Miatatude

Brian Rekindles His Miatatude

Last Thursday I decided to go test drive a new Miata. I wanted to see if I really wanted a new ND or should go ahead and start trolling Bring A Trailer or Cars & Bids for a low mileage NB. When I got to the dealer and a salesperson greeted me, I said I was interested in new Miata in Grand Touring trim if they had one. They did, it was right out front. I wasn’t going to buy it, but I did want to take it for a spin.

We took a decent little test drive and while I did like the car it three strikes against it. It was white, it was the folding hardtop version and lastly it was an automatic transmission. When I voiced these concerns my sales person said, “We have a used soft-top in Red?” “Go get it, I’ll drive it,” I said. It was a 2016 Club model with less than 16,000 miles on the clock. I was a little rusty with the clutch a couple of times, but driving a stick is like swimming or riding a bike, once you know how to do it, you never forget.

When we got back to the dealership, I thanked Manny for the drives and told him I was a month or so out on buying a car and I’d let him know. When I got back home and sat on the couch, I started justifying me buying that used Miata. Not a fan of red, but I could deal with that. An 8-year-old car averaging 2,000 miles a year, not a problem. The car looked practically and the previous owner had added a sweet sounding RoadsterSport SuperStreet exhaust. Once I had a taste I was hooked. I called Manny and right then and asked, “What time do you get to work on Friday,” his reply was, “It’s my day off.” “Saturday?” “9:00” “Okay,” I said, “See you at 9:30 on Saturday.” So, I drove both cars again, but in reverse order, the exhaust note on the Club was calling me. I was almost ready to pull the trigger on the 2016, but still wanted another spin in the new car.

Echoing in my head is a sentiment that I got from Todd & Paul of Everyday Driver that we enthusiasts almost have an obligation to buy a new sports car if we want manufacturers to keep making and improving sports car. We have to be the market, so that others after us can get their hands on this kind of car. So, for purely altruistic reasons, I told Manny that if he could find a local dealer with a 2024 Grand Touring, a 6-speed and black interior we might could make that work.

They found an Aero Gray one in McMinnville, about an hour and a half away. After doing all the paperwork Manny headed to McMinnville in some car that they were swapping and I headed home to wait for them to call me when the car was ready for me to pick up. I’ve never seen Aero Gray in person and neither had they, so it was going to be all new to all of us. I got tired of waiting around the house so I Ubered over to the dealer and parked myself in their waiting area and watched college football and ate their free snacks.

According to Google Maps the two dealerships are 46 miles apart and the odometer on the car read 52 miles when I got in it for the first time. In spite of my rambling on about the lack of color in today’s car paint spectrum, this color has a strange attraction to me. It is not too dark, nor is it too light, and it looks good with the black soft top and the small black accents on the car. Either way, right now, I don’t want to wrap it a solid real color and nor do I feel I need to put stripes on it to brighten it up.

Now I just have to avoid joining the area’s Miata club or hanging around in the Miata.Net Forums so I can avoid the usual rampant customizing I am prone to doing…

Happy Anniversary To Me

Today would have been our 48th anniversary and if Donna is looking down at me, she is probably a little disappointed in me. Not because I bought another Miata, but more because she really didn’t like the looks of the 4th gen car. And she might even think that taking a loan out on the car was a blunder.

Sorry dear, but I do like the more modern sharper edges design of the ND. And the loan was just a way to not take a huge chunk out of the checking account we use for the non day to day spending. Don’t worry, I can pay off the loan early and in full once State Farm sends me your life insurance payout.

Last night when I picked up the car all I did was drive it home and park it. This morning, I took it out for its initial shakedown cruise. I had no particular destination in mind, I just knew that I would be heading east. First thought was to drive over to the Mt Hood area get some mountain road twisty. I started out down Sandy Blvd and ended up in Troutdale and drove right under the big arched sign reading Gateway To The Gorge. {visible lit light bulb appears over my head} Historic Route 30 runs through the gorge all the way to the most visited waterfall in the state, Multnomah Falls, some 15 or so miles away.

I’d never driven this road before, but was hoping there would be several sections of mountainous turns and boy was I right. It was a narrow road (probably first paved in the 40’s) and there were a lot of twisty sections throughout the drive, all the way to and beyond the falls. I was going to just head home on I-84, but right after I got on the Interstate, I did a Homer Simpson styled head slap and a vocal “Doh!” I got right back off a mile later at the other Multnomah Falls exit and drove that fun road home.

First No-Miataversary

I’ve had a Miata in the garage from November 7, 1989 up until September 14th of this year. I have been blogging since January 1, 2002. On November 7th of that first year I made a blog post about my 13th “Miataversary.” The following year, 2003, I forgot and posted about it 3 days later. I missed a year and then did one in 2005 in the style of an On This Day post. Jump another 2 years to 2007 where for some reason I didn’t find those first few Miataversary posts, but I did link in there to a post from December of 2006 that mentions a cobbled together birth announcement I had created when we bought that first Miata back in 1989.

Then, I didn’t blog about Miataversaries for a whole decade until I started up again in 2017. In this one I linked to the story of the purchase of that very first Miata that I had written several years back. For the next 5 years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022) I didn’t miss posting about the anniversary of purchasing that 1989 “Smurf” blue Miata.

Somehow, I think that next November7th, I won’t be writing a post about my 2nd Annual No-Miataversary.

The End of an Era

This photo is from 2 days ago as I watched the new owner drive off.

For the first time in just shy of 34 years (or a little over a billion seconds) I don’t own a Miata. We just didn’t drive it much and if it got driven once a week it was lucky. Usually when it did go for a drive, it was short hops to pick up a pizza or a run to the cannabis store. We did take it a couple of times to get breakfast or a coffee at our favorite spot this summer.

We have probably been in Brevada over a thousand times in the four years we’ve lived here and are known by the owners and staff. It is not exactly like Cheers, where everyone in the place shouts our names when we come in, but close. Most of folks there do know what our usual order is and will start making our drinks while we are waiting in line to pay.

About a week ago one of the owners, David, was manning the register. He asked me, “How do you like your Miata?” I of course replied, “Love it.” “I’ve always wanted one”, said David. So I said, “Do you want to buy mine?” He responded with how much do you want for it and I threw out a figure that was a few hundred more than what I paid for it. “How many miles does it have on it?”, he asked. I told him it was 2002 with just over 83K. David said he’d have to drive it, but he’d have to run it by his CFO (his wife). I told him I’d drive it up on Monday, when we came in for breakfast.

Monday we went to Brevada for breakfast in the Miata. After eating, David broke away during a lull in customers and we went for a 15 minute drive. He had driven a Miata before, he and his wife had rented one on their honeymoon and both enjoyed the experience. The rental was of course a new fourth generation Miata. Mazda has steadily improved the car over the generations, without changing the essence of the car. David said that the second gen Miata, like the CTBNL, was his favorite looking one. He was smitten. Now if we can pass the wife test.

He mentioned that his wife’s car needed to go over the mountain to Medford tomorrow for some service and would I let him take the Miata and follow her over. Then they’d drive back to Klamath Falls together so he could get her to like it enough to let them buy it. Later in the day David texted me to say the wife’s car didn’t need to go over to Medford, but could he borrow the car to go on a dinner date with her. When they picked up the Miata that afternoon David asked politely could they take it the Lake of the Woods. Now, Lake of the Woods is halfway between here and Medford, so I didn’t have any problem. After all, I was willing to to let them take the car for 140 miles, so 70 was fine.

When they returned the CTBNL a few hours later, David’s “evil” plan worked to perfection. They wanted to buy it. Seeing how much they both enjoyed the car Donna said we would sell it to them a bit cheaper than my off the cuff price from before. So I sold it to them for a few hundred less that what we bought it for 7 years and 40,000 miles ago. Win, win for all concerned. David came over the next day with a check and we signed the title. I showed him how to use the cockpit cover, loaded up the trunk with a box of spare Miata parts, tossed in a couple of Miata coffee table books I had and, well the picture above tells the story.

Emotional Support Vehicle

A few weeks ago while wasting time on the Insta I came across a sticker that someone I follow had on the their Miata. I just had to have one. So I ordered one. It arrived in the mail a few days later.

It has taken 2 weeks for me to put it on the car though. I hesitated because I thought it was kind of “girly.” Which is kind of funny because the Miata I drive is considered a hairdresser’s/chick/gay car by roughly 75% of the male population and I have zero f**ks given about what people think about it.

Was I afraid that this would confirm that they are right? Whatever, I don’t care, it’s on there because that’s what the Miata is to me. If you’d like one of your own you can get one from Push to Start Design.

Lowered Miata

When we bought The CTBNL it was lowered on a set of Racing Beat springs along with a set of Koni Sport yellow shocks. When a car is lowered the spring rate needs to increase, otherwise the shorter suspension travel will bottom out on sharp road imperfections. The Racing Beat springs were around 20% stiffer and that would have been great is all the roads we traveled were fairly smooth, but in the real world it seemed like were hitting the bump stops way too often.

Our previous Miata was lowered on a set of Flying Miata springs with those same Koni Sport shocks. So, not long after we bought the current car we swapped the Racing Beat springs for Flying Miata’s almost 100% stiffer units. No more hitting bump stops.

Flying Miata says that after their springs are installed the ride height, measured from wheel center to the fender lip, should be 12.5″ in the front and 13″ in the rear or an even 3/4″ lower than stock. When I measure the ride height on the CTBNL now it comes in at the advertised 13″ in the rear, but the front measures just 12″.

This extra 1/2″ lower ride height comes into play rarely and only when really pushing the car the car through a very sharp turn. The tire will scrape the inner plastic fender liner. This is especially prevalent in the winter when I have the taller Mini Cooper all-season tires on the car.

I don’t remember these stiffer springs feeling this harsh on both the last car and on this one when we were in South Carolina. There is probably a reasonable explanation for this. It could be we are getting older and less tolerant of being jostled. It could also be that we used to drive the Miata a lot more back east so we were used to be jostled around. It could possibly be the roads out here are worse than in South Carolinas. Or it could be a combination of all three.

I have been considering swapping out springs back to stock to maybe mellow out the ride some. Also, because of that whole aging thing again, it might be nice to get that 3/4″ of ride height back. A set of used springs are fairly cheap, around $100, but the labor to swap them out will probably be 4 times that. After the swap and alignment would be needed. With what little we drive the Miata anymore, 238 miles in the last 6 months, I’m not sure it is worth it.

17.1 miles to the Running Y Ranch for a walk.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 33

 

Seasonal Tires

A couple of widely spaces days in the 60’s and I decided to go ahead and take the Mini’s all-season tires off the Miata and put the summer Toyo R1R’s back on. It is still going to be a while before the temperatures are reliably above 50’s in the afternoon for the Miata to get more constant use, but it was nice to have the proper tires and wheels back on the car for todays drive. No more scraping the plastic fender liners with tires on the sharper corners.

The all-seasons are stacked under the workbench in the garage for now. The winter tires remain on the Mini because it may still randomly drop some snow on us for the next few weeks. And we have a trip, that may be taken in the Mini, coming up at the end of the month that requires some high altitude mountain passes that have a higher probability snow chances than here.

10.9 mile errand trip to the Post Office.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 12