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Milton Dee 7/9
David Turnbeaugh 7/3
Donna Metro 7/15
Michele Freeze 7/30

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Delta Miata Club’s "2003 Old Fashioned Summertime Picnic"

Remember as a kid the fun time you had at picnics? Enjoying those carefree summer days filled with food, fun and total enjoyment? Well, mark your calendars for July 26^th, 2003; because that’s the type of picnic we have planned for you.

The spot for this year’s picnic will be:

Veterans Park, Livermore, CA – near Wente Winery and Golf Course
Saturday July 26^th 2003
11:00 a.m. Till 6:00 p.m.

We have secured a beautiful private picnic area with plenty of parking, tables, water, BBQ pit, etc. It’s a great area surrounded by beautiful oak trees with plenty of space for softball, volleyball, sack races or whatever outside games you would like to bring.

You’ll enjoy hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, chips, desserts and plenty of water and soft drinks. If you would prefer something a little stronger, you may bring your own beer or wine. Please no hard liquor!

To help offset the cost of food and supplies the cost will be $5.00 per person. A small price to pay for a day filled with food, fun and friends! Since this is a DMC sponsored event it is limited to DMC members only. Each member may bring either his/her spouse or significant other.

We need outdoor games for our picnic! Do you have a volleyball set, croquet, or badminton sitting in your garage collecting dust? Dig it out and bring it along, but let us know so we can plan our fun.

Please RSVP via email or telephone no later than July 12, 2003 to:

Shirley Christensen shirleyc@cdec.com or call (925) 484-4174

Remember, the cost is $5.00 per person (NON-REFUNDABLE)

Checks should be made payable to DMC and mailed by July 12^th to:

Shirley Christensen
659 Concord Place
Pleasanton, CA 94566

Hope to see you all there!

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Netherlands Miata Club Tour

Saturday June 7^th saw an international gathering up in the wine country. This time it wasn’t yet another wine tasting –it was the return of our Netherlands friends, led by Petra van den Berge, who had come to tour the parks of the West for almost three weeks and visit Miata clubs to renew friendships along the way. They arrived in Rohnert Park Friday night, escorted by a SAMOA team and were ready to explore the wine country in BAMA and Delta company, but the group quickly grew to include Redwood Coast, San Joaquin Valley Miata Club, SAMOA and SOCALM club members (forgive me if I missed anyone!).

I picked them up at their motel and, frankly, I was a bit disappointed because it was gray and almost a little drizzly – and here I was trying to show off Sunny California! I started to explain about how the gray will probably burn off, and the moisture is what makes the land so beautiful, and so on, but they interrupted me with smiles and said, "This is beautiful! We LOVE the weather!" Were they being polite or were they missing their home weather, I wondered. As I grew to know them, I decided it was a bit of both, for they were both gracious guests and fun Miata buddies.

On arriving at Sonoma Square we met up with a mass of Miatas and our total grew to almost thirty cars, including the six Miatas that the Netherlanders had obtained from Hertz down in the southern end of the state. Packing up lunch from the Sonoma Cheese Factory, plus some souvenirs for all, we were ready to have our drivers’ meeting. This one was made special by Shirley Christensen introducing the group and offering them reminders of their trip, followed by me (Graeme) awarding Tom & Betsy MacDonald door plaques for arranging and leading this run. Then, off we went!

For those who have visited the wine country in early summer, you’ll not be surprised to discover that we were challenged with traffic and signals for the first few miles, but then it was smooth sailing on the backroads that Tom & Betsy knew so well.

Alongside one of the beautiful roads, Betsy lead us to the winery she’d selected for our picnic lunch, one with a perfect setting complete with lawn, shade and good Miata company. Here we all got to know each other better as we relaxed in the warm sunlight and enjoyed "kicking back" for a while as Tom played wine steward and generously let us sample some wines he’d brought along to complement our sandwiches and salads. Tasty food and drinks consumed, more relaxing and strolling about, then we were finally ready for another parking lot review of our Miatas and out onto the open road.

Many curves later, we found ourselves at Korbel Winery, for a custom tour just for our group, led by Monica, who delighted us with quips about the history of the three Korbel brothers. We learned about the business of making California Champagne (Korbel has been granted permission from France to use the term "champagne" in this method, as it uses the Methode Champenoise to make its sparkling wine) and also we discovered all of the other businesses (cigar box manufacturing, timber, farming and wine) the Korbel brothers had leading up to their founding of the winery. All of this information was hard to absorb, but we managed to let it soak into our brains as we sampled several tastings of the excellent champagne after the tour. Another gift shop binge, and we were off gain! This time we found ourselves on the highway following the Russian River, with OTMs here and there, so we naturally discovered that some of has gone "here" while others had gone "there"! But we all ended up together at Negri’s Restaurant in Occidental for a fine meal and more Miata buddy company. All good things must come to an end, and we guided our friends back to their hotel so they could get a good night’s sleep before heading south the next day.

With Miatas, friendship is truly international!

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My Weekend with Pro Spec Miata Racing

By Bonni Weatherwax, DMC Technical Adviser

How often does one get the opportunity to get to see, first-hand, the practice session, the qualifying, and the race of a C.A.R.T. (Championship Auto Race Team) car event? For me, this was my first. I went mainly to take part in the pit crew for Ed Zabinski and his Pro Spec Miata race team (Zabinski Racing), but was privileged to view not only the C.A.R.T. race, but as well the Skip Barber Dodge Series race and the Toyota Atlantic race as well! What an eventful weekend at Portland International Raceway, indeed!

My part on the race team was to keep track of lap times and to make sure that in-car race footage was taken care of, and to also assist here and there with little tidbits of mechanical knowledge. What I learned from this experience will go down in my personal racing career books as gold.

The gentleman for whom I crewed for is a vibrant, confident racer with many years of Miata racing, including SSC racing years ago, and these days in Pro Spec Miata racing. He left me with a huge boost of confidence and a weekend I will likely never forget. I have included, for your viewing pleasure, a picture of his car prior to the race, and one after the race – this is how serious these events get. Mr. Zabinski was not hurt physically, and still placed sixth out of at least 35 cars in the field (this number will likely be corrected next month, as I do not at this sitting recall exactly the number of entrants, and the deadline for this month’s newsletter is on the evening that I returned from the event).

The major difference between standard Spec Miata racing and the Pro Series is where these racers compete – PSM competes all over the west coast, in places such as Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona, at Portland International Raceway, at California’s Laguna Seca, all the way up to Seattle International Raceway (now called Pacific Raceways). Our local Spec Miata wheel-gods do their driving more locally, within a local region, to include California-only racetracks.

Due to the deadline on this article, I will have to leave you with a "to be continued" promise for next month’s article, hopefully filled with an interview from Ed Zabinski, the fellow whom I got the chance to pit crew for this past weekend. By the way, in regards to the before-and-after photos below . . . according to Ed’s close friend Carl Hatfield . . . before this damage, the driver’s side door was a tad difficult to close; it now closes with great ease!

Well, Delta Miata Club members, try not to sustain the kind of damage viewed here. Keep all four wheels on the ground and the shiny side up – and leave the funny driving to the pros. Until next month . . .

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New Owner Tips

(The following is a reprint of an article written by Ken Freeze. You will be seeing an entire series of these articles in the upcoming volumes of the newsletter. Hope you enjoy!)

We often get E-mails and phone calls from new or potential new Miata owners asking the important question, "What should I buy first?"

For us that is an easy question to answer. On the basis that every new owner wants to protect their Miata, we recommend the following items be considered first.  These were the first things we put on our Miata!

The Grill Guard

Just for a moment get down in front of your Miata and look in its mouth (radiator opening). Immediately you'll see just how vulnerable your radiator (and air conditioner radiator) are to flying rocks and other road debris. When I first did it, it was a little scary. That vulnerable area so close to the road with NO protection. We couldn't get grill guards fast enough for our Miatas. Even if you don't install a grill guard you should read the important notice about removing the front tie-down hooks.

Door Sill Guards

Another important area is the door sill area.  This area takes a lot of abuse from shoes and other items being dragged across them.  In very short order they will become scratched and worn.  If you bought a used Miata, just take a look and you'll see what we mean. Door Sill Guards will protect that area and improve the look.  Even the new '99+ may need additional protection. Mazda added a modified door sill guard to the '99+, but the standard Mazda sill guards go only about 3/4 way and leave the rest of the sill unprotected.  Our new door sill tips take care of the rest of the area.   Whatever year your Miata, you may have been lucky enough that your Miata already has the door sill guards that cover the entire sill area.  They were included in many of the upgrade packages.  If that is the case - you're ahead of the game.

Window Protector for 90-97 cars

You may have already noticed that the rear plastic window is vulnerable to scratches and creases. Most of the scratches can be removed with Meguiar's numbers 10 and 17 and some elbow grease (we don't sell Meguiar's - because it is available almost everywhere).  Creases - that's another matter. (Click here for more info on window care)  Once your rear window is creased (owners of '99+ don't have to worry about this but see the next item) it is virtually impossible to remove the crease. The best thing to do is to prevent it from happening in the first place. There are many rear window protectors on the market that sandwich the un-zipped plastic windows between two pieces of material. They protect the window for the most part, but you must still zip and unzip your window every time you want to raise or lower your soft top. The Team Miata No-Zip Window Protector works a completely different way. It is easy to use, saves time and offers great protection for your window.

Headlight Savers for '99+

If a rock hits one of the headlights on your '99+, is means a trip to your local Mazda dealer, order a new headlight assembly, (wait a few days because they don't carry them in stock) then pay the nice person behind the counter over $200 for the new lens.

Fortunately, you can protect those expensive headlights with a new plastic that will make your headlights almost bullet proof.  These 1/16 inch thick plastic shields are very tough, and best of all, invisible when installed.  Even on close inspection of the light it is very hard to tell they are installed. We also have these for the factory fog lights.

303 Protectant

It beautifies, renews, cleans and preserves. This is the product we've used on our Miatas going on 9 years now - it is GREAT stuff. 303 products have long been used by the marine and aviation communities to protect valuable boats and aircraft that must set out in the weather year after year. 303 contains ultraviolet (UV) screening ingredient's that bond with the material protecting it against fading, hardening and cracking due to sunlight, oxidizing gases  and ozone. Unlike other products that claim to protect or revitalize, 303 products contain no petroleum distillates, plasticizers or silicone oil that can ultimately lead to deterioration. This really is the best stuff you can use on you Miata. Check out our special starter kit - perfect for the new owner.

These are the standard Mazda mud guards. We don't carry them because they are available from any Mazda dealer. They protect your Miata from the rocks that can fly up from your own wheels and damage your paint. They are originally made in black but can be painted to match your Miata. If you haven't purchased your Miata yet - try to get the dealer to include them in the deal.

The Japanese designers don't seem to understand the need of Americans for a cup holder. So when the Miata first came out there were no provisions to hold any cups. That was soon fixed by Mazda with a cup holder that replaces the ash tray. Click here for a photo. The holder works in all '90-'97 models and only costs about $12 from any Mazda dealer. They usually have them in stock. They are also almost always available on ebay. Sometimes for less and sometimes for more.
For '99 and '00 there is a joke of a built-in holder. '01 owners have a sort-of real dual cup holder but it still gets in the way. We searched and search for a good cup holder for these years and finally found one. Click here for a photo  It is made by Rubber Queen and is called the Cup-n-Can Holder. It is the best we have found. We don't sell them because they are available at just about any auto parts place like Grand Auto, Pep Boys - even at Target and K-Mart in the auto department. They cost less than $3. (If we were to sell them we'd have to add $5 S&H raising the effective price to $8).

For new '99+ Miata owners go to our special page featuring accessories for the '99+

'99+ Accessories

New owners should also read the important notice about removing the front tie-down hooks and about how NOT removing them could lead to damage to your front end.
Removing Tie-Down Hooks

Also - Check out the 10 Ten Care Tips from the Miata Club of America.
Top Ten Tips

For more General Care, Maintenance and Repair tips are available at Miata.Net

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