Miatatude

Brian Bogardus: Race Car Driver

Roebling Road Lap Times

Our trip to Roebling Road Raceway brought back some memories. We have watched John race here a couple of times in recent years, but we had been here once before a long time ago for a different reason.

In the early days of Miatadom there was a national umbrella club that was the central point of information for the rest of the clubs around the country. The Miata Club of America, along with Mazda’s help, put out a glossy magazine quarterly that went to every member and they planned and put on events around the country at different places with the help of local clubs. The 1991 National Event was in Savannah and we decided to go.

There were lots things to do, poker run, scenic drives, a riverboat cruise, etc, but the big draw was track time at Roebling Road. Each person who wanted would get one session on the track both Friday & Saturday morning. I don’t recall how many laps we got, but my guess is five, a warm up lap, 3 at “speed” and a cool down lap. Your best time of the two days would be counted towards a small bit of prize money or trophy or something. To help keep the speed down some and to keep folks from running right off Turn #1, they placed a cone lined chicane* near the end of the loooong straightaway.

*In the intervening 2 decades they’ve built one into the track.

All you needed by way of safety equipment was a Snell approved helmet and I ate up a significant portion of the Miata’s trunk space on the trip with a borrowed coworker’s motorcycle helmet. Tech inspection consisted of making sure your lug nuts were tightened to the proper specifications. They also opened the hood and looked underneath to check for modifications because they were going to handicap the cars based on any improvements made.

As you can see in the image above, my bone stock 1990 Miata lapped the 2.02 mile track in 2 minutes and 15.19 seconds. John’s best lap time in his race prepped 1990 Miata last Saturday morning was 1 minute and 24.9 seconds. That means if we left the starting line at the same time, he would pass me just I started on lap #3 while he was beginning his 4th lap.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1218

Friday at the Beach/Brewery

New South Brewing

A word of advice, skip the cheap Sea Mist breakfast buffet. The only thing that was hot was the made to order omelet prepared by a almost surly woman. They didn’t have hot chocolate, so I skipped getting their coffee meaning that we could go to DD for dessert. We filled up the car and found an ATM.We couldn’t find any takers to join us on a trip to the flea market, so we went anyway and only shopped for a bit before giving up and going to lunch.

We went to the Dead Dog Saloon which was the place the Miata group was set to drive to, but just too late in the day for us. The traffic here is dense and stop and go for long sections of US17. This was another reason we were way early at the restaurant, if there is one thing more annoying than creeping along in bumper to bumper traffic, it is driving in a group in bumper to bumper traffic. We were actually in the middle of that bumper to bumper traffic going back to the hotel as the Miata group was going to the restaurant.

While they were eating, we were watching a movie in our room. Even that didn’t go as planned as about 3/4 hour in, the fire alarm in our building of the complex went off. The bright side of this, beside the place not burning down, was we learned that the sun had finally deemed to make an appearance. Unfortunately because of the long fire caused intermission we didn’t even finish the movie before it was time to line up for the afternoon drive to the New South Brewery.

We opted to go for this drive for a couple of reasons, one we were interested and two the route did not include any stretch of US17. The tour was very interesting and educational, not to mention tasty as we got to sample several of their craft beers.

MAMB VII

Myrtle Beach

We finally get our kitchen back after eight weeks and we opt to drive 200 miles away so we have to eat out for the next 4 days.

Today we drove over to the east coast of South Carolina with a fellow MMC member couple to participate in the seventh annual Miatas at Myrtle Beach. And we “lucked” into a weekend with some of the lousiest weather they’ve ever seen for April in quite some time.

I feel bad for the organizers as they have had to shuffle some things around because of the weather. This afternoon’s Poker Run was moved to Saturday afternoon and tomorrow’s big drive had the morning portion scratched because the plantation we were supposed to descend upon en mass called to say that it wouldn’t be a good idea to drive the 70 or so Miatas down it’s dirt road after all this rain because it will be sloppy muddy. Plus if it was raining, there would be no way to accommodate that many people inside the house.

We’re not sure what we’ll do to fill the empty morning other than take advantage of the Sea Mist’s inexpensive breakfast buffet. We may visit a local flea market.

Weekend Warrior

The Miata has morphed from daily driver to weekend warrior, seems like the only time it gets to come out from under its blanket is on Fridays and Saturdays. That’ll be changing soon as the BKR is wrapping up. Tomorrow the counter top goes in and Monday the back splash goes up. Also on Monday the last bits of plumbing should get wrapped up, sink and garbage disposal hooked up, ice maker line run and the dishwasher all buttoned up. Tuesday the dumpster that blocks access to the garage goes away and then the Emperor will once again be allowed back into his throne room.

Plus, spring appears to be finally here and the weather will now be nice enough to actually enjoy riding with the top down for at least the evening trip home from work.

Even though today was Friday, it was a weekend day for us because the Valve Store ™ considers Good Friday a holiday, so we uncovered the Miata and drove it when we did our running around. After we got home for the day I took advantage of the nice weather and changed its oil and rotated its tires.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1207

Spring?

The MMC went for breakfast this morning by attending the 3rd annual North Augusta Optimist Club’s Pancake Breakfast. One Miata just met at the church, but three of us met elsewhere and made a little trip of it. The Club President was chauffeured to the event in a Limo by the First Lady as he is not allowed to drive for a couple more weeks, POTMC had a knee replaced 10 days ago.

According to the countdown timer on Weather.com we still have 3 days and a couple hours before it is officially spring, but today sure felt like spring here. The Bradford Pear trees are covered in white blossoms and some of the azaleas are blooming. In our travels today we saw several convertibles, most had their tops down, but some did not, I wonder what they were waiting on?

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1205

So Much For A New Top

With all the back and forth of cabinet choices (location, specifications, color, etc.) we didn’t get around to ordering them until the 18th of January. This turned out to be a good thing as Lowes, along with the $1300 discount we got, added a promotion on the 17th that gave you a gift card for 10% of your total cabinet order. Of course it was for 10% off after they took the $1300 off, but I was taught never to look a gift horse in the mouth.

We asked the cabinet guy if it was a Lowes gift card and he said, “No, it’s a Visa gift card. You can use it anywhere.” Cool, we thought, that’ll cover the cost of a new convertible top for the Emperor. The top has got a few major blemishes, a few minor blemishes and a few minor places where the top layer of fabric has worn down to the lining. No leaks yet, but…

Got two envelopes in the mail today with the word Lowes on the top line of the return address. One was to let us know we were pre-approved for a Lowes Visa credit card and the other was a gift card for 10% of our cabinet purchase – on a Lowes gift card.

Trying hard not to stare at the equine periodontia.

Intermittent Wipers

Rainy Breakfast

The Emperor got to come out from under his cover on Saturday for the first time in 10 days as the MMC met for breakfast at a Steak & Shake in Augusta. On the drive over to breakfast it was misty or sprinkling or just road spray the whole way. Our 1990 Miata didn’t have intermittent wipers, just off – low – high, but the 1995 and this one, additionally have a one speed intermittent setting. For most of the trip to Augusta the wipers were set on intermittent.

The Purple Whale has an intermittent setting with about 8 variations of intermittentness. Invariably when driving the Sonata in the same conditions as Saturday’s trip in the Miata I will find myself playing with the settings, trying to get just the right amount of wipage per windshield wetness, yet in the Miata I was perfectly happy with the one speed intermittent setting. Another example of more choices not necessarily being a good thing I suppose.