Not that way TODAY, convertible weather??

 

It's darn cold today! But still sunny and clear. With the windows up, heater cranked and SEAT WARMERS on high, it could still be convertible weather!

 

I took my Cooper on a road trip this past weekend to Toronto.

I'm at 2800 miles on my odometer in three weeks. How are everyone else's travels?

 

Helmut has around 1750 miles after 3 weeks. Went from Houston to Dallas and beyond on a mtb adventure last weekend. Today I am driving a loaner Z4 roadster while my M3 is in the shop. Had the top down, heater and seat warmers on last night on a 53 degree ride. Tomorrow the MINI goes in to have its stress cracked windshield replaced. Hopefully that will go well.

 

560 miles, mostly back and forth from home to work. All is not lost though, there was one night me and a friend took the MINI up to Malibu and carved around up there for a while. Hopefully this weekend I'll get out on Sunday and get some driving in and some new photos.

 

I'm at 750 miles -- about half of those on twisty mountain roads learning how the car handles. When pushed it definitely understeers, and therefore a rear sway bar is in order as soon the new Webb Motorsports product is available. The all-season run flats also suck in the snow, so despite the cost I am thinking about ditching them for dedicated performance snow tires (non run flat!).

In mid-Dec I'll be adding about 3000 miles in about a week when I drive from Colorado to Monterey for the Phil Wicks Laguna Seca event! DiD you heading up to that?

As for performance upgrades, I visited Randy and Brian at WMS yesterday evening for an M7 pulley, Alta intake, Nology wires (silver), and Denso plugs. I hit Lookout Mountain on the way home...and Zephyr is definitely putting out a few more ponies and ft/lbs to the wheels! The Alta intake noticably increases supercharger whine and intake noise under throttle, but I like to hear the mechanics of the engine in action.

My 16x7 Team Dynamics Pro Race 2 wheels also showed up at WMS, and they are beautiful and light (with an added bonus of a painted black surface on the interior of the rim to minimize how much brake dust shows). With some Falken Azenis RT-615 tires on the wheels (to be mounted in the next couple of days), brake pads and fluid, and a rear sway bar, I will be ready to go for Laguna!

I will try to borrow a digital camera the next time I roll there to post some pics of the new parts...

 

I wish, but no I'll be right here in SoCal.

 

Come on up! Randy and Brian will be there...and it should be a fun event. Plus how can you pass up the opportunity to take a photo of your beautiful new Mini on the corkscrew?! (in addition to some race shots of the first all-Mini race in the US)

 

I *might* actually pick up my car tonight... haha

 

At last! I picked Roxy up from the dealer on Wednesday, and we've been having a fabulous time bonding since then. She is such a head-turner--I parked her on the street in front of a restaurant yesterday and sat on the patio about 20 feet away. People walking by couldn't help stopping to look at her!

I'm headed for the mountains this afternoon for a little motoring adventure...in the snow!

 

Congrats Holly - hope you had a good trip up to the montanas! Make sure you join Mini5280, a great local Mini club that has lots of fun events. They welcomed me before I even had a Mini (I had a "counterfeit" with a '98 VW GTI VR6) -- and the Yalla Yalla rally a couple months ago was a blast! BTW you should also check out Webb Motorsports for any upgrades / tuning you plan to do. They are one of the premier Mini tuners in the country, and are right here in Denver (tell 'em Micah sent you).

One word about the all season run flats that come standard on our cars -- they suck in the snow. If you are heading up to mountains frequently over the winter, I would recommend a good performance winter tire like the Dunlop Wintersport M3.

 

Finally finished breaking in my MINI last week - woo hoo! I'm now at 1400 miles and I've had the car exactly one month. Now I've got to get some snow tires on so I can keep driving the MINI as it looks like winter has arrived already in NY.

 

Well, finally got her home. Nothing like putting 800 miles towards break-in on the way home!

I got a special paint job--road salt white fade into space blue...

 

Thanks for the connections; I will definitiley join Mini5280--it sounds like a blast!

I was concerned about winter driving and Vince hooked me up with an extreme contact winter tire for Roxy's "galoshes." I'm embarassed to say I don't know exactly what kind they are--I will check and report back.

I drove Lookout Mountain and around Red Rocks yesterday, and plowed through some snowy parking lots--they were fantastic and the car handled great! I can't wait to drive Lookout Mountain again when I know there are no icy patches to watch out for! Whee!

 

It seems like everyone I know that has a MINI made a beeline for Lookout Mountain. I was guilty of that too, but it was June (2002) when I took a MINI up there for the first time.

 

It's taylor made for a Mini with its narrow roads and tight corners with varying radii

BTW I always stay between the yellow and white lines, unless passing a cyclist -- you get to turn more that way, and being a cyclist/motorcyclist myself, I think it's totally irresponsible when drivers treat a public road like a race track and use both lanes of the road to set up for or take a corner. It's a good way to kill a person riding a two-wheeled machine.

 

I got SUV'ed last night on my drive home from work -- funny how overconfident SUV drivers think they can stop on a dime in snowy, icy conditions...

Looks like at least $2000 worth of damage to my left rear quarter panel and bumper -- and now my car is going to look like crap at the Laguna Seca event next week

 

Well folks I got my car on Tuesday 12/13/05. It's just great having the car just the way I wanted. Believe it or not it was worth the extra wait. I've bonded with my MCS & I'm in the proscess of putting break in miles on. Boy am I a happy camper. Lets motor.

Chuck

 

I really like that photo! Congrats!

 

great to see the last of the week 40'ers finally has a MINI.

 

Aw shucks,thanks guys. I really do appreciate all of you folks on this board helping me through the long wait. THANKS!!!

I really like that photo! Congrats!

Thanks for the compliment Short Bus. The picture was taken with my Nikon D2H & my new 85 f1.8 lens.

Chuck

 

Perfect for MINI portraiture

 

Anteken,

Just a note to say our HB/W MCS now has over 2800 miles on it and trying to get the keys from my wife is like pulling teeth! That's ok though, I get the R32 most of the time.

Great cars both.

Cheers

 

Here is an update on some of Zephyr's recent adventures.

Over 5K miles and counting...

Anyone else from week 40 been to the track? If so please add your story to the above thread. Thanks!

 

Wow. That is truly amazing. Dave, you're an artist!