mariner blue miata

sometimes i don’t even need to be in my Z to have a good Z story or 2.

i needed a bulb for the EDU on the 9000. bud could not find it and the part was no longer available. i determined that i had to just replace the TINY bulb itself. O’Reily had them! so i stopped on my way home to pick it up. when i parked, i noticed the cherry mariner blue first-gen miata parked next to me.  as i got out of my car, the long-goatee-toting aged rock star looking gentleman in his 60s was putting stuff in the passenger seat.

as i walked in front of his car, i comment, “nice miata!” he paused, and thanked me and explained that it had 186,000 miles and “ran like a top.” i could instantly tell he was a car guy so i leaned in to the conversation. we bantered the pros and cons of the first, second and third gen models, and he explained how he had retrofitted much of the newer parts back to his car. he also mentioned in passing that he had a 300hp car for weekends.

i could tell this was going to be interesting, so i chimed in that i too had a weekend car, and it was a 1973 240Z. turns out, his weekend GT was a 1979 280ZX! the conversation meandered thru his triumph over the DMV with the help from a lawyer friend who was able to navigate registering and smogging a car that was originally an east coast sans-cat car.

as the conversation weaved in and out of performance upgrades, he mentioned that the burble my volvo made (1998 S70T5)  when i pulled into the parking stall seemed to tell him that it had some sort of muffler mods…to which i responded that it had no muffler actually!

like a good dad, i pulled out my phone and shared some pics of my Z in all of it’s Grecian green metallic glory. he noted that the Z really needed to be in metallic and that the british racing green was not a good color for the Z.

we chatted a bit more, and i introduced myself, shook bill’s hand, and said that it had been good talking to him…and hopefully i’d see him on the road someday! “keep your eye out for a green Z!”