Before his arrival, Roadster7 also turned me on to a great site where you could upload images and make awesome custom stickers with great ease. Now every time I’ve seen a KIND bar I can’t help read “KINOD”. I started sharing that with many other KINOD-ers and as it turns out, once it’s seen it cannot be unseen. Seemed like a good reason to retake our brand…
For a couple weeks I’d been chatting with Danny Irvine to see if I could encourage him to come to KINOD as I wanted to meet him while he was on this continent (he’s from the land down-under). For those of you that don’t know of Danny, do yourselves a little favor and put “Danny Irvine Mazda” into google. If that’s too hard, try “all_things_mazda” in Instagram and look at his feed.
He is Mazda enthusiast extraordinaire with a strong love of all things Rotary but of the marque in general. His collection is quite extraordinary. As it turned out he wouldn’t be able to make it to KINOD but noted he would be at the Pelican Cars & Coffee event on Sept 14th and asked if I was going. Me? Hadn’t heard of it. Turns out it was less than five miles from my house. The Facebook invite page noted Ashley, Brad and Woolery were already going. Was I going? Would be rude not to. When I showed up the Porsche’s were clustered together but there was a spot just beside Ashley’s AZ-1 so figured that was the best
Such a great conversation, some random connections through Mining and a few pics Danny was kind enough to share. He’ll be back for SevenStock in November which probably means I need to remedy the fact that’s an event I’ve never made though I absolutely do not expect it will do anything at all to reduce my hankering for an FD.
Cermivelli (10-21-2019),Greasemonkey2000 (10-07-2019),Roadster7 (10-07-2019),speedypenguin (10-08-2019)
Funny, I've been debating for the last couple of years what should be next for me and it always comes back to FD, ND, or AZ1. Then again, there probably are very few Miata owners who wouldn't consider a FD if they had the opportunity. Then there's just something about the AZ1. That blue Mazdaspeed screams fun.
oldgrayleather (10-08-2019)
i have a nice az1 if you want itOriginally Posted by druz
We'll talk this weekend?
sure thing
A short week later on Sept 21st the 15th annual Japanese Classic Car Show was taking place just down in Long Beach. A while back Corifto (he who loves to find a plan to just about anything that poses a challenge, both large or small) suggested he might be able to swing a trip to the left coast from FL to join so I excitedly recruited him to pilot the Sunburst so we could show “hers and his”. You know, unadulterated vs lovingly modified Roadsters set out side by side. A plan was starting to come together. Since a personal commitment to Mrs. R was conflicting with my ability to attend the last ever Miata’s at Laguna Seca reunion this felt like a great opportunity for a consolation prize to celebrate all things Roadster with as many fellow Miata nuts as we could find.
With some mild coercion here and there the local Miata tribe had a pretty solid showing with a stunning pair of Pitcrews from Mssr’s Woolery and Eli, Kevin’s freshly updated Zoom inspired build complete with period correct bumpers front and back, and Courtney with her fresh white NA. Willis again brought down his pretty RS Aizawa build along with some of his NorCal crew (again with Jay’s superb 510 wagon). Beyond the entrants of course there was a ton of KINOD attendees as well as Marco who’d reached out suggesting he and Marco Sr. might also make the trek from FL (the latter with a pair of 510’s, a Datsun Roadster and some fantastic stories about his own car history). We also were delighted to welcome Bo, the delightful and soon to be Mrs. G, Brad and Janika from the PNW. After a previous JCCS I once hosted a Roadster-ish BBQ at the house which was a great way to continue the day so decided that would be a great option to bring this fantastic group together.
Now the prior weekend, Jim Simpson had also posted he would be at JCCS and put his mobile number out there for anyone that wanted to connect. I texted him my number and said it would be fantastic to finally meet him and talk about his designs and love of Roadsters. I also asked him a question about a specific car he had. About three minutes later my phone rang and it was Jim. He said he preferred to talk than messaging and I learned what I needed about his car in about two minutes. We then ended up sharing car stories for almost the next hour and I closed in noting that he and his wife should come to the BBQ if they didn’t have plans. I’d figured he would already have plans but he said that sounded like a great idea. It was fantastic to have yet another couple of Pacific North Westerners joining in. It seems to be a part of this country where we have a specific affiliation with its local inhabitants. It might be that before we moved to the UK we were living north of the boarder (wall) in Vancouver, Canada’s Pacific South-West. Perhaps something to do with all the fresh air and rain.
Now we did miss out on covering the four corners with someone from the North East but there’s always next year.
Friday was the airport pick-up, the second Costco trip of the week, the third and fourth trips to the grocery store, a quick lawn mow and a pretty superficial clean up of the Roadsters ahead of a pre-KINOD Korean BBQ with the PNW CatDaddies and Corey.
Some of the final clean up and prep. CarMakeCorns really came through when I realized too late that the window side molding on the Sunburst was in really bad shape. A relatively quick but so utterly delightful task to replace an old set with shiny smooth new molding. So nice to know that underneath that new molding was utterly clean OEM paint…
Bill Wilner had been around a previous weekend and ever so kindly dropped off a set of replacement bolts he was having made up to replace the Frankenstein’s for his build. Since the MazdaSpeed top doesn’t have the rear cover it was just such a perfect modification.
You are a kind man Bill. It was about time I acknowledged MiataRoadster by repping the new decal in the quarter window alongside MRNet.
Roadster7 had finally schooled me that the Garagestar latches were only in part for the added security and more importantly weren’t a more affordable alternative to my OEM/ Beatrush latch combo but that they had the ability to essentially remove all remaining wobble so a set was ordered and arrived in time for JCCS.
Roundels from RevLimiter were finally back on and oh my, how I’ve missed them. (Editorial note: I finally think I have the perfect size. I started with 14” which were awkwardly small. The second set were 21” and a bit too over-powering. The recommended 17” (16.67” to be precise) came from Artcenter. I knew this was coming and alright, damnit, I guess I finally have to give his design background the credit it may just deserve albeit reluctantly for fear it just may go to his head ;). His theory was that a roundel should be roughly the same size as a wheel + tire. Turns out my 14” wheels and R888’s have a diameter of 16.67” so that’s what it was.
Cermivelli (10-21-2019),HarryB (10-13-2019),Roadster7 (10-14-2019),speedypenguin (10-13-2019)
Not a single KINOD picture as I was too busy connecting with all the out of towners so unsurprising KINDO ran til half past midnight or later. I can’t remember for certain. All I know is that I didn’t get to sleep until after 2am which made the 5:00 wake-up call even a bit harder to handle. (in fact, I was so exhausted at JCCS I spent most the timing on my sitting muscle, trying to have somewhat coherent conversations and completely missed the opportunity for any pictures beyond the few below).
I have to insert a funny anecdote about Corey that really typifies the kind of person he is. After KINOD and before hitting the hay I’d noted I needed to start the pork in the slow cooker before we left and was planning on getting up at 5am. The recipe was sat next to the slowcooker. I let myself snooze as my early morning brain had whizzed through every calculation to ensure I had precisely the right amount of time still in bed leaving just enough to cover everything I needed to without the wastage of any surplus.
As I made my way down stairs into the Kitchen at closer to 5:30 there was Corey with a counter full of ingredients, mixing bowls and cups and spoons. Since I hadn’t been up at 5 as I’d suggested he was worried I wouldn’t be getting to it so started the recipe. Big man, enormous heart. Turns out Jen had made the sauce the day before and it was in the fridge. My job was merely to put the pork in slow cooker, pour the sauce over and turn it on.. something she was pretty convinced I could handle. A few hearty laughs and we transitioned to making our way down to Long Beach.
HarryB (10-13-2019),Roadster7 (10-14-2019),speedypenguin (10-13-2019)
Corey ready to the pilot the Sunburst…
And along the 405 I saw that he was going to pass me. What the heck, I was pretty sure he didn’t know how he was going to find Long Beach let along the venue. To save him the embarrassment I sped up and he fell back in line. My early morning brain hadn’t even contemplated that he was taking a couple rolling shots. I honestly think these may be some of my favorites.. its so great to see our cars moving…
As always, it was great to see Tom again and have a little chat while troubling him to sign yet a few more things.
As some of you might recall, that RevLimiter built one of one series custom is very precious. Now two of my heroes have inked this. To Benny. Heart Sharka
Cermivelli (10-21-2019),HarryB (10-13-2019),JamieH (10-15-2019),Roadster7 (10-14-2019),speedypenguin (10-13-2019)
And end with a BBQ
Willis’ car
Jim Simpson
The evening was capped off with a birthday cake the lovely Mrs. R had made
She later showed me the template for how she took Shintaro Design’s image and made it into a full scale edible masterpiece
With friends like these , a loving family and our health I am indeed a lucky, lucky man
You are indeed a lucky, lucky man. And I am glad that you take all this time to properly share and convey all your experiences to us. Jealous; in a good way. Oh, and happy birthday!!!
oldgrayleather (10-13-2019)
MRLS just wasnt the same without ya, pete. but glad i could make it down for jccs, and thanks again for being such a gracious host!
Thanks fella, was thankful we could have our own mini Roadster reunion and delighted to see all the incredible updates of the Cat Daddie's roadtrip, Chilli's, et al. I need to see that sexy MS roadster of yours sooner than latter.
Really missed seeing you and Mrs. Druz and has got me thinking that, not to replace MiataReunion but really feeling like we need to think about what a good get together weekend on the left coast could look like in 2020...
oldgrayleather (10-16-2019)
I’ve still been feeling a bummed out about missing the last MRLS and a chance to connect with many amazing people as well as probably the last time I’d be able to throw Benny down the corkscrew. After a bunch of travel I’d gone to my first KINOD in a while and ever so kindly one my favorite KINODers showed up with a little gift!!! So very kind Mr. Inge!
Greasemonkey2000 (11-06-2019),MiataQuest (11-02-2019),Phatmiata (11-12-2019),Roadster7 (11-02-2019),speedypenguin (11-02-2019),ueru (11-02-2019)
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