Masters Miata Club

10 Cool Miatas & A Cool Pickup Go See 30 Cool Cars

Cross posted from the Miata Club web site…

When we rolled out of Greg’s Gas Plus at 11:30 for the drive to Greenwood we were 8 Miatas strong. We also had an OTM bringing up the rear, a Ram pickup truck, because Caleb and his friend refused to ride in the trunk of Jennie’s Mazdaspeed Miata. The Wilms’ got a late start and met us at the lunch spot and Daryl Shipman met us in Greenwood.

The drive started cloudy and a bit chilly so everyone’s top was firmly in the up and locked position. The fog was supposed to break near midday, so we hoped to be able to put the tops down part way to Greenwood, instead, the further north we got, the thicker the fog became. Amazingly enough our practically mile long conga line of cars remained intact on the back road drive, until we got into the Saturday afternoon traffic on the US25 bypass around Greenwood. The left turn into our lunch spot was the trickiest part of the drive and true to form, we lost one car, temporarily, in the maneuver.

On the recommendation of Mr. Shipman, lunch was at a place called Migs Pizza Castle and it turned out perfectly in nearly every way. You ordered at the counter, so no waiting to be seated and can I get you drinks, etc. It was crowded so we sat where we fit, no rearranging the furniture into one long “last supper” style table. The food was actually quite good and the service was fast, I’d be willing to bet this is the first time in history that 20 people from this Miata Club got out of a restaurant in an hour.

Knowing the trouble we had getting into lunch, with the left turn needed, it would be impossible to get eleven vehicles in row, so Brian made sure everyone knew the short route to meet up with the Corvette Club just short of our final destination. When we got to the correct Greenwood High School parking lot we found not many Vettes and a whole lot of pickup trunks and SUVs. Quite a few of them were coming with more than two guests. It was suggested that anyone who could, carpool, so as to not overwhelm the quiet subdivison we were headed to. It helped some, but we still lined the street in front of the Von Seleens.

Arranged up the driveway hill to Hartmut’s two garages were a series of Porsche automobiles to boggle the mind. From the amazing 911R, to an 80’s cool slant nose 930 Turbo Convertible, to the insane 911GT2 RS, to the bonkers hybrid 918 Spyder, to my favorite, the 1969 911S in Cream with a brown interior. At the end of the driveway was the Lava Orange 911GT3 RS that came to Deals Gap with us in November. There was also the relatively sedate late model 911GTS and LeMans race car in street car clothing, a Carrera GT.

All these cars fit in the one garage at the top of the hill, with the red and yellow tiled floor and one wall covered with trophy cases filled with awards from car show and racetracks across America. The two car garage attached to the house held the “pedestrian” family cars, a Porsche Macan SUV (the GTS version) and an S Class Mercedes Benz (the AMG version of course.)

If that wasn’t enough, we then packed up and drove a couple miles cross town to visit Hartmut’s other garage where he keeps his more eclectic collection of cars. There were a little over 20 cars parked cheek by jowl and ran the gamut from a 1959 Corvette race car to a McLaren 650s Spider, a 1963 Porsche 356C to a Spyker C8, including the first car he bought when he came to America, a 1970 Mustang Boss 302. The last photo below is a 90° panorama I took from the front left corner, how many cars can you identify?

69,000 Yellow Leaves

The below is a shameful massaging of an email I sent to a friend last night, about our weekend trip to the world famous Tail of the Dragon and its 318 turns in 11 miles.

We had 5 Miatas from the Masters Miata Club scheduled for the weekend trip. One of our Miata club members is also a member of a local Corvette Club and he invited some of his fellow ‘Vette guys to join. We had two who wanted to come, but neither was going to drive their Corvette. One was going to drive a Miata and the other was going to drive a Porsche. At the last minute, the Miata driver backed out, leaving just the mystery Porsche driver to meet us in Elberton, GA on Friday. Trust me, it was fairly easy to spot his Lava Orange 911 GT3 RS in the McDonald’s lot. 🙂

Our Porsche guest was a great sport about just loafing around with us slow poke Miatas and rode mid pack on the trip up. He had been as far up into North Carolina as Highlands, but had never driven into these western parts, so he was just happy to be with us and soak up our knowledge of the area.

After driving the 200 miles to get Robbinsville, no one wanted to drive the 50 extra miles total to do a Dragon run, except for our Porsche driver and me. So instead of the two of us driving, I asked if I could ride along with him. “Sure,” he said. While the cost of the Porsche was roughly equivalent to the cost of all of our 5 Miatas put together, he promptly justified the high cost of the car to me by demonstrating how it would feel to do the trip in a low flying Blue Angels jet.

And let me tell you, this car gets some respect on the road. On the way up to the start of the Gap going up US129, we came across a tight 3 pack of cars, traveling 60 MPH or so, going the same way. The stock looking Civic SI in the back surrendered first, approximately 1/4 mile after we came right up on his rear. The middle car, an older model GTR, withstood about two miles of him having this orange beast filling his mirror before he hit his flashers and slowed on a short stretch of straight. The lead car, a late model Mustang that looked a bit modified, hung on leading for about the next three miles (he was doing pretty good), but after we past a small tangle of cars turning into the Tapoco Lodge he finally gave in on the first wide spot after the sharp uphill turn past the dam. He quickly disappeared in our mirror.

For a minute I was afraid this trip would make the same drive in a Miata feel pedestrian, but on Saturday morning on our early morning trip through the gap and back, it actually was the opposite, the Miata felt almost more fun, for a lot less work, so I probably won’t be cashing in my 401k to buy my own GT3 RS.

Somewhere around the lovely town of Cross Anchor, SC on the way home today the CTBNL reached the 69,000 mile mark.

Soul Brother Number 1 and Gawky White Guy Number 38,776,391

1. Set trip odometer to zero
2. [odometer]
3. S
4. “South S. C. 230”
5. L
6. [car and “JACKETS STADIUM”] (NOTE: may be easiest to pull off on right for photo)
7. L at T
8. R
9. “CARETTA” {off course clue: traffic light}
10. R

Above are the first 10 instructions for this year’s Masters Miata Club Road Rally/Photo Scavenger Hunt put on by David & Ellie Brock. Guess which one we screwed up on?

The event was titled the “I Feel Good” Rally because instead of last year’s rural roads we were going to be treated to a more urban route around the Godfather of Soul’s adopted home town of Augusta, Georgia and three of the nine photos needed were James Brown related.

Did you guess number one? You’d be wrong and frankly we’re insulted, it took us all the way until number four before we went off course. And that was totally my fault.

We both saw #4, the SC230 sign, my navigator wanted to turn left, but I was locked onto #6 and was sure we needed a photo in front of the new Augusta Greenjackets stadium. Obviously the rally organizers must have missed this particular sign and we were supposed to turn left after we saw the next SC230 sign. About a mile and a half later, there was another SC230 sign. While thinking that it was still too soon to turn, it dawned on the idiot driver, i.e. me, that the North Augusta High School nickname is the Yellow Jackets. Doh! That meant that first left was the correct turn, so I made a u-turn and headed back.

Now, having traveled 3 miles too many, we were back on track. For the photo required for #6, I of course, didn’t pay attention to the note (may be easiest to pull off on right for photo) and navigated our lowered Miata at a sharp angle, so as to not scrape, through a fairly deep drainage ditch to park on the left side of the road and right under the sign. I had to repeat the process to get back out and then pull a u-turn to get back going in the right direction. We then successfully navigated instructions seven and eight.

It fell apart again at #9 though when the navigator mis-interpreted the word CARETTA as an off-course marker, not the next instruction, so we took the wrong right turn. We then spent way too many miles driving around a random subdivision trying to make every intersection fit our mistaken interpretation of instruction #11. When we finally made it back to the road we turned off of, turned right to continue in what we hoped was the right way, and then took what we hoped was the correct right turn. It wasn’t. We then drove a loop of Marion Avenue 3 times, twice in one direction and once more in the opposite.

Crap. We were about to just pack it in, when Donna said, look up in your phone for instruction #19, St. Joseph Hospice and we can get back on track by taking #20’s right turn. This was a great idea until we found #19’s sign. It was at a crossroads and because we weren’t sure which direction we were supposed to be approaching the course marker from we had 4 different possible right hand turns to choose from. So we grabbed a lifeline. Because this was the Brock’s second rally for the Club and they were familiar with the caliber of minds involved, this year they included a few course correction GPS coordinates throughout the instructions.

We didn’t have to use any of the other 3 course correction clues, but we did have to Google one location to get back on track. In a subsequent foray off course, we used some local knowledge to get back to where we needed to be. We started as the second car and were the third car to finish. Although the five cars were started 3 minutes apart, we passed our other four competitors, coming or going, at least once and a couple cars more than once. At one point there were three of us together on Telfair Street waiting on the passing of a mile long freight train creeping along 6th Street.

The object of the rally was to take the nine required photos while covering the course in as close to the baseline mileage of 19.0 as possible. Only four of the five cars made it to the finish line. We ended up in second place. The winners, like us, had all the right photos, but they traveled one tenth of a mile fewer than Donna and I did. Before you go, “Awww, so close,” our total mileage was 31.0! A full 63% further than we should have had, meaning there were twelve extra miles of opportunity to shave a couple of tenths off our total…like the big one, ignoring instruction #4 or even the little right hand side of the road note in instruction #6 above.

2018 Spring Steeplechase

Action Photography by Brian

Action Photography by Brian

Again Tom Varallo offered the Masters Miata Club the use of his rail side spot at the spring steeplechase. We, along with three other couples, enjoyed a fabulous day at the races on our Club President. One other member ducked in to say hi somewhere around the 5th race.

We had grilled chicken and hot dogs to eat along with veggies, fruit and chips to dip. There were cookies for dessert and a retirement cake to top it all off for the club’s latest non-productive member of society. You would think that with the Club logo on the sign right in front of our Miata that it would have brought a question or two about Miatas and/or the club, but you’d be wrong. The Club vehicle that attracted the most attention was our “pick up truck”, a 1987 GMC Caballero owned by Hal & Trudy from the Club.

Between a couple of the races one of Donna’s gym rat friends showed up to chat a bit. We were standing by the rail looking away from the track into our tent and beyond when she asked, “Whose cool car is that.” I almost instinctively said, “It’s ours.”, because this question usually refers to the Miata, but hesitated. I asked, “Which one? The little convertible sports car or the classic 80’s pick up/car mix?” She replied, “The pickup thing.” Hal fielded loads questions about the Caballero from both us and passers by, as well as at least one offer to buy it from him on the spot.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 27, 2018 when I’ll regale you with stories of the fall steeplechase too, because Tom has said that the offer to share the spot will be good for as long as we want. Until then here are a couple of images from the spring event:

Motoring to a Miata Club Meeting

Thursday was the Masters Miata Club February Dinner Meeting and because they were meeting at a restaurant we like and haven’t been to in a dog’s age, we went. Also factoring in was the weather, for once in a quite a while we caught a day when the temperatures were actually above normal, so we could ride with the top down. For an appetizer, we took a couple of motoring challenge photos on the way over and for dessert, we grabbed one, on the way home.

Chasing Rainbows

On Saturday Donna and I led the Masters Miata Club on the drive to the North Carolina mountains to see some fall color and drive on a few windy roads. On the way home at our last pit stop in McCormick, SC we put the top up because it looked like rain ahead. The top was down when we left home 11 hours and 400 miles ago and truth be told, we were glad of the excuse because it was about time to take a break from the sun, the wind and the noise.

About 10 miles south of McCormick, as we passed through Plum Branch, I looked left at the dark clouds, thanking ourselves on our decision to raise the roof, when I noticed a small segment of barely visible rainbow. Oooh, we need a rainbow for the Moss Motoring Challenge. I conferred with my navigator, and Donna said, “Turn around.” So, I did a U-turn across the 5 lanes of US221 and turned right on SC283. After a bit, we came to a side road, turned down it and stopped. The rainbow segment was still there. I hopped out and took a picture. When we reviewed it inside the car it was fairly disappointing looking. It was recognizable as a bit of rainbow and would probably count, but both of us were unsatisfied.

Because the sun was going down in the west and 283 traveled east and the rain was ahead in the east, we agreed to keep going in that direction hoping for a better rainbow. A 1/2 mile further along down the road it was still wet from the rain having just been there and another 1/2 mile further it started to rain lightly. The two-lane road was surrounded by tall pine trees, but after a slight shift in road direction the sun popped out behind us and the rainbow appeared in front of us seemingly starting right in the middle of the road. I slowed down to pull over and had to pick a spot carefully because there was very little shoulder. By the time I got stopped and jumped out of the car into the light rain, the sun mostly disappeared and the rainbow, while still visible, had faded considerably. I took several vertically orientated pictures to capture the car, road, trees and about a third of the rainbow’s arc. The in-car review of my efforts had us agreeing that this was much better than the first attempt, but still left a little to be desired.

In for a penny, in for a pound, so we thought even though it was a bit out of the way, we’d drive the whole 20 miles east to Edgefield before turning south to Aiken to see if another rainbow opportunity showed up. Because of the recent downpour, the grass was very wet and the ground a little soggy, so as I pulled back onto the road, the back tire started to spin. I eased off the gas and returned to the road somewhat gracefully, but vowed that next time we pulled over to take a rainbow.

Well, not 3 miles further down the road, everything came together, the sun came out, the rainbow brightened and an empty Baptist church parking lot appeared on the right.

Second Saturday in a Row


We have led a Masters Miata Club Event…this week was the annual Bug Splat.

When Donna and I put on this event for the very first time way back in 1999 I had devised it sort of like a rally style start, I would send each car out at 3 minute intervals to guarantee clean air in front of the cars for maximum exposure to bugs. When I tried that the next year everyone balked at it, so I handed out the maps and sent them all on their way. I had underestimated the Club’s love of driving all in one long line (which as it turns out is second only to the love of all eating at one long table no matter how big the group or small the venue.)

By the third year everyone wondered why Donna and I weren’t playing along. When I explained that we didn’t want to steal anyone’s chance at a prize, they all went, “Pshaw, you should have some of the fun too.” We have been leading the line of cars around the route ever since.

It took me a couple of years to figure out the group had ulterior motives for this. They just wanted someone to lead so they wouldn’t have look at a map and/or not get lost, but probably the most likely reason was to decrease their odds of winning the Biggest Bug Trophy which is so ugly it is kind of cool. You either love it or hate it, with the haters having the larger numbers.

As we were loading the trophy in the trunk to bring to the starting point on Saturday, Donna was looking over the list of names of those who have held it in the last 18 years and asked, “How come we haven’t ever won it?”

“Alexa: play ominous music”

That’s right, we won the trophy this year with a silver dollar size splat on the nose of the CTBNL right next to the Mazda logo.