Miata Mailing List: September 1998, Message #135

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I live in San Jose and commute to Hayward each day, some 70 miles round trip.
I don't consider my car to be unsafe (i also got the crazy reds to scare away
Suburbans). I feel that the superior handling and lite wieght give the car and
amazing agility the will allow you to escape trouble if you drive alertly and
give yourself that extra buffer zone. I try to avoid others blind spots and
zipp thru them quickly, and i always remember not to play with the big fish
(cutting off larger cars or not letting them merge) because they can swallow
you. I speak for eight years of motorcycling experience where you are the
proverbial "mino of the road" and everything else can swallow you. As for
crash protection I think the miata is on par with other small cars (due to
their low inertia). I you car has air bags then you have that as an added
bonus, and as far as you the driver is concerned, it would pay big dividend to
enroll in a high performace driving school or the like to get you confident
about the mx's abilities in compromising situation. As they say in the two
wheeled world - Keep the rubber side down -  dont forget you could always
upgrade to a 99 which as all the safety side impact bolstering, air baggin
anti locking safety bonuses
- Nanda Holz blackntan 92 LE 76k miles