Hello All. New member here and just wanted to introduce myself and a little of my car history. I'm on my 3rd Miata. My first was a Montego Blue NA I purchased in 1996. Our first child arrived and even though my car was not our primary vehicle it made sense to have something with a back seat. The '99 Honda Civic Si arrived. After a few years, I somehow convinced my wife to let me get another Miata so enter the 2001 Midnight Blue NB. After a few years, we were blessed with child number two and my time with 2-seaters was over for quite a while. The parade of vehicles with a back seat continued...2004 RX-8, 2007 Acura TL Type-S, 2010 BMW 135i Convertible, 2014 MB CLA Edition 1, 2016 MB C300 Sport. While many of these were fun in their own way, none were the MX-5. The kids are now grown with their own cars and all of the stars aligned. In the winter of 2019 Mazda announces the release of a special edition Miata to celebrate its 30th Anniversary. In February I watch the live stream from the Chicago Auto Show announcing the car and immediately jump on the preorder website as soon as it goes live. I plunk down my $500 deposit for my 6-speed soft-top and wait....
In the meantime, I spend all my free time on Miata.net with the other 30AE nuts waiting for our cars to arrive. At the time of order we are told "early summer delivery". With some help from some Mazda insiders on the site, we get to the point of satellite tracking the actual car carriers coming from Japan. The first ship hits CA in mid-June first but due to a train derailment, there is a delay getting the cars to dealers. The next ship arrives in Jacksonville, FL and a couple of days later one pulls into Baltimore. "Spy shots" and drone videos are posted of the cars being offloaded and now it's a competition to see who gets theirs first. On July 2nd an M.net user from Florida posts their delivery photos. This is thought to be the first customer car delivered in the US though not confirmed. I get the call on July 3rd from my dealer saying the car arrived overnight. I take delivery the same day. I end up with VIN 0009 and edition badge number 48 of 3000 (worldwide) and one of 643 cars in the US. It was originally planned to only have 500 available in the US but they reallocated some due to strong demand.
After almost two years of ownership, I have done MANY mods. Too many to list all of them but some of the highlights are a custom Guardian Designs leather/Alcantara flat top/bottom steering wheel, CravenSpeed orange tach and shift knob, Progress springs with spacers, HardDog M4 Sport Rollbar (custom powder coated body color).
I know this post was long but just wanted to wrap it up by saying hello once again and look forward to meeting all of you.
Steve
can't wait to see it on a drive!
Welcome Steve! I look forward to meeting you and seeing your 30AE on a club drive soon.
2017 RF Club, 6MT, Arctic White
Welcome Steve! Thanks for the share! Great story! I, too, like to mod my cars, as I have 2 Miatas. Both purchased new. I would have loved orange. I tracked them getting here. Just because they are awesome! You, and your love of cars will find ample company here.
Louie Draxler President
2014 Club 2.5L "Punisher Edition", 2017 RF GT
Welcome, Steve. Thanks for taking the time and providing us with your bio - very interesting. How cool to be able to track your 30th Anniversary and it's travel across the ocean.
Last season, Alexander and Luiza traveled from New Your City in their Orange 30th Anniversary to join us in three drives. Wouldn't it be cool to have both of your Miatas on the same drive?
Looking forward to meeting you on several Club drives this season. Love your Avatar, by the way.
Walter
Hi Steve and welcome!!! Happy to see you joined and looking forward to seeing you on some future runs!
Love the history bio too. A very nice list of former cars in your stable.
Jeff
2016 ST Ceramic Metallic GT aka Ghost
From one newbie to another...welcome!
Welcome to the club! Glad to see you are another multi-Miata owner. I'm on #4 myself. The upgrades sound pretty good (springs, roll bar...). Depending on where you live, you may want to try out autocross or track days to really enjoy your car. SCCA runs both autocross events throughout the region and Track Night in America events at Pocono.
JC
Real cars have two seats. Everything else is a bus.
Damn, I wish I could have grabbed a 30AE. Wasn’t in the market at the time, I love the color scheme especially the interior and the unique wheels!!
Jordan F. White, M.S.
2012 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT 6MT AWD (NB summer 2024!)
Welcome to the club! Glad to see you are another multi-Miata owner. I'm on #4 myself. The upgrades sound pretty good (springs, roll bar...). Depending on where you live, you may want to try out autocross or track days to really enjoy your car. SCCA runs both autocross events throughout the region and Track Night in America events at Pocono.
JC
Speaking of track night at Pocono, is anyone here planning on going this season? There’s 1 per month April thru like September or so. The NC & ND soft tops don’t need any aftermarket roll protection unless there’s been an engine swap or turbo, IIRC. However pre 2006 Miatas need an aftermarket roll bar/cage. That’s at Pocono at least. I wanted to go last season but most were cancelled for the obvious reasons. I took my Infiniti G20t w/SR20VE motor swap and my brother took his Nisan GT-R in 2019, it was a blast. There is novice, intermediate, and advanced. Three 20 min sessions I believe and it’s rain or shine. I want to take the ND2 in May and my brother will be bringing his ‘93 MR2 turbo. Just wondering if anyone has any plans this season to go.
Oh and you also need a SNELL helmet at least from one of the recent model years, I forget.
Jordan F. White, M.S.
2012 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT 6MT AWD (NB summer 2024!)
I’m registered for the 5/11 & 5/28 TNIA Pocono events. I’m using it as a test-n-tune with a few Miata & Porsche club friends. I believe the SCCA allows SA2010 & newer helmets at Pocono but their website would confirm that.
Real cars have two seats. Everything else is a bus.
Sounds about right, I think certain tracks like NJMP require snell 2020 and aftermarket roll bars for all convertibles (not surprising being in NJ and all)
We should talk more about 5/28 then as it gets closer.
Jordan F. White, M.S.
2012 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT 6MT AWD (NB summer 2024!)
Sorry about the delay - lots of track and autocross events got me busy. Both the 5/11 and 5/28 TNIA at Pocono were "wet and wild". I got in a lot of wet track tire testing and discovered that my General G-Max RS tires have lots of grip in rain, hail and standing water. The positive about a wet track is a 168hp Miata can run circles around those 500+HP Camaros, BMW's and Corvettes all struggling for grip. A bunch of us are registered for the 7/8 TNIA event (Advanced Run Group) if anyone is interested. I'm hoping to get in some dry track tire testing for a change.
Real cars have two seats. Everything else is a bus.
Sorry about the delay - lots of track and autocross events got me busy. Both the 5/11 and 5/28 TNIA at Pocono were "wet and wild". I got in a lot of wet track tire testing and discovered that my General G-Max RS tires have lots of grip in rain, hail and standing water. The positive about a wet track is a 168hp Miata can run circles around those 500+HP Camaros, BMW's and Corvettes all struggling for grip. A bunch of us are registered for the 7/8 TNIA event (Advanced Run Group) if anyone is interested. I'm hoping to get in some dry track tire testing for a change.
Gotcha. Myself and a few others are going to Pocono on 7/27 for SCCA track night. I already signed up and have a brand new XXL helmet on the way (had to special order bc my head is so big. They had lots of smalls though). 🙁
and yes .... we call rain on the track “the great equalizer” because it slows down everyone to the same speeds unless you have some insanely great wet traction tire, but even there’s a limit !
p.s where is the 7/8 location at ?
Jordan F. White, M.S.
2012 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT 6MT AWD (NB summer 2024!)
7/8 is the next Pocono TNIA event.
Real cars have two seats. Everything else is a bus.
