My Favorite Ride: 'Laura, all Miatas are convertibles' and are popular in Bloomington

Laura Lane, The Herald-Times
·4 min read

It was two years ago that Lester Welch sent me a message about his very cool car. I never got back to him.

"Ms. Lane, I have a very special Miata — bought it new in 1997 — and now I have to sell it because I'm too old to drive it anymore," the email began. "It's a 1997 R package, of which only 47 were made."

The rare 1997 Miata R that Lester Welch owned, loved and raced. There were just 47 of the cars manufactured that year. Welch and his wife sold the fast and sporty car after Welch became ill and could no longer drive. He died in July.
The rare 1997 Miata R that Lester Welch owned, loved and raced. There were just 47 of the cars manufactured that year. Welch and his wife sold the fast and sporty car after Welch became ill and could no longer drive. He died in July.

He attached an article from Miata Magazine's October 2001 edition. Yes, there was a publication devoted to what Car and Driver magazine called Mazda's "plucky little sports car." Welch's rare R series was featured.

Remember back in 2017 when I embarked on an unintended series of stories about Miatas? Who knew there were so many in and around Bloomington?

"I cannot seem to write a My Favorite Ride column without mention of a Miata," I once wrote. "Oh well."

Then a few readers began to complain about the column being Miata-heavy. The 2017 year-end My Favorite Ride pointed out that of 40 columns written that year, five were about Mazda Miatas.

Columns about Miatas: A 2018 Ride Resolution: Miatas are going in the garage

So I swore off them for 2018. "I'm done with Miatas for now and predict 2018 will be a Miata-less year."

It wasn't. A column that April mentioned a Miata that caught fire and was replaced by a 1961 Ford Thunderbird convertible. Oh well.

The most recent Miata mention was in 2019 when I wrote a sentence about the 1989 car Dick Barnes bought new the first year Miatas were manufactured.

What happened to one of those cars: My Favorite Ride: After 2 decades in the garage, MGB is back on the road

Previous to that, there was the Miata Doug Davis bought from, and years later resold to, Cathy Hiatt. It was Davis that let me know I could stop mentioning the words "convertible" and "ragtop" when writing about the two-seaters.

"Laura, all Miatas are convertibles."

There was the silver 2002 Miata owned and loved by Sandy Lynch and Jack Shelton, which I reported had "inexplicably caught fire and burned up in Bloomington's Eastland Plaza parking lot, right outside the FedEx office."

Lynch called the vehicle "one of the best cars we ever had."

Remember the Rev. Mark Fenstermacher's 1999 Miata? I called it "not the kind of car a Methodist minister with a family parks in the church lot Sunday mornings.

He said the Miata cost less than therapy, putting a smile on his face when he turned the key. "Dropping the top on a nice day, even work trips feel like mini vacations. Taking the car up the curving, twisting, two-lane blacktop roads of southern Indiana is a joy."

Tim Lloyd had one. So did MaryAnn Faudree, who called hers "a little red rocket." Mike Lyles had a cream-colored 2009 model he bought from an 83-year-old man. Anita Elsey had the one Davis and Hiatt later owned. Dottie Phillips told me about the 1992 she bought when the owner pulled up at her yard sale. Miata owner Ed Wheeler taught her how to drive it.

So many Miatas.

My first Miata column appeared more than a decade ago, in October 2012. An excerpt:

"When Arthur Eads handed Allen Diamond cash to purchase a red 1990 Mazda Miata, Diamond gave him a sealed envelope with nothing written on it.

"The next day, 89-year-old Eads opened it up. There was a letter inside from a woman named Grace. 'Dear Miata Buyer,' it began. 'I am Allen Diamond’s granddaughter. The car you are buying is very special to me, and I hope you will enjoy it.'"

Grace Billingham was 19 when she wrote the letter. Her uncle, the late Gene DeVeau, had intended to give her the car, but sold it when the girl developed a serious illness.

“I hope you have someone to share its joy with," the letter concluded. "And when you drive the Miata, you will be keeping his memory alive."

Eads told me he kept the letter in the car's glovebox.

Back to Lester Welch. I called his number this past week to find out if he had found a buyer for his special car. His widow, Janeth, answered. She told me Lester died in July. He was 82.

She said they sold the Miata last year to a man in Louisville who owns several others. They thought he would take good care of the car.

Janeth told me how she and her husband toured around Maryland in the Miata when they lived there. Both took a driver training course and drove it on a racetrack in Virginia.

Lester, she said, pushed the speedometer to 100 mph. "I am not sure I went that fast," she said, "but I did learn you should slow down before you enter a curve, then give it some gas."

Her husband's obituary mentioned the car. "Lester’s many hobbies included driving his 1997 Mazda Miata R, clock repair, genealogy, chess, Wordle, crossword puzzles, identifying and cultivating wildflowers, and following the stock market."

We share a few interests. I wish I had contacted him, so we could have talked. Waited too long. Oh well.

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? A Mazda Miata perhaps? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: My Favorite Ride: 'Laura, all Miatas are convertibles'