, including the team that came up with the car-name Alero.

The way his particular company works is that about a dozen people are put on a creative team to name a particular product. They do this through a series of meetings with each other, with the client and by sending e-mails and faxes back and forth. After the team comes up with a selection of likely possibilities, the client then tests them out on potential buyers.

I asked Joe about the creative process of coming up with new names. Was there was a formula and a set of guidelines, or was it just a bunch of people clamoring in a room? “First of all,” he explained, “a great new name that will be memorable to people isn’t going to be generated by rules.” But then he paused to think. “On the other hand, it’s not a totally random process. The process has to combine open-endedness with considerations about the personality of the car, the market that’s targeted, the company’s brand identity, and the style of the carmaker.”

I’ve always liked the way that Miata rolls off the tongue—so much so that a friend once pointed out that whenever referring to my own roadster I never called it “my car,” but always “my Miata.” So the next logical question for Joe (or maybe it was a test) was whether he thought Miata was an effective moniker. “I think it’s a good name for a few different reasons,” he confirmed. “First, it sounds Italian. Everybody associates a sports-car tradition with Italy, so that’s valuable to link up with.”

But while it may sound Italian, I pointed out, miata is actually Old High German for
reward. Joe nodded at this and replied, “Well, it’s also a very pronounceable word, so a lot of people who speak different languages would be comfortable with it. For instance miata also fits well with the Japanese language, since both Japanese and Italian like syllables to end in vowels. All three syllables of miata do, so it sounds natural in both places.”

Then Joe began speaking more rapidly—more professorially—as his ideas jelled. “Miata also conveys the idea of quickness and smallness. It fits the car because it’s a short name, all the syllables short and quick…. And the M sound suggests smoothness, softness, and energy. I’m basing this on actual research on sound symbolism, by the way; M strikes people in all those ways.

“With a car like the Miata you’d be thinking what are the key messages you want to communicate: It might be speed, freedom, fun. You’re going to use these ideas as a launching pad to come up with a name. Whether it’s a Miata or a family SUV, every carmaker has an idea of the personality of the car and who it’s intended for. You’re going to use those as your inspiration and filter.”

The backside to this issue are the many literal meanings that may already be associated with a supposedly meaningless name. In the case of Miata—as with nearly all wholly made-up product names—the word came first, a meaningless series of sounds chosen simply for its pleasant ring and sporty connotations. Only after some research did Mazda learn miata was also a word in an old, obscure German dialect—conveniently a positive one.

In other cases, that research doesn’t prove as fortunate. Pontiac’s Firebird was originally to be called Banshee, but some last-minute research showed the literal definition of banshee to be “a mythical female spirit whose wailing foretells an impending death in the family.” They figured maybe Firebird was safer…

 

The song Vince is alluding to is called “Wear Sunscreen”. Is an essay written as a hypothetical commencement speech by columnist Mary Schmich, originally published in June 1997 in the Chicago Tribune. It became the basis for a successful spoken word song released in 1997 by Baz Luhrmann, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”, also known as “The Sunscreen Song“.

Presidential Address

– Vince Tidwell

There is a current pop song in which the narrator (he doesn’t really sing) gives words of advice with a measure of humility. I understand they originated from an elder’s university commencement address, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ve spent the last 30 of my 42 years learning about all things automotive and, like the narrator, I have to say the following advice is just the interpretation of one person from my generation:

• Use sunscreen when your top is down, and use ear-plugs at speeds that make you raise your voice. You’ll need your hearing as you grow old to enjoy classical music and good conversation over a bottle of wine.
• Ignore all the magazines, pundits and self-appointed experts. You don’t need anyone’s approval.
• Keep most of your opinions to yourself; only share them with people close to you who have accepted you for who you are, not what you can do for them.
• Take a romantic trip with your beloved often. Tell him or her what you enjoy and find difficult about your relationship. They deserve to hear both.
• Eat at the counter when you can. The service will be faster, the food hotter, the conversation livelier.
• Drive many different types of cars. Trade your Miata for your neighbor’s Z3 or Mustang for a day. You’ll appreciate your neighbor’s a bit more, and your neighbor will buy a Miata.
• Remember fondly the days when you drooled over brochures. Anticipation is almost always more fun than the real thing. How else could companies market sports cars that never sport, off-roaders that never off-road, and touring cars that seldom tour?
• DRIVE!
• Do not store or save your Miata for any reason. It will be someone else’s some day, then it will be recycled. History is full of futile temples of worship; the only true value you receive from an object is in its use, not its ownership.
• Life should be filled with experiences, not excuses.
• Borrow someone else’s Ferrari, never buy one. If you must buy one, make the money before you spend it.
• Nothing very good or very bad lasts very long.
• Take children and older people for a spin with the top down. It’s the closest thing to remembering your first convertible ride.
• Maintain your Miata, but don’t worry about it. It’s as reliable as any car.
• If you have a concern, check it out. Worry is a poor substitute for action.
• If you modify your Miata. it will not be as it was. In some measure, it will always be less than it was.
• Take as many drives with your friends. A fulfilled life isn’t possible without them.
• Modifying your Miata will make it more personal. You decide the balance between personal and perfect.
• Make new friends often, but treasure those special few from your past—theirs is unconditional love.
• Change your Miata’s oil sometime between 3000 miles and 5000 miles, depending on how hard you usually drive.
• You usually don’t drive as hard as you think.
• If you race every other weekend, you drive hard.
• Change all fluids every two years and apply dielectric grease to all the low-voltage connectors whenever reconnecting them.
• Strive to keep your car in great shape, but use it up. Then sell it and buy a new one. Life is short, and new experiences are as fleeting as that new-car smell.
• Be wary of committee-designed automobiles: They do nothing for the soul.
• Always own a convertible sports car with earplugs and sunscreen in the center console.

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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.”

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