As a closet Miata owner, I feel the need to chip in here, speaking only for
myself, of course.
The top stays down all the time on my Healey 3000s and on my '73 Midget.
But they get to live in the garage, and if it looks like it is going to
rain in the morning, they usually stay there. Not that they don't get
driven in the rain, but I prefer to leave the tops down all the time when I
can.
The Miata, on the other hand, stays outside in the weather. Twice, I have
forgotten and left the top down overnight, to find the inside full of
either rain or dew on the leather seats in the morning. Once it happened
at work, when I didn't notice that it was raining. That kind of thing
probably happened quite frequently also for the 3000 and the Midget in
those days when they were just cars, and not classics. That's why so many
of them ended up with rusted out floors.
When I take the Miata on the road, I'll put the top down, but around town
and on short trips, it works better for me to leave it up. The over-center
top latching mechanism on the Miata, by the way, is a real work of
engineering genius. Compared with the struggle to latch the Healey or
Midget tops, the Miata is no effort at all.
Steve Byers
Havelock, NC USA
'73 Midget GAN5UD126009G "OO NINE"
'66 BJ8 HBJ8L/36666 "TARHEELY"
'63 BJ7 HBJ7L/20111 "HEALEYUM"
'96 Miata M Edition JM1NA3530TO706798 (just to be consistent :-) )
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool
than to speak, and remove all doubt" -- Mark Twain
----------
> From: Doug Ingram <dougi@home.com>
> To: Spridget List <spridgets@autox.team.net>
> Subject: BCW Sightings
> Date: Saturday, May 29, 1999 2:05 AM
>
> Well, another day of British Car Week fun. I put on quite a few miles
today
> just toolin' around, going nowhere in particular. A little disappointed
in
> the sightings department: a Mini and a Spitfire, both parked and
driverless
> at the side of the road. Yesterday my only sightings were a different
Mini
> and an RB B, both with drivers and on the move.
>
> Do you think there are some RB B drivers/owners who don't know they have
> British cars? Somehow I get the feeling that some of them just don't get
> it........
>
> What Japanese word means "hood up when sun shining"?
>
> Why, MIATA of course. I lose count of how many of these pretenders I see
> everywhere I go, most of them with the hood firmly in the up position.
Maybe
> the Japanese engineers really failed in that area, perhaps the hood
> mechanism is subject to early and frequent failure, and there are a lot
of
> broken ones out there. Or could it be that the car's manual omitted the
> instructions on how to lower the hood?
>
> Any ideas, anyone?
>
> Doug Ingram
> Victoria BC
> 1958 Frogeye
> AN5L/636
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