Cars

Identity Crisis

On our trip down I-95 in Florida on last Thursday I saw a most interesting car. I was in the center of the three lanes when I noticed a small black sedan with dark tinted windows approaching fast. In the center of the grill was a shiny oval badge with a large L in the center. The car was a Lexus. It looked smaller than their smallest cars the IS and as it passed by I didn’t recognize it. Now I’m a car guy, I read practically every major car magazine and check AutoBlog every day, so if Lexus has a car below the IS I would known about it. Once the car was past me I could see the back of the car and right there on the left of the trunk was a chrome Lexus badge, in the center of the rear panel was another oval Lexus logo where they were supposed to be. On the right side of the trunk was the clincher, a chrome IS250. A neighbor used to have an IS250 and this was definitely not one.

I wasn’t real sure what it was, but I had an idea and it was confirmed after I had internet access, it was a Toyota Yaris sedan. Props to the owner for a nearly thoroughly convincing job, he even stayed in the family so to speak. If he had just combined two badges on the back to give the car two letters that weren’t on a known model, like say IC250, I might have actually though I spotted a prototype.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 73

Mitsuoka Himiko

Believe it or not this is a modified Miata. An enterprising Japanese firm has created this Morgan inspired conversion of a 3rd generation MX-5. You can see it in the interior and the doors. There are a bunch more photos of the $50,000 Himiko (along with links to a couple more interesting cars made by the same company) over on the Jalopnik post where I stumbled on this.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 58

The Best Mr. Miata A Man Can Get

Downtown Aiken is quiet at 7:45 AM on a Saturday morning, but that was about to change, the Master?s Miata Club was coming for breakfast and the sounds of hundreds of buzzing sports cars would soon be bouncing off the empty walls. Well, maybe tens of cars with raspy exhausts. Ok, a few two seaters zipping around. Actually one Miata coasting quietly to a stop in front of the Sugar Magnolia Cafe.

Today was the November edition of the MMC monthly breakfast and nobody came, Donna and I were unfazed and ate a delicious meal. I had the French Toast and she had the Eggs Benedict.

Roger Sterling to Joan: Aren?t you even going to have any of this? Look, we?ve got Oysters Rockefeller! Beef Wellington! Napoleons! We leave this lunch alone, it?ll take over Europe.

Post title courtesy of The Advertising Slogan Generator.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 34

The Moth

Show number seven. Charlie-centric. Before I started rewatching the TDTVS episodes I would have told you that season 1 was my favorite, because it was new and it was interesting getting introduced to the characters. Now I’m not to sure, maybe because I already do know their back stories…

Ironman was waiting on the front steps today thanks to the UPS guy. I watched it tonight and it is just as good as I remembered. It is so good that I can overlook one of my pet peeves in action movies, the clich?d car wreck scene that destroys dozens of cars when just a few would get the point across. The one thing I couldn’t overlook is the hiring of an actor that was unsuited for the role or they changed the direction of the role and kept the same actor in the part (hey, maybe he was the producers brother-in-law or something.)

You are saying to yourself, I’ve seen that movie, the casting was spot on, what’s this guy talking about? There is this scene late in the movie where Obadiah Stane is berating this scientist guy because he has failed to recreate the mini “arc reactor” needed to power the Iron Monger suit. They shaved the head of the scientist guy in such a manner as to give him a typical male pattern baldness look. Was it in an effort to make him look more scientific? I’m surprised when this film was first released there weren’t members of the SPODAAAS (Society for the Prevention Of Discrimination Against Androgenic Alopecia Sufferers) protesting the not hiring of an actual bald actor to play this pivotal role.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 372

Gas Strand

Tomorrow is my birthday and Monday is Donna and my anniversary, so we decided to get away for the weekend. Last week we made reservations at a hotel in Myrtle Beach. This week, for what ever reason, gas became scarce around these parts with half of the stations in Aiken not having any gas and the ones that do, usually only have regular. The gas station at Krogers has had a line 20 cars long in both directions for the past two days. Maybe they have premium?

Yesterday we checked the Myrtle Beach newspaper online and they had an article about the gas shortage, but they only mentioned one station that was out of gas and the rest of the story was more general about the whole southeast region having availability issues. We started to question as to whether we should make the trip. One thing that was making us want to go was we had put a non-refundable one night deposit down on the charge card. But we didn’t want to get 200 miles away and not be able to find enough as to gas to get back home. So this morning we decided to go get some breakfast and check to see how easy we could find some gas in Aiken. There was already a line at Kroger and the next couple of stations we passed had bags over their pump handles. On the west and north side of town gas was a little more plentiful. We stopped at one northside station and filled up the tank as we were a little below a half a tank. All they had was regular. We almost decided to pack it in and go home, but agreed to go up to I-20 and see if those stations had gas. If they didn’t we would just turn around and go home. Of the the 4 stations at the interstate only one was pumping gas.

Screw it we said and pressed on. If worse came to worse we could always turn around at Columbia. About 45 miles into our trip we pulled off at an exit for a snack break that only had one gas station. They had gas, all grades, and no line. The station is several miles from a town of any size, so the only people who get gas here are the few folks who live out this way and the random interstate drop-ins like us. Not enough people I guess to create a critical mass of panic making everyone keep topping off their tanks when ever they see a gas station with a line. When we got to Myrtle Beach, everybody has gas. When we spoke to someone at a welcome center she said the only place that was out of gas was the one mentioned in that online article we read.

When I filled up this morning in Aiken I had been 170 miles and the tank took 6.5 gallons meaning that my time running mid grade netted a 26.3 MPG average. That might be slightly less than my usual average with the normal premium gas, but seeing as I haven’t really been keeping track there is no way to tell for sure. When we got to Conway, at the first gas station we saw, I stopped in to fill up with premium like Mr. Mazda wants me too. There was still a little over a half a tank left so the car only took 5.4 gallons, but we had been 194 mostly interstate miles. That resulted in an average 34.7 MPG! Usually all interstate driving results in around 32 MPG, must have been that magical mixture of a half a tank of mid-grade and a half a tank of regular…

The real reason for the higher MPG was probably because I didn’t drive at my usual speed. Normally I set the cruise for an indicated speed of 80 MPH which means I have an actually ground speed of 75, my typical five miles an hour above the posted speed limit, today I set the cruise at 75 so I was probably moving along at right around 70 MPH.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 363

Mid Grade

The 2001+ Miatas, which the Emperor is one of, requires premium (91 octane) fuel because they bumped the compression, among other things, to increase the horsepower. Because of this I have been paying 20¢ more a gallon than must folks.

The car will run on lower octane gas because the ECU (brain) will compensate and adjust the timing so the engine won’t knock. When this happens the car will lose a few horses and the gas mileage will also suffer some. I have never cheated and run lower grade stuff, because even when the car is on E it only takes 10 gallons to fill up, so considering the downsides, saving two bucks more a tankful is just not worth it.

When I first got the car I was startled by a sort of abrupt surge in engine power as it passes up through 3000 RPM when the car is not fully warm. I wondered if there was something wrong because none of my previous Miatas did that. I checked that fountain of Miata knowledge, the forums on Miata.net and learned that that behavior was common in the 2001+ cars. They added a mechanical variable valve timing thingamabob and that in conjunction with ECU created that little surge which smoothed out after the engine was up to temperature.

Funny thing happened last Friday though, because Hurricane Ike created havoc with the gas supply in our neck of the woods, when I finally found a place that actually had gas for sale they weren’t selling premium. I filled the car up with mid grade (89 octane) and so far my butt dyno has noticed zero difference in pep. And as a bonus that, still surprising after all these years, 3000 RPM surge is gone. I didn’t check to see if the mileage was down, so tonight I filled it up with mid grade again. At the next fill up I’ll see if I end up getting less than the usual 27 MPG.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 360

Goo Goo Eyes

Today we rode the tandem into work and our arrival time was around 15 minutes before the opening bell, so to speak, for most of the hourly employees, so quite a few of them were sitting under the break area awning getting in one last smoke before going to work. Unfortunately the bike rack where we are supposed to park is like 15 feet from the awning, so Donna and I have to unload our lunches and change of clothes right in front of the crowd.

Now a person on a bicycle is a rare enough sight as it is, but put two people on a long ass bike and we are talking parade level attention. One of the engineers was arriving at the same time and as he walked up to the building he noticed us unloading, but what he found most eye-catching was not us, but the looks of all the other employees openly gawking at Donna and I. He said nearly everyone was looking in our direction with sort of an incredulous look, as if they were thinking to themselves that no sane person would ride that thing.

Yesterday we had a very busy day, so instead of coming home and cooking something we dined out at what used to be one of our favorite southside eateries, Wing Place (why it “used to be” is the subject of another post.) When we were finished eating and heading for the door there was also a mom leaving with her daughter just in front of us. The girl was somewhere between to ages of seven and ten, very cute, with long curly light colored hair, a big ol’ smile and the largeest eyes you ever saw. I really noticed the eyes because they were aimed directly at me. This girl was staring at me like I was a movie star or a pony.

As it turned out, mom and daughter were parked next to us in the parking lot, so we were more or less following them. About half way towards the cars I got another look from the little girl. Donna wondered if I dripped a bunch of ranch dipping sauce down the front of my shirt and she hadn’t noticed. Mom loaded the little girl in the back of their Jeep Wrangler as we got into the Miata. The girl was looking over at me, with an almost wistful expression, like maybe she was wishing it was her getting into the Miata instead of Donna. As the mom was going around to the driver’s side of their vehicle we put the top down. The girl was still looking our way with her big eyes and her chin in her hands with her elbows on the side of the Jeep and I could swear she let out a sigh of regret, it was almost creepy.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 252