Yay! I'm glad that Mr. Zip has a name. I just passed 3200 miles. I've driven back and forth from Austin twice and will be going a third time this week. My poor Bonnie is racking up the miles.

 

Just passed 3700 miles. Jiminni and I took a weekend trip to San Francisco and watched the Giants beat the Rockies. Beautiful weather. Wonderful game. Took some back roads home with some twisties. Fun weekend.

 

turned 1500 today! =)

 

Um, 5400.

 

Welcome back. Sounds like you have been enjoying Zippy

 

Oh, I haven't left. I just don't have anything interesting to say!

Brad

 

Sounds a lot like me!!!

 

If anyone is interested in seeing some really awesome photos of Minis with a jet, go to the link below. I know there are a lot, but some of them amazing! j.

http://gallery.me.com/john.suzie#100112

 

Ditto.

 

Very cool pictures - but only one Clubman in the group?

 

I know. 2 more were supposed to show up, but did not. The owner of this one signed up at the last possible moment and she is such a dear person. She is recovering from cancer and really loves her car. j.

 

[quote=bradw;but only one Clubman in the group? [/quote]

Actually, bradw, only the very coolest have Clubmans (Clubmen?) So you are part of a very select group of discerning individuals. We wish!

 

OK, for the Clubmen (and whoever else wants to watch it), I am sending you to a thread on NAM that shows a Clubman racing a go-cart. I think you will like it
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post2863910

 

That is a classic clip. Eat your words, snarky car show host guy!

Have you seen the Car and Driver article where three of the writers get their mothers-in-law to come out for two days of driver's training to see who would improve the most? It's pretty funny in itself but it caught my eye because they are driving...

CLUBMAN S's !!!

http://www.caranddriver.com/features..._drive-feature

The article is longish but entertaining.

In other news, this car has me behaving in very unusual ways. I just ordered this from the California DMV:

 

Sorry this is a long post!

Let me preface all of this by saying: I HATE it when drivers speed down the street that my neighborhood is on. The speed limit's 30 with double yellow lines, i.e. no passing, and it's nearly 100% residential. There are tons of young families around here and it makes me sick to think that one of these idiots could possibly hit a kid. Oh, and my neighborhood is just before a curve in the road so if someone's speeding then we can't see them until it's almost too late when we turn out of our neighborhood. Oh, the joys of suburban living.

So, I go 30. If someone gets right on my bumper when I'm going 30 I drop down to 28, then 27, and so on until they back off, or we reach my neighborhood, whichever happens first. This certainly does probably cause some road rage, but my feeling is this: I'm in a car, I'm well protected, I'd rather tick off another driver than risk a child getting hit by a car. Our local police department is lax in monitoring the road so people will regularly go 5-10+ over the speed limit. I've seen drivers going 45 on this street and that is scary.

Now the reason I feel so bad: On one of the back roads, the PD had set up a speed radar thingie to tell you how fast your going and remind you of the speed limit. I've been curious for a while as to whether, or not, my speedo is accurate. I honestly thought that I had been fortunate enough to get one that was actually accurate, but my dad's is 5 mph off so I wasn't certain. I was wrong, completely and utterly wrong. My car is 3 mph off. So when I was forcing those drivers to go 27? Yeah, I was actually making them go 24. No wonder they were ticked. I probably would be too. I just can't believe it. I feel like such a jerk. At least, I'm now aware of it

 

I hear what you're saying but I wouldn't beat myself up too much about slowing folks down a little.

Do you use your "main" speedometer or the one in your tach display? I find my main one is off from the tach display speedo.

The only theory I've been able to come up with is that the speedo is calibrated to read correctly from the right side (UK driver's seat) and that there's some parallax error as a result. I don't plan on taking the thing apart to recalibrate it but I suppose it could be done.

Brad

 

Thanks, confessing on this thread helped. I completely ignore the Center Speedo most of the time. I only use the digital tach display speed. The two speedo's always match each other so it's the car that's off. According to my dealership, most Mini's have some variation in speed and they cannot recalibrate it. There's an entire thread devoted to this issue. My dad's MCS is off by 5 mph. Apparently, by law in Europe, auto manufacturers will be heavily penalized if their speedo's reflect a speed that is slower than the actual speed so European cars will theoretically reflect a speed that is faster than what the car is actually going.

Oh, and I LOVED that article about the Mother in law's. I forwarded it to my parents and posted it on facebook.

 

Mr Zip: Love the license plate!

Lacynpiper: Good reason to get your blinky brake lights. Since I have had them installed, whenever someone gets on my a.. I tap the brakes and my blinky lights come on--it shocks them cuz they do not know what I am doing and and they back off.

 

Oooo, I love the idea! How difficult was it to install?

 

Jiminni took her to our Mini mechanic and it took him about 30 min. to install--some wire cutting and soldering. Not sure if you have someone there, but apparently it is getting quite popular to do for a lot of different cars, so you might call around. I doubt if a dealership would do it (anyone else heard if dealerships will do blinky light installs?) The cost should be approximately $50.

 

I would not recommend going to or even mentioning this to the dealer As there is cutting and splicing of the wires. Our mechanic solders and shrink wraps everything so I don't expect any problems

 

Lovely, so which kit did y'all buy?

 

First service issue - one of my "mood lights" is out! Props go to my son for noticing it, it's the one above the passenger seatbelt - in the "club door" on my model.

Guess I will be calling the dealer to see when I can bring Mr. Zip in for that little bit of maintenance. Hopefully it's just a burnt out LED module.

Brad

 

So far I have been lucky--no dealer issues. I am supposed to go to Sacramento for work in early October and I had planned on making a list and leaving the car at the dealership there while I work, but so far nothing on the list. No complaints whatsoever! Such a far cry from my last car, 13 visits to dealer in 11 months.......j.

 

Brad, do you drive around at night a lot?

So far, I haven't had any problems either. Bonnie is filthy but that'll have to wait until after my weekend trip to Austin. The boot is covered with dried dirt/dust from all of the rain we had and the bonnet is covered with the guts of bugs that have given their lives while I race up and down I-35. Ick!