I picked my MINI up from the dealer today! Awesome fun.

I drove down the River Road from Baton Rouge to Donaldsonville. A little bit of curviness. It was cool seeing the old Plantations, the sugar cane fields, and the sugar cane refineries.

I did get pulled over for not having an inspection sticker...only 10 minutes out of the dealer! It's a MINI not an F22, officer. I haven't made it to my home Parish 80 miles away to get one. No ticket.

 

I'll save the chit-chat for later.

I'm proud to FINALLY introduce my Sriracha:

We don't have full-on glossy posed studio stills, but here are a couple of candid shots from the dealer! I was able to get the 2.9% financing, so the extra wait worked out perfectly, and major kudos to Richey Shaffer for just being all around awesome to work with, especially with the bits of comic strangeness that happened during this crazy Week 40 production.

 

Sweeeet .......pictures please!!!!

 

Congratulations, Sriacha is really sweet looking....but it also looks like you've already lost it

And cool on the %!!!

Meanwhile

 

Nope, that's me in there! Surprise!

I already had him all the way down I-65 and all the way back home before I gave my boyfriend the chance to drive him, and even then I was itching to get my hands back on the wheel. Now I keep walking out to look at him every few minutes or so, no joke! I just can't believe he's finally here! I love this little car, and it's only just begun!

 

This thread has been like a soap opera. Way to go clockwork and I never saw the ending coming. Your story had all the elements of a blockbuster! Congrats and good luck. Good things do come to all those made to wait. Well at least in this instance.
Nice that all you still waiting will be rewarded with an additional 1% decrease on financing. Would I have been willing to wait another week for a 1% drop in the rate? Tough call, but I don't think so. It has been so cool driving that car for the last 6 days.
By the way - the HK sounds fantastic. I also love the steering wheel controls.
Tommy

 

Paint me Thought you had taken the pictures So let me continue being stupid...does clockworktomato have anything to do with being a redhead??

 

Just looked up WW's schedule...Don Carlos' scheduled arrival at Port Hueneme has been moved back to the 11th again It did take them awhile to get through the canal....

 

ClockworkTomato is out crusing. Fantastic.
I'm guessing the Red Hair has something to do with the tomato name.

What an awesome car!

My MA is making a bold prediction that my MINI will be in tomorrow. I was shocked at the 2.9% rate.

I've spent the last 6 hours completing the installation of our garage door opener. What a pain. But it's all set and ready for "Napoleon" Small car big attitude.

Congrats again Clockwork...Everyone else...hang in there...our day is coming.

 

Hey Johnny, that's cool. Getting closer!!! Don't forget to take the camera with you when it is time to pickup Napoleon

 

Does it come with all JCW's?

 

Congratulations clockworktomato!!! Glad you and your baby have been united!!

So...OL just updated my status as an estimated delivery of 11/9/09. What does this mean?!?! It's a Monday. I'm freaking out. Is there a possibility I could get my car before then? I was hoping to have my car this weekend, but OK, a couple days later won't kill me. I'll just call in sick!

 

So...I thought you sounded pretty reasonable. I'm a native San Diegan.
I'm typing this from beautiful Bay Park (1½ blks. from the Costco on Morena Blvd.) I used to live in Mount La Jolla (house just sold so I get a Mini!!!)

What did you do for SDG&E? I'm guessing public relations of some sort (because you have the most pleasant forum manners and responses I have ever seen in almost 20 years on the internet.)

I've got an SDG&E related question for you. As you know, SDG&E publishes a schedule of which areas (circuits?) will be blacked out and in what order in the event power use has to be restricted. You can go to the web page and find your area and see where it is the the rotation. I have examined the schedule and found that Mt. Soledad and Bay Park do not seem to ever be included in the black out rotation. Putting aside possible jokes about not wanting to inconvenience the rich people in LJ, why would they leave these two areas out of the rotation?

 

Well that sucks! However it does confirm the timing for my car sort of. My car is supposed to be at Long Beach Mini next Monday or Tuesday. Maybe they are on the same truck traveling south down the state. I just check the OL and it has 11-08-09 as the delivery date,but my MA tells me they don't deliver on Sunday, so Monday or Tuesday it is.
Ron

 

Not a bit stupid! I picked up the nickname in college when I was just trying to change one of my handle on Instant Messenger. I was frustrated because my common last name meant that every sensible combination of first initial, last name, etc., was taken. I was on a huge "Clockwork Orange" kick at the time and just said "Fine, I'll use that with a different fruit" and just randomly picked tomato. But the nickname actually really stuck, probably with at least some thanks to the red hair, so I've kept using it since!

 

Thanks!!!

That was a custom order from licenseplates.tv I highly, highly, highly recommend them for any of you who would like custom plates. I ordered mine and had it *two* days later.

They can do international and domestic custom plates of all types and the quality is great. I'm very pleased with it!

 

Thank you so, so much! We've both been waiting on this for so long, but it's just made it that much sweeter now that Sriracha's finally here. I hope the same is true for you and Napoleon!

And just for the added assurance: We absolutely made the right decision to wait for the H/K. ABSOLUTELY worth it. The stereo is truly amazing. My MA was telling me about a customer who had spent over $3k having a custom stereo installed in his car and who, in my MA's words, "just wasted that money because the H/K is far superior to what he had."

I didn't hear the old hi-fi system, so I don't have that basis of comparison to make, but I don't think any of you getting this one will be disappointed.

 

THANKS! for commenting on the H/K system! I've been waiting to hear someone who's actually gotten their ears on it to comment. Now I'm even more antsy!

And Sriracha looks amazing! Congrats!

Jay

 

Come on truck driver, keep on truckin. You've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

Waiting for that call from my MA. I think I'm starting to feel sick here at work....(know what I mean?) I might have to go home early today.

 

Clockwork,

How fast does Sriracha go?

 

Well, I gotta confess, I haven't punched him up to his quoted top speed of 147 yet, but he tricked me and got to 95 before I even realized I'd hit 60. And despite how gigantic that speedo is, it's easy not to notice it.

I was telling my boyfriend today that Sriracha hates second gear. I'll pull away from a stop light, shift into second, barely feather the gas and Sriracha's already growling for me to punch it through the gearbox. The amount of pure pickup and pep this little guy has is extraordinary -- and is something I'm going to have to watch with the THP and Nashville PD around!

Also, I shoud note this here: I asked my MA about the break-in period and he actually told me *not* to baby the car -- especially a JCW -- too much in those first "break in" miles. Obviously I don't need to be redlining it at 6k, but the way he explained it to me is that the car's engine management, electronic throttle, etc., (I may be misquoting the specific system(s)) is a learning system that learns the driver's habits during the first 1,000 miles. So he said if you baby the car, then it adapts to those comfortable, smooth, easygoing driving habits and can result in a more sluggish response and a loss of 8 to 12 HP. This wouldn't be as big of a deal for a MC, and it tends to affect the response of the automatic transmissions more since they're, well, automatic. But as he said, when you're getting the JCW you're paying for that HP, and you want every bit of HP you can get, so the car needs to respond to how you want to drive it, not how you think it should drive during the break-in.

So he emphasized -- drive the car like YOU want to drive it. If you want to baby it, hey, go for it, but if I wanted a car to baby, I shouldn't have gotten a JCW.

 

Congratulations-What a Beauty-Have Fun Motoring- Cactusklaw

 

Thank you, The plate really goes well with your car, Happy Motoring!

 

Ron, don't use my dates as an estimate for your delivery in SoCal. I travel a lot, so I bought my car in Sacramento, not San Diego where I live. My date is for the truck to get up to Sac, so yours may be a touch earlier.

 

So my MA said that my car is scheduled to leave CA on 11/06. Now I'm sad. I guess I'll just be waiting patiently some more. Hmmmm, I feel like I'm coming down with something next week and won't be able to go to work. Cough cough.