It’s been a while since I last attended a Tampa Bay Miatas meet. And even though my car was down for maintenance (more on that later), I decided to attend their July meet last week. I took a lot of photos while I was there, so I thought I’d share a few. The Tampa Bay Miatas group meets once a month in various places around Tampa, organized by Scotty Simsa of Spinnywoosh Graphics on the first Wednesday of every month. This time it took place at Rick’s on the River, just off of the Hillsborough River.
1995 M-Edition
This is Scotty’s car, which started life as a ’95 M-Edition. It’s gone through several evolutions over the few years I’ve known him. The latest sports new livery, door cards, and RevLimitergauges all taking inspiration from The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Love it when art history pops up in new ways like this. This car is pretty extensively modified, with things like a Jackson Racing supercharger, Maruha carbon fiber timing belt cover, Racing Beat front bumper, Lotus Elise taillights, custom mirrors, double hoop rollbar, much beloved SBC Enkei RPF1 wheels, and a ton of Spinnywhoosh goodies.
That Minty Fresh Miata
You may have noticed this mean green machine next to Scotty’s M-Edition. This is Ryan K’s custom creation inspired by Arizona Iced Tea cans. It was also an M-Edition, but from ’97, and has gone through a lot of changes inside and out. The most noticeable thing to me about this car, besides the elegant graphics, is the MX5Digital gauges inside of what looks like a Jass Performance cluster. You really don’t see custom digital gauges in these cars very often. There also seemed to be a tablet in the console that could be used to tune the ECU. Really cool custom touches. Additionally, the Minty Fresh Miata is a whole brand in itself with custom door cards specific to the car with a matching steering wheel, big wing, shifter, and shift boot.
1993 Limited Edition
The interior has been further customized by Randy in very clean and understated ways with items like a KG Works cluster, custom gauges, a beautiful Nardi steering wheel, quilted leather flooring, shortened center console and brushed metal “tombstone” with custom center AC vents, custom seats with detachable headrests, and a roll bar, all housed within a matching Brilliant Black hard top. I’ll admit that I opened and closed the door a couple of times just because the sound of the door closing was quieter and more premium than my ’95, which shuts much more loudly with a metallic bang.
This is Greg Antonyant’s car and it’s another that’s gone through some changes since the first time I saw it. It’s gone from rattle can black to a clean and well executed respray of Sunburst Yellow. The pop-up headlights are no more (I’m hoping he drills the lamps into the front end, like an old Porsche 935). I think it’s been turbocharged for as long as I can remember, force-fed with a Borg Warner turbo. There’s a lot of custom upgrades on this car like the splitter that’s strong enough that you can stand on it, the wing, which again, will also support a person standing on it, metal racing seats, a short shifter, and a more track-focused cockpit.
With that, I should probably be wrapping things up. More about how my car’s been running (it’s… complicated) in a new post later this week. Until then, have a happy Miata Monday.
All photos by Bryce Womeldurf © 2019
All were shot an a Nikon D750 with a Tamron 24-70mm F/2.8 lens.
