The new Miata is fantastic, but not perfect. What David did to this thing when he first bought it is right out of the text book on Miata improvements. The addition of the roll bar was icing on the cake. Although roll bars are foremost thought of as primarily a safety improvement or a necessity for track usage, a huge benefit of one is it tightens up the rigidity of the open top car to near that of a closed one.
None of our previous Miatas had a roll bar and while they do have tremendous benefits, we have been contemplating taking this one out. One of the nice thing about the installed Hard Dog Ace bar is that allows full seat travel and tilt. It sure does, but it doesn’t mention how noisy it is while doing so. The seat goes all the way back, but the top of the seat rubs the top of the bar and the upper back of the seat rubs the diagonal brace of the bar. The vinyl back of the seat squeaks in both places. Our only remedy so far is to move the seat back up one notch towards vertical. And this is a very weird feeling for both of us who have spent the last 13 years in the Emperor with the seat back tilted one inch further back. Physically that is not much, but psychologically it is miles. I feel like a little old man scooted up to the steering wheel so I can see over the hood. Donna feels like she is in a smaller car.
Also contributing to that smaller car feeling is the near total lack of any color except black. Our first two Miatas had all black interiors, but again we have been spoiled by the baker’s dozen worth years in the light beige (Parchment in Mazda parlance) interior of the previous one. It is not too bad with the top down, but when it is up, and you guessed it, it has a black underside, even I think we are going to need more than the silver shift knob and e-brake handle to cut the dimness.
Last night we took a couple small steps to fix both issues. A trip to Walmart netted us some 2″ x 4″ strips of black velcro hook & loop fastener tape and a cheap 2′ x 4′ piece of red, gray & black throw rug. Tonight I stuck the fuzzy side of the tape in three places on the roll bar where it was contacting Donna’s seat back. Sitting in the seat in the garage there were no squeaks, hopefully a road test will turn out the same way. If it does, we’ll buy some more for my side. The carpet was subjected to Brian’s patented Presto Chango treatment and came out the other side, dun, dun, duh – Miata Floor Mats. Garage testing these was a little less conclusive than the roll bar squeak issue, better, but probably not enough.