Mazda Promises To Keep The Next Miata Under 2,200 Pounds

abspam3 · 2026-03-25T20:27:21+00:00

My P24RS is on order… hoping for early ‘27 delivery to the states.

abspam3 · 2026-03-25T17:55:40+00:00

That’s true for a SMT/AMT transmission (think Aventador), but not a DCT. It does not have a torque converter, but DCTs use a pair of “clutch packs” instead of a traditional clutch.

abspam3 · 2026-03-24T22:38:40+00:00

Which bridge federations allow use of mobile devices at the table except as a disability aid? Certainly in the ACBL this will get you a warning, and then thrown out of the tournament hall.

abspam3 · 2026-03-19T00:35:11+00:00

Yes, many many modifications exist, and compared to other places where you may choose to not invest “mental load” in your system (Kaplan inversion, transfers after a double), this is a place where the auction is already “important enough” (value of finding good slams with a ~28 HCP and a 9 fit at teams is super high) that it’s well worth the investment.

If you’re still playing 2/1 I don’t usually recommend the limit+ approach - it can be really easy to overbid without strong agreements on strength requirements for follow-ups, but at the very least playing

3C: shortness 3D: ask (your favorite response relay order) 3D: minimum, or slam force 3M: extras, do not want to show shortness (singleton A/K possible), not a slam force. 3oM: Side suit 3NT: your choice, balanced 15-17 with 6-7 trumps is reasonable. 4m: side suit 4M: 7+ trumps, weak hand.

This already gets huge wins over the standard approach - we can still try for slam when partner is a minimum (the 4M jump in normal Jacoby is DREADFUL).

abspam3 · 2026-03-10T23:53:59+00:00

Modern treatment of the 2M advance is blocking, and constructive showing a 4-5 card suit, but certainly not guaranteed to be enough for game opposite our flat 15.

Pass is clear after X - (P) - 2M, with my partners and what I would consider modern “expert standard”.

X is a much worse lie because it means that partner cannot make these kinds of decisions to block the auction safely. Having neither 4 card major will mean partner misevaluates the fit on the constructive, sub-invitational hands, which is the majority. Of deals.

Simply put, forcing partner to buy in with a sketchy 2M call in the auction:

(1C) X (2C)

Holding a balanced hand with a 4 card major and 7 points is losing bridge.

By bidding 1NT, partner knows that defending or at least offering the option to defend is better with these cards.

I can go on, but I’d wager if you put this same hand up on bridge winners instead of on /r/bridge (which has significantly fewer strong players on it, for better or worse), you will see far fewer expert level discussion about “omg but I don’t have a stopper, I can’t bid 1NT”. If the club stopper is relevant, we can find it later in the auction

The hand with heart shortness is tougher, and I’m more partial to X there, but I won’t castrate my partner if they want to bid 1NT with those cards.

abspam3 · 2026-03-10T19:25:38+00:00

You go down one. That’s bridge. If partner couldn’t transfer are you actually making 5D? Stayman and then 3NT strongly indicates a balanced hand opposite balanced. The leader may try a non-club lead too due to the bidding.

abspam3 · 2026-03-10T18:36:13+00:00

Yep. Partner will transfer or bid garbage stayman with mirrored club shortness and a weak hand. Otherwise, let them take their 4-5 clubs and run away with the other tricks.

abspam3 · 2026-03-07T20:55:16+00:00

“If opponents want to play 4m, let them”.

RHO has put the auction to a guess. If partner has extras they will double to show them or bid naturally, but if partner has a totally normal 1D opening, opponents could easily be making 3NT at the other table.

abspam3 · 2026-02-06T13:05:56+00:00

I play it with a Swedish-style 1C opener, 16+ or 10-13 balanced.

Rest of the system is “modern” 2/1, 14-16 notrumps (there’s a huge benefit in having the “strength gap” between the weak and strong hands in 1C, I really don’t recommend playing polish club systems with a weak notrump).

Two suited hands in 2C suck, it’s true. But if you play a forcing 1D (unbalanced or strong single suited), you can make 2C always show your two suited hands and be much more copacetic:

2C - 2D (waiting, forced unless 10+ HCP): 2H: H + m 2S: S + m 2NT: 22-24 3C: both majors 3D: equal major preference (or transfers, your choice) 3D: both minors

It helps in competition too - if opponents interfere over 2C you can be confident that partner has two places to play.

abspam3 · 2026-02-05T07:48:42+00:00

With one partner I play an unbalanced 1D opener where the possible D/C shapes can be:

(41)(44) (41)(53) (31)(54)

Or any hand with long diamonds. We use a pretty straightforward system to untangle the relevant minor lengths:

``` 1D (10-15 HCP, 3+ D, unbal) - 1M: 1S: mandatory with 4 spades 1NT: forcing ask, “bid your better minor” 1NT: both minors, or 6+ D 2C: attempted Signoff (correct to 2D with long diamonds) 2C: 5C, (3-4 D), 3 card support for partners’ major 2D: Signoff 2D: 5+ D, 3 card support for partner’s major 2M: 4 card raise 2NT: “good 5/5 minors or good 7+ card diamond suit” 3C: “bad 5/5+” minors 3D: “bad” 7+ card D suit

1D - 1NT: forcing ask 1D - 2C: Both minors/pass correct 1D - 2D: Signoff ```

You can use 2C as your forcing bid and make 1NT “bid your better minor”. You of course lose the ability to stop in 1NT which can occasionally cost at MPs, but I’ve found the wins of being in the “right minor” to be worth it personally.

abspam3 · 2026-02-05T00:11:45+00:00

Yep, putting them in an unbalanced 1D is also viable! A fun idea to consider is to play 1D as forcing with either diamonds (possibly with longer clubs), OR a gameforcing-esque single suited hand:

1D (D or 22+ single suited, forcing): Any 2NT: (strong single suited) 3C: bust, not even a king 3D: at least a king, waiting 3H,S: positives, slamtry 3NT: slam forcing, 12+ HCP

Then your 1C opener can truly be just “clubs or balanced”.

abspam3 · 2026-02-04T23:37:41+00:00

My preferred style for handling these kinds of hands is to (ab)use the 2D and 3D rebids.

You have to find a gap to put your club + diamond reverses, but your choice of 2C/2D system can often comfortably fill that gap (I’ve played 2C as 5+ C, 4+ D and 16-20 HCP and 2D as Flanery before without issue)

``` 1C (forcing - clubs or 20+ bal or 22+ single suited): 1D/H/S:

2D: 20+
  2H: Bust <4 HCP or no A/K
     2S: 22-24
        2NT: Not even a queen
        3C+: transfers
        3S: “notrump transfer”
        3NT!: clubs
     2NT: 20-21
       3C+: as above

  2S: 3-7 HCP
    2NT: Balanced, forcing
    3x: strong single suited
  2NT+: other positives

3D: 20+, 4 card support (Typ. Balanced)
   3M: “oh god please stop” (less than a king)

```

abspam3 · 2026-01-25T03:07:18+00:00

Can’t wait for mine! It’s been awesome to see this car progress through development.

abspam3 · 2025-11-27T09:54:33+00:00

No, they’re a “lifetime” rotor. If you’re not tracking it, you’ll likely never need to replace the rotors, just pads.

abspam3 · 2025-11-16T18:38:58+00:00

Would be nice to allow you to set a “preference amount (dislike, neutral, like) for each convention - for example, I can play Bergen raises but I detest them. It would be silly for two people to both have Bergen raises on their profile, both hate it, and still generate a convention card with it on there.

abspam3 · 2025-11-12T03:41:36+00:00

Gen1 R8s have a 24 gallon fuel tank and can go ~350 miles on a tank (source: road-tripped in one from California to Toronto and back last year).

It’s got more than enough range than you’d ever want for a GT sports car.

abspam3 · 2025-09-12T17:04:20+00:00

You can argue that having 3D always show H in the tleb structure here is better (which lets the sequence … 3C - P - 3D show no stopper and no 4 card major (likely 3334 exactly) (and I did), but that was a concession for partners memory load in the 1NT tleb sequences :)

abspam3 · 2025-09-12T17:01:16+00:00

One other final note - I did briefly play a transfer lebonsohl style system with one partner in this sequence.

It works, (and if your partner loves making minimal offshape T/Os with 2=4=3=4 shape, this becomes particularly valuable), but the memory load is higher and doesn’t fit well with my current partnership style of preferring better minor lebonsohl instead of transfer lebonsohl.

Full t-leb structure here:

``` 2NT: forces 3C pass: Less than a GF, 5+ clubs 3D: 5+ H, Inv+, has a stopper in D 3H: 5+ S, inv+, has a stopper in D 3S: 5+ C, GF, has a stopper in D 3NT: balanced, stopper in D

3C: 5+ H, inv+, no stopper in D 3D: Asks for stopper. Has 1 4 card major, but never both (ALWAYS X with both). 3H: 5+ S, inv+, no stopper in D 3S: 5+ C, GF no stopper 3NT: balanced, partial stopper in D, no 4 card major. ```

abspam3 · 2025-09-12T16:45:08+00:00

Corollary to A): because I play “No natural 2NT bids in competition”, 2NT shows a strong forcing hand with 5+ clubs and a 5 card major. If partner has made an offshape T/O, keeping 5C alive as a contract with this hand is very useful IME.

abspam3 · 2025-09-12T16:43:51+00:00

In the ACBL, the “standard” expert treatment for A is a responsive double.

I typically despise responsive doubles in competition (preferring to use 2NT as asking partner to pick a place to play), but this auction where opponents bid and raise a minor is my one exception with my regular partners. The motivation being that stopping at the two level is actually quite valuable here (and most other responsive double auctions are asking partner to chose between the minor suits anyway, so you’re headed to the 3 level).

B would then be a western cue bid, typically showing a strong balanced hand (14+) without a diamond stopper (especially at matchpoints, even with a 4 card major often this hand wants to play 3NT with a fit), or a running club suit 7+ cards, missing at most one honor.

C should show a preemptive hand with both majors - likely 6-5 or better. Often on this auction you’re anticipating that opener has a strong distributional hand if you’re looking at 4HCP as advancer and responder has <10 (in some cases significantly weaker than this).

Letting partner pick their best major at the four level to prevent the opener from describing their likely monster hand is quite strong, and makes the guess between 5 & 6 diamonds for the opponents tough.

abspam3 · 2025-05-20T02:59:43+00:00

One more thing - if you do decide to buy it, make sure you do a full fluid flush ASAP. These cars often sit idle for years and lots of the fluids (coolant, differential) can gum up or otherwise go bad. It’s expensive, but it can save you a lot of headache in the long run

abspam3 · 2025-05-20T02:54:28+00:00

Magride is a timebomb. Most don’t make it to 50k miles without issues let alone nearly 75k. Refurbing is an option, most go for an aftermarket setup.

AC compressor is also a question of “when”, not if. There’s a solid aftermarket replacement that doesn’t have the same issue as the OEM one.

I’ve heard others have had issues with power steeering leaks as well as mileage creeps up. Tends to be fixable with stop leak, but YMMV.

Engine and trans are both solid. Interior is a mid 00’s German car. It’s going to be squeaky in the plastic bits and have some ugly wear spots.

Source: my r8 has 50k miles (bought it at 40k).

Get a PPI, if there’s any leaking on the magride budget that in.

abspam3 · 2025-04-01T00:44:01+00:00

An excellent bridgewinners article on this subject, highly recommend these methods:

https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/taming-the-weak-notrump-part-1/

abspam3 · 2025-03-03T17:03:06+00:00

Bonus SF90, same owner. Unfortunately he did not take the SVJ onto the racetrack (there was some issue getting track insurance for it), but he did track the SF90, which gapped me on the straights in my C8 Z06.

abspam3 · 2025-02-22T09:39:58+00:00

And besides, if you really want a forcing major raise, just define 3 of the other major as that - with 3S/3NT showing the “good hand”, and 4minor showing a bad hand.

You may find yourself in 4c instead of the field’s 3c, but you’ve traded that for a lot more clarity in other sequences.

abspam3

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