Awfully quiet around here....

Which brings up one topic: street racing with Miatas. While I would not be the one to point the first finger, it cannot be denied that in some respects, Miatas are a danger to the cars around them. While other sports cars are much faster, they tend to go faster on the straight parts. Miatas often go through turns with little visibility (including mountain turns!) with speeds that could make it very hard to adjust if something unexpected happens. Especially since almost no Miatas have ABS. And drivers of small low power cars might also not have the same strength and reaction speed that drivers of bigger, more masculine cars might have in an emergency.

Not of course that I will be driving around mountain ranges from now on. But I think everyone will agree that Miata drivers could do more to increase traffic safety.

Leon

Well, I often find myself flying around the curves and slowing down once on the long straights (no sense risking a big ticket there) but I've rarely, if ever, had anyone catch up with and pass me on these straights. I try to keep it safe by expanding the spacing behind me as much as possible in the turns, giving the drivers of those 'bigger' cars room / time to see me as they approach on the straights if they decide to utilize thier cars where they might do well. ;-)

Chris

There's a road that I love to drive near here. It's in the middle of the woods, a few houses but very few. The road is hilly and tight, the trees come right down to the road. It isn't very long, maybe a mile or two, but it starts out as a long straight with a trafic light at one end, and a school at the other. If I find myself behind a car at the light, I'll drive that straight at 25 MPH (as long as noone comes up from behind) so that when I come to the corners, I can slalom then like a miata should. It has ocoured to me that the turns are kind of blind, and that reaction time is slim to none. That's why I like it better in the dark. At night you can see headlights from around the corners. There's no risk of pedestrians either. Wildlife is always a risk, but I've never seen any there.

Besides, if I had better reaction times, I'd probably drive a faster car. Tonyrama

At deal's gap, someone had stopped his motorcycle in the middle of the lane in a blind curve. Wanted to have a look at the scenery with his party. Fortunately I was going slow enough to go around him.

Leon

Might have done the gene pool a favor if you'd been going a bit faster. Well, maybe not. Might have hurt your Miata.

Both are good points, Dave!

Chris

Leon is not to be taken lightly:

Absolutely. Not much sense in posting if there is not some truth in it, (or at least *perceived* truth in it, for other issues). Lehigh seems to have had a bad time about then, incidentally. A co-author from Lehigh university died about that time. (I had some half plan to visit him then, being in the neighborhood on a summer trip and unaware of the situation, but decided against it because it felt too much like "working." He too was quite a remarkable guy.)

I should note, however, that the one time I came fairly close to inflicting significant damage to myself in the 125 kmi I have driven Bozo over tracks, mountain roads, street racing, AutoX, etc, I was driving 55 mph in a 50 or 55 mph speed zone, and trying to find my GPS in the glove compartment. Stupidity can kill more easily as anything else.

Leon

Dave's accident was tragic. He dropped a wheel off the shoulder and hit a rock which flipped his Miata. No rollbar, top down. His former place of employment has now planted a tree and put up a stone and plaque in his memory.

One good (?) thing that came out of it was that 24 members of LVMOC bought and installed rollbars within 2 months of Dave's death.

-- Iva & Belle.) '90B Classic Red.) #3 winkin' Miata LVMOC Secretary