At AutoGuide we love road trips. Any chance there is to drive somewhere instead of walk/fly/boat, we take it.
I may be the guiltiest party here. Aside from my yearly adventures with the charity organization Rally North America, I’ll take any opportunity to get behind the wheel and drive.
So, when I got an invitation to attend the world debut of the 2016 Mazda MX-5 in Monterey, California, an evil plan started to form in my head. What if I drove the current generation MX-5 to Monterey to see the unveiling of the new 2016 model? Not only would this be a home coming of sorts for the car, but the weekend following the debut is an event called Miatas at Mazda Raceway, in which MX-5 owners from all over the world are coming for a three-day Miata love-in. Aside from activities on and off the track, there will be a world record attempt on Friday featuring roughly 1,600 Miatas in attendance.
3,000 Miles? No Problem!
I rang up Mazda immediately and laid out my scheme. I was hoping to borrow a 2014 MX-5 to drive out to Monterey. Oh, and did I mention I live on the east coast and the drive would be a 3,000 mile jaunt? 
For some manufacturers, the idea of driving a tiny roadster to Monterey may border on lunacy. Mazda, however, responded with a “Hell Ya!” (Ok, I may have paraphrased that.)
I’ve already hit the road, leaving Toronto, Canada today on my way to Harrisburgh, PA to pick-up my co-driver for the adventure, Tony Intrieri, Operations Manager of Rally North America.
You can follow the adventure in real-time on twitter, @AutoGuide, or send us a message; we’ll have a lot of time to answer your tweets during the long drive west. As well, we will also be updating our adventure daily, live on AutoGuide.com using storify like we did during the Under $30,000 Performance Car Shootout and the Mazda Adventure Rally.
While in Monterey, I will also get the chance to drive heritage models of the Miata, partake in the Skip Barber racing school and participate in the MX-5 world record attempt.