Cars, Coffee and California...

[Greasemonkey2000]

Benny is on point as usual, Pete!!! The tire/wheel/stance has me considering a set of SSR Sharks instead of Watanabe's. The tribute cap for Marco is pretty awesome! Bravo to Circuit Sports for doing that!

[Cermivelli]

So you won the Nielex trim? Have been bidding against you I guess! Really curious how it will look on your car!

[oldgrayleather]

Long over due for some updates...

The week before MRLS, Kadin, Chaye and Kevin arranged for a small Sunday morning “Corns and Coffee” meet. I decided it was time to clean up the Sunburst and finally bring it along. It helped a lot that I had a loaner stereo from Domo since the upgraded unit from Jeff Anderson stopped working and has to be sent back to be re-repaired.



Many of the usual SoCal suspects I know were there but one addition was a Mazda design employee with probably the cleanest BRG I’ve ever seen (~30k miles IIRC). Here’s what an excited group looks like checking out a super clean OEM engine bay ;)


In order: Spirit Road’s Maruha Montego, Kadin’s stunning Black & Tan RHD, David’s beautiful LE, *that* BRG, our Sunburst, Pedro’s pretty Merlot, Garret’s awesome BRG and JonB’s period correct rusted pickup

And shot from the other direction…

And the back…


So much clean…


As always, such a treat to get together with other roadster nuts and their cars.

[oldgrayleather]

Late Thursday night there was some last minute work on Benny since I had to reinstall my rear bumper (one of the updates I was hoping would be ready for MRLS didn’t quite work out - more on that later) but was already super excited about the weekend up in Monterey.


What followed was the 4:30 wake-up call on Friday morning so we could start our trek north.

We met up with the crew at the IHOP in Santa Barbara. When we arrived there were already 20+ drivers fueling up on coffee, pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc. Loved seeing Taxi was on the road and joining along with Andrew’s transformed NA that he completed just in time.


Unfortunately my eldest son had to be in SF a day earlier for a college tour so borrowed Berg and missed out on the KINOD convoy. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by my 18 year old nephew from Canada who had already planned to do the 3,000+ mile drive; join the pilgrimage to Laguna Seca and back before turning around to go home. A month or so earlier his first red NA was totaled when someone decided to make an illegal U-turn right in front of him (I actually think U-turns in general are pretty much illegal in Canada). Clearly didn’t bode well for his plans but after the hassles of dealing with insurance it turned out they gave him a healthy budget to find a replacement so he picked up Ruby just a couple weeks before his trip started. The car had been repainted by a prior owner and looked remarkably close to JonB’s Copper Red NC. The color really stands out in natural light but sadly none of my pictures do it justice. The best may have been the collection of hardtops?




Interesting factoid: I knew early Canadian NA’s had DRL and the same non airbag steering wheel as Japan but didn’t realize it had straight light/ wiper stalks and a cleaner steering hub cover (no cover to pop out for some undetermined reason).

The next stop was gassing up in Morro bay before heading to the rock for some quick pictures. By the time we got there the count was 35 cars so ready for the last stretch up the 1 to Monterey. That road was wiped out from a landslide a couple years ago so it was fun to again take a break from the faster but less interesting freeways.








As we were heading out it resembled a scene from MadMax with all the cars kicking up dust and converging on the little road out of town.

Shortly after Benny crossed the 80,000 mile milestone. What an incredible ~30k mile journey it’s been with this car over the last bunch of years.


A few hours and many many bends later we finally pulled into the parking lot at the Embassy Suites feeling exhausted and hungry but excited for the days ahead.



Moss’ BBQ is always a welcome treat for weary travelers followed by registration and then taking advantage of the hotel’s complementary drinks and reconnecting with fellow nuts from around the country. So great to be seeing all the familiar faces from Washington, Oregon, NorCal and meeting new ones from Idaho, Nevada, etc, etc. This year was already bringing me back to so many of the incredible feelings of the past meets.

Note to all. “Miatas at Weathertech Racing Laguna Seca” is confirmed for next year. Given it will be the 30th anniversary, Mazda is reportedly very much behind it and is trying to make it even bigger than the 25th. Start saving now, will be sure to broadcast the dates when they’re locked so you can get your time off requests in!

[oldgrayleather]

Early Saturday morning I left for the Laguna Seca though this would be the first year at MRLS without any track time behind the wheel.



This year there was something a bit special planned. My brother was a huge fan of Keith Tanner from the Newfoundland Targa to enjoying all his books (First it fix it trick it, Building a high performance Miata, etc) along with all the crazy things FM were getting up to. A few months ago Keith had been looking for a SoCal car that they could use to install their now CARB approved stage 1 turbo kit during the weekend. He and I talked. Then I went to tackle the real challenge… Mrs. R’s only reaction when I was testing the waters was “well of course you said yes, right?”. She understood the connection with Dan and the timing meant she was relieved of having to plan anything for my Birthday. Such a keeper!!

I know some of you figured it out with the QMax Coolant Reroute and FM cross flow radiator/ fan upgrade. Since the clutch already had an ACT upgrade it would be reportedly fine with just a resurfaced flywheel. While they were at it, I also had Integrated Performance tap/ drill the oil pan since that would save enough time to give a buffer with confidence it could be installed in time for a relatively early departure on Sunday.

Along with Flyin Miata, vendor alley was still resplendent with the most impressive range of highly tuned cars. Rocketeer were there with their V6 Jag engine, KenAuto Japan, KSwap, Moss, Bilstein, 949, Integrated Performance, etc, etc.


Matt made quick work of getting out the old bits including the rusty header and notching the frame to fit the turbo.


Sadly didn’t think about setting up a timelapse camera but swung by consistently over the weekend to see their progress. They really have designed this set up so well and were not surprisingly performing an incredibly clean install…


The Carbing bar even managed to fit and this is how it looked just before we were to go out for the second and last test.


While the turbo was going in, there was another KINOD install that had to happen. Some context, when Mazda stopped sponsoring the event the organizers weren’t sure what to call it. The email blast that went out to everyone that had ever attended (or registered interest) proudly announced the new name would be “Miatagasm”. I can’t remember if it was hours or a full day later but they retracted the name apologetically based on an “overwhelming response”. We’d all talked about how that hadn’t seemed like the best idea and were glad they thought better of it. Who could ever imagine wearing a shirt with Miatagasm on it?! But late on Friday, one KINOD member with a wicked sense of humor and access to some printing equipment had a plan to continue some of the group’s perceived irreverence. Windshield and bumper banners were made up and installed on many KINOD-ers cars early Saturday as a nod to that ill fated naming convention. Wonderful friends decided I needed mine put on while Matt worked on the Turbo. Much laughter continued to ensue throughout the weekend

[oldgrayleather]

Dustin brought his Cappuccino down and decided to give me a treat letting me take him for a spin around the ring road which was great since I'd accepted driving wasn’t really on my agenda.


Driving a Capp for the first time was exhilerating. That 9500 RPM redline, the hill climb and back to shifting with my left hand in a snug cabin was just a blast. Reminded me of what the NA felt like the first time I’d moved over from something much bigger.

The days were focused on connecting with other Miata nuts and meeting new ones. Got to passenger with Pedro in his mostly stock NB pitted against much higher HP in the A class even if the thrill only lasted a couple of laps. I missed getting any pics of Drew’s amazing LS2 swapped Orange NA but got a great one of Willis doing a ride-along. So happy that Drew didn’t have any issues this year and got to enjoy every session of the day and enjoyed spending time with he and his better half. Continuing to build relationships with people I was introduced to on this forum is what will always make these events the very best.


Far too many I didn’t capture in pics but there were lots more interesting cars and even more interesting drivers. Real mud all the way from Nevada!


Before the Saturday night banquet I checked in one last time with FM and both Matt and Bill (FM’s owner) were still hard at work. I was asked the daunting question of how firm my targeted departure of 1pm was but the only answer had to be that there was no way I was leaving until they were satisfied and I’d rather they not rush it. Banquet was fun as always and a large group again ended up back at the bar until the wee hours. There *may* have been a lovely bottle of scotch that JonB had brought around the house one day that I remembered to bring to share with all the other nuts. We retired shortly after it was drained to get some rest before the last day and hopefully an enjoyable drive home.

Sunday morning Andrew picked me up for our annual trip along the 17 mile drive with its requisite stops for some pictures followed by a great brunch in Carmel. The Equip 40’s look so fantastic on his burgundy NA with its Barchetta front bumper.



Interesting that the two cars looked as close as they did in color even though the difference in person is significant…




At breakfast I declined a call from David and texted him back that I was eating and would call later. His reply “FM need to talk” got me out of my chair. I phoned Matt who lead with “did you friend tell you about the problem…” but before he could clarify we were cut off by the track announcer blasting some instructions to Group B which delayed our conversation by what felt like ten minutes. I’m sure it was seconds. He started again saying that they were really concerned that mounting the FM gauge on my A pillar wouldn’t be suitable given the care and attention paid to the interior and they recommended it just be put into the glove box until I found a different solution. Phew. Didn’t seem like a massive problem at all and I appreciated that they sought the input before forging ahead. He also confirmed they were wrapping up the install and that they’d soon be ready for the first test drive. So nothing but good news in fact!!

We made our way back to the track. I got to passenger while they did the first test. First time I think I've ever enjoyed riding shotgun! All the read-outs looked solid and Benny felt great. Boost was at 6psi but the measurements showed a bit more room so left them to some more fiddling while I went back to visiting and some final farewells. Ken from RetroModern also showed up so I managed to finally pick up the knurled dimmer assembly and a pair of Wiper Caps that do a stunning job of finishing off Chad’s brushed and drilled wiper arms. Also had a chance to talk to Ken in person about a few other commissions that we might collaborate on in the future…



By 3:30 FM landed totally satisfied with their work along with 6.5 psi and an estimated 160whp. Normally I dread the long drive home after being exhausted from this epic weekend but it was amazing. Early days but damn am I loving the boosted life so far! Initial feelings:
• Car is thirstier, by the time we got to our first fuel stop looked like I consumed 50% more gas than my nephew's car but was still getting a respectable 26mpg
• Loving uphill pulls! Mostly because I’ve never been able to before.
• In-gear acceleration is amazing. Middle son wants to know why it adds 20mph to any speed instantly.
• The turbo noises are subtle but ever so lovely

[oldgrayleather]

Home again, jiggity jig. It was over too quickly but what an amazing break



Before my nephew and his friend started the return journey home wanted to catch a few pics of the multi-colored quartet





For now I’m really looking forward to just enjoying learning the car all over again. KINOD and all the other meets. And probably a few other little additions to the cars...

[HarryB]

Out of words once again in this thread! Hope you enjoy Benny even more now!

P.S. Your story writing skills are excellent, bravo!

[Gene Rodriguez]

Congrats on the whole new setup!! Last time our cars were together we were both n/a!

Next time around will be a great reunion

[— Phatmiata —]

BOOST !!!!!!!!

[Greasemonkey2000]

So jealous of everyone that made it to the event but great pics and wow to get boost installed by the makers themselves the same weekend!! Super jealous and excited for Benny and you! Hug your wife for me because finding a spouse that understanding and supportive is rare!

[druz]

Carmel looked great. Next year I'll need to remember to set the alarm!

[bogaut]

morning drive is always so early.. especially after a wild saturday night

[— artcentermiata —]

The last pic is the best-

[BoBo]

Wow! Nice Pictures...what a pretty sight 949 Racing Miata