MX5 Victoria- Tips

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Touring

Reefton Spur
Reefton update!

Maintenance

There is a piece of country road just outside Melbourne that is cherished by all sorts of motor enthusiasts. Regularly, people embark on pilgrimages, in some instances quite long ones, to enjoy this section of bitumen . It is a place where one can enjoy the sportiness of an MX-5 in a long series of corners without actually speeding. It is a place where one can sit at one end during busy days and just enjoy the steady stream of happy faces stopping for a break after a run. Naturally it is the Reefton Spur I am talking about.

Though Reefton Spur refers to a section of only 20 kilometres between Reefton (Upper Yarra dam) and Cumberland Junction, I see it as a truly enjoyable 100-150 kilometres (plus in and out of Melbourne) touring on the country side. We often take coffee and sandwiches with us and make it in to a relaxing half day trip on Sunday mornings. This way we are back in the afternoon for the never ending mowing of the lawn.

Before going into details of this touring trip there are a few things that must be mentioned. Not only is the Reefton Spur a nice ride in the hills, it is also the habitat of wildlife. There is also a strong representation of motorcyclists. This does not pose a problem as long as you pay particular attention to staying on your side of the road. Given the way the road meanders along the Spur, it is VERY easy to be a bit wide or involuntarely cut a corner. The Spur is also the shortest way to a number of 4WD tracks south of Lake Eildon which brings several large, very unsporty (in many regards) Landcruisers, Patrols and other overweight "Toorak Tractors" to this stretch of road. Understandably, these guys struggle to stay on the line.

I suggest a couple of slow runs to get accustomed to the terrain. For example, don't let the opening in the trees halfway through going uphill fool you that the road continues straight after the crest! The gap is just for a track leading off the main road. Not only does the main road turn left rather surprisingly, the track has a particularly nasty boom-gate - ask anyone down at McMahon Pub.

Now to how to get to this motor enthusiasts' heaven.

As said before this trip is perfect if you only can afford to spend half a day on the favorite hobby of your's. The trip more or less starts in Warburton. As we live in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne we tend to take Ferntree Gully Road up to Burwood Highway and follow it to Cockatoo travelling through Belgrave, Menzies Creek and Emerald. In Cockatoo we turn north and join Warburton Highway in Woori Yallock. On exiting Warburton we keep right towards East Warburton. We are now out of serious commuters' society and can relax and let our MX-5 get a bit longer leash as the speed limit settles on 100km/h. From here to the turn-off at Reefton are several batches of lovely sweeping corners between sections of less inspiring road. These gentle corners give rewarding pleasure even at a lesurily speed. McMahons Creek which suddenly appears on the right hand side after a couple of particularly enjoyable left-right combinations, is an old pub from the gold mining era. The pub is located at the start of an incline which means there is (unfortunately) ample of time in an MX-5 to checkout who are there and what they are driving - their machinery are parked outside.

In Reefton it is time to get serious as we keep left and cross the Yarra on a small wooden bridge. The Yarra is a lot less impressive than down in South Melbourne. Keeping the speed down as we follow the road in a right bend we start to climb the Spur. As soon as we have left the few houses that make up Reefton behind us we are truly in Corners' Shangri-La. If enjoying the roadster in demanding corners on a small road is not your cup of tea, then you can always just sit back and enjoy the scenery as you climb up to Cumberland Junction in a more leisurely pace.

Once at Cumberland Junction it is time to relax and slow down. This is the start of 5 km of gravel road. Most people really fear gravel roads and wish over and over again that someone could organise to have these miserable 5 km sealed. I think it is an excellent way of keeping the numbers down to true enthusiasts in this beutiful part of the world. In any case, it is only 5 km and the scenery makes it all worth while.

At the end of the gravel road is the turn-off to Lake Mountain, which is a big cross-country resort during the winter months. I sugggest that you head up to the upper car park if time permits. We often have our smoko here and have a snooze on a blanket in the tobogganin slope. It is nice to enjoy the solitude and tranquility there, where otherwise during the season kids and their parents come for other, significantly more noisy activities.

Next stop is Marysville and perhaps a bit of lunch, or just a caffe latte. The bakery is an easy stop if you wish to have your coffee outside watching the traffic pass by. If you prefer to stretch your legs, a visit to Steavenson Falls is always refreshing.

The return trip goes via St Fillans, where we join Maroondah Highway as we turn left, and then on to Narbethong. The road between Narbethong and Healesville, The Black Spur, is absolutly fabulous. It is a road that offers a large number of tight corners and extraordinary scenery (keep in mind that all these treeferns are introduced...).If ever there was a road made for driving with the top down during a warm summer's day, this is it. And, to (slightly mis-)quote Robert M. Pirsig from his excellent book on philosophy "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", - to drive an MX-5 roadster is being part of this scenary. This is of course needless to say as The Black Spur is probably one of the best known roads for weekend drivers, second perhaps only to The Great Ocean Road.

Arriving in Healesville it is time to head for home and get stuck into the garden or whatelse that might await you. We normally turn left just outside Healesville for the thirteen kilometres stretch to Woori Yallock where we follow our tracks back to Melbourne.

If you have more than half a day to spend on a drive, then we can of course come up with several alternatives. More suggestions will come as time permits them to be immortilised by putting them in print. If you enjoyed this touring trip and perhaps would like to see more trips, don't hesitate to mail me your comments. Encouragement is the best content provider.

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Hey All,
I have a weekender in Reefton and loved your description of the Reefton Spur trip. Thought I'd let you know that the road from Reefton to Marysville is now fully sealed, much to our delight. It's now a more comfortable trip, especially for the motorbikes and I'm sure a far less dusty one for a great day out in a convertible. It's nice and windy too!!!! Enjoy!!!

Kind Regards, Wendy

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I reside in Melbourne and own a 93 turbo-charged MX5. About a year ago I noticed that the rev's, during idle, would start to climb! Initially the rev gauge sat at 800, however as the engine attained temperature the revs would climb to about 1600-1800 and sit there! The only way I could bring them down was through gently riding the clutch at the lights. I took it to a turbo specialist who had absolutely no idea! They decided to turn back the throttle cable with the engine was hot, bring the revs back to 800.. However now I'm having problems with cold starts! When I start the car cold and gently apply the accelerator, the engine cuts out. I have to really plant the pedal to get it warm! And I can imagine that's not good for the engine during. Furthermore during driving, the revs seem to oscillate between 800 and 1200. I took it back to Mazda and their computer displayed that there was a problem with the air-fuel meter - however nobody seems to know why the car is behaving like it does. Have you seen this problem before? Could you point me in the right direction to getting this fixed?

Thanks...Simon
sbednar@dc.com

Does anyone out there know the answer to this problem? If you do, please email it to the webmaster so the solution can be posted on the site for everyone's benefit! Thanks.

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Michael sent me the following email:

I have a 1992 Mazda MX-5 which seems to have a problem with the stereo not wanting to turn on when there is high humidity. I know that this is not a one-off problem as my previous MX-5 had the same fault and talking to another MX-5 owner he said that he had this problem too. He also mentioned that he had heard that there is a resistor/transistor within the radio that has to be soldered to fix this problem.

The answer to the problem, (as indeed suggested by Michael himself) can be found on the Miata.net site.

Thanks Michael for your tip!

We recently had an email from Ronnie in Melbourne, asking wether this antitheft code applies to Australian MX-5's as well. Mike Quist at Mazda was helpful enough to provide the following information via his service manager:

" Certainly the USA uses security coded radios. Which one they use in the Miata, I don't know. In Australia we had a Panasonic unit in the NA model, but now have a Matsushita in the NB model. I've not had cause to check but I expect there would be different codes for each, just as there is for Philips, Panasonic, FMS, Clarion, etc. Security codes are not given out to Customers or Dealers, the need must be referred back to the Manufacturer/Vendor. I believe the same applies in the USA."

Thanks to Mike and Mazda for this piece of information.

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"How do I fold the rear tonneau cover back to the shape and size it was when we first bought the car?"

Follow these simple step by step instructions and "Hey Presto", it will fit comfortably into the well of the MX-5 boot.

1.Lay the boot out flat with the shiny side up.
	2.Fold the bottom one third up. There is a natural break in the plastic guides that makes folding easy.
3.Using the breaks in the plastic guides, fold the outer sections in towards the centre.
4.Last of all. Fold the package in half again using the breaks in the plastic as your folding points. Courtesy of Lindsey Howatt