Finally Finished

It's finally finished. The hardtop I mean.

Yeah, I know that's very poor English, but it covers the ground.

Getting this thing to the point where I was happy with it has taken nine months. Actually getting it home intact after buying it (from a vendor in Melbourne) was the biggest hassle.

The problems didn't stop there. It didn't fit well, and I had plenty of fiddling to do with the adjustments of the clamps that hold it down. It was trial and error, and there was much more error initially than trial.

The painting went OK, except that the guy doing the job had difficulty in reseating the rear window after he removed it.

He had to call in a windscreen specialist to get it right, and even then I wasn't happy with the way the beading settled at one corner. A few grams of Araldite with a lump of wood wedged against the garage holding it in place whilst it dried overnight did the trick.

The whole thing comes off in about one minute. Then you have a convertible for when the weather's good.

Now I need a storage solution for the hardtop.

Roaming in the Gloaming

The country is beginning to brown up. Photo by Jess.

It was murky. Photo by Jess.

 The Gloaming is an old English word for dusk or gloom.

It's entirely appropriate as a term to describe our MX5 club run last Sunday, as gloomy and dusky it was indeed.

This is an NC. Photo by Jess.

It was still great fun, except perhaps for the dash along the Heifer Creek road on the way back to Toowoomba. The tyres on my little beast are old, hard, and on the last 20% of tread life.

This is us. You can't see my white knuckles on the wheel. Photo by Jess.

Tiptoeing along through the rain and mist in convoy was a stern test of concentration, as the convoy leader was on new tyres.

More convoy work. Silver is popular. Photo by Jess.

I discovered that attempting to put the top up whilst waiting at the lights is best avoided. After trying it three times, but running out of red light each time, we continued en plein aire.

Harry and Andrea. Photo by Jess.

This led to another discovery. If you maintain speed above 80kph you stay dry.

The blue one is an NA.

The better photos are taken by Jess with her zoom-equipped Canon.

The magnificient seven. Photo by Jess.

Tops up by now.....

Mays on MX5

I unearthed this road test of an MX5 the other day.

It’s hosted by a younger-looking James May.

The model is the same as mine – 1800cc motor and six speed gearbox. It was promoted in the UK as a special edition, and never sold here. The specifications are the same as the version sold in Australia as the NB.

What he says is right. It is reliable, doesn’t leak, and is fun to drive.

For me, the best feature is its gearbox. My kids can’t drive manuals.