One of my favorite Mini memories is from the 2005 Rolex 24hr race weekend. On the Thursday and/or Friday before the big race, the other, less popular classes run a multi-hour race. At the end of lap 1, there is a long line of cars coming into Turn 1 and it appeared one of them was quite a bit louder than the rest but since the field was bunched up I was unable to determine just which car was so dang loud. Over the next two laps, the field spread out enough that I determined the loudest car by far was also the smallest car on the track! I don't remember if there was two or four Minis running that race, but it sure was fun watching them scream around the track. No matter which turn I was watching from, I could tell where they were on the track. After that weekend, I promised myself I was going to get one of those scrappy underdog little cars. It only took 13 years to fulfill that promise.

In Dec 2018, I was looking at one of the formally-print-but-now-online car classifieds and came across a 2013 JCW Hardtop with minimal options, grey paint and a red roof. Two days later, I was driving my new Mini home from Atlanta. For slightly more than one year, every preconceived notion I had about the Mini was confirmed. These cars should be outlawed because having that much fun MUST be wrong.

I bought this car to act as a daily driver because I thought I was putting too many miles on my 2017 GT350. Frankly, the Mini is more fun! I have begun the process of outfitting the Mini for use during track days down at Sebring, so I am hoping to gather some data from this forum as to what I need to do in order to have a Mini that is track capable and track reliable.