Kilted at the Gap

[MacWage]

I was at the Miatas at the Gap X in Deals Gap, NC this weekend in my homemade Black Watch. I had nothing but positive comments, including one lady from Scotland (a little town between Glasgow and Edinburgh) was happy to see a young American wearing a kilt. She was quite happy with it (and impressed when I said I made it). We talked for a good 15 minutes.

I was trying to get a Green Stewart kilt finished in time (to better match my car in Lotus racing green and yellow -with period appropriate red seat), but forgot just how much work was involved and ran out of time.

Quite a few said they had one at home and were kicking themselves for not wearing it. They had just never thought of doing so. I got a number of interesting IDs on the tartan (besides the Grant Hunting/Campbell/Black Watch, etc thing).

If I see a pic of myself (a great number were taken), I'll add it to this thread (or make a pic thread of it, or both).

For a car show/gathering, the kilt thing went quite well, with no negative comments (that I heard), besides a number of "skirt"/"kilt" jokes (to which I said-> "In centuries past, men died for comments like that, but I feel gracious today." They ALWAYS laughed.

Now, I have been nicknamed "The Kilted One" (as well as "He who does not use the top"-> I drove in a heavy rain storm top down for 3 hours getting there, passing a number who stopped to raise their roofs-> I was dry, thanks to to the wind and rain dynamics of this great little car).

PS.-> The Miata is the MX-5 in most of the world and Deal's Gap is the main US gathering with people from Canada, Colorado, Michigan, Florida, and a couple from California coming to the Tennessee/NC stateline in the deep Smoky Mountains. Let's say iy is remote-> BUT 318 curves in 11 miles and NO INTERSECTING ROADS!!!! )

"The Kilted One Who Does Not Know Where His Roof Is,"

[Southern Breeze]

Great story, now we need some pics. I've been on the Dragon quite a few times myself. If you've never heard of the Dragon, check this out:


http://tailofthedragon.com/dragon.html

[MacWage]

I didn't take any (too busy with other stuff than to take "self-portraits" :rolleyes: ), now to see if I can find any.

Then, learn how to post images over here . . . :rolleyes:

[MacWage]

Here is a pic of my car:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hal_mc...e2.jpg&.src=ph
and
http://public.fotki.com/relittle/mia.../pict0009.html

None seen of me yet.

[David Dalglish]

Hope you had a great time at the rally in spite of the rain. I always ran my Morgan +8 all the year round with the roof down, it was great.

[MacWage]

Found a shot of me in kilt talking to someone about my engine.
Pic #136 at:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2103537999

[Alan H]

Nice car, nice kilt! Sounds like a fun day, to me.

[MacWage]

Nice car, nice kilt! Sounds like a fun day, to me.

Thanks, That was my first homemade. My others are MUCH better, especially after using Barb's book and talking to Mr. Newsome.

The car is also largely home modified, in memory of Jim Clark, great rave car driver and F1 double champion (63 AND 65). He was so good that he felt a 45 second lead was a "comfortable" one, which he achieved practically every race. It was just a matter of if his Lotus broke or not. If he had the reliability of a Schumaker Ferrari, Clark would have been Champion more times (including 62, 64, 67, and 68 and beyond, if he had lived). Not bad for an 8 year career!

Fortunately, for me, Miatas are more reliable (in fact-> hard to kill), but it's not making 200 horses out of a normally aspirated 1.5 or weiging 900 pounds (with added weights), of course.

By the way, there were about 450 cars there.

Thanks again,

[MacWage]

Another pic:
http://forum.miata.net/vb/attachment...chmentid=23697