Controlled Over Steer2016 dues should be submitted before January 31. Indy Miata Club Officers 2015...

Volume 26 Issue 12

December 2015

What’s Inside

Page 2 Classified

Membership update “Controlled Over-steer” continued

Page 3 2015 & 2016 Club Events

Page 4 Club News

Page 5 2016 Regional Events

Page 6 Miatas & Fiatas

Page 7 “Not So” Technical Report

. Page 8

Funny Stuff?

Page 9 Advertisers

0 December calendar

Controlled Over-Steer … By Tom Lewis, President

If you love to drive your Miata, this is the time of year when you’re forced to remain optimistic, that the winter won’t be as bad as the prognosticators are fore-

casting and spring will be here before you know it, right? Well, I’m not going to

sugar coat it – you’re just going to have to accept it and mentally prepare for the

biting cold, the shoveling, the darkness… But, we’ll get through this winter like we have with so many previous winters here at the Indy Miata Club. We’ve made it

through November, so only another 120 days or so until another driving season is

upon us! And did we end the year of events with a bang or what? This year’s annual

Hidden Drives Rally brought out record crowds for 2015, with nearly 30 Miatas

participating in another epic route put together by our own Rally Master Extraordinaire, Sara J McBride. Sara has never failed to put together a really fun

route over the years, and this year’s Hidden Drives had to rank at or near the very

top. The weather, while cool, was quite tolerable for top down driving with the sun

shining and, somehow, Sara managed to find some of the most freshly paved roads in Morgan, Monroe and Bartholomew counties! On behalf of everyone who

attended, thanks so much to Sara for putting together a tremendously fun day to end

a great year of events. I’m also looking forward to Saturday, December 5th and the club’s annual Officer

Elections and Holiday Celebration at J. Razzo’s Italian Restaurant in Carmel, IN.

2016 will see a number of changes with several open officer and volunteer positions being filled. Those members in attendance will be voting in new officers for the

President-elect, Treasurer and Secretary positions, and the Board of Directors will

be appointing a new Membership Director. Following the elections, we’ll be having

a number of drawings to give away 2 huge “Zoom-Zoom Boxes” of goodies that has recently arrived from the very generous and supporting folks at Mazda North

America Operations in Irvine, California. This year’s boxes have lots of new and,

surprisingly, different items, with, of course, lanyards. Lots. Of. Lanyards. A new design and a different color, but lanyards nonetheless. So everyone can plan on

coming home with, at the very least, another Mazda lanyard for your growing

Mazda lanyard collection. And if that isn’t exciting enough, we’ll also have our

Continued on page 2.

The Official Newsletter of the Indy Miata Club

Accepting contributions to our Open Road newsletter?

Send your ideas to [email protected].

Attention, Members!

Your annual membership expires on December 31, 2015.

2016 dues should be submitted before January 31.

Indy Miata Club Officers

2015

President Tom Lewis

[email protected]

Vice-President Ken Koehler

[email protected]

Treasurer Ken Rabbers

[email protected]

Secretary Joan Rabbers

[email protected]

Membership Director Darlene Evans

[email protected]

Website Editor Sara J McBride

[email protected]

Newsletter Editor Steve Crouse

[email protected]

The Open Road is published monthly for the members of the Indy Miata Club. The Indy Miata Club assumes no liability for any information contained herein, or injury or damage resulting from the use of this information. The ideas, opinions, maintenance or modi-fication tips expressed are to be used at the reader’s discretion. Individual contributors and/or the editors express no approval, authentication, or en-dorsement. Thank you.

Open Road December 2015

Controlled Over-steer, cont.

traditional Gift “Exchange”, with a very loose interpretation of the word “Exchange”, allowing the more “choice gifts” (usually something in a bottle) to be stolen up to 3 times.

Top it all off with some delicious Italian food and desserts, and it’s a perfect ending for

another great year in the Indy Miata Club.

As a two-time President getting ready to step aside, I’d like to leave you all with a few thoughts. A club is only as good as its members, and we have some of the very best at

Indy Miata. In January, I appealed to the membership to step up and fill the calendar with

events, with a goal of 14 Events for the 2015 driving season. We ended up with 18. Not only did we exceed our goal, we’ve seen a significant increase in interest judged by the

number of new members, and most importantly, how many of those new members are

participating. More and more, we’re seeing lots of new faces and Miatas at events! Even more encouraging is the number of new members who have recently stepped up, and who

have voiced an interest in the open officer and volunteer positions. This renewed energy

insures the future success of the club. And those who are coming into these new positions

are sure to find new and long-lasting friendships with people from all walks of life, but share a common interest in the Miata. And that’s worth far more than the small

commitment made to the betterment of a car club.

So, I say, “Well Done” to all of our members this year. Thank you to everyone who came out and participated in our club events this year. And a HUGE Thank you to all

who gave their time to plan and host an event during 2015; your efforts are greatly

appreciated by a club that simply loves to drive. We look forward to seeing the Events Calendar fill with new events in 2016. And don’t be shy – if you have an idea, or just

want to contribute to everyone’s enjoyment, or need ideas for hosting a Drive or Event,

just ask any officer. Everyone is more than willing to help you in planning a successful

event. Stay warm! If I don’t see you at the 2015 Holiday Celebration and Elections, have a

wonderful Holiday Season, a successful and healthy New Year - See you on the road in

the Spring!

Membership Update: 100 members.

Welcome New Member !

Geoffrey Andrews

CLASSIFIEDS

FREE Miata Magazines from Fall 1989 (premier is-

sue) through May 2001. Full set of all issues to the

first contact to make arrangements for pick up.

Contact Gary Collings 317-873-4224.

1997 Mazda Miata MX-5, M edition with

hard top, and many extras. 97000 miles.

Price: $8,000 Call for more information.

John Reba: phone 219-696-7839

More photos on club website Classified

page.


The FINAL 2015 Indy Miata Club Event

December 5, IMC Christmas Dinner-Party

Tentative 2016 Indy Miata Club Events

—> January 16, annual President’s luncheon & Officers’ meeting <— April, 2nd Quarter Officers’ meeting

April or May; Leavenworth, Madison or OTHER weekend

Sat., May 28, “Night before the Indy 500” Mingle

June, “Marietta Madness” July, 3rd Quarter Officers’ meeting

Sat., July 25, “Night before the Brickyard 400” Mingle

September, St Louis Fireworks weekend October, 4th Quarter Officers’ meeting

November, “Hidden Drives”

December, annual Christmas Dinner-Party & Election

It’s not too early to choose a date for your 2016 rally, mingle or weekend trip. Get it on our 2016 calendar ASAP.

Please report the date to Event Coordinator, Ken Koehler. Contact him at [email protected].

Optional

Gift

Exchange


It’s an Honor! The “Official” Vineyard of the Indy Miata Club wins awards!

Vintners—Ann Cole & Eric Drumwright

Lily Valley Vineyard, the “Official” vineyard of the Indy Miata Club, is

now an Award Winning vineyard.

Ann Cole and Eric Drumwright started making homemade wine in 2007.

They have made a few different varieties over the years. Club members

have had a chance to sample some of these at different club events. They

have produced wine from kits, as well as from their own grapes and

fruit. This summer they decided to enter two different varieties in the

Indy International Wine Competition, held at Purdue University. This

year over 2000 wines were entered in the amateur division, with about

300 awards given. Ann and Eric brought home two metals! They were

awarded a Bronze for their Riesling (made from a kit) and another

Bronze in the fruit wine category for their Pear Wine (made from their

home grown pears). Congratulations!

Hidden Drives XIII—Report The 2015 Hidden Drives rally was run again (lucky 13!)

on November 7th and was a great success with 27 MX-5s

showing up on a nice, sunny day. We had a good mix of

current members, new members and members-to-be! Most

cars took advantage of the warmish temperatures and ran top

down, though I'm sure heaters were on!

The route took the ralliers from Trafalgar to Nashville and

of course, followed my #1 rule that states "Do not take the

shortest route to Nashville!". What Google says should be a 18-mile drive was, for the ralliers, a fun 79-mile

route. In my route planning session, I found a lot of freshly paved roads and took advantage of them (though I

couldn't convince the Brown County Roads department to patch that one 20 foot stretch of gravel), and the

cars scampered over hills and through woods on a lot of curvy, fun roads.

The ralliers had a quiz to complete (I reminded everyone to bring their brains!) that included identifying

where a photo on the route instruction sheet was taken, how many counties we drove through during the event,

and a few other questions. Several cars got four answers correct (no one answered all 5 correctly) so a blind

draw was held with Robert Lewis and Teresa Young winning the prize package which included a can of

raspberry jam imported from Canada.

Solo drivers weren't left out for a prize as I know there's no way a car without a navigator can read the rally

instructions, answer questions, and stay on pavement. A separate drawing was held for all solo cars and

member-to-be David Hughes won, receiving seat belt shoulder pads.

Thank you to everyone

who attended... it's not a

rally without you! Not able

to attend? The route sheet

is on our website (http://

www.indymiata.org/

routes/) so you can see

how much fun we had!

http://www.indymiata.org/routes/



Regional Miata Events in 2016


Here are some of the regional Miata events scheduled for next year. These gatherings are a

great chance to meet Miata-fanatics from other areas of the U.S. They are “tons-of-fun”!

Need help finding information? See links from the Non-IMC Events page on our website,

contact one of our club officers, or search Miata.Net.

April 21-24, Miatas at Myrtle Beach X, Myrtle Beach SC

June 9-12, “Zoomin’ the Mountains of East Tennessee”, Johnson City TN

June 22-25, “Miatas in Utah VII”, Deer Valley UT

July 14-17, “Cruisin’ CT 2016”,

September 15-18, “Miatas Play Music City”, Nashville TN


Two fourth-gen Miata concept cars from the recent SEMA show.

Speedster

Spyder

The Miata-based

Fiat 124 Spider

Our “Not So” Technical Page


Convertible Top Improvement

By Indy Club member, Dave Besterman

Do you have trouble putting your convertible top down while sitting in your Miata? If so, then

read on. For several years this was my predicament on my 2000 Miata. Try as I might, I just couldn’t

get my top to lower easily on its own. The rear bow which is supposed to move forward when the top

comes down would hang up on the fabric of the top and so I always had to get out of the car and man-

ually help get the top to fold down properly.

WWW.Miata.Net to the rescue. An article from the site recommended a product called McLube

Sailkote. No, this isn’t something sold at the local fast food restaurant. It is a sail lubricant intended

for sailors. It is a dry lubricant spray used to reduce friction and drag on sail fabric. Another quick

search on the internet produced “Jamestown Distributors” which sells Building and Marine Supplies.

You can check them out at www.jamestownDistributors.com. A 6oz. spray can of McLube Sailkote

is $9.50 plus S&H. A quick spray on the underside of the convertible top where the rear bow moves

should be enough to get the top to go down more easily.

(Editor’s note: I expect this is an application that would apply to all years of Miata “cloth” tops)

Wait, there’s more. Anyone out there own a 2000 year Miata? There is another problem which is unique to this model

year. It seems that early 2000 cars had undersized springs that connect the rear bow to the front bow.

The purpose of the springs is to pull the rear bow forward while the convertible top is coming down.

With the top up, the springs are visible just behind the side windows. At the next club get-together,

compare your springs with another year car and see if the diameter of the wire in your springs is

smaller than theirs. (The springs should be 1/8” in diameter.) Mine were too small and I ordered a

replacement set from my local Mazda dealer. Installation is easy. With the top up there is very little

tension on the springs and so they are easy to remove. The springs are “opposite hand” construction

so just make sure that you get the left one on the left side and the right one on the right. Changing

these springs further improved the action of the folding top on my 2000 Emerald Mica.

What a pleasure it now is to be able to just unlatch and throw back to top to go from top-up to

top-down driving without having to get out of the car. A special “thank you” goes out to ‘Mal’ who

posted the information for this article on www.miata.net on April16, 2006.

(Editor’s note: Beginning in 2001, a different form of spring was used.)

If your spring looks like this, you don’t have a

problem. This is the improved item.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/


FUNNY STUFF ?

Do you recognize the car in the trailer photo?

Now celebrating 40 years!

Exclusive Discounts for Indy Miata Club Members

Tom Roush Mazda, Indiana’s first Mazda dealer established in 1972 has not only the most experienced sales and service staff in town, but also is the highest volume dealer in Indiana. We hope to serve you in our next 40 years as Indy’s premier Mazda dealer. In support of the Miata Club member’s we would like to offer the following benefits:

15% off regular door labor rate

15% off any accessory purchase

S-Plan pricing to eligible customer’s Extended Saturday service hours 7:30—3:30

US 31 North @ 169th Street Westfield, IN 46074 800-891-3056

Open Road November 2015

INSURANCE GROUP

Tom Lewis

Hughes Insurance Group is an Independent Agency representing over 35 insurance companies.

Our ultra-competitive rates assure that you receive the most value at the best price for all of

your home, auto or business insurance needs.

For a limited time, I’m giving away a $20 gas card with an insurance review and quote for your home, auto or business with no obligation! If I’m competitive, consider allowing Hughes

Insurance Group to write your business. If I can’t provide you with a better value, you’ll have

the peace of mind knowing you’re properly insured at a fair price.

Call or e-mail Indy Miata Club member Tom Lewis today!

317-984-9228 [email protected]

Have a few dollars invested in upgrades? Ask about Agreed Value Coverage for your Miata!


Benefits for Indy Miata Club Members -First year dues to the Indy Miata Club after

purchase of any Mazda

-S-Plan Pricing to Current Members

-15% off All Parts & Accessories -15% off Labor Rates

-Maintenance for Life with the purchase of

Any Mazda -Saturday Service Hours 9:00 AM to

1:00 PM

-Free Cookies!! Contact Lauren Auld for more information.

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