The truth about antiques: My Miata is one | Column

In reply to parker :

It will slow down if there's slower traffic in front of you. Same thing you would do if you were driving - and if you don't want that speed, you just change lanes.

I didn't think it was a big thing until I went back to my dumb truck after a long time with the radar cruise and it was just so crude. Never quite right, and if the car in front changes speed your car doesn't respond. With the radar cruise, you almost set it to your max speed and then let the car pace off traffic. Just like you do when you're controlling speed, only the cruise doesn't get distracted. It's not dumbing things down, it comes across as fully realized cruise instead of incomplete. 

The point of the column, as I remember it, wasn't about whether or not technology like radar cruise control is bad. We can argue that somewhere else another day.  

The point is just that, for all these years, the Miata has represented an entry point into our hobby. Today, that entry point can involve restoration work and the celebration of days gone by in addition to autocross, track days, road racing and the like. 

Thank you, Miata, for always being there for us. 

30 years is a long time.  Back when I started working in 1992, there were quite a few people who met The Duce, some even had managed to meet Henry himself.  One of those guys was pushing 50 years at Ford.  No idea why, but he loved working there.

A few years later, I bought a '73 car that was 22 years old.  And it was easily a antique.

And now I'm done working- a whole career later.

So in terms of changing....  The Alfa had really, really basic crash structure.  You had to order seat belts.

In 1992, it was barely after all cars got fuel injection.  I remember visiting a dealer with my dad, and the dealer told us a guy just wanted a simple carburetted car.

But here's the funny thing- thanks to advancements in computers, the 1992 Miata was much closer to the 1973 Alfa I had when you then look into the really weird emissions solutions that showed up in between.  Powerful computers really simplified the engines.

Between then and now, for the most part, computers got cheaper- which meant a lot of features got to be added pretty easily- like electronic throttle and WB O2 sensors.  DI was a real massive change, though- which took some much more powerful computers to even design, let alone to control.  And thanks to DI and powerful computers, the massive step in emissions between '92 and now has mostly been dealt with with simple control and design- catalysts are way cheaper now than they were in 2000 for equivalent emissions.

Hard to really judge between the lack of emissions in a 1962 vs 1992 vs 2022, though.  The first 30 years was a massive change, but the last 30 years were really significant, too.

Safety has taken similar steps- pretty much nothing in 1962, some decent rules (including airbags) in 1992, and pretty stringent rules and standards in 2022.   In '92, traction control wasn't really a thing yet, but now we have full drive control- almost.  

And it can easily be said that drivers are very forward compatible, but not really backward.  Even though a huge amount of US cars in '62 had automatic transmissions, there were still a really significant manuals.  Now there are hardly any of those left.

I really love what new cars bring- love the back up camera, love the infotainment system that gives me really good navigation that I can just say- go here on non highways- and we get it.  If we had it, I do enjoy smart cruise- the only "bad" thing is if you are not paying attention when you come up to slower cars, and all of a sudden you are doing 65 in 70 zone for a half hour.  Traction and stability control keeps winter driving moving very nicely.  And remembering what it smelled like to go on a road trip in the '70s, emissions controls are a major blessing.

But yea- compare a 1962 Giula Spider to a 1992 Miata to a 2022 Miata= there are a lot of steps there.  And a lot that is carried down.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

So to your point about PDK and direct injection; for enthusiasts driving manuals, such as myself you can't really notice the difference. Much like you I end up driving a lot of different cars and while I know that engine management has advanced enormously the actual in car feel isn't that different to 15-20 year old cars.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I got a downside for your radar cruise and other ADAS features. All those little radar modules under the bumper covers - they make cars more expensive to build, increase the threshold of difficulty for a DIY repair, and make normal body shop work even more costly. Look at the cost of replacement for a ND vs NC Miata windshield thanks to those features bonded up under the glass.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/adas-and-the-car-enthusiast/182698/page1/

And that's besides the implications of allowing our brains to turn closer to the 'off' switch so we can consume more distractions when we're supposed to be piloting a 2+ ton ballistic weapon.

In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :

I really like Apple CarPlay.  I added it to my 2003 996tt as well as my 2018 Land Cruiser, which should've had it from the damn factory.  Agree with Keith, radar cruise control is nice but I don't do enough road trips to really feel like it's a must have.

maschinenbau said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I got a downside for your radar cruise and other ADAS features. All those little radar modules under the bumper covers - they make cars more expensive to build, increase the threshold of difficulty for a DIY repair, and make normal body shop work even more costly. Look at the cost of replacement for a ND vs NC Miata windshield thanks to those features bonded up under the glass.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/adas-and-the-car-enthusiast/182698/page1/

And that's besides the implications of allowing our brains to turn closer to the 'off' switch so we can consume more distractions when we're supposed to be piloting a 2+ ton ballistic weapon.

So don't use cruise.

Dumb cruise is fundamentally flawed. It takes away a little bit of cognitive load but leaves some big gotchas. It either should be fully implemented or not at all. And yes, tech is expensive. Note that I'm not necessarily campaigning for all ADAS, I specifically mentioned radar cruise. It's what cruise always should have been. Otherwise, you're back at the level of the hand throttle for my 1966 Land Rover.

It's clear that the perfect era for cars was 15-20 years ago, and it's a sliding date. 10 years ago we were talking about how the perfect car was just before the scourge of OBD-II. 10 years from now, we'll have 2010 pegged as "nothing good has happened since". In my fleet, I have a bunch of cars from 1990, a 2000, a 2011 and a 2019. Nice decade slices, plus a bonus half decade with a couple of 1985s. The progression is pretty clear, even if they are quite different vehicles overall. I also get to drive multiple variations of the same car over a 30+ year span quite regularly. The progress is there, and none of them have leaps that are bigger in one decade than another.

IMHO, the one thing that really separates 60, 30, and new cars is reliability. 

And there should be a special note for 26 year old cars in that.  

But cars up to the early 80s were not all that reliable.  Some better than others.  But they also really needed maintenance to keep running well.  For most performance cars, it was even more work including keeping head gaskets happy.  At a bare minimum, you HAD to maintain the ignition system, otherwise it would fail due to wear.

The 1992 Miata has coil packs, which removed the worst of the worst in terms of maintenance- no more points and condenser to worry about.  And even better, thanks to the increase in spark power AND fuel control, you could realistically get 100,000 miles without any ignition work.  Sure, there were failures- but those same failures happened with old systems.

And for most of us, that means you can get in your '92 Miata, turn the key, and it will just go.

The other major step to the late 80's and early 90's is metallurgy and tribology- which means that the internal wear is much less, and that turn the key and go is just that- no requirement to be gentle with the car at the first start.   Let alone the better fuel control that cut oil dilution by a huge amount.

To me, the OBDII start added a lot of reliabilty just so that cars survived the required thresholds w/o required warrantee coverage.

For the most part, from a customer perception, the fact that just getting in and driving the car hasn't changed much in 30 years makes us think that 30 year old cars are not really vintage because they don't take the special care to keep them running.  As much as people complain about new features, modern cars are still much more reliable and have less repairs than cars even 40 years ago- adding smart cruise is way more reliable than the old cable/vacuum systems, adding infotainment is more reliable than old radios, etc.  I understand the fear of complexity- but modern cars are so much just get in and go, it's not even funny.  And it's kind of shocking to me how much better fuel economy I get with a 2 ton turbo SUV than my 1.1 ton Miata- but it's real.  It's a lot faster, too.  Can tow my camper, too.  etc.

alfadriver said:

For the most part, from a customer perception, the fact that just getting in and driving the car hasn't changed much in 30 years makes us think that 30 year old cars are not really vintage because they don't take the special care to keep them running.  As much as people complain about new features, modern cars are still much more reliable and have less repairs than cars even 40 years ago- adding smart cruise is way more reliable than the old cable/vacuum systems, adding infotainment is more reliable than old radios, etc.  I understand the fear of complexity- but modern cars are so much just get in and go, it's not even funny.  And it's kind of shocking to me how much better fuel economy I get with a 2 ton turbo SUV than my 1.1 ton Miata- but it's real.  It's a lot faster, too.  Can tow my camper, too.  etc.

I think this sums it up best.