Cars

Can You See Them Now?

Donna and I drove to the Master’s Miata Club meeting tonight, but she didn’t stay. She was on the edge about going and at the last minute decided to come. When we got to the room we would be in at the Aiken Brewery there were two people at the bar smoking. That was all it took to change her mind, she turned around and headed home leaving me to catch a ride with someone after the meeting. At first I was going to ride with Ray who lives on the southside of Aiken too, but Leroy showed up and he lives a stone’s throw (literally) from me, so I rode back with him. Leroy has a Laguna Blue 95 like I used to have. Even though they came from the factory identically built, it is amazing how differently we went when it came to customizing our cars. One thing Leroy did, that I considered early, but dismissed for cost reasons, was add some of the popular Low-Pro headlights from Brainstorm. Not only are they what I consider expensive at $349, but their has been quite a bit written about their lack of light output. Tonight on the way home I got to see their weakness’s first hand. Driving down some darker roads was an adventure, the high beams helped, but man am I ever grateful for not going that way. Sometimes substance is more important that style.

Comet Gestation Counter: 37 days

Wheels They Go ‘Round In Circles

A friend at work just bought a new Saturn Ion Quad Coupe. One with those oh so trendy small back doors that swing out backward, ala suicide doors of old. To him, the lesser of all the evils in the color choices, was white. Looking at the Saturn web site, I think I would have gone with the blue, but that is me. To me all white cars look kind of like refrigerators with wheels from some angles.

James says the only thing he really doesn’t like about the car is the wheels. And come tax refund time next year he will probably get some after market wheels. I recommended he check out TireRack.com and play around. On the site you can get a crude idea of what a set of wheels will look like on your car.


Here are the OEM wheels. They don’t look to bad here and I think they go with the car. They look good close up, but in the real 3-D world they do leave a lot to be desired.


He mentioned he would get something a little less busy, something maybe with five spokes, something like my OEM Miata wheels….


I think my wheels look good and they are easy to keep clean, but I’ve said it here before, I’d like a 15″ wheel for the lightness factor and to differentiate my car from the thousands of other stock Miatas out there.


The bolt pattern is the same on both wheels, maybe we should swap. In this rendering, just as the one above with the wheels on the Saturn, they look OK, but I’m sure they would still be ugly in real life. Swapping is one of those random weird thoughts that go through your head, but are quickly dismissed if you are a sane person. As I said Wednesday, I may be stupid, but I’m not crazy.

Comet Gestation Counter: 3 days

The Best Miata Accessory Ever

And it ain’t a front lip spoiler.It is a cockpit cover. I don’t have this particular one, but when I have to replace the current one, this will be it. This is a little fuller to cover cars with rollbars, but the added height will be better for getting over the new taller “surfboard” seats. The current one fits kind of tight and around the doors it doesn’t overlap too much. If there is a big crosswind some rain might get in there. We went out to eat at Chilis this afternoon and while there was a 30% chance of showers the skies didn’t look threatening. But it is summertime in the south and pop up thundershowers can happen at anytime, so the cockpit cover went on. Good thing too. About the time we were finishing up it started to rain. Once it starts you are better off waiting until it stops before trying to get the cover off and the roof up while the drops fall. We ducked under a shopping center overhang and decided to go shopping some in Target. While inside there, it really started to come down. It was really pouring because the sound was extremely loud. It stopped and started several times with the same intensity. Donna and I just looked at each other hoping that the cover would hold. When it finally stopped, we headed back out to the parking lot. Sure enough the inside of the car was dry. Only the tops of the seats were damp where they were in contact with the cover. This is at least the tenth time I’ve been saved from having to turn on the bilge pumps after a rainstorm by the cover. As a bonus it helps keep the interior from getting cooked in the hot afternoon sunshine.

Front Lip Spoiler III

Scotland chimed in with his pricing. About the same for the spoiler, but as expected shipping kicked him right out of the running. He wanted ?70 to ship, not the approximate $70 for our Canadian friend, with an exchange rate of 1.8$ to a ? that is a major bump. I had just one more question for Canada, how much was import duty going to be on this piece of plastic? Didn’t need a $100 surprise on top of what is already approaching a $400 spoiler. The answer is 2.5% or about $7.50. That is a figure I can live with. But can I live with that big a price? After painting we are sure to be close to $450. That is about what it would cost to get a nice set of lighter 15″ wheels.

I did a couple of quick photoshopping exercises on the images from the original Swiss website:

Front Spoiler Unpainted

Front Spoiler Painted

Doesn’t look too bad unpainted, but that is if you only look at it in this view. Taking in the whole car, that bit of black hanging off the front, I’m not to sure. On the first gen cars there was already a small section along the bottom middle of the car in black, so adding a black spoiler up front and back completed a line. No such black on the newer cars. An alternative, would be of course to get some side sills in black and to complete the look something in black on the back. Nobody makes a decent back ground-effect piece for the M2, except of course this same ATH. They make a killer back piece, unfortunately it has a couple of center cutouts that fits their dual exhaust muffler and no one else’s. By the time I’m done, I’ve have spent $2k (which is impossible unless I hit the lotto.)

To quote a friend, “I’m on the horns of the Dalai Lama.” Should I spend more than I think is same just to get the front to look like I like? Or should I go back to working on getting my wife to agree to some lowering springs?

Of All The Gin Joints…

…in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

The Master’s Miata Club was “hosting” a cruise in at the Sno Cap Drive-In in North Augusta tonight. We had about 8 of our cars and a smattering of other cars in attendance. About halfway through the evening, in pulled a blue Miata that wasn’t a club member. Hey, wait a minute, that car looks familiar. Sure enough, it was our old car. I went over and said hello to the new owner Shannon Vick and her son. She and he were in North Augusta and he suggested going to the Sno Cap for something to eat. They had no clue that we would be there. Boy that sure is a pretty car.

You must remember this;
A car is still a car,
A sigh is just a sigh ?
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

Mmm…Pain Pills

Had a minor outpatient procedure done at the hospital today. After driving myself there, Donna had to drive me home and as a special treat she put the top down for me. I love driving the Miata, but it sure was fun over in the right seat too. You get to see so much more and until they start making those George Jetson bubble roof cars you poor suckers in your SUVs will have to lead much shallower lives.

With apologies to Brian Damage:
[x] I’ve been banded
[ ] I’ve not been banded

I hope it doesn’t take three weeks to recover again, but I know that is wishful thinking because I am just a slow healer.

Lemonade

On the way home this afternoon when we got to the exit of the parking lot at work, Donna said, “Go left.” As we normally go right, that phrase meant, let’s take the long way home. This is a great stress reliever for both of us, I like the drive and Donna likes the ride.

I proceeded to wind my way home via some of our usual back roads. It was a warm afternoon, but it felt good to be out driving around. The dogwoods are blooming along with the azaleas and everything that is not flowering is turning green. Even though there were a few more cars on our route than usual they didn’t diminish our enjoyment. About 3 miles from home on a relatively lightly trafficed road we passed a little girl selling lemonade along the side of the road. We looked at her as she looked at us as we went by.

It is spring break for the local schools this week and both Donna and I envisioned this little girl telling her mom she was bored and her mom saying, “Why don’t you go sell lemonade out in front of the house,” in an effort to keep her entertained and get her out of mom’s hair.

We got about 200 yards down the road and Donna said, “Do you have anything smaller than that ten?” I pulled out my wallet and sure enough there was a single in there too. We turned around in a driveway a little further along and headed back. The lemonade was 50 cents a glass, so we bought two. We drank it right there at the side of the road and chatted with her a bit. It was from a mix and not too cold, but it did hit spot. When finished we turned around in her driveway and drove off with a wave and toot of the horn.

I think we kind of made her day, I know she made ours.