As the road winds its way up a mountainside with the tight bends and hairpin turns, the roadster driver is suddenly in their element, rejoicing not only in every sharp curve along the road but also the feeling of the wind blowing in their hair.

Many cars are designed for transporting...

When I was a young lad, my older brother owned an MG Midget. The MG Midget was a British roadster sports car, sold between 1960 and 1980. His model from the early 1970s was painted in British Racing Green. My brother was the first person I knew who owned a...

The characteristics that make a roadster so is they all have two-seats, an open roof and an ability to put a big smile on your face. Many of the early roadsters never had a roof; they were always open and had a clip-on cover to keep them dry when they...

You don't need a sports car with a lot of power to enjoy a spirited drive. My current roadster only has a four-cylinder, 2.0-litre motor, but it packs enough punch to allow me to push it to the limit without going over the top.

A spirited drive doesn't need to be...

For some people, having a spirited drive on the roads is not enough. These are the people that like to take their car on a race track and push it to its ultimate limit, sometimes coming unstuck in the process. I am one of those people.

One of my roadsters is...

Though the latest roadsters have all the right gear on them from new, you might want to consider some mods. You can do many different modifications, but it will all depend on whether you want the changes to impact its appearance or performance.

Getting the right sound is important. A new...

In North America, the Mazda MX-5 is also known as the Miata. When the MX-5 was launched, North American consumers were more accustomed to cars with a “proper name”, so the Miata moniker was added. It became known as the Mazda MX-5 Miata. Over the years, Mazda has tried to...

You don't need to be young to participate in club motorsport. The average age of a member with the Zoom-Zoom club is fifty-four years of age. One of my friends in the Zoom-Zoom club was sixty-six when he first drove a car on a race track. Despite him working for a...

The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is one of the most exciting motorsport tracks in Australia. Here is a lap from the driver's seat.

A lap of the famous Phillip Island circuit starts when you cross the start/finish line on Gardner Straight. In my little roadster, top speed down the straight...

Zoom-Zoom club has been around for over 30 years, started just after the Mazda MX-5 was first released in 1989. I am an enthusiastic member of this club, one of the oldest Zoom-Zoom clubs in the world.

The club presents its members a pin for every five years of consecutive membership,...

Jinba Ittai is a Japanese saying that describes the unity of the horse and rider as one. The Mazda Motor Corporation use this saying to describe the experience of driving their roadster, the Mazda MX-5.
The Mazda MX-5 is a lightweight two-seater convertible sports car manufactured by Mazda in Japan. Ever...

Having a fleet of historic cars should not break the bank when it comes to registration. In Victoria, registration for a vehicle can cost over $800 per year. If you own one or more historic cars, that can get quite expensive.

If you only drive your historic car on the road...

Today was a Zoom-Zoom club drive day. For God's sake, it was the middle of summer, but it felt like the middle of winter on today's drive. This type of weather is not uncommon for summer in Melbourne. The temperature never got above 15 degrees Celcius and the drizzly rain...

I have been working with a well-known Mazda dealer on a sponsorship package for the Zoom-Zoom club. A sponsored partnership with a local Mazda dealer is a significant benefit for a motley crew of Mazda MX-5 owners like us.

To get a sponsorship deal over the line, you have to allow...

A scheme designed to support car club members with discounted registration for historic cars doesn't come with a few overheads especially if you are the guy in the club who administers the scheme.

The Club Permit scheme provides a discount on registration of up to 80%, allowing club members to drive...

"Race on Sunday, sell on Monday" was the marketing catchcry for the car manufacturers, a justification for the pile of money they spent over the years on Touring Car racing. Touring Car racing is a class of motorsport that is based on a modified road-going car. Most cars would come...

A remastered film of the 1963 Le Mans 24 hour race showed up on my social media today. Those were the days when the drivers would start the race by running across the track before jumping in their cars and driving off.

Two Italians won the race in a Ferrari 250P,...

Driving a car fast around any race track takes a little practice, and there are some basic techniques you should keep in mind.
Maintaining car balance is the main principle of fast driving and smooth cornering. Progressive inputs to the brakes, steering and accelerator are required to keep the car balanced...

A lap of Sandown Raceway starts at the top of the long straight, next to the pits. As I pass the empty grandstand, I am hitting a top speed of 170 km/h as I change up into fifth gear.

One hundred metres from the end of the straight, it is hard...

I am particular about how I clean my car. I won't take it anywhere near an automated car wash, and by cleaning my car a specific way by hand, I prevent the swirling scratch marks you see in the paintwork. 
Here's how I do it:I always wash the wheels first. With...

I often talk about my favourite roadster, the Mazda MX-5, but what about some of the other cars I have owned? The first car I bought with my own money was a 1964 Ford Falcon, sixteen years old when I purchased it for $300.

From 1960, Ford Australia started manufacturing cars,...

If you use your Mazda MX-5 as a daily drive, you may want to have a little more fun and make a few modifications to build a low budget track car. A set of lower budget modifications will offer an excellent track experience when behind the wheel with sharper steering...

The weather is a bit wet today, so I am spending the day indoors watching the Supercars race on TV.  They are racing at Sandown Raceway, not far from me, so I am not surprised they have to race in the rain.

As you could expect, when the track grip decreases,...

As much as I enjoyed playing sport as a kid, I never excelled at any sporting endeavour in particular. When it came to trophies, the only award I received was for being the "Best Under 14 Reserve" player at the Heatherdale Football Club. It was a long way from being...

The Formula 1 season begins tonight, with the Bahrain Grand Prix only a few hours away from starting. And though the season is yet to begin, there is already speculation about which drivers will be on the move to a new team or ousted for 2022.

The Mercedes Formula 1 team...