Miatatude

Warning!

Just like I did 10 years ago when Mazda was getting ready to introduce the 3rd generation Miata, I’ve been keeping my eyes on the Miata.net Forum staying up to date on the chatter about the 4th generation model. Actual information on the car has been dribbling out for months with the Japanese and European model stuff coming first. There have been leaks of a Japanese Accessories Catalog, a German spec sheet and price list and hints of Australian pricing.

Today we got a link to the Japanese Electronic Owners Manual! I can’t read kanji, so I wasn’t always sure what I was looking at for the last hour or so as I clicked on a bunch of things, but it sure was fun.

I did learn that you shouldn’t drive the Miata down stairs because you might scrape the bottom or don’t try and drive over parking lot dividers, you won’t make it:

 

 


Also, you don’t need to understand Japanese
to know what this Miata is saying,
“I hate winter. $#!*%”

 

 

The only real question I have is, “What the heck is this thing?”

wtf

Prize Patrol Visits

Trunk Lid

When we commute to the Valve Store(TM) in the Miata I get to check the mail when we get home. When we drive the Sonata I just pull into the driveway and Donna gets out and walks back to the mailbox. The driver’s side mirror on the Purple Whale is the same height as the mailbox and I almost tried to force the two of them into sharing the same space at the same time when I checked the mail for the first time in the Sonata. The Miata on the other hand glides easily below the mailbox level.

Spring seems to be here, so the Emperor was our chariot of choice for today’s trip to and from work. When I pulled open the mailbox lid there was a big padded envelope in there. As I pulled it out, I remarked, “What’d I buy?” Donna answered back with mock seriousness, “You better tell me.” Probably thinking I bought another BlipShift T-shirt with a Miata on it. But then the light bulb went off over our heads, it was the prize package from Moss Motors. Inside was a T-shirt, a sticker and my $50 gift certificate. The shirt is in the wash (a small phobia of mine) and the sticker has already found a home on the trunk lid. The fifty bucks? Maybe I should buy my wife something nice, like a T-shirt with a Miata on it?

Cars & Coffee

Daily DriverA little thing called Cars & Coffee, an informal car guy gathering, started out in California 7 or 8 years ago and has been spreading around the country. Mostly in big towns, but now some of the smaller places are picking up on it.

Turns out there has been one in Augusta, GA on the first Saturday morning of the month for a year now, but I never knew about it. Someone in the Miata Club brought it up at the yearly planning meeting and requested I put it on the MMC’s event calendar.

Shoot, I like cars and I like coffee, so Donna and I are going to go over there tomorrow to check it out. We also have an ulterior motive, it will count as a car show point in the Moss Motoring Challenge…

The 11-1/2 year-old, 149,000 mile Miata got a bath tonight. I even used a bit of some spray-on wax to gussy it up more gooder. When you get that close to the Emperor you can see it is starting to show its age in paint chips, scratches small dents, so I made up the little sign you see above to place on the dash.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1467

NA NA NA NB NB NB

na_na_na_DETAIL_grandeToday’s Blipshift shirt is another Miata design. Its a cute take on the minions from the Despicable Me movies because they always sound like they are going na na na when they laugh and it shows a minion in a first generation Miata, AKA the NA.

You only have a couple days to get in on owning one, so get out your charge card. There are now 5 Miata related designs from Blipshift, 4 of which feature the NA (all of which I own by the way) and one other featuring a 3rd gen car, the NC.

But I’m not falling for this one. Where is my car, an NB? Show me a 2nd generation Miata on a T-shirt and I’m buying a bunch of them.

Car 54k Where Are You?

On the way to the Valve Store(tm), that is where. The Purple Whale needed just to travel 1 mile from our driveway to reach the 54,000 mile total and it happened this morning on the way to work.

I’ve been hanging on every word and photo of the next generation Miata. Our first 2 Miatas were 1st generation models. The first car we kept for 6 years and the second one stayed around for eight. The current car is a 2nd generation model and has been in the family for going on a dozen years. We thought we were going to get a 3rd generation model about 4 years ago, until we sat in and drove one. Neither of us liked the look, the bath tub like feeling and the fact that they stole passenger foot well room for routing of the exhaust. Plus, the couple of inches it did gain in all directions made it appear a lot larger than the previous versions of the car.

The 4th generation car is supposed to be smaller than the 3rd in a most areas and is actually shorter than the tiny first car, but you can’t tell it from the pictures below, it looks larger.


On the plus side I like the looks, except for those tail lights, and a leak of the Japanese market brochure shows that it will quite possibly be available in something called Dynamic Blue Mica. On the down side, I can’t imagine the “bath tub” feel has improved any from looking at the door height in those photos and I’ve read that the seat has been lowered in the car for more head room and improved balance. We will definitely go sit in and drive a 4th generation model later this year when they become available and even though right now I think I want one, odds are the reign of the Emperor will continue…

Still !?!

The Emperor from day one has had a few minor scratches on the top of the passenger door. We actually didn’t notice them until after a few days of ownership, but the dealer was apologetic and had them touched up right away. Just like a Dent Wizard, the dealer had a Paint Wizard that he could call and they a great job. Even after 11 years, if you don’t know where to look you wouldn’t notice them.

At first I speculated that it was a dog owner who took his mutt with him on a test drive, but I found out later from a salesman who used to work at the dealer that my car was one of a half dozen or so that had their air bags stolen while they sat on the lot. The thieves were caught when a local detective put 2 + 2 + eBay together.

I could have swore that I wrote about this once before about 5 years ago when I had found a 1″ square stray bit of shattered auto glass while doing something under the passenger seat, but my trying to search for it on this here blog turned up nothing.

Why am I writing about it now you may ask yourself. I went through the DD drive thru on Sunday and my total came to $1.09, when I was handed the change I attempted to drop it one of the cup holders. All of it made it in except for the penny. When I got home I slid the passenger seat forward to look for it and I didn’t find a penny, but I did find another small chunk of that shattered glass.

Hard to believe that after 11 years and all the vacuuming of the interior that I could still find a one inch by one half inch piece of auto window glass, but I did.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1447

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

I Googled “miata night before Christmas” so I could put a post here tonight without having to actually write something. I knew I had seen one that was Miata related and sure enough there were a bunch of hits, including the 6th one that was from a site called “Life of Brian.” Eleven years ago I quoted the whole original poem. Some of the others were OK, but I opted for this one of unknown vintage on the Flyin’ Miata website, purveyors of all kinds of Miata goodies.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the Counties,
The Miatas were parked, warm and safe from the Mounties;
The driving gloves had been packed, with loving care,
Knowing that next Spring they would still be there;

His ‘n her Miata owners were nestled snug in their beds,
While visions of forced-induction danced in their heads;
And mamma in her FM shirt, and I in my cap,
Were planning next year’s drives on a dog-eared road map,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I dropped my Miata Musings to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

What I saw made me weep and shook me to the core,
It was a Velocity Red Mica Mazdaspeed Miata, a two-thousand and four!
With a tall thin man driving, like a bat out of hell,
I knew in a moment it must be Bill Cardell.

“Now, ELVIS! now, TRACKDOG!
now, FILOU and TORO!
On, ANGEL on BABY!
on, CUZI and PHOENIX!
To the point of that apex!
cut the driving edge fine!
Now make that last mad dash!
all the way to the finish line!”

And I heard on the roof the sound of much fun,
The squealing and chirping of Toyo RA-1’s.
As I grabbed the car keys, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Bill came in with a bound.

He was dressed all in Nomex, from his head to his toe,
With tight fitting driving shoes so he could shift just so;
The sunglasses he wore sparkled with a dancing light,
And I thought to myself “How the hell can he see at night?”

Around the room to the stockings he raced,
Leaving Hard Dog Deuce bars and a FM Cannon Brace,
I even saw under the tree, by a moon so low and so pale,
Nothing less than a Da’Lan hitch and a brand new Tire Tail!

Bill was ready to leave, “Other slalomers yet to go!”,
And make his way through the white winter’s snow.
But he left mine till last, ‘fore he went up the flue,
I found in my stocking a brand new FM-II!

He sprang to his droptop, blipping the throttle with a roar,
And I knew right away the 2.0L was stroked, not bored.
I heard him exclaim, ere he squealed out of sight,
“KEEP the needle at REDLINE and CUT the corners Tight!”