| MiataTudes |
| The Monthly Newsletter of the Sacramento Area Miata Owners Association |
| www.sacramentoareamiata.org |
Copyright 2007 - Sacramento Area Miata Owners Association - Sacramento, CA 95662 For questions about this website please contact the webmaster |
| Robin’s Nest By Robin George We have reached the halfway point in the year and the club is progressively showing signs of increased activity. The membership is also steadily increasing. Thank you members!! In checking other car clubs in the area we are bucking the trend and are remaining a very active club. Thank you members!! Our general meetings and activities are well attended. We have many more events coming up and members have been working in the background to make these events outstanding. Check out the events page and get yourself signed up. It is only your fault if you miss out. So far in the last month I’ve been to Mt. Shasta, Florence, Oregon, and on the North Coast. In addition, I have been on several trips into the foothills, group planning dinners and the opportunity to enjoy the comradely of you the members. If you have an idea for an event or want to do something, let us know. Elections: We have our Board of Officers elections coming up in December. Being an officer isn’t that bad and it gives you a chance to have fun and enjoy your Miata more. Contact me if you want to run for an office and I’ll be glad to help you out with any information you may need. It does not hurt. I’ll be bending arms more aggressively and the deadline gets closer. Annual Picnic Charity By Mike DeLaurentis The Board Of Officers has decided to make a donation to the Society for the Blind as requested by long time SAMOAn Ralph Gingrich who has greatly benefited from this organization. Among the services provided by the Society for the Blind are: Instructional Programs Low Vision Clinic Senior Programs Youth Programs Access News by Phone Career Development Program Aids to Independence Computer software and hardware Please go to their website at www.societyfortheblind.org for complete information about these programs. We are asking all the members who attend this year's birthday picnic to make a donation to this worthwhile charity and for those members who cannot attend the picnic you can also donate by bringing a donation to the August meeting or mailing it to SAMOA, 1864 Bridgecreek Drive, Sacramento, CA 95833. Thank you in advance for your generosity and for making a donation to this worthwhile charity. Over-nighters By Mike DeLaurentis First of all I’d like to thank Dan and Mila Spengler for helping us plan and carry out the July 4th run to Mt. Shasta. I’d also like to thank all of you SAMOANs who came along for the ride and festivities. The weather wasn’t the greatest (101 on July 4th) but it beat the 107 temps in Sacramento so we can be thankful for that. (See the Mt. Shasta Trip Photos at the front page of our website.) As I lay in bed all day July 5th overcoming an untimely case of heat exhaustion I pretty much convinced myself that we would never make this run again so those of you who attended may have been in on the last Mt. Shasta/SAMOA July 4th event. But time heals all wounds and maybe we’ll repeat in a few years. Or maybe we’ll find some other small town, with great roads going to and from, and that has a great, patriotic, July 4th celebration. Helen and I enjoy all SAMOA events but these out of town, over-night events give us time to get to know fellow SAMOAns better because we have more time to sit and talk. For example, do you know what makes Robin George quiet? Just ask him and he will tell you. So if you too like the over-night events we are fortunate to have two great ones coming up. Ron Petrich’s September 8-9 Redwood Weekend and Ralph Gingrich’s October 5-8 Ft. Bragg run. It looks as if Ron has picked out some beautiful roads and the scenery on the coast is always wonderful. This is the first time he’s run this and if the scenery and roads are as good as they seem to be he may have to repeat. And speaking of repeating the Ft. Bragg run is SAMOA’s longest running event with this being the 17th year and Ralph has does a fine job planning this for the last six years. So if you can get away for an overnighter come along on one or both of these events. Better yet, if you have a favorite out-of- town destination I am willing to bet you’ll find some other SAMOAns who will also like it so plan an event for all of us to visit your favorite spot. SAMOA Club Picnic Celebrates 17 years of Fun By Jeanne George On Sunday, September 30, we will honor our Club’s Birthday with a catered BBQ lunch at the Windwalker Vineyard. The new owners of Windwalker have graciously allowed us the use of their facilities. In addition to the wine tasting and delicious lunch, a bocce ball tournament will be offered for those interested. Or you can buy a bottle of Windwalker wine and sit in the shade while watching the activities. The winery is located at 7360 Perry Creek Road, in Somerset (530 620-4054). Incahoots Restaurant from Plymouth will cater the event. The menu will be sliced tri-tip on a French roll, green salad, potato salad, soda, water, and of course dessert. The day will begin with an organized drive to the winery (still in the planning stage), or you can drive there on your own. Lunch is planned for noon. In 2006 the “no shows” cost the Club over $400 in catering costs and chair rentals. This year the BOO has decided to set the price at $15 per person, which will be refunded at registration on the day of the event. Each active membership qualifies for two ticket refunds. RSVP for this event is required by September 20. Contact Jeanne George at jeanne@winfirst.com to place ticket orders or call 916 359-2627. Send checks payable to SAMOA and mail to 1864 Bridgecreek Dr., Sacramento, CA 95833. Checks must be received by September 28th. If you pay for tickets, but find yourself unable to attend, please notify me to cancel your attendance by September 28th for a refund. No refund after the caterer is given the final headcount on September 28. Come out and enjoy the fun. Your Board of Officers (BOO) is working on additional ideas and plans which will be provided in the September newsletter. Tech Talk By Jack Parker One item that comes up every so often is oil. Members have asked more than once about oil changing and type and viscosity. It seems as though the typical Miata owner owns a blank canvas that can be modified in anyway seen fit by its owner. In certain ways this is true, but with maintenance, pretty much the rule of "you don't want the thing to blow up" is the rule. Jiffy Lube and their ad campaigns of oil changes every 3000 miles is the prime reason this perception of oil "wearing" out or breaking down comes from. Changing your oil every 3000 miles might seem like a good thing at first glance. But if you think about it for a moment, it becomes clear that everyone is different and driving styles vary widely and therefore oil life will vary widely. If Jiffy Lube had their way you would probably have the cleanest most well lubed engine around. But there is downside to this idea of every 3000 miles. First, new cars are quite different than older M1s or even the older M2s. The 1990-1997 generation, for the most part, are seeing some pretty high mileage. Changing oil more often for these cars depending on how you use your car would not necessarily be a bad thing. The older M2s, 1999- 2000 probably again are racking up the miles as well and again depending on usage, might do well with more frequent changes. For the time being let's talk briefly about usage. If your car is a grocery getter on the short but frequent haul cycle, with not that much freeway miles, a shorter interval between changes would help. The frequent stops and goes are rough on engines and oil tends to break down quicker with this kind of usage. A high percentage of freeway use is not quite as hard on engines and less frequent changes might be o k. Now lets talk generally about the newest cars out on the market. I have three cars that have on board computers that "tell' when the car needs servicing which usually involves more than just an oil change. With these cars, which generally use synthetic oil, the interval between changes, at least for my cars, is averaging about 13,000 to 14,000 miles. So you can see, depending on usage and the type of car, the changing interval varies widely. When you see a Jiffy Lube ad that advocates the 3000 mile rule, think about how many oil filters and how much used oil is out there wanting to be recycled and otherwise disposed of. The environment doesn’t need this. Having Jiffy Lube tell you that your oil needs to be changed every 3000 miles is similar to having your dentist tell you that your teeth need to be cleaned every 3 months. Or your tire dealer telling you that tires wear out and you need to change them every 10,000 miles. It just doesn't make good sense. The Sporting Side of Life By Jack Parker Our group of autocrossers continue to do well in SCCA Sacramento Chapter racing this year. Our latest test of driver dexterity came on July 21 and 22 at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds in Stockton. The temperature was in the mid 90s and the competition was equally as hot in H Stock, STS2 and Street Tire. In H Stock the competitors, including our own Rod Gonzales, driving his mighty KIa, were very well matched and exciting to watch. On July 21the first run found Rod in second place by less that 4/10s of a second. Rod came back strong with a 42.030 to recapture the class lead. Third runs did not show any improvement by anyone leaving Rod in the lead. But as luck would have it Rod lowered his time to 41.839 and the opposing Subaru ran off a 41.741 besting Rod by a mere .098. That folks may be less than foot. Tough break but a hard fought and fun to watch match. Again on July 21, Darrel Huckaby, driving his beautiful new 2007 Silver MX-5 in Street Tire, competed with enthusiasm. But after the event Darrel was in seventh place. In STS2, the fight was between Andrew Milicharek, the current club champion in his Miata and this day driving his RX-7, a future club member named Ben Vicente and Jack Parker. First runs were led by Jack by 2.6 seconds with Andrew in second and Ben in fifth place. Jack failed to improve throughout the event, which left Andrew and Ben improving on each run. On Andrews third run things began to tighten up a bit but as luck would have it those damn little rubber things started to jump in the way. Andrew ran a 38.941 which brought him to within 1.2 seconds but the cone he collected cost him a second penalty. The final tally for the day left Ben in third, coming back strong from fifth, Andrew in second and Parker in first. There were several other Miatas out there on that day but none were members of the club. On Sunday the 22nd, H Stock competitors returned and again were quite competitive. After the first run, Rod was down almost 1.2 seconds back in second place with that pesky Subaru again in the lead. The second run found Rod improving his time and now only down by .4 seconds. Unfortunately the third the round found both the Kia driven by Rod and the Subaru both lowering their times with the Subaru now in the lead by .7 seconds. Now the pressure was on. All three of the top drivers lowered their times, which left the Kia in second by .6 seconds. The results from the weekend left Rod in second place in the overall standings by a mere 20 points. It looks like it is going down to the last weekend of racing in this class. In Street Tire, Darryl was back again on Sunday. Darryl gave it his all but finished eighth by 2 seconds. That leaves Darryl in third place in the standing for the overall trophy in Street Tire. Sunday's STS2 class had just two competitors. Andrew and Jack were once again battling it out. The first run found Parker in the lead by less than half a second. Today, cones again proved to be a downfall as Andrew ran a 38.503 which would have put him in the lead but those rubber thingies got in the way. One cone equals one second penalty. Parker turned in a clean 37.431 to take the lead by over 2 seconds. That was his fastest of the day and left Andrew to try and better that as Parker could not show any improvement. Cones again prevented any improvement on Parker's times and Andrew did improve to a 39.008 leaving him in second place for the day. These two days put Andrew in second in the overall standings and Parker leading. So as you can see we have a group of four doing pretty well in their respective classes in SCCA Autocross. The next event is August 18 and 19, once again in Stockton. If you have nothing better to do those days come on down and cheer for your fellow club members. Or better yet, bring one of those cute little cars out and lay down some rubber and have a great time! Treasure Trove News By Jeanne George I’m taking a short vacation and sent this article to Ron early. Payments received after July 21 will be listed in the September newsletter. WELCOME to new members joining in June: #20 Gary and Peg Winney #21 Mark and Deirdre Bodenhamer #22 Richard White Memberships Expiring on August 1: Kastning, Dani & Scott Lawler, Mark & Annette Nagao, Seth Wright, Mac & Jean Memberships Renewed in July: Herron, Bob Callaghan, Jim & Sandy Hunt, Randall & Pam Leininger, Jan McCamey, Richard & Dorothy McClure, Jim & Jackie Weis, Vince & Kathi Bell Wilkinson, Darlene Per the Bylaws SAMOA has a Finance Committee, which consists of the Treasurer and two club members. I have been on the Committee for several years and as Treasurer we now have a vacancy. I am looking for a volunteer to join the Finance Committee. The function is to review SAMOA accounting books two times a year and monitor expenses. In December, using the current year’s income and expense records the Committee prepares a Budget recommendation to the outgoing Board of Officers. After their review the proposed budget is given to the incoming Board of Officers to use as a guideline. You do not need an accounting degree or be a CPA. Being able to balance your own checkbook would be an asset. I am using Quicken Basic accounting system. If you are interested please contact me at 916 359-2627 or jeanne@winfirst.com. Car Lists and Other To-do's By Jack Parker I thought it would be a great idea to have members share a little bit about themselves and their car addictions with the club membership in the form of lists. So every month as long as there are lists to be shared I will share with you the member’s lists that are sent to culdad@svics.com. Send me lists of at least five items about cars, events, travel or whatever sub-category you want as long as it has something to do with cars or the automotive genre. To get an idea of what I mean, here is list numero uno. My list of cardos: 1 The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2 The Monaco F1 Grand Prix 3 Goodwood Festival of Speed 4 Goodwood Revival 5 Woodward Cruise in Michigan 6 SEMA show in Las Vegas I hope this gets the ball rolling to add a chance for members to get involved in the making of the newsletter a bit more interesting and for others to find out more about our membership. Send your lists to culdad@svics.com. WEEKEND IN FT. BRAGG BY RALPH GINGRICH IT IS TIME FOR SAMOA'S LONGEST RUNNING EVENT TO HAPPEN AGAIN. WE ARE GOING TO FT. BRAGG FOR THE 17TH TIME. WE WILL BE STAYING AT THE BEST WESTERN HOTEL ON THE NORTH SIDE OF TOWN. WE WILL HAVE THE COTTAGE FOR PARTIES AND GAMES. WE WILL ALSO HAVE A DINNER PARTY ON SATURDAY NIGHT. THE EVENT WILL BE OCTOBER 5-8,2007. WE WILL LEAVE FROM DAVIS MCDONALD'S AT 8:30 ON FRIDAY OCTOBER 5. KATHY AND VINCE WILL LEAD US ON THE EVENT AND THEY WILL HAVE A COUPLE OF WINE STOPS AND LUNCH. FRAN IS WORKING ON DOING SOME THINGS IN FT. BRAGG AND WE WILL HAVE SOME GOOD TIMES. WE WILL COME UP WITH A DINNER MENU FOR SATURDAY. PRICES FOR THE WEEKEND ARE AS FOLLOWS: ROOM RATE FOR FRIDAY AND SATURDAY $89.99 PLUS TAX… SUNDAY $71.99 PLUS TAX. THE CUTOFF DATE FOR THESE RATES IS SEPTEMBER 5, 2007. BEST WESTERN HOTEL 1100 NORTH MAIN ST. FT. BRAGG, CA. 95437 1-800-821-9498 1-707-964-4776 Meet SAMOA Members Part 3 By Jeanne George This month the list of people who turned in forms to me is shorter. I will send by email information sheets to those that aren’t able to attend monthly meetings that would like to be included in this column. Joined March 2002. Graeme Kinsey is the owner of a 2001 Classic Red which he purchased in 2001. Graeme enjoys the Samoa Scrabble Scramble event, Historic races, Antique Car Run, and the monthly meetings. Graeme has provided a variety of events for SAMOA members. As President of Delta Club he has invited our members to their club events. Recently he stepped forward to lead the group at the George Surprise Run when Robin incurred a blown sparkplug at the starting point. Thanks again Graeme for saving that event. Joined April 2005. Jim and Sandy Callaghan originally joined after purchasing a 1995 Miata. They rejoined the club August 2006 under the New Car Deal after purchasing a Galaxy Gray 2006. They enjoyed the annual Birthday picnic, runs to Infinion Raceway, and the Christmas party. They haven’t had the chance to lead an event or do sweep duty. They attend meetings when they can. Joined September 2005. Margie Jurach bought her 1999 Silver in 2005. She joined the Club and has become an experienced adventurer this year by learning how to play and became the Delta Picnic Bocce Ball Champion. She has enjoyed the Fort Bragg trips, Calistoga, Moab Utah trip, Mt. Shasta July 4th trip, and Mt. Akum wineries. She hasn’t led an event yet, but she has performed sweep duty. Joined June 2006. Terri and Bob Bacon have purchased a 1990 White in 2003, a 2001 Green in 2004, and currently drive a White 2006 purchased in 2007. They have enjoyed attending the Winery Runs, Scrabble Scramble, Garden Valley July 4th Parade. The Bacon’s are enjoying obtaining the prizes for the monthly raffles since April. Thank you for your participation. Blackhawk Museum Run By Jack Parker August 25 is the day for the Blackhawk Auto Museum Run in conjunction with the Delta club. The Blackhawk is one to the premier auto museums in the United States. They display their vehicles at many of the high-end festivals, shows and auctions around the country. There is a Duesenberg exhibit in the museum currently. The collection contains cars from throughout history and encompasses all genres of automobiles. The collection contains sports cars, classic touring, race cars and show cars. European, Asian and American cars are represented. One offs and production cars are in the collection as well. We will have a private docent led tour along with a photo shoot in front of the museum. By the way that is a very cool thing. Not everyone gets one of those. We will travel roads not normally taken by the club and will meet with Delta near Oakley or Antioch. A late lunch/early dinner will also be scheduled. We have 10 already joining us and need a total of 12 to assure a private tour. The cost of the tour for club members is $5 payable at the museum on the day of the tour. Our starting location will be in West Sacramento, near the corner of Jefferson and West Capital Avenue. We plan a mid morning departure around 9:00 but could change after the first run through. Please RSVP by August 17 to culdad@svics.com or just reply on the forum. Birthday Greetings By Ron Petrich The following SAMOAns will be another year older in August. If you have an August birthday and you are not on this list, its is either because I have never heard from you when I asked for birthdays, or you simply were never born. But its not too late to add your names to the birthday database. Just drop me a line at freescopesdad@comcast.net and we will wish you a belated BDay next month. On to the honorees... Teri Bacon Barbara Cowan Parvin Damania JR Hahn Joe Rainbolt Mark Smith Teri, Barbara and Parvin all turn 21 this month. I don't know about the guys... The Famous Miata 710 By Adi Damania Yesterday a friend was having his Miata serviced at the Mazda dealer in Little Rock, Arkansas, when a young blonde walked in and asked for a "seven-hundred-ten" for her 2007 Miata. The parts counter man looked at her non-plussed and asked, What is a seven-hundred-ten?" She replied," Ya know, the little piece in the middle of the engine. I lost it somewhere maybe it dropped out and need a new one". The mechanic who had by now joined the parts guys, gave the attractive woman a piece of paper and a pen and asked her to draw what the piece looked like. She took the paper and pen and drew a circle and in the middle of it wrote "710". He then took her over to another Miata which had the bonnet up and asked, "Is there a "710" on this car?" She pouted her lips for a moment and pointed and triumphantly said, "Of course! Its right there!!" |
| August 2007 |
