Sunstorm

Spring has sprung.

Spring has sprung.

Spring!!! It’s a special time for all Miata owners. The time when cars come out of hibernation. The time when snow tires can come off and tops can go down. The time when cameras come out to snap trite, heavy-handed spring imagery like you see above.

I just couldn’t help myself. It was my first top down drive in months.

Back in summer tires.

Back in summer tires.

I took a drive in Bucky to enjoy the spring air. Maybe end up somewhere pretty for some pix.

We visited the railyard.

We visited the railyard.

Why Bucky and not Sharka? Well… Bucky still has a convertible top. Going for a top-down drive with Sharka would involve removing the hardtop. Not a difficult thing to do, but I just wanted to hop in and go.

And besides, Bucky has these new gauges.

New gauges, old railyard.

New gauges, old railyard.

I call them Version Sunstorm. They’re named after one of my favorite Transformer clones (Yeah, that’s right. I named gauges after a robot.) and they’re based on my own Version Revolver design. However, I changed absolutely every aspect of the Revolvers for this set. Sometimes minor changes, but everything was touched.

Over the holidays, a guy named Justin ordered a set of Revolvers with a yellow tachometer. I had often thought about doing a gauge design with a yellow tach, but had dismissed it due to the Miata not having a central rev counter. I thought having one gauge on the side in a different color would be rather amateurish and boy-racer. Then the gauges came out of my printer and I was stunned. It looked AWESOME.

Fast forward a few months, and now I have a full design based on that custom order. They’re for sale in both NA and NB flavors. I hope to have some NC ones out shortly.

So wonderfully over the top.

So wonderfully over the top.

Of course, credit must be given to Ferrari, the originator of the yellow gauge. However, I’m quite proud of this design. It was very very hard to not copy a Ferrari design. Instead, I just kept chipping away at the Revolvers that I made up in 2010 until they looked right.

I love this.

I love this.

Maybe the most modern design I’ve ever done. I’m more of a vintage guy, but I enjoyed every minute I spent working on these. Perhaps there will be a few more modern designs in the pipes.

I unveiled these gauges on the various message boards a few weeks before posting about them here. Let me just say, the welcome has been very warm. I’ve never had so many NB orders in a row. Usually my NA customers outnumber the NB drivers by 10 to 1. In the last few weeks, it has been exactly the opposite.

And then there's night mode.

And then there’s night mode.

And this is how they light up at night. It’s distracting. It’s extremely loud. And I love it. I get to drive with this every morning while it’s still dark at 6:00a. My Sunstorms don’t match anything else in Bucky’s interior and I don’t care. It’s just so much fun.

I’ll put it this way: the weather has been very nice. I’ve been driving Bucky more than Sharka. That, my friends, is a statement I never thought I’d make.

So, happy spring everyone! If you need me, I’ll be outside.

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  • Nick says:

    Yeah yeah, brag about summer; mine just ended! Stupid southern hemisphere.
    My NB’s roof goes back up until about September….

  • Bill says:

    Yellow tachs look amazing! I really wish I could get these for my car, but I’m sure I’d never stop staring at them while driving.

    • revlimiter says:

      I donno. I could probably make something for ya. I clicked your link. VERY pretty yellow car you have there.

      • Bill says:

        Why thank you sir! It’ll look prettier when it can go back in summer mode. 🙂

        If you could/would actually take on that project I’m sure it would go over quite well. Unfortunately used clusters (to play with) are few and far between since the cars are so new, understandably.

        I would very much like one though…..

  • A1C Harmon says:

    It’s starting to sound like this might be the year of the NB for you??? Not at all a bad place to be, since Sharka is………. Done ?!

    • revlimiter says:

      Possibly! There’s at least more untouched items on it than on Sharka. I donno. The NB is such a good daily driver, I’m hesitant to change much. But there is some low hanging fruit.

  • spindiscs says:

    I think you are very brave driving a small car in the snow.

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