Miata Mailing List: June 1996, Message #57
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   From: "Dennis J. HeRR" 
Subject: few rambling...
   Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 07:09:13 -0400

G'day!  As winter getting deeper it's pretty chill outside, especially at
night but still it's wonderful to drive with the top down under the bright
moonlight.  Ok, so I'm a off beat to admit that I do drive around at middle
of night when I couldn't get sleep and the sky is crystal clear with full
moon and shining stars. 

It's getting little quite on this mailing list - I usually get around over
100 E-mails a day but lately I get around about half of it - maybe my mail
server is chewing out some mails or whatever... :p  So here are some
rambles.
If you don't like these sort of wasting band width then simply press delete
key - oh that's press cmd-d if you're reading this one with the Eudora. :)

The first thing people will think about after get their Miata will be
improving their toy - be that power upgrade, exterior upgrade, interior
upgrade or all of these at once.  I won't go any detail about the power
department as already many people have talked about the forced blowers.  I
was do some research on my own about getting more power without these
forced blowers.  The conclusion I come up with is to get more power without
getting forced blowers I need to increase the capacity of the engine along
with winder cam, complete custom fuel delivery system and better plumbing
for breath.  It won't be cheap but still the whole job will cost less than
any of these blowers.

Sooner or later people start to think about altering their car's look so
their car can stand out from the crowd.  You can put new nose, side step
and probably rear bumper as well to alter the whole car's line.  You can do
either retro look or more aggressive look.  Personally I think the stock
MX-5 line is pretty neat - I heard the MX-5 was styled after traditional
Japanese mask so its front can look differently depends on the angle you're
looking at.  Even some people like the frog eyes over my low profile
headlight.  And I know there are lot of people out there want that chrome
on their cars. :)  I do and I already got chrome side mirrors as well as
other bits.  I even saw a MX-5 with its windshield frame in chrome cover.
:)

For interior, I think there're a lot to improve.  For reasons we may never
know Mazda decide to make the MX-5's interior as exciting as old pick up
truck. :(  It has real cheap plastic feel all over - just simple momo
steering wheel we get on our Australian spec MX-5 doesn't help much
although from what I saw it's better than US spec Miata.   Firstly I
think MX-5 can use some colour accents like the white gauge face and more
traditional looking instrument panel with retro style blinking lamps
instead of warning lights and that chrome rings!  The centre fascia should
be in material other than the current cheap plastic - maybe carbon fibre or
walnut as an option.  The centre console is another area to improve.  I
don't think the centre console is necessary in ragtops and the one in MX-5
is simply a joke.  It's very tiny and its inside is shaped such a way that
you cannot put anything bigger than a sunglasses.  They better off put
simple carpet and nothing else - the centre console on my car actually
bumps into my left elbow every time I shift gear.  The seat is another area
for improvement.  The stock seat is really need some additional support for
majority of male drivers.  It seems the seat is shaped for small frame
people - if Mazda decide to make a sport car they should offer two
different kind of seats for MX-5.  The concept seat I saw looks a lot more
supportive and better looking as well.  It simply is too much of hassle to
get a after market seat.  The stock seat rail is designed to accept only
the stock seat and you can easily put any seat on the market.  Also if
you're not careful the whole setup could end up more higher than the stock
seat and I think the stock seat need to be lowered.

Lastly I know people think the soft top on MX-5 is quite an achievement
especially if you driven old British ragtops.  But I think I will take now
discontinued M2's three window soft top that you can get in entire range of
colour - you can get red soft top for your red car or white top for white
car for example. :)  I know Amco has similar top but it's only available in
black - is it available in tan as well? - and I found if you're careful
when you lowering the soft top you don't need to unzip the rear window.
(Well, in my case I can't due to my roll bar.)

Thanks for reading my few rambling.  If you don't agree with my thought
well then that's your opinion - so please send it to the list, not me.  I
don't reply for flame mail - ignoring is the best way not only for flaming
but in real life as well.  Whenever someone make you uncomfortable simply
get up and leave.  What can be more simple as that! :)

 Dennis (^_^;

89 RX-7 - Red, too many tickets to keep it.
92 MX-5 - Red, too much fun to worry about tickets.
Dennis J. HeRR (dherr@triode.apana.org.au)