Miata Mailing List: March 1995, Message #151
sponsored by



     


   From: Stephen_Lasky@Brown.EDU
Subject: Ft. Lauderdale article Miata (Long)
   Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 11:25:44 -0500

MiataNetters:  Here's the article that I promised to post.  I figured that
I would wait until the weekend so that the list wouldn't get too long. 
Sorry if there are typo's.  Text set off by *$$$* is mine.

*Reprinted without permission from the Sun-Sentinel, Saturday, February 18,
1995.  Lifestyle section. Hope they don't mind.*

Bigger than 48 pt header:  "Miata Madness "

24 or 36 pt "Baby Boomers recapture their youth and let their hair blow
free as the travel the roadster to happiness"

By Kathleen Kernicky (staff writer)

Lloyd and Dolly Wolf fell in love with the car.  Then they fell in love
with each other.  The Hollywood *Fla* couple met, dated and were engaged
through the Everglades Miata Club.

On their wedding day, Lloyd, 42, and Dolly, 43, gunned their engine and
roared off into happily everafter, wind in their hair, top down on his
customized red Miata roadster.

At the Silber house in Tamarac *a suburb or Ft. Lauderdale* Russell, 51 and
Myrna, 50, drive a white Miata with a blue racing stripe, chrome-plated
engine and a vanity plate that reads: NIFTY JR.  Their sons, ages 25 and 29
drive Dodge Omnis.

What's going on here?

Are aging Baby Boomers trading in their car seats for a back seat big
enough for a briefcase but little else?  Why are practical and middle-aged
motorists shaping their social life, their friends, even their dates,
around a sports car so small it gives new meaning to traveling light?

Don't call it a mid-life crisis, they say.  Call it indulging the empty
nest.  Delayed gratification.  Maybe it's a generation worn down by
tow-career households, long work days and high mortgages.

Now, at 30, 40, and 50 plus, all they want to do is have some fun.

Fun has brought them together in the Everglades Miata Club, a social club
with about 70 South Florida members who share a love for the open highway
and the bygone era of the convertible roadster.  Today, members will drive
their cars to Parkland for a pot-luck picnic.

"I had a TR4 Triumph years ago." says Myrna Silber.  "We had to get rid of
it when my first son was born because we needed a three-seater.  I made
myself a promise that when my kids were grown, I'd buy another sports car. 
Thirty years later, I kept that promise."

Club members range in age from 17 to 77, although most are in their 40's
and 50's.  They're Blue-collar, white-collar, retired.  They own businesses
or sell stained glass.

"The only thing that ties us together is the car,"  Says Don Klein, 57, an
environmental products engineer from Coral Springs.  "We caravan
everywhere."

Make no mistake, there are no ordinary motorists.  Their cars (Mazda
Miatas) have names pressed on their vanity plates:  BUG EYES, NIFTY JR,
SPIFFY TIFFY, EUNOS.  The detail and attention paid to their cars is
stunning:  Chrome or gold plated engines, customized racing stripes,
two-tone leather interiors, color-coded knobs and gauges covers.  It goes
on and on.

"People think we're trying to be 18 again, but who gives a damn?" says Dave
Russell, a 40 something from Delray Beach whose red Miata includes much of
the above.  (His wife, Pricilla, drives a matching Miata.)  Are they?

"Absolutely."

Dick Fischer, also know as "Turbo Dick," has a turbo charged, gold-plated
engine with 300 horsepower (the stock Miata engine has 118 horsepower). 
Yes, a gold-plated engine.  And expensive paint used on Ferraris.

Fisher, 51 used to ride Harley-Davidsons.  After his son had an accident,
he switched to an antique Model A ford.  But he missed the "open air".

"It's a blast," he says of this ports car.  "I guess you'd call it a
sleeper.  It looks like an ordinary car.  But when you pull up to a light,
and step on the gas, look out."

These drivers look forward to hitting rush hour or running an errand, any
excuse to get into their cars.

"It's like being addicted" says Russell Silber, the club's president who
runs a carpet business.  "If I go too long, I find myself making excuses to
go out.  You gotta have your fix"

The clubs latest newsletter lists the top 10 reasons why cruising in your
roadster is "better than sex" (The No. 6 reason: "You and your partner
always finish at the same time")


**That's all they list, folks, I know you were waiting for the whole list,
sorry about that, but how about another one like "starting your car doesn't
wake up your neighbors?**


So, what do club members do exactly, besides talk cars?  They caravan to
Key West or Naples or you-name-it, a procession of 20 to 30 Miatas tooling
down the highway, tops peeled back, talking on their CB radios.  On a
recent outing, 13 convertibles roared across Alligator Alley to have lunch
at a waterfront cafe in Naples.

Last Christmas, they drove 24 Miatas to the Key West Christmas parade.  At
Halloween, they threw a party (carving miniature Miatas on the pumpkins). 
They throw tow social outings a month.  "Most of our members want a social
live outside of work." says Russell Silber.  "It's an excellent place to
find happy, stable, normal people.

When Dolly and Lloyd Wolf met at a club meeting, they knew they would have
at least one thing in common.

The two were married in December.  Club members Dick and Jean Fischer were
the best man and Matron of honor.

"It all happened through the Miata Club." says Lloyd, who works in sales. 
"That was part of the click between us---the car.....One thing led to
another."

Pricilla Russell bought a Miata after losing her husband's attention to his
red Miata.  Now they drive his-and-her roadsters.  His is red and
stick-shift.  Hers is black and automatic.  With the two-seaters, they have
to rent a car when her son visits.

Mazda's Miata puttered onto the road in June 1989.  Hailed as the return of
the roadster convertible, the car was so popular in the early days that it
could only be purchased through special order.  There was usually a two- or
three-month wait.

Today, there are plenty of Miatas on the lot, although they remain popular.
 with a base price of $17,000, (the 1995 "M Edition" with leather interior
and mircot mica paint lists for $23,970), the Miata remains an affordable
sports car for the over 35 set.

For Jean Fischer, 50-plus, riding the jump seat in her husband's
convertible is a return to their romance, when they were kids in Brooklyn
drag racing a '63 Tempest to the next light.  They have two grown sons and
have been married 31 years.

"We'd pull up to the light and you'd never look down and you'd never look
at the car beside you,"  Jean says smiling at the memory.  "When the light
turned, the race began.  Dick does the same thing today.  His had moves
down on that stick.... and it's like he's a teen-ager again."

***Whew, didn't realize it was that long***
***That's it, they have a 4 pictures included in the article that show some
nice clean Miatas (three red, one white and two black, the red and white
miata's have wide racing stripes.***

************************************************************************
Stephen R. Lasky Ph.D.  Brown University/Roger Williams Medical Center
LandLine: 401-456-6572  FAX: 401-456-6569  	e-mail: Stephen_Lasky@brown.edu
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The art of science is of vital importance to the state.  It is a matter of
life and death, a road to safety or to ruin.  Hence under no circumstances
can it be neglected.  SunTzu (paraphrased)
*************************************************************************