The Mazda Miata at 20

In an effort to build credit I bought one of these used shortly after college. Unfortunately it and Kat's Ford Probe were casualties of our first belly swelling.

My desire to have a Miata began as a child in the passenger's seat, and occasionally on the parcel shelf behind the seats, of my father's 69 MGB. I vividly recall night drives from Concord to Charlotte looking not forward, but up through the trees, a kind of fractured tunnel imparting an unfamiliar sense of speed.

Thirteen years later I had a reliable MG of my own thanks to Mazda. Sitting at lights in the rain reminded me of camping only I was dry. I commented as much to an attractive redhead I was exploring at the time. She replied, "I wouldn't know; I'm a princess.". The Miata outlasted her.

Thirteen years after that Mazda celebrates the Miata's 20th.