North American Motoring - New member: Okay, I'm hooked...

Hello to all!!! New member here...

Looking forward to many exciting adventures in my newly purchased Mini. I was looking for a small car for commuting and for in-town trips, since it can be difficult parking my Dodge Ram 1500 in those #$%& tiny parking spaces. I stumbled across the Mini as it was within my price range and after the first test-drive I was hooked! So, long story short, I bought a 2007 CPO Mini Cooper S Convertible in Chili Red with black bonnet stripes...

I't's been a fun three weeks getting used to driving a 6-speed again, since I've had nothing but automatics in the last ten years. Quite a difference from the Dodge 4x4! It's been cold and rainy since my purchase, so the fun-factor hadn't reached it's full potential, but I was still enjoying it.

We finally got some decent weather here in the Bay Area over the President's Day Holiday, so Monday was my first real motoring outing. I did the San Jose to Livermore stretch via the Lick Observatory off Hwy 130, then home via Mines Road. Had an amazing drive!

Not a soul on the road and it was heaven being able to drop the top and open that baby up to take those corners at speed. I managed to mount my HD video camera on the dashboard so I was able to capture the second part of the drive in one uncut session lasting 56 minutes. The soundtrack was provided by my Mini's factory-HK system which actually sounds pretty darn good on the video!

As soon as I get it converted, I'll post it to YouTube for you to enjoy. Again, it's great to be here and thanks to all for the volumes of information posted on this site. I'm now saving up for all the mods I want to make!

Adios,
Quillicus