The Facebook group known as Orlando Roadsters holds monthly Monday Miata meets at the Ace Cafe Orlando. I’d heard about them for a while and was curious to see how they compared to the Tampa meets at Ricks on the River. And since I recently bought a new Miata, a 2020 MX-5 Club, I decided to attend. I’ll share more about the new car in an upcoming post, but since I now have a reliable roadster, I want to get out and shoot more.
There was some rain on the day, and according to people who regularly attend the event, that may have kept some people away. Despite that, attendance wasn’t much less than I’d usually see at the Tampa Bay Miatas meets at Ricks by the River and it had a great variety. There was a good mix of NA, NB, NC, and ND generation Miatas. There were even a couple BMW Z3s and a beautiful red Honda S2000. There was even an LS V8 swapped NA, a rotary swapped NA, and turbocharged NA and NB.
My other mission for this event was to test out the new Sony A7IV camera with a 24-70mm F/2.8 Sigma Art lens and get used to Sony’s user interface. I did not use a circular polarizer even though I normally would, because I just wanted to see what the new body and lens would do together. I’m very happy with the results so far. Not a whole lot of throw aways. The circular polarizer filter would have been useful on a couple of shots, but overall the resulting images are pretty satisfying and I’ll be sure to bring the polarizer next time.
My new (to me) 2020 Soul Red Crystal MX-5 Club at its first meet.
This slammed NB was housing a freshly installed Air Lift suspension in the trunk.
Definitely not something you see every day in the trunk of a Miata.
This NA was powered by a big stonking Chevy LS V8.
Not sure why it says Ford on the front other than maybe just as a joke. I think it may have had blackboard paint on the outside, so it was probably written in chalk.
Interior of the “MX-5.3” presumably referring to the 5.3 liter Chevy engine.
In the back it had some fender flares and an aftermarket fastback top. My buddy Scotty Simsa put one of these on his NA recently too. If you look where the license plate would usually be, you’ll also see a center exit exhaust.
This appears to be one of the rare Sunburst Yellow NA Miatas, one of just 1,519 examples. Next to it is a white NC Club with the power hard top, similar to the NCs I considered before I started thinking about an ND.
This appears to be a 2000 Miata Special Edition. From what I remember, these early NBs are sought out by people building cars for autocross due to their better flowing cylinder head.
This one sported some really cool 3-spoke Rays Volk Mazdaspeed wheels.
This grey Mazdaspeed Miata sported a Flyin’ Miata intercooler up front and 6UL wheels by 949 Racing.
Ka-chow!
NA Miata with a 12a turbo rotary swap. From what I’ve seen in Grassroots Motorsports, this is a pretty ambitious swap to undertake.
Hadn’t seen this style of taillights before. Not sure what the donor vehicle is, but the shape reminds me of the FD RX-7.
Those who know, know… lol
I’ve never been much of an NB guy, but they were really catching my eye at this event, like this lowered one on JNC replicas of the Volk Racing CE28 wheels.
Rainy days might be less desirable for those of us attending, but it makes for great puddle reflections.
This NA that was parked next to me turned out to have a nice clean turbo install under the hood.
How to make your new car disappear? Park it next to one that’s turbocharged. haha
My new friend Mike owns this NA. It’s got the highly prized and light weight Avanti storm wheels on it along with a new Robbins top and a pretty wild straight pipe exhaust.
Low profile headlights have always been popular on the NA generation. The appear to be the old Brainstorm lo-pro version that was popular when the NA was new.
I liked this little beater Laguna Blue NA. It’s got sort of kawaii taped headlights.
This NA had a touch of bosozoku to it.
Lastly is this fellow Soul Red Crystal ND, a brand new 2022 that the owner and his father have already driven in over 20,000 miles all around the United States. The paint looked gorgeous and has been ceramic coated. Really love the dark silver factory wheels. I need to find someone who will trade them for my black Club wheels.
That’s about it for this meet. Cars quickly filtered out at the end of the meet at 9 pm. I had a good time and I’ll be back some time this year.
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