Tired, but in a good way

So this is my car. My wet, wet car.

I know that alot of you (if not MOST of you) have seen it before (although maybe not this wet), but I bring it up for two good reasons. First, I just got new tires.

The right rear tire turned up a staple high in the sidewall a year or so ago. I had that patched, but after a while it developed a slow leak. Which wasn't that big an issue, I just went out and picked up a small electric air compressor and made a practice of topping off the tire now and again. Of course, it did mean that there was an uneven wear pattern on the tire, and it looked for all the world (based on my own investigation and that of a nearby dealer) that Goodyear no longer makes this particular tire, so I figured I would be replacing all four tires at some point.

So yesterday I spent all day indoors, cleaning up and re-organizing the closet off the Juggling Room (the back bedroom we use as a home office), the Wifey walks in and announces that the rear left tire is flat.

I went out and looked: yep. Flat as a pancake.

So I went back over my research and concluded that I wanted a new set of DunlopSP SportA2 plus tires. I found out, in the process, that in wasn't that Goodyear no longer makes my tires, but rather that the tire they put on my car before I bought it at the Porsche dealer are Goodyear's winter rated model, further evidence that the Porsche guys didn't really know what they had ahold of. (My guess is that they just picked the only tire Goodyear still makes in P185/R14.) Which meant, among other things, that I would be moving from a winter tire to a performance tire, which is all to the good.

So I called my local shop and asked after price and availability. The usual guy wasn't in, but the kid filling in said he'd try. This, naturally, isn't good enough. After all, I'm a driver. So I followed Dunlop's links through the model tire I wanted to a dealer a little less than five miles from my house. I called there, left my information, and a short time later their shop cheif returned my call. He had a guy who thought he had the tires, would call back once the guy had his hands on them. I called him back right after noon, and he said that his transport guy should have the tire back to the shop between 2:30 and 3. So I said I'd be in there by 3.

So off I go, sporting 3 snow tires and a donut. It was bit of a dicey ride over.

An hour later I was ready to go, paid in full. In the mean time, it had started raining.

The Miata's only failing, in my estimation, was that it tended to be a bit squidgy in the rain. I took it easy for the first half of the trip home, and after that I didn'nt break any land speed records, but I was able to pull away from stoplights at a regular pace. Which, for me, is apporximately Mach 3. So that is whjy you are looking at a picture of my wet car. Dunlop tires rock!