january-february 2015 newsletter

In The Breeze
January/February 2015
Official Newsletter of the Bluebonnet MX-5 Miata Club
Still Free!
The Car Connection reviews the 2016 MX-5
The 2016 MX-5 Miata has been completely reengineered and redesigned. But if
Mazda has done it all right, it’s going to be a classic on arrival. For 25 years, the
Miata has conjured up memories of what it used to be like to drive modest, genuine sports cars, all while converting a new crowd to the top-down joys of a simple, back-to-basics roadster.
And now, on a completely new platform, Mazda is attempting to do it again—to
bring the Miata up to some modern safety, efficiency, and tech expectations, all
while preserving that delicate sweet spot that makes it different than anything else on the market.
At about 154 inches, the new Miata is actually a bit shorter than the outgoing car; yet it becomes somewhat wider, at around 68 inches, and its
wheelbase grows to 91.1 inches. The proportions aren’t that much different, but the more you take in the MX-5 Miata’s new design the more you
notice the greater sensuality in the sheet metal and details. It’s definitely a little less subtle than the current car -- and perhaps a little more
contemporary -- something that most shoppers will probably like.
The MX-5 Miata borrows from Mazda’s latest 'Kodo' design philosophy, evolved from the Mazda 6, Mazda CX-5, and Mazda 3, and made a little
more pert. Compared to its predecessor, the Miata has a more curvaceous beltline, as well as a hood line that now bows dramatically downward
at the front, resulting in a crisp, open front-end design that does without the black-plastic snout of those more family-oriented models. Sculpting
in the hood streams sideways into the beltline, which wraps into a tail that’s a continuation of neat, conservative Miata tradition, only a little
more aggressively sculpted down below. And new LED lamps bring a modern finish to it.
Inside, the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata adopts a design that keeps its low seating, with a prominent center console separating the driver and passenger areas, as well as big, cockpit-style analog gauges and a horizontal, shelf-like instrument panel that helps keep the interior from feeling
too confining. Air vents and climate controls keep with the classic round look, for the most part, while there’s a new infotainment system that,
as in the Mazda 3 and in the refreshed 2016 Mazda 6, stands up above the low-set dash.
What’s under the hood is some of the old and some of the new. Mazda’s 2.0-liter ‘SkyActiv’ direct-injection four-cylinder engine and a shortthrow six-speed manual gearbox should provide the sort of high-rev zippiness -- as well as surprisingly good fuel efficiency -- that has made the
Miata essentially a class of one over its quarter-century on the market. Mazda hasn’t yet announced the availability of an automatic transmission, and power figures aren’t yet out -- although we expect the numbers to meet or more likely exceed the 2.0-liter engine’s 155-horsepower and
150 pound-foot ratings in Mazda’s other products.
With a completely new structure (to be shared with Alfa Romeo, and likely to underpin a new Alfa Spider), the Miata loses more than 200
pounds compared to the current/outgoing version, which should place its curb weight around 2,200 pounds. And that’ll make its power-to-weight
ratio very good -- likely around the six-second mark to 60 mph and maybe even a bit better.
The MX-5 Miata has never been a car for straight-line performance, though. We’re expecting nothing but top-notch steering, nimble handling
(go-kart-like isn’t just a cliché here), and the sense that the chassis could handle far more power than what the engine lays down. This model's
move to electric power steering makes enthusiasts a little concerned, and we hope Mazda gets it right. The Miata has always been a car that
carries a lot of feedback through to the driver; you don’t have to break laws and speed limits to enjoy, and we don’t expect that to change.
Arrival of the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata is slated for spring 2015—just in time to plan for a long summer of top-down driving. Check back here
for more details as they’re announced, including full specifications, pricing, fuel economy ratings, and features.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
PAGE 2
2014 Club Officers
New Members
President
Mark Hungerman
Jan and Robin Kendall
[email protected]
1991 Classic Red
Vice President
San Antonio
Jim “Jimbo” Treat
[email protected]
Secretary
Mark and Eileen Bornemann
Stephanie Turner
2008 Icy Blue Metallic
[email protected]
San Antonio
Treasurer
Joe Knight
[email protected]
Joel and Becky Moore
Membership
1999 White
Lisa Martin
Mineola
[email protected]
Webmaster
Brett and Cherin Thompson
Don Privett
[email protected]
2004 Velocity Red Mazdaspeed
Newsletter Editor
San Antonio
George Lucas
[email protected]
Inside this Issue…
Updated Review on the 2016 MX-5……………………………………………………………………...Cover Story
Officers…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2
New Members…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2
Velocity Read …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3
President’s Message……………………………………………………………………………………………………..3
Bethlehem in Burnet..………....…….………………………………………………………………………………4, 5
Christmas Party Pics…………………………………………………………………………………………………6, 7
Early Bird Cooper’s BBQ Run...……….....…………………………………………………………………………...8
FRS or GMRS ??? You Decide………………………………………………………………………………………….9
Bob Wido Retires……………..………………....................................................................................................10
2015 Round Up News...………………………………………………………………………………………………..11
Upcoming Events.…………………………………………………………………………………………….Back page
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
Velocity Read…
PAGE 3
Another year has passed! Where has the time gone? I’ve been in the club now for 8
years and I still feel like a newbie! Okay, maybe not so new but the newness certainly
hasn’t worn off! I still love doing things with you all and enjoy the club events as much as
when I first joined!
Speaking of events, our planning meeting was well attended, but I’d be lying if I said I
wasn’t disappointed more folks didn’t join in on offering to leading runs for 2015. I
know, I know, not everyone wants to lead, some enjoy just following along and enjoying
the ride! Hey, me too!
I signed up for my usual runs and a new one as well. Head for the Mountains V will be held in Cloudcroft, New Mexico this year, signaling a HFTM departure from the usual west Texas area. I’m anxious to see how you all respond to
an untapped area like southern New Mexico and the rides through Mescalero Indian reservation roads. I’ll be heading out there early spring to set it all up and I hope you all can join us over the Labor Day weekend! I also am planning a Friday “Retirees” or “Play hooky from work” Friday run over to Brenham for a tour of the Bluebell Creamery.
Ice cream, anyone?
Check out the calendar on our website, www.bluebonnetmiata.org to see all the scheduled runs. There are still a few
weekends available if you want to volunteer to take us to your special place!
Happy New Year everyone!
Zoom Zoom!
George Lucas, Editor
From your President...
Happy New Years to every member of the club, old
and new. We’ve got a lot of great stuff on the calendar for this year, thanks to all of the folks who came
out to the planning meeting on the 11th of January.
For any new folks, I have a couple of suggestions.
Buy nametags, and treat the club like a baptism: go
for full immersion. That’s all I have for this month.
Mark Hungerman, President
JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
PAGE 4
Bethlehem in Burnet
Taking a cue from the simple Nativity scene, the First Baptist Church in Burnet once again offered a full throttle immersion into
the Christmas story, complete with actors in character, live animals and actual stone buildings.
Main Street Bethlehem, entering its 17th year, was expected to draw some 25,000 people to this small ranching community during
it’s 10 day run. A line of several hundred snaked through the darkness, around several blocks, for the chance to see the free
show. Regardless of the weather, "They lined up for 90 minutes, out in the cold, to get in," said Ricky Guenther, pastor at First
Baptist Church.
In past years, the line has doubled back twice around the half-acre performance area, then across a street, around another block
and ended up on the town square. While 200 church members put on the show, Guenther works the line, shaking hands and keeping spirits up.
David and Dorothy Wood led us up to Burnet for this wonderful experience and everyone that attended was amazed with the authenticity in which the entire event was performed.
Great job, David and Dorothy!
JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
Bethlehem in Burnet
PAGE 5
PAGE 6
JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
photos
PAGE 7
JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
photos
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JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
By Mark Hungerman
It was thirty nine degrees and cloudy in Blanco on the morning of January 3rd. We had what was for me a
first: the run meeting was held over our FRS radios while in our cars. We pulled out of the Blanco
Stripes plaza, and had gone about ¼ mile when we heard Jackie on the radio imploring us to wait, so we
did. Once we got her signed in and tucked safely into the column of Miatas, eight cars and thirteen
hearty souls pulled out of Blanco, and we were on our way. The first leg took us up to the Hamilton Pool
area to a Texaco station on the corner of RR12 and Hamilton Pool road. We had one new road, Cow Creek
road on this leg, and it was pretty nice, even if it took a surprise T intersection and using the Force to
find the second half of the road.
After the first pit stop, we took Hamilton Pool road west, and there were some really nice curves and
hills just past the park, on the part of the road I had never driven. Yes, I wanted a run SO bad that I
broke my own rule, and didn’t scout it. Hamilton Pool road, by some Texas magic, becomes FM 962, which
took us all the way to TX 71 after the zig zag to cross 281. We proceeded to the 7-11 in Horseshoe Bay,
but by that time, my top was down, and most people put theirs down at this second pit stop. Each stop was about 5 degrees warmer
than where we started, and the clouds were definitely breaking up.
We proceeded through Marble Falls, and took 1431 out of town towards the Balcones Canyonlands. There was a road, Cow Creek road,
that I had been dying to put on a run, as far back as my cancellation run in September, but hadn’t had the chance until now. It was
one of those 1 ¾ lane farm roads with a lot of cattle guards and creek crossings. I think we crossed the creek seven or eight
times. You could see the reddish rock walls that had been eroded by some serious water action over the years. It was very beautiful
and scenic. We proceeded past Oatmeal and into Burnet for our third and final pit stop at the Country Store Shell just west of 281
on TX 29.
After the stop, we could have just zoomed west on 29, but I wanted to do Park Road 4 again, so we turned left on Hoovers Valley Rd
(3509). It initially started out like a major highway with a speed limit of 70, but after a few miles, there was a speed limit 35 sign
ahead, and it turned into a twisty little road in it’s own right. When we reached the T intersection, we turned right and ran Park Road
4, which is a really nice twisty curvy road that leads you right back to TX 29. At this point, there was literally not ONE cloud in the
sky, and the temp was in the mid to high 50s. We turned left on TX 29, and zoomed the rest of the way into Llano for some great
BBQ at Coopers. The line was short enough that it was probably less than 5 minutes to the smoker to order your meat for
lunch. Thanks to everyone who braved a cold start. We were all rewarded with a beautiful afternoon portion of the run.
PAGE 9
JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
FRS? GMRS? ???????????? What 2-Way Radio Should YOU Buy?
Note: This information was covered in years past and is featured on our forum. The question about what radio to buy is still a hot topic.
Therefore, I thought it pertinent enough to reprint.
Thanks to Don Privett for providing this very valuable information.
-Ed
If you are interested in a more powerful radio with a much improved battery and clear communication then continue
reading.
Okay, so the Midland radios work pretty well but what about going to the next level like they described above? Here is the Midland comparable radio to the one I will show you below. Check out the prices of accessories below the radio. Keep reading, we have a better solution. We need a radio that has more power out with a better antenna and receiver? I started researching this, so I have some info to
share. This is not so that everyone goes out and gets a new GMRS radio. Those that do want to upgrade to the GMRS radios or the
higher power output can with some knowledge of the law and what the benefits are going to be. This is about the General Mobile Radio
Service (GMRS) level instead of the Family Radio Service (FRS). I know it is against the law to transmit in the FRS frequency in high
power which in reality is operating in the GMRS band since channel 5 is shared by FRS and GMRS. So, if you are worried about the
radio police, get a license, there is no test of any kind. It is kind of expensive at $85 but it is good for 5 years (comes out to $17 per
year). A couple of us did, I was approved and had my call sign the next day. There is an online licensing service. In the list you are looking for ZA-GMRS for your license. Once you have a license, all members of your family are also covered. Bluebonnet members, if you get
your license let me know and I can create a couple of laminated cards with your information. Now with my license, I can transmit up to
5 watts, which using different frequencies enables me to use repeaters (powerful radios that pick up your transmission and re-broadcast
it so you can talk 20 to 30 or more miles) and I can now change antennas that can increase my transmit and receive capabilities. A side
benefit is that the voice frequency is not so compressed and sounds more natural if you use the wide band instead of narrow (5 kHz versus 2.5 kHz). Normally, the GMRS radios are quite a bit more expensive at over $100 per radio but one company has been making a very
affordable GMRS radio that works well. The Baofeng (pronounced bow fung) UV-5 or UV-82 are two of the radios that I would recommend, there are plenty of variations. I just purchased 2 of the UV-82s while Paul Wilson in Austin purchased the UV-5 and a UV-82. We
will have to experiment and see just how far of a range we can get with the more powerful radios. Some people are reporting the Midland
radios get about 1.6 miles and in the same area, the Baofeng radio getting 3-5 miles. People are reporting hitting repeaters from over 20
miles away. I live in a bad area for reception, my house is in a valley surrounded by hills, cell phones barely work here so I tried my Midland radios from inside my house to the mailbox and it was starting to break up (300 ft), then I tried the UV-82's again inside the
house and I was able to still talk from the entrance of the subdivision over 1.3 miles away. I think car to car in a straight line they will
be a lot more impressive. These radios are programmable with up to 128 channels of changeable frequencies - the FRS/GMRS radios
have 22 set channels. The UV-82 can transmit and receive on 2 different channels without changing anything, it has 2 push-to-talk
(PTT) buttons. One channel could be for the group and another could be to talk to the run leader or sweep directly if they have dual
transmit and receive capabilty. The radios charge in about 5 hours and can last up to 30 hours in standby mode and the battery is more
like a cell phone battery. The UV-5 costs about $30+ while the bigger UV-82 costs about $40. They come as single radios so if you want a
set you have to buy 2. They do communicate with the bubble-pack FRS/GMRS radios that we currently use, they just work better. Amazon has the radios, extra mics, earpieces, antennas, etc. at great prices and Amazon is starting to stock the radios and accessories so they
come fast, 2 days if you use Prime. I got one of the security earpieces for $3 (Midland's price is $39.99), 2 extra Nagoya antennas for $5
and $11 as well as a microphone/speaker like the police have on their shirt for $8 and a spare battery for $14. One thing that I have
found since I received the radios is that they are very loud and I can adjust the volume to suit what I want to hear. The squelch works
very well with 9 levels of adjustment. The UV-82 is the same size as the normal Midland GXT-1000 FRS/GMRS radio but feels more
sturdy and well made, much like what firefighters or police would carry. It is more of a professional or commercial quality radio. You can
program the radio from the keypad or by computer and upload your channel sets to the radio. They also receive the FM band 65-108 Mhz
and can transmit & receive VHF 136-174 Mhz (marine radio) and UHF 400-520 Mhz (amateur radio). To talk to the FRS/GMRS radios FRS is 462 Mhz and GMRS is 462 & 467 Mhz. Channel 5 which we use exclusively is 462.6625 Mhz. This opens up a whole new world for
the handheld radio to do more than just be able to communicate with the car club and if you are a prepper then you will have a better
radio for communication in an emergency. My goal is to keep the radio simple to use, but work like we want them to. Current
price on 4-14-2014 is $43.27and free shipping. The price seems to change due to different sellers. The price keeps changing as Amazon
keeps changing the vendors. Watch out because there is a new radio called Poufang that may not work as well as the Beofeng. It may
also not program the same. When on Amazon search for "Baofeng UV-82 accessories" and you will see plenty of options then select the
best price for you. I have everything but the roof mount antenna and they are all quality pieces. What is really nice is that you can get
about 4 of the accessories for less than what you pay for 1 earpiece from Midland Radio at $39.99.
Why buy this…

When you can buy this?

PAGE 10
JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
Bob Wido Retires; Plans
to settle in Ohio
In a very impressive ceremony at the Randolph
chapel recently, Bob Wido officially retired from the
United States Air Force.
An amazing collection of awards, memorabilia and
Texas flavored gifts was given to both Bob and wife
Dianne. I’ve been to many retirement ceremonies,
but none this lavish. Not surprising really, after
hearing all Bob has accomplished in his 30 plus
years serving our country as a chaplain all over the
world.
No fewer than a dozen Bluebonnet Miata Club members were honored to attend this event. Diane beamed with pride as one award after another was presented.
Many were presented to both Bob and Diane as she has loyally supported him during his service to our country. The chapel on base at Randolph was standing room only for this celebration of the Wido’s military career
came to a close.
I think I speak for all of the club members fortunate enough to know Bob and Diane to say we will miss them
as they “go home” to Ohio in a few months. Bob has been an inspiration in many ways and when asked, gladly
graced my Head for the Mountains event with prayers before our runs. Diane has been a real joy as she has
offered her many photographic talents to us and specifically this newsletter!
Bob and Diane, we miss you already. God speed and good luck on this new chapter of your lives!
-Ed
JANU AR Y/ FE BRUARY 2015
PAGE 11
Don’t forget our Sponsors!
Round Up News
85 Days and counting...
That’s right, it’s less than three months until our big party – the 2015
Texas Miata Roundup and our club’s 20th Anniversary Celebration! And
we know people are looking forward to the event. Even though the
event registration form has been a little slow in coming the hotel has
received more than 55 room reservations. That means we have less
than 35 rooms available in our block. And the hotel has other groups
looking for rooms. So folks need to get rooms reserved quickly to ensure
they get our group rate. We have received interest from clubs in San
Diego, Tucson and Canada!
Route planning is well underway and there will be plenty of different routes for participants to chose from. If
you’ve never spent much time driving in the Texas Hill Country this will definitely be the event for you.
We are in the midst of finalizing meal selection and entertainment. This year our Friday evening reception will be
significantly different as it will be our club’s 20th Anniversary Celebration. To make it different we are scheduling
a celebration later in the evening and hosting it as a dessert reception. Our Saturday evening banquet is set and
we look forward to a great meal and some really good door prizes. Entertainment for the banquet is still pending.
We have applied to Mazda for corporate sponsorship and we have a committee actively pursuing other sponsorship
and prize donations. If you know of any potential sponsors please get in touch with George Lucas, Jim Treat or Ed
Smith.
As always, if you are interested in helping in any capacity be sure to let Cheryl Knight know.
In The Breeze
Bluebonnet Miata Club
San Antonio, Texas
http://www.bluebonnetmiata.org
Check your mailing label for your renewal date.
Please renew your membership promptly!
Remember When?
Upcoming Runs and Events

Monday, February 2nd, 7:00 p.m., Sundaes on Monday, hosted by Tom and Sandee LeMasters. Location
had not be disclosed at press time. Watch our website and Yahoo Groups emails for details!

Wednesday, February 4th, 7:00 p.m.,Lunar Zoomer Dinner, hosted by George Lucas. The place is Willie’s
Grill and Ice House. 15801 San Pedro, 78232 (Jot that down as there are several Willie’s locations in San Antonio!) Great burgers, Seafood and Chicken dishes are the fare. C’mon out and have a great time at Willie’s!

Saturday, February 7th, Mockingbird Run, Mockingbird Run, led by Mark Hungerman. Details should
be posted soon on our website and via the Yahoo Groups email!

Saturday, February 21st, Po Po’s Run, led by Pat and Leon Franklin. Details should be posted soon on our
website and through the Yahoo Groups email!

Tuesday, February 24th, Monthly Meeting, Bigz Burger Joint. Eat and Greet at 6:30 p.m. , meeting starts at
7:30 p.m. Be there!