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    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift oldgrayleather's Avatar
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    Cars, Coffee and California...

    My eldest brother Dan was the catalyst that turned me into a petrolhead when I was about 7 or 8. Our relationship always linked our shared passion for cars and driving. His first car was an orange ‘78 Fiat Spider 124 he bought in University. The upkeep ultimately truncated their affair but not before I learned to drive stick on her and get my first taste of the exhilaration of top down driving. The Spider gave way to two wheeled transportation that kept the open air spirit and true Jinba Ittai. He was always working on his bikes and even got into racing in the last few years (never too old to start)…



    We lived in different cities and countries for most our lives but always connected to talk cars. I remember his excitement in Feb ‘89 when Mazda unveiled the NA – the sheer genius of Japanese reliability combined with the ethos of British open top motoring. The one head scratcher was Mariner blue since BRG seemed so obvious (and we hadn’t heard the lore of “French blue”). It simply stood out as an odd color choice for an otherwise classically styled roadster. We thought it looked inspired by the Lego blue of my Galaxy Explorer set.



    Fast forward twenty five years to last summer. Dan came across Lola, a montego blue ‘96 with 184k miles for $750 and swapped the family ‘87 Jetta to get it. He was in rapture. I’d moved from the the UK to LA and was contemplating a European classic convertible for enjoying the perennial great weather and amazing SoCal car culture. He chastised me for missing the point that *fancy* ≠ fun and shamed me for not recollecting his heartbreak over struggling to keep his 124 on the road. I couldn’t really challenge his logic.

    Sadly, Sept 10th he called to say he’d been diagnosed with cancer that was already at stage 4 which left no hope of a recovery. He passed away a mere two months later but I was so fortunate to have been able to get back to Vancouver (Canada) most weekends to be with him on his journey. I learned so much from him especially during that time and am grateful we could spend so much of it together. He never wasted a second feeling sorry for himself or dwelling on regret. The simple mission he chose was to enjoy as much as he possibly could with his family and friends for as long as he had. His funeral was Nov 12th during Thanksgiving. I couldn’t be more thankful for having had a brother, mentor and friend like him.

    As I continued to try and grasp the finality of it all, Jen (my better half) encouraged me to think about picking up a Miata. As a tribute. Inspirational as she’s always been, that set me on the hunt. I started spending loads of time learning more about NA's and the incredible Miata community online and became truly inspired by so many of you. For me, the search criteria was simple.. find as close a car to the Lego Blue miata we talked so much about in ‘89. Had to be a first year production, as close to stock as possible and of course Mariner blue. After a few months of hunting, one came up in CA with less than 50k miles on the clock. Jen and I drove up and bought it on the spot. The first order of business was going to be cleaning up some of the "special" badges and carpet dash cover but the drive home was intoxicating..







    I have my own boys now who are learning my passion for cars and have a love of Lego that means we've watched the Lego movie far too many times. The name Benny was a natural choice...



    This is the start of my build thread where I hope to share my passion on the journey Benny and I will be taking and probably the odd story about Dan and our shared love of Cars, Coffee and California…

    PS: James - cheers for the push to get me started...
    Last edited by Martin; 10-20-2015 at 04:43 PM.

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