Marc's Public Blog - Cars

I have enough pictures and text for a separate page, which you can find here, yeah we had lots of cars

Bari and Bill Hyde from SOCALM are to thank for organizing this event, finding the great (and sometimes scary) roads we went on. I should also thank Raphael Moll for some of his pictures that I used to complete mine

We got 68 cars from the following Miata Clubs: OCALM, SDMC, VROOM, BAMA, SJMC, SAHUARO, SAMOA.
Some drivers came as far as Nevada and Texas.

Meeting at Madonna Inn Parking Lot before the drive

After driving there the previous night (about 3 hours from the Bay Area) and sleeping in a motel 6 nearby, we went to the rendez vous point and met all the drivers and their cars.

Is it shining yet?


Yes, we were a lot

You can see the pictures here (the link will pop up a new window)

Start of the drive

After getting everyone together, we went on the drive, see more pictures here

Break at Bee Rock Store

Some of us were lucky enough to get the "scenic tour" (i.e. we went off course ), but we caught up pretty quickly with the rest of the group that was waiting for us at the Bee Rock Store.
The amount of Miatas that filled up their parking lot was pretty impressive (picts here)

Lunch on Military land

Darn, when they say 25, these guys actually aren't kidding. Unfortunately one of us got ticketed there (good thing that when I passed a bunch of cars at 90mph+ to get back to the front, it was a bit earlier ).
You absolutely want to see the best Miata body pain and driver combo, shown in the few pictures I got here and the pictures of us filling their parking lot are here

A couple of guys from the base were checking out our cars

Back on the road

While we were a bit behind schedule, we went back on the road.
What was scary is the drive down, from the top of the mountain all the way to sea level. Lots of twisty turns with lovely things like gravel, sand and leaves. I'll tell you, the 1000+ foot near vertical drop on the side does encourage you to drive really slow (picts here)

... and we reached Hearst Castle just before the sunset

Dinner

After a nice visit, it was definitely time for food. Ok it's pictures of people eating, what more can I say? .

Plans for trip back

Ok, so we couldn't quite convince ourselves that it was already over, so many of the clubs planned for caravans and roads to take on the way back home

Departure the following morning

After a good night of rest, and a breakfast that keeps you filled for the rest of the day, the different clubs left (Socalm here)

Socalm caravan, getting ready to leave


The BAMA folks (7 cars)

BAMA caravan

We opted for a drive back up highway 1, which from San Simeon is the best part of Highway 1, definitely something everyone should drive at least once. After stopping for some elephant seals on the beach, we went to the twisty roads with the mountain side on the right, and the cliff on the left .
It was busy for me because I would stop every so often, take pictures of the awesome coastline, and jump back in the car and try to catch up with my group. I hope that the resulting pictures, available (here) are worth it.

We did a quick break to admire the view a visit a famous stop on that stretch of HWY 1 (picts here)

I like Miatas, but I wouldn't mind one of those

After that, we did some more driving, I tell you that was a full time job: driving, taking pictures, and talking on the CB. Makes me wonder what my copilot was doing in the car

and we had some dinner, after which we drove a bit more, and split to our different homes in the Bay Area.

Conclusion

Well, this was a great drive and an awesome weekend. Thanks to all those who came.
If you want more, I have shots of some individual cars here (nice ones).

So after learning the problems of oversteering, I got to find out about understeering this time. Hopefully, I'll get it right next time
The picts are here

That day, I didn't drive as my Miata was having its failing transmission replaced with an RX7 one, but it's probably just as well because the drive got a bit crazy, and one of the drivers lost it in a turn while the front pack was going way too fast in a 1.5 lane road, downhill with blind turn after blind turn...
Luckily no one was hurt. The only disturbing part is when someone mentionned "damn, he spun out in the same turn than the other guy last time".
The picts are here