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Cars

Club drives, thrives on Miatas

These fans of the Mazda roadster are counting the days until they set eyes on the new model.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published April 8, 2005

If you're not already looking forward to Tuesday, you're probably not a Mazda Miata fanatic.

For members of East-Side Miatas of Tampa Bay, Tuesday is huge. That's the day they'll finally get an up-close look at the newly redesigned MX5 Miata.

They'll not only get to look at it, but they'll get to ride around the Tampa Bay area with a 2006 Miata. It's not yet available to the public, and in fact the Miata that's coming to Tampa on Tuesday, enclosed in a Plexiglas box, is the same car that caused a stir when it debuted recently at a New York City car show.

"They put it on the back of a firetruck and they're driving it to cities around the country," said Randy George, the co-founder of East-Side Miatas of Tampa Bay. "One of the things we're doing is to caravan around the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area with it."

George, who lives in Riverview, founded the club with a friend named Mark Jones in 2000. George had recently moved to Tampa from Jacksonville, where he belonged to a Miata club, and immediately saw the need for a similar club in Tampa.

"There was a club in St. Petersburg, but there wasn't one on the east side of Tampa Bay," George said.

The club that George and Jones envisioned was a little different than most. No club officers, no official nonprofit status, no formal meetings, no dues. Just a bunch of people who love Miatas getting together to talk about cars and whatever other subjects come up.

"Our motto is: "Come for the cars, stay for the people,' " George said. "When you have dues and things like that, it's too much trouble. And too much work."

It wasn't hard to find other people looking for exactly the same kind of club. George and Jones started leaving cards under the windshields of Miatas they saw parked around town. We've got this club, the cards said, and it'd be cool if you'd join us.

Lots of people did. Today, the club has about 120 members.

And even though it's much more informal than most car clubs, East-Side is a particularly active club. Club members meet every Wednesday evening, from 5:30 until 9:30 p.m., at the Chick-fil-A on Waters Avenue near the Veterans Expressway. On a typical week, there will be 15 to 20 Miatas there.

In addition to the weekly get-togethers, the club hosts monthly activities. It could be anything from an autocross or tech session, in which members help each other work on a particular mechanical project, to a barbecue or a canoe trip.

Part of the reason the club is so successful, members say, is that the emphasis is on fun and social activities, with a minimum of time spent on business, record-keeping and finances. When there's a club activity that costs money, members either pay their own way or pass the hat.

There's also an eclecticism to the club membership that appeals to members.

"For me, it the diversity, that's what makes the club special," said Jacques Gee, who joined three years ago. "When I was in the military, I was into low-rider trucks, and I was in a club for that but it was mostly young people. In ours you can find anyone from grandparents to teenagers. There's lawyers and accountants, people I wouldn't normally encounter in day-to-day life, and now I see them every week, and everybody gets along."

Club activities tend to start with car talk, Gee said, but that doesn't usually make up the bulk of the conversation.

"After about 10 or 15 minutes we get away from the cars and talk about everyday life," Gee said. "We talk about who's getting married, who's having babies."

The Miata, obviously, is the common bond among the members. What many members say they appreciate about the roadster is that it combines the sleek styling of a classic sports car with mechanical reliability. George said that several members have turned to Miatas after getting fed up with the constant repairs that their European sports cars required.

"I kept seeing Miatas and I finally bought one, almost on a whim," Gee said. "After I drove it for a while, I said, "Man, this thing is bulletproof. It just doesn't break.' "

It may not have the horsepower of some other sports cars, but it's plenty fast enough for most owners.

"I tell people, the horsepower doesn't matter if it's sitting in the shop all the time," Gee said.

Miatas have stayed essentially the same since they were introduced in 1989, but the 2006 model has some significant changes. Mazda has gone from a 1.8-liter engine to a 2.0, boosting the horsepower from 140 to 170, with a six-speed transmission replacing the old five-speed. There's more leg room inside, and powerful-looking fender flairs outside.

"I can't wait to see it up close," Gee said. "It looks good in the pictures, but a lot of cars look good in pictures and don't look as good up close."

For further information on East-Side Miatas of Tampa Bay, go to www.tampabaymiatas.net/

[Last modified April 7, 2005, 08:54:03]