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Special guests
Derek Jenkins
As the former Chief of Design for Volkswagen Group North America, Jenkins is credited with numerous concept and production vehicles including the Audi A2, A8 and Volkswagen Scirocco concept. Prior to joining VW in 2000, he held various design roles at both VW and Audi, both in North America and abroad.
In his role as Design Director, Jenkins oversees a staff of about 25, which pushes creative boundaries by developing advanced ideas for Mazda's next generation of cars. You can see their work in the current Mazda6 and Mazda3.
In other words, he designed the new Miata!
Tom Matano
Tom was the Design Director for the first two generations of Miata. While he is no longer with Mazda, he's still a vital part of the Miata community and loves to see the cars used as intended. Today, he is the Executive Director of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. His enthusiasm for the Miata is being passed along to his students, as a couple of them have volunteered their design services for our event in the past.
Keith Tanner
Keith spends his days pushing the limits of Miatas as one of the techs at Flyin' Miata. He's also written a number of books on the car, the most recent of which is How To Build a High Performance Mazda Miata.
He has been very active in the online community for nearly 20 years, answering questions and helping solve a huge range of problems. Evenings are taken up with a range of projects from lightweight sports cars to an MGB GT with an LS1 inside, always using Miata parts of some sort. He still owns the 1990 Miata he bought in 1992.
He and his wife Janel have raced a rally-prepped V8 Miata in the Targa Newfoundland, and were leading overall in the Open class for much of the 2011 race before finishing in third. That car will be at Mazda Raceway.