Volume 17 #3 April, 2007 Upcoming Events Apr 28 Start-Up This Way, That Way, Aug 25 WPMC Picnic May 5 Rev Up Your Miata and Let s Rally -Mon Sep 1-3 Topless in the Mountains May 19 Round The Town Sep 8 Board Meeting and Wendell August Forge May 26 Runway Oct 6 Board Meeting and Tech Session at Billco Motors Jun 2 Board Meeting at Smail Mazda and Flight 93 -Sun Oct 13-14 Sixth Annual Train Jun 9 Meadowcroft Village and Sarris Dec 1 Christmas Party Sun Jun 17 Clueless II Robbery Most Fowl Sun Dec 2 Holiday Open House - Nationality Rooms Jun 23 Jun 30 -Sun Jul 14-15 Jul 28 Aug 4 Sun Aug 12 West Meets North Picnic (with North Coast Miata Club) C & O Canal National Historic Park Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Moraine State Park Board Meeting and Whitmire Clueless I Murder In Slickville This Way That Way By Rich Lowden OK, we are going this way??? or that way??? or maybe not. Are you confused? We are also confused. Come and join us for, "ALL WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST." Date and Time: April 28, 2007 at 10:30 AM Place: The Hollow Tavern Parking Lot, Latrobe, Pa. Directions: From Greensburg follow Rt. 30 E. pass Latrobe Airport. Pass Loyalhanna Dam. The Hollow Tavern is on the left about 1 or 1 1/2 miles from dam on Rt. 30 E. RSVP by April 24, 2007 to Rich or Ellie Lowden at rkletl@att.net or 412-672-1689
2 J All Around the Town by Sue and Mark Tuite oin us on May 19th for a cruise around the city of Greensburg. We will drive the windy roads passing around and through many of the landmarks you have heard about but perhaps never visited. At the end of our cruise, there will be a tour of the historic Palace Theater, a local jewel that is being lovingly restored to its original glory. We will then have lunch in a small area restaurant. After lunch there will be time to browse the local shops, train station and museum. Of course we will end the afternoon with the traditional ice cream stop. We will meet in the parking lot of Panera Bread on Route 22 in Murrysville at 9:30 am urday, May 19th with roll out planned for 10:00 am. Be sure to arrive a little early if you need coffee and breakfast first. Space is limited at the restaurant, so please pre-register by contacting Susan or Mark Tuite at miatatoo@comcast.net or 724-837-8705 (home) or 724-331-5789 (cell) REV UP YOUR MIATAS & LET S RALLY BY JOE & LINDA ZIMLIKI F or a day filled with fun, come join us as we rally around the back roads. The McConahas, who organized the Luv, Piece & Harmony Rally a few years ago, are back to organize another great rally for our Club. As we zoom along the back roads make sure you don't miss a cue or sign. If you finish first does that mean you won? You are the last to leave but end up in front of the first car to leave. Now how did that happen???? We will end up at a restaurant, did you have any doubts, but you have to find it first. Prizes will be awarded. Date: urday May 5, 2007 Starting Place: Moon Mazda Requirements: Navigator, Pen & a Desire to have fun RSVP: By May 2 - Need to know how many instructions to print & restaurant needs to know number of people. Contact Linda Zimliki lzimliki@westpennmiataclub.com or call 724-327-1762 Meadowcroft Village and Sarris by Steve Lapp C lark and Pat Harris will lead a cruise to the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Museum of Rural Life on urday, June 9. The Meadowcroft tour will take about 2 hours and be followed by a cruise on back roads to Club 40 for lunch. After lunch, the group will take another short cruise to Sarris for dessert. Meeting Place: King s in Bridgeville Meeting Date and Time: urday June 9, 2007 at 9:15 AM with rolloff at 9:45 AM RSVP: To Clark and Pat at 724-941-9694 by June 1. May Deadline The deadline for articles for the May newsletter is May 7, 2007 Time: 11:00 a.m.
3 Clueless II Road Rally Robbery Most Fowl by Mark and Sue Tuite Topless in the Mountains - XIII W ant to have some fun? Put on your thinking cap and join your other West Penn Miata Club members on Sunday, June 17th for a fun afternoon of driving and clue solving adventures. This rally has no tricky timing, just driving around following directions and answering riddles on a theme of solving a robbery. All you need is a pencil, a highlighter, maybe a clipboard and preferably a navigator who can read without getting carsick. The car odometer should be able to read mileages to 10ths and a re-settable odometer might be helpful. This is a gimmick rally with no timed legs and no checkpoints. Each of the three legs will begin and end at the Garage Room of Rick's Sports Bar on Route 22 in Murrysville. There will be a time limit after which we will no longer accept answers (about 5:00 pm - but you'll be done by then). Directions are easy to follow but solving the crime will take some thinking. Come join the fun! If the weather doesn't cooperate and you don't want your baby (Miata) to get dirty, you can drive any vehicle. Check in at Rick's Sports Bar at 1:00. There will be a driver's meeting at 1:30 with the first car rolling out at 2:01. Grab your Mackintosh and pipe and sleuth your way through this road rally event. Don't be one of the ones who'd wished they'd been there. We would like to thank Rick and Laura Beattie of the Blue Ridge Mountain Sports Car Club for kindly supplying this rally for us to enjoy. Please pre-register so that we have a count for paperwork & space at the "Awards Dinner." Date and Time: Sunday, June 17th at 1:00 PM Place: Garage Room @ Rick's Sports Bar, Route 22, 7.5 miles east of the PA turnpike, Monroeville Interchange in Export, PA Contact: Susan & Mark Tuite at miatatoo@comcast.net or 724-331-5789 (cell) or 724-837-8705 (home). L by Steve Lapp ast year around this time I referred to the twelfth and last edition of Topless in the Mountains. It appears I was premature in that statement. While Rick and Chris Annis, founders of the event, have indeed retired, Trillium Members Bill Olijnyk & Debbie Miller have taken up the torch and will lead the thirteenth version of Topless it the Mountains. Dates are urday, September 1 to Monday, September 3. As always, this event is about one thing - DRIVING. Over the course of two days, expect to take your Miata over 500 miles on some of the best roads West Virginia has to offer. WPMC is normally allocated five spaces. If interested, you are encouraged to book early, but please only make a reservation if you fully intend to come barring some last minute complication. The procedure for registration follows: 1. Contact Steve Lapp at slapp@westpennmiataclub.com or 412-366-3388 to insure open spaces are available. 2. If spaces are available, Steve will send you a registration form which you will send to Bill and Debbie after completion. 3. Book your room at the Buckhannon Hampton Inn for September 1-2 by calling 304-473-0900. Four spaces remain at this time as Steve Lapp is registered for this event.
4 2007 CRUSIN & Z00MIN SEASON Tech Session March 2007 Tech Session by Doug McPheron 2 BY RICH LOWDEN & LINDA ZIMLIKI 007 Cruisin season is just around the corner. At the end of the month, Rich will be leading the Start up for this year. We want to make new members aware that the club uses FM radios (FRS/GMRS or walkie talkies). We recommend rechargeable Motorola with 5-mile range or better. If the sales person mentions that you need a license, you don't, as long as you use just the FRS range. Unfortunately the FM radios Zimlikis bought at Radio Shack are gone. They no longer have any for sale and Radio Shack no long carries them. If you have any questions about FM radios, please contact Rich or Linda at rlowden@westpennmiataclub.com or lzimliki@westpennmiataclub.com. We would also like to remind members that if any information, such as your cell phone, email, or paper address changes, please contact Sherry Swarmer (sswarmer@westpennmiataclub.com) with the update. Sherry will make sure members get the new info. The cruise leaders need the information so please keep us informed. We will be seeing you soon on the curves. Kenjitsu!!!!! No, we were not talking martial arts, we were talking car talk. On urday, March 31st about a dozen club members met at Kenjitsu Auto Repair, LLC in Greensburg, PA. Kenjitsu Auto Repair is tucked away on a back country road (Forbes Trail Road) on the NE side of Greensburg. Now Kenjitsu is not like most of the auto repair places we normally go to. Kenjitsu has a special love affair with the Miata. Why might you ask? Well it just so happens that one of the two owners is one of our own club members, Gene Kantor. His partner Ed Dull is also a Master Technician and has worked for several Mazda dealers in the area. Ed and Gene double teamed us and explained that probably the single most important thing that you can do to improve your car s suspension and handing, is to add cross braces on the frame. 94 and earlier lacked some of these available braces, but fear not, most of the aftermarket houses carry post adders for those Miatas and additional or replacement units for the 95 and beyond. They both said sway bars and shock tower braces are always a good idea. Gene put his Mazda Speed up on the rack and showed us all the various bracing that came standard on his car. They (continued on page 5)
5 (continued from page 4) indicated Mazda installs a fairly heavy duty suspension (coil overs) standard on the Miatas and rarely do you need to replace them before the odometer reads 60,000 miles. Unless you are planning on Auto Crossing, it isn't really necessary to replace them with the adjustable units that come with a hefty price tag. Journeys with John Tires are driver specific depending on what you want to do with your Miata. You can get longer tread life, but with a sacrifice in handling. Typically, the high performance tires are made of a softer rubber to help grip the road, but don't really plan on getting more than 15-20,000 miles from a set. It can be difficult to find the types you want or sizes in the local area and Tire Rack is always a good source with good prices and fast service. We asked about slotted vs. drilled/slotted rotors. It turns out that these types are good to help with the cooling, but if you like to replace your own pads don't think that you can have the rotors turned unless you find a special shop that uses a grinding method to redress them. It was recommended that some of the best pads for general use with minimal brake dust are the Hawk HPs. This shop can do all your work on the Miata (or other makes as Gene points out) from the basic to the latest upgrade. Just ask Steve Lapp what he recently had done to his 97 M Edition; all I can say is sweet! Anyway, after the meeting, many departed to a local eating establishment to discuss their latest driving adventures...and oh by the way, they also had the April Monthly meeting. If you're interested in having some work done on your Miata or other family vehicle, you can reach Gene or Ed @ 724/836-5511 or by emailing them at kenjitsuauto@yahoo.com. Happy motoring and I look forward to seeing you all on the cruises we have lined up for the summer. by President John Whitmire M arch has been a pretty slow month in the Journey Department. Been trying to get a lot of house and yard tasks out of the way so we can go cruisin'. Linda and Rich continue to add events to the schedule, and the summer is shaping up better and better. s are being planned for the New River Gorge, an overnighter, and additional events are planned for the week before the Vintage Gran Prix. We even have a couple of "murder mystery" cruises on the docket! Way out in the future is Miata Mountain Mania II, tentatively scheduled for spring of '09. Some very preliminary planning is taking place, even though it is still two years away. The main focus at this point is to locate and tie-down a place to host the event. Should it be closer to Pittsburgh, should it be closer to or even held in WV, what do we want to feature as a theme at the next one? These are some of the issues we are thinking about as planning begins, and input from club members is critical. What would you like to see incorporated into the event? Please let the board members know, we want the agenda to be as exciting and satisfying to our own members as to those from around the country who will be joining us! At this point there is no formal planning committee, however, we will be forming one. If you would like to participate, again, please let members of the board know. We will need all the help we can get!
Officers e-mail: web site: wpmc@westpennmiataclub.com http://www.westpennmiataclub.com Founder: Paul Fronko President: John Whitmire Vice President: Jim Pfeiffer (412) 262-1813 (724) 468-8435 West Penn Club Legalese The FUN N THE SUN TIMES is published as a service by the West Penn Miata Club, Inc. a non-profit corporation. Treasurer: Joe Zimliki Secretary: Sherry Swarmer Events Chair: Lowden/Zimliki Past President: Bryan Bond (724) 327-1762 (724) 443-0834 (412)672-1689 (724)327-1762 (724) 439-4001 Editor - In - Chief: Steve Lapp Send all editorial contributions to: WEST PENN MIATA c/o Steve Lapp 105 Gadshill Place Pittsburgh, PA 15237 e-mail: slapp@westpennmiataclub.com The WEST PENN MIATA assumes no liability for any information contained herein; or injury or damage resulting from the use of this information. The ideas, maintenance, opinions, or modification tips expressed are to be used at the readers discretion. Individual contributors and/or editors express no approval, authentication, or endorsement. WEST PENN MIATA c/o Sherry Swarmer 1022 Arborwood Drive Gibsonia, PA 15044 a big thanks to billco motors for mailing this newsletter!! Address goes here West Penn Club leave room for mail bar code to go here