Rufus - Life with the 2017 Flyin' Miata Turbo RF

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

smaller, scrappy, and with a chrome dome

vs. younger, bigger, and jacked up with extra muscle

but, yeah, sure... I'll abide

also, I'm going to guess that part of my homework for OneLap this year is getting around to watching that movie... at least for MustangRabbit's sake

In reply to sleepyhead :

Wel said ! 

One of the neatest design features from the drivers seat are the body color upper door inners. They have the same sculpted patterns as the outside of the car and your eyes connect body lines from the crease in the hood to the door/dash interface. This makes the A pillar disappear in a way that it doesn't in the NA Miata. 

I suspect this has been written about elsewhere but as someone who didn't remember reading it I was delighted by it once on the road. 

Is that the new King Ranch? What are those, $86,000?

In reply to sleepyhead :

Are you saying you have not seen The Big Lebowski?  If so, this aggression will not stand. 

Or, not seen Twins? 

The body color door panel didn't make sense until now. Kinda neat, and im sure more awesome in person. 

There's a little piece of piano black trim in the center of the dash that I want to repaint in body color in the worst way.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

We ever meet up in Dallas, I will take you to meet the dude: no joke.

In reply to AnthonyGS :

I need to come up there for something social that isn't a track day or a smash and grab run to pick up or drop off kid#1. We'll have to arrange something. 

Fun fact about Rufus, it has a FM inventory number, and since it's no longer in inventory a sale/shipment was generated and I got notice that my order of 1.00 2017 Mazda MX5 "Rufus" had shipped. Successful delivery. Good job choosing the shipper FM. 

John Welsh said:

In reply to sleepyhead :

Are you saying you have not seen The Big Lebowski?  If so, this aggression will not stand. 

Or, not seen Twins? 

uh, yes?

It's always hard for me to evaluate a car on foreign roads. Is the suspension choppy or are the roads choppy? Tires noisy or just chip seal? How fast is fast in this corner? It's only when I have a car home and I can put some miles in on my regular routes that I start to understand how good or bad a car is. Terrible picture of the car tucked in the garage after the school run this morning because there aren't enough pictures of the car in this thread. 

Mrs. Deuce is lucky the seat isn't two inches lower. 

My only complaint is the same one that I have with other Miatas, that I'm just too high in the car to be as comfortable as I want. In the ND I'm actually ok with the roof and the windshield frame and the A pillar and a bunch of stuff that bothers me in the NA, but the rear view mirror blocks so much of the visibility out of the right side of the windshield that I feel like I have an eye patch on while driving around town. I can work around it by dipping my head to check, but it's essentially a forward facing blind spot. If I could rip off the stock rear view mirror and replace it with one about that hung down about half as far, that would fix the problem as well. 

Other than that, what a spectacular car. The steering is just the right quickness that you never adjust your hands while somehow being stable enough that it's not at all tiring to drive for excessive distances in a straight line. You feel everything the pavement tells you without it being shouted and tiring. The seats are underwhelmingly great. At first sit they seem like I'll eventually get tired of them, but I somehow never do. I don't need to wiggle to adjust things, I just sit and feel good. With cruise on there is enough room between the brake and clutch to stretch a leg out on long highway stretches. 

That seat height is the only problem. I'm so jealous of my wife. The car fits her like a glove. 

I'm sure you checked, but one of my pet peeves is inside mirrors and a surprising number of them have the socket on the glass end of the arm adjusted nearly all the way down and all anyone ever adjusts is the mirror end socket when they drive.  I regularly take the whole arm, swing it up towards the roof on the windshield end socket, and move the head of the mirror 3-4" up in work vehicles. Does a lot for the blind spot. 

Most times they stay that way, but somewhere I have a work nemesis I have yet to identify that likes to swing the mirror in my usual driver down so I have to readjust. I like to think it's the same IT guy who messes up my classroom computers when nobody is looking, so I only have one nemesis. 

About the mirror - it has a double articulated arm, so you can move it up and down to some extent. Modern mirrors are packed with tech, however, and there are limits to how small they can be. There’s at least one camera behind it which may also affect the amount of adjustment. Mostly, it’s just a small car so there’s only so much windshield to go around. 

Finally the Porsche sighting ... man that thing is great 

If a cars ultimate desire is to be driven, Rufus is a happy car. Mrs. Deuce puts 2-3k miles a month on her primary driver. Fairly long commute, sharing the kid hauling, and just general running around. I'm getting ample opportunity to wash the car and if any of you were hoping for a low mile cream puff in 4-5 years, I have bad news for you. This car is great and it's getting miles. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I’m just hoping she’ll let you borrow it to drive to the Challenge this year. ;-)

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I'd love to, but what's probably going to happen is I'll end up with a huge load of stuff to bring for the Gastropods and will end up driving my lame ass truck for the third year in a row. I could drive Rufus, or I could bring an ez-up, a dozen chairs, and a cooler. 

Rufus + borrowed tire trailer?

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Rufus and one small overnight bag.  My ex- has an ND and she marvels at how little cargo room there is.  Makes a Spitfire feel positively cavernous with cargo space.

Ian F said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Rufus and one small overnight bag.  My ex- has an ND and she marvels at how little cargo room there is.  Makes a Spitfire feel positively cavernous with cargo space.

It's crazy how little cargo room they have. I switched from a  C5 Vette which I have hauled lumber in (6 foot sticks ran from dash to back of hatch), to an ND which doesn't even have a glovebox.

Gram Strategy BRO

bluej said:

Rufus + borrowed tire trailer?

This!  Paco Motorsports has a nice hitch for teh ND.

Rufus just crossed over 18k miles. Normally I'd do an oil change right when I get a new car home, but this is FM and I totally trust them so I didn't do one until this past Saturday. It's a neat car underneath. First time I've really poked around the bottom of an ND. The front suspension/knuckle is a thing of beauty and I no longer have any desire to use NA/NB pieces for anything. 

Then yesterday I took it to a PCA autocross. I'm an instructor with them and I always get handed the absolute new people because it's a job I love. The 911 is still on jack stands, the Accord is a work in progress, and the Rallycross car is like wearing a dirty coverall to a wedding. So I took Rufus. And didn't drive. Nope. Since we bought it I've been insisting to my wife that this isn't a car for that. She even told me to take a couple of runs, but I need some clear boundaries or I'm going to end up trying to make it faster and choosing the next set of tires based on lap times. The next person who buys this can take solace in the fact that I'm finally developing restraint. 

What I did get to take a couple of runs in was my friend's BMW coupe clownshoe thing. It's not the M, it's the 330 version, I can't remember the proper name for them. It's a neat car and very ND like as far as cabin volume goes. With the seats up the seating position is about the same as the ND, a bit more leg room though it seems about as narrow. Where it wins is the ability to lower the seats with a handy little button and gain helmet room. 

Dynamically, though, what a different car. It's like BMW built the car, drove it, and requested the engineers numb every control. Then they took the revised version out and said it was still too BMW like. Third try is a charm and everything about the car is vague and squishy. It still grips well and there don't seem to be any weird handling traits, it's just vague. This led us to a conversation that revealed that of all the cars my friend owns, this is his wife's favorite and he's not allowed to mess with it to make it better. It was a fun day. 

I know I am in the minority by liking the looks of the Clown Shoe, but the name should stick.

The shoe. I love'm Will own one someday.