Mazda Miata MX-5 Road Trip Led to New Career

My friend Juho and I set out to cover as many of the greatest Alpine passes as possible and set out from our home in Stuttgart, Germany for a round trip. I had only covered maybe a thousand miles with my Mazda MX-5 before the trip, so the issue of reliability was still in question, but I was confident.

I was also excited about getting to know my first-ever sports car well. And neither the roads nor the weather disappointed. Despite covering some large distances, our traveling was quite relaxed, as we’d only planned few things beforehand. That turned the whole alpine region into an open playground: where to go next?

The fact that it was my first proper road trip with my own sports car made it really special, in addition to driving many legendary roads in one trip. And fortunately, over the eight days and 2400kms (about 1490mi) we didn’t run into any trouble as neither a spare tire nor toolbox fit.

The story doesn’t really end there though. Two years after the drive I got an idea that actually changed my life. It occurred to me to write the story and see if anyone would be interested in publishing it. In spite of my inexperience writing in English, a website (not this one) was and the story received a very positive response and was even picked up by a much larger site.

That left a huge impression on me. A few months later I founded a blog called ajakaamme.net (meaning ”shall we drive” in English. Finnish is a very suspicious language). And a year later, it turned out that my Mazda Miata MX-5 road trip led to a new career as an automotive journalist. All thanks to that beaten, little Miata that I still drive.

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