Went to the Mazda Gran Prix today at PIR in Portland. I pull in to park and here are maybe 30 miata's parked together in a corral. I go ahead and pull in not knowing what to expect. Turns out it's the Rose City Miata club.

OMG! I'm plenty old at 43 but I was one of the youngest guys in sight. Everyone's sitting around talking about the british heritage of the cars. How younger people are starting to discover the Miata to carry on the tradition. There's maybe 2 other cars that have been lowered at all. A half dozen "style" bars. Pretty much every car was on all season tires.

Several come over to check out my abomination. Lowered, turboed, real roll bar, 8" wide 6UL's with 225 RS2's, naca duct, etc. In responce to my hp figures 2 different guys responded "240 hp?!? Mine's plenty fast as it is!"

I asked about club activities and was told about the pancake breakfasts followed by a country drive. I follow that up with "what about autocrossing or track days?" Nope. None of that.

President of the club told me the ride he just got at the lunch break in a spec Miata. Paid his $20 for a couple hot laps as a passenger in a SM. He just about started crying remembering how scary it was that they did nearly 100mph on the straights!

Gaaah! I'm half tempted to let a couple of the younger guys drive my car and corrupt them to the dark side of FI. Get the poor young souls away from the Miata freaks that are the wine and cheese crowd.

 

Welcome to my world with our Miata club. I really like some of the people, but there is nothing worse than driving twisty roads at 45mph and then having the whole group pull over to wait for others. I now only go on 1 or 2 rides per year with them.

The comment about my car is fast enough as is, cracked me up. I can't tell you how many folks in my club were impressed with the extra power of the turbo and then ask "how much does it cost". They seem to expect double the HP for a few hundred $.

BTW - I like wine and cheese, but that isn't what a drive is about. I also have a style bar and really don't give a **** what others think about it, I like it

 

i can't stand wine, cheese is ok, but stock hp in a miata is not ok

 

Wine:




Cheese:



Miata club:

 

As much crap as this forum gives each other, that is one thing I believe we all can agree with


Joe - Your choice in wine and cheese leaves much to be desired.

 

I found a local miata club awhile back and got on their website. Bunch of old geezers. All the pictures were like a sea of gray hair. I contemplated joining, but I don't think so, there's like a 40 year age gap. What would they say when I ask for help with a turbo? Or a Megasquirt? Some of their cars have suspension and an intake, but nothing sweet. No track events or autocross either. What a waste. I did find a local autocross club that I'll be joining though, and I'm positive there are miatas in it. I've seen a lot of sweet local miatas with young drivers, maybe I should start and beer and chips club, no wine and cheese.

 

I'm sorry, I like our little cars. Lot of fun, reliable, tune-able, light weight, rear wheel drive, etc. All the things a little sports car should be. But to sit around talking about it's british heritage? Treat it as some sort of historical icon? These aren't rare or expensive. I found the whole attitude a little weird.

There's nothing wrong with liking wine and cheese. It's just the crowd that REALLY likes wine and cheese. Ooh, I sense some oaky undertones followed by a strawberry and walnut finish. Ooh and do you want to smell my farts? Here's a bunch of upper middle to senior men sitting around like they all drive Aston Martin DB5's instead of the 15 year old $3000 cars they actually have. That's what bothered me, they seemed pretentious with no reason to be.

Maybe I read them wrong but the 1/2 hour I hung around came off weird to me. They are right at home on M.net and I guarantee they aren't looking at the Performance section of that site.

As far as the racing went, Playboy MX5 cup racing is dull next to SM. The exhaust note is annoying and they make a lot of noise without doing anything. SM may not be quicker but it sure seems like it. Those Formula Mazda cars are amazing. Brake from the straight for the chicane so late it's hard to believe.

 

The dallas crew has a very strong affinity for the track and lap times.

These ------s give Oenophiles like myself a bad rep. Then again, my car is naturally aspirated.

 

****, that's me...lol. I try to just say "its good" or not when in mixed company. However when the wine crew and I are together, it gets pretty sad.





It seems like the less money involved, the better the racing.

 

I think I passed them once. probably didn't think much of my turbo and open exhaust. their fault for continuing to go 35mph after a "end speed zone" sign.

 

wow...that is sad...

 

Curly,

Porsche club tuesday, corvette club the following Monday. This Thursday heading back to Woodburn for the drags. See you at any of these?

 

when i first joined the miata mob in NJ i just called them all out. asking if this site was just full of middle aged people that didn't "drive"

luckily i was VERY wrong and made some good friendships that will probably last

 

Seems there are some other groups near by. We'll see if any actually do anything besides the "saturday pancake breakfast and country drive" thing.

 

Cueball,where I'm from,we had the same problem,there was only one club and it was full of slow *** driving wine & cheesers,they bitched about everything.

The problem got solved when a new miata club formed due to people being sick of the old club,and it's dedicated to anyone that wants to mod,drive fast and just enjoy racing and cars in general.

We currently have almost three times more members than the old boring club.

 

Nicely done Spike. The Portland club guy said they don't get along with the next club south of us. I'm guessing they may be more my style. We'll see.

I'm not a big club kind of guy but it's nice to have some local support and people who can appreciate what you have. Most people don't think much of our little girly cars.

 

Last week we had a club meet/run,for some reason the wine & cheesers club had a meet/run on the same day.We had a turnout of 15 cars(we would have had more but some peolpe could not make it)and the wrinkle club had I think 4-5 cars.

The best thing to do is find a club that best fits you,if one does not exist(like our Vancouver situation),then start one.

 

As past Prez of the club Spike talks about, it was a Nightmere to deal with.

I basically quit the club in the middle of a Run pulling away at 100 mph down a trwisty canyon road. (Non Turbo days or it would have been faster.)

I tried to bring in AutoX or at least welcome new members that like doing it. NO GO

Tried to set up different club runs ... a fast group run and a slow group. NO GO they said we are a club and should drive together (SLOW) ... Even tried to post that this will be a 'Spirited' run ...NO GO

It is he ll being in a club like that, it is even worse when you are the Prez and try to change things.

I feel more at home with the twenty something group than the Whine and Cheezers, and I am almost 50 (49 years, 7 months & 26 days)

Sad part is I like wine and cheese (make it 2 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc, please so I can warm up)

 

gwilo, you're my younger twin! You only need the white beard

I'm 54, 11 months and 11 days.

The only difference is I don't drink.

 

That's the one thing I really love about the San Diego club. The "meetings" can be a bit whine a cheese, but the club runs are serious business. On the busier runs (60+ cars usually) they'd split into 4 or 5 different groups, each with a designated lead and tail and its own CB channel. There was always a designed daffodil group or two for those who didn't want to run it hard, and everyone else pretty much pushed it to the limit of their tires. Certain of the run leaders tended to have more courage than I, which made it a hell of a lot of fun, despite what seemed like frequent near-death experiences. Those who found that a particular group was exceeding their comfort level were welcome to fall back and join a different group at one of the stops.

Despite somewhat spirited driving, I don't believe they've ever had a fatality.