I knew Tui was still there but it didn't have your wheels. But it just now dawned on me that you have your snow tires on it. Cool...

 

Wow! Beautiful beast! Congratulations, of course, and enjoy the ride- I know I am!

Jay

 

Guys
I don'T know why the photos look so small. I had a hard time uploading the photos. If you click on each photo they will view lager. I love the car so far,it is a blast.The HK is great, the car is getting the clear bra install now.All of the other week 40 cars look great as well.
Ron

 

I FINALLY brought my Mini hope from the dealer yesterday and promptly spent the entire day motoring! Drove her up Parley's Canyon to Park City and it was amazing! I'm in love! Pictures coming soon.

 

Congrats PhebeGirl, had my fingers crossed for you. Can't wait to see some pictures of Hope

 

I adjusted the main front shot of the car. Click on it to view lager.
Ron

 

Boy, nobody here anymore now that everyone has their cars. Any more pictures? Any stories or trips?

Fiona is in getting fitted for her first bra, getting some stripes installed and windows tinted. Will be picking her up tomorrow and will try to get more pictures. Stopped by at IDS (they're doing the work) and she is looking like the bad a** she is named for!!

Later.....

 

i m just getting used to the transmission. it is a smooth shifter indeed. I am not driving the car in sports mode. the standard form is just fine for my taste...
I will keep the car in stock form indefinitely. i am enjoying it very much so far...

 

Yup, I guess we're all happily driving these days... I keep telling my wife (who so far refuses to drive the MINI- afraid she'll get the first ding in it and I'll never speak to her again...but that's another story) that these things should be illegal- so much fun to drive.

Keep discovering little things that just make me smile- the way the interior lights ramp up. That if you hold the unlock button down on the remote the windows open to cool off the car. That my initial disappointment in not having a pause button on the ipod radio control is compensated for by just pushing the volume control (which is on/off, which I obviously didn't know).

And that the ipod response is nearly instantaneous. Unlike every other car I've owned which took a good 5-10 seconds to reload what was playing on the ipod, the MINI turns it on as soon as the key fob is inserted, and only has a millisecond blip/delay when starting the car. Just great. A little thing like that just makes my day.

And that I keep getting the sense that this is really a drivers car- active, not passive, and that I just love that. My very first car was an ancient 1966 MG Midget, and the MINI has that same spirit of actually driving a car. The only downside is that, just like my Midget, it seems to generate a nasty response from the drivers of big trucks (not semis- big Rams and F150's). They seem to enjoy getting too close, swerving at me, being overly aggressive, in short being jerks. But with the response of the MINI I'm feeling pretty good.

What a great car!

Jay

 

Fiona is home...




And the happy new owner



And her second mode of transportation...



Still looking for others pictures or any updated pictures!!!!

 

I took a little drive up to Julian to get some raw apple cider. For those familiar with San Diego..I took 15 to Poway then 67 to Ramona and Julian. When you pass 79 (Santa Ysabel) the road becomes extra curvy all the way to Julian. This is what these cars are made for. I am using Sport Mode only very occasionally. The car is pretty responsive as is...in Sport Mode I find myself driving just a little too aggressively. There were other cars on the road (and I am still in break-in)so I had to be cool. Coming back from Julian I encountered a car in front of me that wasn't going quite as fast as I wanted to go. SInce the extra curvy section was approaching and I knew I'd be trapped behind this car for the duration, I decided to pass at a passing section. Even staying under 4500 RPM this car is really quick. Make that really,really quick. Maybe I'm just used to our Scion Xa but I am blown away with the way this car responds.
Still no pictures...sorry.
BTW...The apple cider is delicious. The Julian Cider Mill may be the only place up there that still has raw cider.

 

So did you stop and get bread?? Or don't they sell bread at Santa Ysabel anymore? It's been a long time but I used to go and rock climb in the Julian area...a real long time!!! Santa Ysabel was always a stop for bread and pie. What a nice drive that would be...you and Jay have some great driving ahead of you. We need to wait until spring here and then we can go play in the mountains

 

I know what you mean about the bread and pie but I didn't see the bakery. I used to get cider at that place about 1½mi. before Julian...I think it was Farmer's something...they had a petting zoo. The property is there of course but it's a restaurant now. Julian looks pretty much the same...filled with tourists. There was a huge line to pay at the Julian Cider Mill but I seemed to be the only one buying cider. People were buying crappy candy and dried fruit...most of which was not made in Julian. The cider had been pressed that morning. It's killer.

My best friend lives in Grand Junction...he used to live in Eagle ... as a result I am very familiar with the area. Lots of curvy roads. We used to go to that giant hot springs pool in Glennwood Springs in the Winter. There is nothing more exciting than Route 6 through Glennwood Canyon at night when it's snowing and the road is icy (before they built I 70.)

 

Jere, I-70 is pretty ugly with whiteout conditions in December coming home from SoCal!! Told mom-in-law we would no longer be out in the winter after that drive. I envy you guys getting to drive just about year round there in the mountains. Fun to hear about some of my old stomping grounds!!!

 

I love driving I-70. Nothing like the Wasatch during a big storm. ;-) as long as I have a big rental car and plenty of Winter survival gear. Yeah...white-out...been there.... I've driven that road when it just rains...I mean RAINS. You had to stop because the wipers couldn't handle it. Luckily we were at the top of the Wasatch so the road didn't flood (too much). There used to be a 200+ mile stretch where there were no services at all. Nothing but empty Wasatch range. Really beautiful.

 

Well when I tool delivery there were black spots/dots on my Aero package and on the qtr pnls. I took delivery anyway and they said that they would need it for a day to "clay bar" the spots out. Well I dropped it off Monday in the morning. They put me in a Used 2006 S with no options and I was a little irritated that I was downgraded.

It was a good little car with about 34k on it and it drove like a champ. There were tons of rattles but I hear that is common in the 02-06's. It was quite peppy for the supercharged version. About 3K RPM it took off. I guess that the dif in lag between the turbo and SC are a bit dif.

So I get a call Mon night and was told they need it until Tues. Okay it guess it is more than they expected. So I wait.

Tues I get the call and my MA tells me worst case Fri and maybey Wed.

Wed I get the call, "come get her".

They had to repaint the whole Aero kit and part of each quarter. It looks good. For my inconvenince they said that they will order the sport stripes for me for free and put them on.

I guess it is better than nothing.

Once I get the stripes I will post a Before and After shot.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Eurokoke - wonder what was on it that required painting? As long as it is looking good now. Will be looking forward to seeing it with its stripes!!

 

My car got re-named. Coop-aloop.

It's now got 1000 miles on it. 11 hours of convertible time and we are loving it.

Unfortunately, someone decided it looked too nice and put a door ding in the passenger door. No scratch or chipped paint, just a dent. Hopefully we can get it PDR'd.

I will tell you that it took a while to get used to that 6 speed gear box. But now it's old hat.

What an awesome car!

 

Well, Fellow Week 40ers, I didn't get my car until Nov 20th, which is a long time for it to be at the VDC. I suspect that it was the driving lights. Here is a (bad) photo from my BlackBerry when I took delivery. The first thing I changed was to paint the brake calipers red. Much better now. I love the car, it goes very fast and I just drove it over the mountain road between San Diego and Palm Springs. I could hardly stop it charging forward. It was taking 25mph bends at 55 with no problems. I've driven a Porsche Boxster over the same road and I feel that the MINI handled it better. Things I don't love:

There is a slight hesitation when accelerating from a dead stop (Steptronic Auto with paddle shifters) in Regular auto mode.

The iPod integration is totally clumsy. You have to plug it into this stiff, double cable and your iPod half hangs on the cable and flops around in that front center console and bangs on the hard plastic. Very cheesy and messy looking. If anyone knows of a better location or modification, let me know. I do have the smart phone integration in the center armrest. Does anyone know if an iPod touch can go in there and still have the music controlled by the stereo. If that's the case, it might be worth upgrading to a Touch.

I love my wheels. I had the dealer order them from a convertible.

~Patrick

 

I don't have my car yet, but already know I won't want to wrestle with the iPod integration. I've already loaded up a 16gb USB stick with all my music, straight out of my iTunes library in mp4/256k format. Hopefully it will index quickly enough and be easily navigable.

 

Patrick - looking good

I know what you mean about the setup for the iPod. I did my 3g and didn't care for the setup. Like Kevin, I am going to load up a USB flash for my music. Blue tooth on the phone works great so it doesn't need to be hooked up to the cable for that.

 

That really sucks ...can probably be fixed easily if no crease or chip but I hate that...new car and already somebody does that. Some people have no respect. Reason one why we park out in the middle of nowhere and walk.

 

I've been quiet myself lately. Everyones cars look awesome! Glad to see us week 40-ers are happily motoring!

I just hit the 1000 mark today and I'm averaging 32.2 MPG. I've been taking several trips to Denver though.

I also got my TPMS sensors installed in my snow tire wheels today so the annoying TPmS warning light is finally off!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Oh that is one beautiful automobile! Love the color with the black wheels–just scary cool.

You must be having a great time with her!

Jay

 

Great ride! I motored up Palomar Mountain at 7:00 on Thanksgiving AM, and had a great little trip. Got to experience the "snowflake" warning when the temp dipped to 34. I took a few pix which I'll (finally!) post momentarily. I'll have to take the trek to Dudley's/Julian in the next few days to explore the area with a new vantage point (from the seat of a MINI).

Such fun! Like Jere, trying hard to stay under 4500 RPM's. She just wants to go!

Jay