About Kanazawa Roadster Club

About Kanazawa Roadster Club

(Last Update : January 1, 2003)

Introduction

The Kanazawa Roadster Club is one of many local Mazda Roadster (we call the Miata the Roadster) owners clubs in Japan. Kanazawa City is the prefectural capital of Ishikawa Prefecture. It is the biggest city in the Hokuriku region with a population of 460,000. The Japan Alps, Hakusan National Park and Noto Peninsula National Park surround the city. There are two rivers that run through the city. Such a natural background of great beauty gives us many enjoyable driving routes. But we receive much precipitation through the year and it snows heavily in the winter months. For this reason, there are not many days good for enjoying open-air motoring. In spite of a bad climate, we think Miata is the best car for us since it allows us to enjoy our scarce fine days to our heart's content.

Our club was established in December 1989 on purpose to promote friendship among the members through open-air motoring and to assist each other in working on our respective cars. Our membership is drawn from all over the Ishikawa Prefecture with more than 70 members in the club. Some members are joining us from other prefectures. An age bracket of our membership extends from 20's to 50's. Our members own Miatas ranging from bone-stock to highly modified and from '89s to '02s. Those who don't own Miata can also join us if they wish, since we think that each member is more important than his or her own cars. Of course, most of the members own Miatas but some own other cars, for example: BMW Z3, Fiat Barchetta, Honda S2000 and so on. We all love the Miata and open-air motoring. With such a diversified membership the Kanazawa Roadster Club is forever interesting and exciting.

The club holds events throughout the year including: monthly meetings, day tours, social events (dinners), race track meetings and so on. We don't have to join all events. Some are too busy at evening to join monthly meetings. Some can't join events held on the weekend because of his or her work. But all of them are important to the club even if they can join these events only once a year. Below is a detailed introduction of our activities.

Acts

Tours: We make a day tour in every month with about 20 members (on Sunday) or 10 members (on ordinary days) participating. Of course we drive within the traffic regulations and save our spirited driving for motorsports events. We know the Miata is a great sports car at any speed and don't have to speed to enjoy it! These drives are intended for leisure and we all look forward to our seasonal tours for a relaxing drive and lunch. So we can't go far away. All seasonal day tours are held on Sunday or public holidays, but for those members who can't make it we plan trips on other days too. We also make an overnight trip once a year. Not as many make this trip, but the ones who do get much happiness from spending the weekend with others and their Roadster.
	Motor Sports: We never forget that the Miata is a sports car. We don't plan official motor sports events. But, many members love driving their cars at speed, so we attend driving events where they can drive their cars on a racetrack. Though there is no racetrack near Kanazawa, there is one in the nearby Niigata Prefecture (Nihonkai Maze Circuit), a good distance for a day tour. Our membership has an increasing interest in these type events and receives much pleasure when passing more powerful cars at hairpin turns.
Monthly Meetings: We meet once a month on the first Wednesday with more than 20 members attending. We discuss schedules and details of various kinds of events and exchange information about after-market products, motor sports events etc. But the first aim of monthly meetings is to socialize, then we get down to business. In addition to monthly meetings, we hold a general meeting once a year to discuss a schedule for the year, election of the officers and other issues concerning the upcoming year. Every two years we re-elect our chairman, vice-chairman and accounting clerk.
	Sunday Meetings: We hold a "Sunday Meeting " once a month on the third Sunday. Our first and only aim of these meetings is to meet together and enjoy good afternoon.
National Meetings: We join seneral national meetings hold in many places in Japan.
	Social Events: We frequently have parties since they are the most popular event. We can always find a reason to have a party. Like most Japanese, a year-end party is the most important party and the biggest. Nearly all members join in. Even those who are too busy to join monthly meetings make it to our year-end party.

Various kinds of people are acting in our club. The variety of members may characterize our club best.

For another ten years

Occasionally we hold events with other nearby owners clubs. There are four owners clubs, including us, in the Hokuriku region. Some of these clubs communicated regularly, but there was not a recognized unification in the Hokuriku region until 1998. In July 1998, the central members of each club agreed that all clubs in the region would communicate more closely and increase the number of joint events. Fortunately, we have been active for more than ten years and it will be important for us to cooperate with other clubs so that we may be active for another ten years. The Miata has brought us not only much driving pleasure, but also many happy encounters. We are looking forward to enjoying the Miata's 20th birthday together!

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