Cars

Started Early

Started on my New Year’s resolution early. Tonight I watched a show called Overhaulin’. It had two things going for it that made me want to watch it, because I’m a cyclist (barely) it had Uber bike racer Lance Armstrong and as a car guy it had the muscle car icon called GTO (bonus points because it is a convertible.)

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but what I got was an hour long commercial for Foose Wheels, Clarion, Kicker, Something Parts Group, So & So’s Suspension, etc. Take a season’s worth of This Old House, cut out all the really interesting segments on how to do things, apply it to cars, add pretty boy & girl “hosts”, toss in the arbitrary deadline and ta-da, entertainment for people who want something great while not having to do anything hard (or at all) to get it.

Membership Drive


Today was the Master’s Miata Club annual membership drive at Rader Mazda. Because it was a Miata show-off day I got out here early to wash off the car. Water can be down right cold when the outside temperature is at 48 degrees. This year, super salesman, Scott went the extra mile (besides setting up the tent, buying and cooking the food, icing the drinks, etc.) and wrote a nice letter to everyone who had bought a Miata through them in the last 18 months and invited them to come out. It worked pretty well. We got two new memberships, one possible, one not-so-long lost member rejoined and chatted with a couple of Miata owners who just dropped on in. They had invited the regional Miata rep to join us and that he did. Sloane Whitehead (a name right out of a soap opera or romance novel) came in from Columbia and brought along some goodies for giving away as door prizes. Rader also contributed some key chains and service coupons. They had enough stuff so that everyone attending came away with something. I was the lucky winner of a very strange looking clock, a free front end alignment and a hat. The hat is cream colored with a navy blue bill, all and all a nice little bit of millinery until you get to the bright purple Miata logo embroidered on it. Marty of V-8 Miata fame had hoped to get his now Kennie Bell supercharged V-8 Miata out to show us, but minor set back after minor set back kept him from a displaying it’s awesome power (to be used only for good.) He did roll it out, hoodless, for us to marvel at just how much engine can be stuffed into one of these little cars.

Silence so far from the German advertising firm from the other day.

17,000 Miles

Passed through 17k on the way home from work tonight. Because there is a Master’s Miata Club event with an early start tomorrow I broke out the Quik Detailer and “washed” the car in the driveway before parking for the night. We meet at 8:00AM for the drive to Newberry Street to see the inaugural Aiken Exotic Car Festival. There were supposed to be over a hundred cars, but this morning’s paper said just over 50 are registered. You have got to start somewhere, so I hope there is enough attendance to prompt another one next year.

There It Sits

The front spoiler looks pretty much like the Mazda OEM unit that was for the 99-00 cars, but doesn’t fit the slightly modified nose of the 01 & up cars. This is perfect because that is exactly what I was looking for. It is sitting on the work bench in the garage. It is mocking me, I know it. Like the countdown until it arrived, I will now count up on the bottom of each day’s post until it is mounted on the car. I guess I will ask at the body shop where I planned on getting it painted about whether to paint it first and then installed or vice versa.

Love the 15″ wheels, but I think I may swap back (as long as Russ didn’t sell the car this weekend.) The tires are a bit too worn down for my tastes. When I first looked at them in the parking lot there seemed to be a bit of thread wear left there. Upon closer inspection, there is hardly anything left at all. He thought he would go until the first of next year before he would buy tires, but Russ is a very frugal person and would go until the tires are hitting every wear indicator. Me, I feel a lot better if there more rubber under me, especially when it comes to driving in the rain. There is not enough tire for me to go until the first of next year, when I could possibly swing the cost of new tires. The 16″ wheels have enough tread to last me until late summer next year. By then I might be in a better position to get some new tires and new 15″ wheels.

Comet Incubation Period: 2 days

Only in…

Only in Aiken (or Lexington, KY or Ocala, FL, etc.) would they name an apartment complex Trotters Run. In a horse town, both of those words can be seen in a horsy context and not as two words that can be mistaken for a couple of euphemisms for diarrhea.

Only in South Carolina. I remember where we first moved here, I was totally perplexed by the meaning of the front novelty tags on so many cars that read “GO COCKS.” Now after 15 years I no longer think of the male member and visualize the banty rooster mascot of the University of South Carolina, a gamecock.

Ooooh, That Was Fun

Not enough to make me really want one, but I can certainly see how one could be seduced by that siren’s song.

Russ came in to my cube right after lunch and said, “Want to take it for a drive?” We headed out into the lot and after he clicked the unlock button on the key, he handed it to me. First thing that is totally weird, is the key is on the dash to the left of the steering wheel. After the car is running, to lower the top, you undo the center latch and hold down a button until the light goes out. It doesn’t take too long, but it is longer than flopping the Miata’s top. To be fair, when the process is complete, you are done, as the top becomes it’s own boot in combo with the power half-tannau cover. The clutch engages higher than I’m used to but I didn’t stall it. It is not as smooth engaging as the Miata and is a bit stiffer to boot. I just took it for a spin around the long block, all of maybe 5 miles. When you step on the gas the gets up and goes compared to the Miata. Lots of torque and when you get the revs above 5K the sound is just so sweet. Not so much the exhaust tone you get with the Miata, but with the engine right behind your seat, there is this wonderful mechanical whir all the way to redline at 6500.

It was a short drive without any real curves, but I bet it would be fun to take it through some. The shifter is longer than the Miata, but not ungainly and it felt nice and tight with a good spacing. You can’t really put your elbow on the door like in the Miata and I got the feeling you weren’t supposed to in this car, you are supposed to be driving, not cruising. The interior seemed a little fussy. Not unpleasant, but there were a lot of little buttons. Having driven a Z3, a Z4 and now a Boxster, I think the Miata has the nicest looking interior. The exterior of this car takes some getting used to, I don’t find it very attractive, but it does say Porsche. Of the BMWs and the Porsche and Miata, I think the Miata exterior looks better as well. Of course if I was a couple steps further up the corporate ladder and my salary was about 60% higher it would be hard not to go for one of the German sportscars. If I could have the Boxster sound in a Z4….

Comet Gestation Counter: 55 days

Back Home II

As promised, the lowlights:

  • Friday Morning: Spray painted graffiti on Georgia’s Stonhenge.
  • Friday Mid-day: Road construction in Clarksville, GA kicking up clouds of dust that settle on our cars as we eat lunch.
  • Friday Night: The mostly crummy meal served for dinner at The Sweet Magnolia Caf? in Robbinsville.
  • Saturday Early Morning: The continental breakfast at the Microtel.
  • Saturday Mid-Day: The freakin’ traffic in Gatlingburg, TN.
  • Saturday Afternoon: Some members of our group holding up a rice rocket longer than they needed to while transiting the Gap.
  • Saturday Night: Driving 49.7 miles on the Cherohala Skyway to dinner in Townsend, TN (although to be fair this can also be listed as a highlight.)
  • Sunday Morning: A crowded drive with straight piped Harley cruisers and old folks on the way to church through Maggie Valley on Hwy 19/74.
  • Sunday Mid-day: Meeting my sister and her husband at their Asheville hotel to find out they just got water restored after the flooding from T.S. Frances.
  • Sunday Afternoon: The drive home always seems so long…

Comet Gestation Counter: 48 days