Miatatude

Grape Sized Hail

Wuzzed out. Saw a dark sky when passing a window at work this morning, checked the radar and saw a line of green headed our way so I went into the parking lot and put the top up. All the while I was doing it was sprinkling. Rained for about 1 minute then quit. Oh well. Put it down for the trip home and it sat in the garage while we had grape sized hail fall for about 5 minutes this evening when a big ol’ storm barreled through town. How do people who have to keep their cars outside deal with that? Had to run to the store tonight and we were still on the fringes of the rain so the top went up, although as it worked out, it probably didn’t need to be…..

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 112

AWOL T-shirts

Tonight was the monthly Miata Club meeting. We met at Davenports in North Augusta. The food was OK, the service was so-so, we ain’t goin’ back. Next month we are going to try the new Grand Buffet. It just opened up in the same spot as our old meeting place was, the Old Country Buffet, except this is Chinese plus other stuff. I can hardly wait 😉. The Club T-shirts are still AWOL, Rudy sez he’ll check on them tomorrow. The fact that it might cost more money to find a new web host and pay for a domain name didn’t sit too well with the populous, so we will be staying at Geocities for a while. I can’t get worked up about designing a spiffy site that is going to have a java pop up on top and pop under ads. I think I’ll change the site to be text based and just update the calendar…

I wonder if the M2 owners would object to having a www.barndoorfanclub.org/masters_miata URL?

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 109

Ugly Knob

Liar, liar pants on fire! I still ain’t got no picture of the knob. Subconsciously I must think it is ugly. Starting to get used to feel, but the look….

Today was Polo with the Miata Club. Only two other cars showed up. Was it because it was Sunday? Was it because it was Polo? Was there an Autox somewhere? Was it me? Oh, well the 6 of us had fun. The only down side was that we were way early because we didn’t have anyone raise their hood at the welcome center and of course it isn’t too hard to keep a 3 car train in check. Sooo, we just went for a longer drive.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 107

Slightly Off Putting

Tomorrow, I promise on the pics of the MG Woodoo shift knob. The jury is still out, not sure I like the aluminum top and rubber middle (can’t see the aluminum bottom normally) and the transition between the feel of the two materials is, I can’t put my finger (no pum intended) on it, slightly off putting.

Decided to exercise the top today. Took the boot off because of the iffy weather and then ended up put the top up twice while running errands when I could have put the cover on.

Started down, up, down, up again, down again, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 107

MG Woodoo!

What happens when you put a Magnum Spun Voodoo knob on Calvin’s Transmogrifier with a MGW Gripper knob – you get a MG Woodoo! Looks OK, feels OK, not sure what to think, will drive the weekend with it and see. Pictures tomorrow in the light.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 103

Rubber Ring

I took the Voodoo knob off and put the OEM knob from a 99 Miata back on. I have plans. I like the rubber ring from around the MGW gripper knob and I love the feel of the shape of the Voodoo, so why not the best of both worlds. I pried the rubber ring off the MGW and took some measurements. Applied those to a drawing I made of the Voodoo knob and turned it over to a buddy who is a wiz with a lathe. I’ll let you know what happens. Some folks hate it, but I actually like the way the stock knob feels. I like the Voodoo better, so if this doesn’t work out, I’ll get a new one, this time in pearl so I won’t have to keep renewing the spun finish.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 103

Grieving Insect Families

Top went up to wash the car and back down after it dried. I know the insect population in NC has probably not diminished any percentage-wise, but judging by the amount of bug carcasses caked onto the front of the Miata there are quite a few grieving insect families up there.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 103