A Day with Meguiar's

It was a Sunday morning without rain. I have not washed and cleaned my C36 for over two weeks because I got the car wash by nature everytime we drove out.

The venue was at the beautiful Marina Club at the Clear Water Bay Country Club. We were invited to the Meguiar's Car Care Clinic 2006. There was the good reception by Meguiar's team, especially Tom and Matt. There was the very nice quality cold drinks and the buffet lunch.

To be continued.

Fun Driving in the Heavy Rain!

It has been heavily raining for a few weeks now. And I love driving in heavy rain, even though my rear-drive C36 was not supposed to be good at it. The steering feel provided by the Micheline in the wet was excellent. I like heavy rain because it coated the road surface with an added level of smoothness and refinement. The car felt smoother, rode better and had less bump-thumps on rough or broken roads. Of course there went traction and road feel, which I did really care for. The reduced visibility makes the same road stretches more interesting and challenging. And there were some big pot holes hidden beneath the water puddles, waiting to be discovered and shocked through the car chassis. Last but not least, the fun of hydroplanning, skidding and sliding under permissible conditions was worth a mention.

I love the elegant way the single-blade butterfly action wiper moves back and forth across the windshield. I hate the fact that the new generation Mercedes has ditched the single-blade design and opted for the the more traditional twin wipers.

The search for the 'right' MX5......

My first encounter with MX5 was actually a Miata when I was still in College (1988). I knew it was a great handling sports car. That was about it. It was last June when a friend Alex offered me one day with his 1992 silver MX5 that I started to discover something amazing about this little convertible. With the top down, I had never felt so direct and close to the road itself and other road users. The feeling was crude but great. Of course after the end of the day my throat and lung condition was not that good due to the air pollution. But the MX5 was not at fault.

The car was light, nimble, had great steering and cornering poise at not so high speed. Of course one couldn't compare to the modern cars which are more luxury, refined or grippy. It was indeed very very good. I regreted not buying this silver sample from Alex when he bought my Subaru STI sportswagon.

Since then I had been seeking and checking out whatever MX5s I could find. An auto would not work for a MX5 and it had to be a manual. Year 1991 and 1992 were the ones to look.

Between the convertible SL and MX5, Tiki and I would probably prefer MX5 for its friendliness when it comes to re-selling.

To be continued.....