Downshifting

Yesterday on the way home from work I was practicing a stoplight and when the light turned green this old 5.0 Mustang in the other lane took off like a scalded cat.

I saw heel-and-toeing done properly recently on an older Top Gear episode (great show, btw) on Youtube, where the intrepid Tiff Needell was really flying in a Ferrari Modena. He of course was perfect, even with the gated shifter. But then he is a professional. It's harder than it looks.

The top-end cars are all going to various forms of manumatic gearboxes with paddle shifters. The fact is they just work faster and better. It's a matter of time before clutch pedals and true manual gearboxes become even more quaint here than they are already.

I completely agree, and as much as I admire technological advancement I'm going to miss straight manual gearboxes and clutches and the dance of feet and hands.

Ahhh! how dare you disagree (I don't call that arguing) Pat? Actually I don't remember ever having a clutch replaced on a car I've owned either, hmmmm, weird. I do remember my son's going out in an old eclipse. The brake pad issue is trivial though real, probably more important in bigger / heavier cars but, that's not why I do it. It's really just about driver involvement, I'm for it! In every way, I'm for it, it's just a bit more enjoyment / action for me. Actually, I'm worried about the use 'um or lose 'um proposition on the brain cells ;-)

Chris

Better cut those pesky airbags out while you're operating, Doc.

My miata is missing all of the above, though I don't think it ever had a door ajar buzzer, I'm not sure.

The airbag, (it only came with one), is the only thing that I would consider putting back in, and I don't want the one from 1991 in there.

The clutch lock is useless to me. Now that it has the ACT3 clutch, disengaging the clutch lock is beneficial enough to the point that I consider it mandatory.

The day that I need a warning buzzer to tell me to put the seat belt on or to tell me that a door is not fully closed will also be the day that it is time to take away my keys and put me out to pasture.

Pat

Damn you and your logic!

It can't be hurting, since you can leave me behind in the twisties while you driving a slower car.

For those that haven't had the pleasure of watching Chris's taillights disappear into the distance, he is no slouch behind the wheel.

Pat

Pat, stop it, people will think one of us is an evangelical preacher and one of us is a ..... ah ....... masseuse!? Ya, right!

Chris

I wouldn't buy a car with airbags in the first place.

Precisely my views. I don't need a vehicle tyring to "out-think" me about when it's OK to crank. When I turn the key, I mean crank, and do it now. Unconditionally. If it's in gear and I don't have the clutch mashed to the floorboards, crank anyway - I *WANT* the vehicle to move (or at least, the drive wheels to spin) as I'm cranking, for whatever silly (or not-so-silly) reason. That's why I'm turning the key! If I didn't wnat the drive wheels turning as it cranked, I would have either stomped the clutch or pulled it out of gear before turning the key, or simply not turned the key in the first place!

Likewise, I don't need to be buzzed, bleated, or beeped at for the door being open - It's open for a reason. Ditto the seatbelt - It's not fastened for a reason. Perhaps because I'm not intending to go anywhere. Perhaps simply because I choose not to fasten it. Whatever the reason, good, bad, or otherwise, SHUT UP ALREADY! I know it isn't fastened, and having a buzzer going off at me about it isn't going to change that!

If you are making fun of the Rev. Ted Haggard and his "friend", that is very cruel.

Just because he hired a male masseuse who advertises in gay publications does not mean that he had sex with the man, it was probably a simple misunderstanding like we all make sometimes.

The good Reverend also admitted to purchasing methamphetamine, but he says that he never snorted any of it. Again, who hasn't done that? I once knew a girl who used baggies of the stuff only for decorative purposes.

These assumptions are part of the problem with society today. I would expect you to be more open-minded about these very plausible explanations. ;-)

Pat

Didn't all production miatas come with at least the one driver-side airbag?

I have very mixed feelings on them. Have they saved lives? Sure. Have they killed people in low-speed accidents? Again, sure, especially the early generation airbags.

Finally, where does it end? Now that vehicles are offering side airbags, does that now make vehicles with only front airbags too unsafe to drive? Should passengers refuse to rise in a 1991 miata because it has no passenger-side airbag?

I haven't done a study, but my guess is that if they had taken all of the money put into airbag technology and applied it to increased mandatory driver training and re-training, that more lives would have been saved and more injuries prevented, plus we would not have had a single case of someone being killed or suffering injuries from an explosive automotive safety device going off in their face.

Pat

Slimebags! not for their perversions but for being hypocrites!

Chris

Hypo-Christians in this case......

These song lyrics describe the situation we have today perfectly. It is not so much anti-religious as it is anti-hypocrisy.

Don Bruder wrote in news:454c0f89$0$34491$ snipped-for-privacy@news.sonic.net:

I almost got the crap beat out of me by a very large man in a large orange pickup one time doing just that. It was not only an auto when I was used to driving a manual, it was an auto Escort (loaner) when I was used to driving a manual Escort (in the shop). The guy thought I was screwing around when I mashed the brakes in the traffic lane.. I tried to explain that it was an honest mistake but he was having none of it.

-Scott

Must make for a pretty short list of cars to look at when you're Miata shopping.

You sound bitter. I'm also concerned that you seem to believe that the car has a personality and is trying to "out-think" you.

Does using the cruise control mean the car's trying to out-think you? What about the speedometer? I mean, if you didn't want to go that fast, you wouldn't have pushed that hard on the pedal, right? Or the brake light on the instrument panel--you're the one that lifted the brake lever, aren't you?

You're complaining about perfectly innocuous little items. While you're laughing at the idiots that haven't cut out their door buzzers, they're laughing at the idea that a door buzzer could actually be such a problem for someone that they'd resort to removing it. Are you *that* jumpy?

I'm a Mazda fan, yes, but Miatas, unfortunately, aren't on my shopping list. Not because I don't like 'em, or because they have airbags, but for purely financial reasons. I actually drive an '82 626. This is the closest thing to a "general-purpose Mazda" newsgroup there is, and since there's more than a little similarity between the 626 and the Miata...

You might try trolling someplace else. Between this one, and your other message, it's pretty obvious that your entire purpose for posting is to try and pick a fight. Sorry, chum, but I ain't interested. Have a nice life.

I don't want to hear it either, it is not that strange and you don't have to be jumpy, a desire not to hear an annoying buzz when the door is open is enough for me. I don't want or need a buzzer on my car door any more than I would want one on a door to my house.

He is not talking about disabling the brakes or something radical like that, and anyone who needs a door buzzer as a safety feature should not be driving.

You also don't have to cut out the buzzer, at least not on the first generation miatas. It is a plug-in module that takes a few seconds to remove or install. I took it out within 4 hours of owning my first miata and it never went back in. The previous owner had already yanked the one from my 1991 model.

Pat