Beautiful plate RoadTrip!!!!

 

RaceTripper & RoadTrip2:

Nice plates! I'm curious... how much extra does it cost in your state to get a custom plate? In Ohio, regular annual auto registration costs just over $50, and if one wants a custom plate of any kind, it's an extra $25. I just refuse to pay that much year after year. I used to have a special plate, but a few years ago the state increased the cost of registration significantly, so I just decided enough was enough. I think in Virginia for example, the cost of a special plate is minimal, so you see a lot more special plates there.

Anyway, nice job both of you!

 

$15 over normal registration for a personalized plate.

 

Ours is $15 over normal registration, plus a $25 donation to the Missouri Conservation Dept to use their organizational design. They have 3 designs and we liked the Bald Eagle rather than a Whitetail Deer or Bluebird.

 

RaceTripper -

Did you see that the Steve McQueen movie was on the AMC channel last night? I have never seen it on TV. Like you, we are big Le Mans and ALMS fans. I got hooked on Le Mans back in the 60's when the GT40s were running. We followed the Camel GT for years, attending races in the late '70's up through the GTP races in the 80's & 90's. We have been to Sebring, Daytona, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Road Atlanta, etc. We still follow the ALMS, but don't attend as many races.

Every year we celebrate Le Mans week by watching the McQueen Le Mans movie, following Radio Le Mans on the internet, and watching/listening to the race. I have a Le Mans towel from 2001 when the C5-R's won the GT1 class, plus we have several other Le Mans memorabilia items. Sadly, we have never attended the actual race - but we're still fans.

 

My DVR recorded it, since it is set to record anything "Le Mans"

We're planning to attend the 24 Hours. Our target is 2011, depending on a lot of other factors. This year we will go to Sebring, Petit Le Mans, and the Brian Redman Historics at Road America.

Can't wait for Sebring. Rahal-Letterman is debuting the new M3 GTR (two cars) in the GT2 class.

 

Everyone ready for the holidays!!!!

 

Kechman8, the tags are great - thanks!!!!

 

Wow its been a long time since ive posted here. Glad to see all is well since i just caught up on a lot of what ive missed the past few months. My Luigi is doing great and i keep him very nicely cleaned and waxed with all the zaino products i ordered. I constantly get compliments on the car by people surprised by how spacious it is on the inside and on the shine as well Well glad to see all is well here and Happy Holidays to all. Ill be checking in a little more often for the next few weeks

 

Bemmerondubs, nice to see your in the house!! How's the mileage and any issues to discuss?

 

Mileage is around 4300 and no problems what so ever to report ... Occasionally ill get a rattle from the back but it is so infrequent that it really doesn’t bother me and I can’t complain about it . . . How has everyone else’s experience been?

 

Not even close to your mileage!!!!

I've had a couple of intermittent rattles/squeeks, but they seem to go away and are fairly rare. A couple were related to the seat belts and one to the sun/moonroof. The seat belt went away when I adjusted the height of the belt clip and the roof issue is intermittent. I may look into it myself if it starts to occur more often. Just from what I've briefly looked at it, a piece of double stick insulation tape at the cassette clips would probably cure the squeek. When it has occurred, I've put my hand on the cassette trim and the noise has gone away. I let my tire pressure slip into the low 30's and that had an increase in the occurance rate, and filling the tires seemed to reduce the rate.

Performance is great, but I'm still on the learning track!! I hadn't really driven a standard for decades so I'm still on the re-learning curve, but slowly the old skills are returning!! Anyone know any books on driving skills and techniques? I'm kinda curious as to what I don't know, I used to experiment more years ago, now I prefer to read it first and experiment later!!

 

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!! May this eve bring peace and joy to you and yours, MINIs too!!!

 

glad you like it! Enjoy!

 

Stay WARM, everyone!!

It's been in the high 30's mornings here in Northern California.... brrrr! I've been using the heated seats quite often!

Hope everyone enjoys a little time off to relax and be with family and friends.

Happy Holidays!

 

Merry Christmas to all Week 32ers and their families (and their MINIs). May this be a blessed day for all of us.

 

Hope everyone made it through the feasting!! The year is winding down, we just had a little 370 mile trip and Hilla performed perfectly. I had one close call with a driver coming onto the freeway. I changed to the right lane to give him a free lane and he continued to change into my lane instead of remaining in the left lane. I had to break, swerve and give him the horn to wake him up. He was sitting so low, his vision may have been impared, at any rate I was pleased how little movement kept us away from him!

 

Hola again!

Thought I'd share my current mileage... about 8,300. Yes. I want to see all your reactions! I always say I bought this car to DRIVE it! And we do! It's going skiing to Colorado in January, too. Also - check out my new wound:





Yes - BIG ROCK. Probably the size of a tennis ball and the diameter of the crack is a bit smaller than a tennis ball. I'm very glad it didn't bounce off the top, hood, or bumper. I'm getting all new glass on Friday, and the insurance authorized OEM glass based on the age of the car.

 

Ouch!!! Bad break on the window, glad it's being replaced!! You certainly do drive a bit!!! We're barely over 3,000!

Did you get that chip on the Metroplex Waco run?

 

No - we went to hubby's parent's house for the holidays (near Fredericksburg) and we got the chip on the trip back (via 67 through Alvarado/Midlothian). I drive it back and forth to work daily, it's been to the Fredericksburg area twice and Midland/Odessa area once. I've always racked up miles on my cars, it's really no biggie.

 

Fredericksburg's beautiful, that's probably some of the best places to go with a MINI. Just love the hill country!
Your daily commute sounds a lot longer than mine. It's been a while since I've been any where near the hill country, it's been really long since I've been to Midland/Odessa!
I'll have to get up pretty early in the morning to make a day trip out to Fredericksburg and Midland is just wayyy.... out there! We took the trip to Waco, and it was a nice run, our Houston group was a bit small only three MINIs! We'll have to do better next year!

 

Ug. My MINI is in a very sad state atm. It's covered in salt from the roads, but it's been so cold lately I don't want to bring it to the touchfree wash. Poor MINI. :(

 

I need to clean my car too, but mostly just from rain. I cleared it of salt previously.

Meanwhile, I ordered the JCW strut brace and the Challenge side stripes. Should have those both installed within a few weeks.

 

Yeah, I've been taking it to the wash every week or so, but we've had lots of snow/ice so far which means lots of salt. Seems like a day or two after it's clean, it's dirty again. Ugh.

 

Hello All,

Not much happening here. The Saturday after Christmas it was about 60 degrees here, so Phantom got a hand washing and Hydro drying. He's looked pretty good for a week now, but then I've driven very little, so he's mostly looked good in the garage. I expect that all to change this week, as rain, or worse, is in the forecast.

Oh, and I wish all the Week 32ers and their MINIs a Happy New Year!