WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE

THE ENGAGEMENT OF

MISS MARGARET 
daughter of a LIBRARIAN and a NAVY CRYPTOLOGIST

and 

THE 2014 MAZDA MX-5
scion of SEVERAL TERRIFYING RALLY CARS and the SMALL BRITISH CABRIOLET

The CLOSING CEREMONY will take place as soon as the DEALER calls her back with a proper QUOTE on how much it will cost to swap out the bits of the TRIM PACKAGE she doesn't like.

I'm trying to convince her to hold the reception at one of the Roval track days. You know, so the car's family can all come.

The MX-5 is pretty much the only car I have personally taken any notice of. A friend of mine out here bought an early '90s Miata -- in fairly decent condition, for a car nearly old enough to buy its own beer, but requiring a couple of preventative repairs and a lot of cosmetic work before it was perfect. He gave me a lift once, all of ten minutes down the road to the nearest Tedeschi, and and I abruptly understood why gearheads cared. It is quite a lot of fun to be in, even as a passenger, and I can only imagine how fun it is when you're the one calling the shots.

What with the not driving bit, the only things I really notice about cars are the ones that you can see, or occasionally hear, from the outside. The 2014 Miata -- that dealie over there, with a UK number plate -- seems to have gotten a complete makeover. It's got a totally different nose from the older ones I've seen. That's very nearly a muzzle there, with the brow ridges over the wheel wells and super-slanty cat eye headlights. I had to stare at it for quite a while before I figured out what it reminded me of...

...which is a slightly taller Jaguar XE. They've even got the same shiny, double-spoked retro roadster wheels. Moggie says it looks like an Aston Martin, and it does sort of have the wheel wells and down-turned front spoiler of a Vanquish Volante. The grille is less foofy than the Jag, obviously, and it lacks the flick upwards at the back of the Volante, but overall it's very much a remix of the traditional little English roadster. Emphasis on English -- the recent Audis have tried to do the same thing with the headlights, but missed the point of the hood shaping and consequently still look like Audis, and BMW is apparently off in its own bounded little world and hasn't changed its styling in forever.

The point is, this thing was plainly designed by an obsessive Anglophile who enjoys going around corners at high speeds. Clearly the only appropriate thing to do is to have it repainted from the rather limited color selection of the 2014 model year (two reds, two greys, a black, and a white that for some reason costs extra) to "British racing green", which they've used on previous MX-5s. It's Mazda paint code HU, if anyone cares. That's the solid BRG used on the 1991 special edition, to be specific; there was a metallic version used on the 2001 SEs, which I cannot find a code for, because apparently if you're the kind of anorak who cares passionately about automotive paint colors you think metallics were invented personally by Satan.

Comments

  1. http://smg.photobucket.com/user/millers1/media/Miata/IMG_0354.jpg.html

    2001 BRG Miata's color code is A3V

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I think she's going to go with the solid, though. She wants it to look like a classic roadster -- she's also making them swap out the rag top for a tan one.

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    2. Also, I'm glad you enjoyed that ride in Emma.

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    3. Didn't realize you were still hanging around -- I missed you on Doctor Who Day, I had to work. In Rhode Island, no less. I'm not going anywhere for the holidays; I might be around the next time you come visiting.

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  2. With any luck, I'll soon be permanently back east

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'd rather be in the Roomba capital of the world when the robots finally mount a revolution? Convenient, anyway -- I have Moggie mostly convinced to move to Boston when she finishes her chem degree. She wants to learn how to do properly reckless things with her MX-5. I started looking up track days at PIR for her so she can learn how to do handbrake turns from someone other than an idiot teenager.

      She's already fantasy shopping for a hot hatch so she can learn to rally race. Telling her that she'd be the only girl within twenty miles of the event does not deter her. She's thinking Golf GTI, but I'm figuring her budget is going to be more $500 Impreza off craigslist. Fixing up cars is one thing I can't teach her, but if you want to take the job, I do wholeheartedly recommend her services as a minion.

      Text me or somethin'. My old phone was not bright enough to store things on the SIM rather than the internal memory, and half my address book got wiped out when I replaced it.

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    2. Sounds like a plan, especially if I manage to finally be able to move to Boston myself.

      and as for the roomba/bigdog uprising: have shotgun, will travel.

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