Checking out the new wheels..
Pics say it all. Under 11 lb. for these 15x6.5" wheels. Not insane light (Motegi Trac Lite at around 9.5 comes to mind) but 3 lbs. lighter than my factory 14" alloys and in a size much easier to get tires for (even if they are bit more pricey).
Need to get some new skins tossed on and give them a try. Fun stuff!!!!
OK.. now where to get these headlamps?
The quest is on. It's purley a cosmetic/ricer modification not designed to give me more power or handling performance but.. well.. maybe it will shave some weight so yeah.. that will be my reationalization!
At any rate I've been considering trying to build a light assembly such as this when I stubled across this photo on a Japanese website while checking out replacement nose pieces. Wow.. there they are! Now.. anyone know where to get them? So far I've not had much luck translating Japanese websites.. :p
UPS - You sorta SUCK!
I just have to vent this. And this happens almost EVERY time something is shipped to me via UPS (how come FedEx Home and Airborne can seem to deliver typically a day BEFORE the initial estimated delivery date and UPS will never deliver early and often late!)
So here is the story and the data. These parts shipped out and for the first few days had a delivery date of 7/28 (yesterday). Cool. Looking forward to getting them. Then suddenly they go into limbo after leaving San Diego.
A while later I see a message about a 'Late Train' into Portland. Hm.. OK (typical excuses by UPS is the first thing that comes into my mind). OK, so sure enough I'm seeing the delivery date changed to 7/29. OK.
Now what torques me is that they know the package will now be 'late' BUT they lit the damn thing sit in Portland (about 3 hours away from me here) for over 24 hours before they send it out (check out the shipping details).
My thought is if you know it's late why not just make some minor effort to NOT let it just sit around in your shipping facility? Sheesh. I want a partial refund of my shipping fees.. gr.
update: 5:30pm PDTAnd get this. Bremerton is a small city (population for 30,000 WHEN the entire fleet is in) yet someone these parts are on the truck since 4:30am this morning and now that it's 5:30pm they ARE STILL NOT HERE!?!??! Blows my mind. And I know there is more than 1 UPS truck in the city. Flippin amazing, just flippin amazing.. :(
update: 9:30pm PDTAfter delaying a badly needed motorcycle ride until 6:00pm I just gave up and left. Upon my return just before dark I find the boxes stacked outside the garage. I guess I will say one thing at least they know they can leave stuff here safely because if I'd seen one of those infernal yellow post-its on my door about a missed delivery I think I would have gone postal.. or (UPS'al).
Package Progress:
Date/Time Location Activity
Jul 29, 2005
4:35 A.M. BREMERTON, WA, US OUT FOR DELIVERY
3:58 A.M. BREMERTON, WA, US ARRIVAL SCAN
12:30 A.M. REDMOND, WA, US ARRIVAL SCAN
Jul 28, 2005
9:10 P.M. PORTLAND, OR, US DEPARTURE SCAN
Jul 27, 2005
6:48 P.M. PORTLAND, OR, US ARRIVAL SCAN
6:00 A.M. PORTLAND, OR, US A LATE TRAIN CAUSED THIS DELAY
Jul 25, 2005
7:57 P.M. SAN DIEGO, CA, US DEPARTURE SCAN
7:21 P.M. SAN DIEGO, CA, US ORIGIN SCAN
7:07 P.M. SAN DIEGO, CA, US FORWARDED TO DESTINATION CITY
Jul 24, 2005
2:01 A.M. US BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
Tracking results provided by UPS: Jul 29, 2005 11:19 A.M. Eastern Time (USA)
New Miata Drive Events coming up soon!
It looks like Mazda will be hosting an MX-5 test-drive event in various cities throughout the remainder of the year. It's likely to be similar to the
Rev-It-Up events. The 10 cities listed:
San Francisco: August 20-21
Los Angeles: August 27-28
Boston: September 10-11
Houston: September 24-25
Dallas: October 1-2
Orlando: October 8-9
Miami: October 15-16
Chicago: October 29-30
New York: November 5-6
Washington D.C.: November 12-13
Specific each venue can be located here: http://zoomzoomlive.com/
For those of you in these cities I'd encourage you to sign up to drive one of the new NC's. Autoweek just gave it a thumbs up (more info on that article tomorrow).
THEY ARE HERE!!
A shutterbug got a bunch of pics in Tacoma, WA of the MX-%'s after coming off the boats from japan.
Click here for his pics.Very nice. They look a little bit like 4x4's in some of the pics but I'm sure the aftermarke will be to the rescue in short order!
Sample pics from http://www.bauerspeedracing.com
More NC pics
Lots of pics floating around the net of course. I'm going to try and put together some links as I come across them.
Pics from Photographe Mark Booth pictures taken recently in San Diego.
From Miata.net picture of 'Winning Blue' painted NC on car carrier.
Miata.net - First Look writeup and pics of the new NC from Miata.net's Gary Fischman. A little verbose but worth a look, EX:
And if photos are not enough some video can be found on this local (to me) preview of the new MX-5 at
King5.com:Also available for video viewing pleasure is this little Head-to-Head discussion about the new MX-5 and the Pontiac Soltice at Car.com.
Pontiac Solstice vs. Mazda MX-5More pics, links and information to follow!
Road and Track Article
Photo Gallery: Mazda MX-5 MiataThere has been much buzz about the new MX-5 (aka Miata) on the national and international message boards. Any why not? The new Miata is quite an update.
Road and Track has some pictures (liked above) of the new car and it looks pretty sharp. However options still differ widely regarding Mazda hitting or missing the mark on the new car.
For instance issues about the new car's weight, a big selling point of the original (NA ) Miata are being raised:
They said the entry-level Club Sport model is 291 lbs. heavier than the original car, and out tester is a whopping 316 heavier.
Some fans of the new NC (it's unofficial name amoung Miataphiles) quickly came to it's defense.
I don't think its necessarily fair to compare the NC's weight to the
NA's weight, particularly given that this car is a bigger car, has three more airbags than the NA, much bigger wheels, etc. It seems Mazda did its best to keep the weight down given all the safety restraints.
.. and ..
2498 lbs is 1132 kg. In the registration papers for my -91 NA its base
weight is listed as being 1080 kg (2378 lbs). I must say that an extra 120 lbs for a larger engine, four airbags, lots of equipment, much chassis stiffening components etc is not too much of a weight gain.
The car tested appears to be one given to the press during the Hawaian release event. It's said to be a 'mid-spec' car equipped with 17" wheels, 6-speed transmission and the sport suspension which included Bilstein dampers.
Speaking of the 6-speed it is also a point of discussion and comparison to the original car are of course going to be made.
The article said:
"the new 6spd is an improvement over the outgoing one, but lacks the snick-snick feel of the old five-speed".
Owning one of the originals (1990 model year) I can attest to the wonderful 5-speed these cars were originally release with and I guess I'm not the only one.
Loss of snick-snick is a big loss. I prefer the 5 Speed, but it appears
destined for only the less equipped models.
.. and ..
Regarding the six speed gearbox in the NC - I still think that the
gearbox in my NA is one of the best gearboxes I've ever sampled. The gearbox in the 1,8 NA is a bit more "thin", it feels less sturdy somehow. The two NB's I've driven, a 1998 (yes, here we had a '98 NB) and a 2001 had the same feeling. It's still a really, really good gearbox but not quite like the one in my NA.
.. and ..
I am one Miata enthusiast that wishes Mazda had never abandoned the
original 5-speed tranny. The 5-speed in my '92 was perfection, a real joy to shift. By contrast, I find the 6-speed in my '01 to be much notchier (despite trying several different gear lubricants). The only real advantage I find with the 6-speed is that 3rd gear is placed such that I don't find myself shifting nearly as much when driving the twisties.
However it sounds like the new MX-5 will be available with a 5-speed as well. This sounds like a wise move if in fact it has been strenghtned since engine mods and swaps are a common fate for the little roadster.
"The five-speed manual transmission is carried over from the
second-generation MX-5 with key changes. To handle the additional torque, the inner structure of the transmission, the counter shaft, and third gear are stronger. Triple-cone synchronizers for first and second gears, double-cone synchros for third, and a carbon-type synchro for fourth reduce shift effort.
Check out the article and the pictures if you get a chance. It still has the lines of the previous models but somewhat more muscular. Jury is still out on the fender flairs for the most part but having seen the car in person at the MotoGP in Monterey California a couple weeks back I can say that did not look ugly in the least.
