The Pittstop Mini group had such a blast the whole weekend and finished it off with the Monte Carlo Night. Thanks, Steve, Pam and everyone who worked so hard.

But........ then I tried to run the Midnight on the Dragon. I miss the send off at Fontana, no problem, I should be able to catch them at the start of the Dragon. What happens when a deer jumps out right in front of a Mini around midnight? BANG! The people were ok, the Mini had pretty minimal damage, but the deer was not so lucky. Thanks for the Minis that stopped to help. Hey, this could of happened back home. The Mini is heading to the body shop: new headlight, fender flairs, door and handle, fix the hood and rocker and paint.

Still a great event.

 

Ha, I have thought about that, but I don't really want to take a loss on it

 

Had no problems whatsoever. My MINI ran like a champ! It was my first long road trip (825 miles one way) since I bought it a year ago and wouldn't think twice about taking another long trip. Very comfortable ride. Looking forward to putting on the rear sway I won from ALTA. Bought the front black areo grill (upper and lower). And picked up a few other goodies to keep my MINI clean.

Oh! I was booked early on at the Philips Hotel in Robbinsville. Checked out after one night due to unliveable conditions. (That is a post on its own!) MUCH thanks to Mac at Fontana for looking out for us on a open room. Stayed at Fontana Friday and Saturday.

Looking forward to next year and to see all the new friends we made once again. It was nice to put some faces to the names here on NAM.

 

Car dumped all the oil on the way in. Fortunatly I saw the oil pressure light right away and stopped soon enough to prevent any damage. Chad towed me back and helped save the weekend. Thanks!

 

Well I cracked my front bumper and put a hole in my radiator( went of the road on the dragon and hit a dirt hill and a nice big rock)
but thanks to my friends and grassroots garage I made it home
I need to find a new bumper and grassroots garage is taking care of the radiator and the housing for it
Im' lucky I didin't lose my life

 

Got myself a 15% pulley from Chad at Detroit Tuned (thanks, brother!), which made for a really fun drive home. Amazingly didn't even see any troopers shooting the northbound lanes on 81, so I got pretty lucky.

 

I feel your pain. What did the wife say when you got home.

 

I went of the road too on my first day, my front bumper is broken, fog light loose, all the black moldings scratch, driver side mirrow scratch and driver side tire scrath. I was lucky I landed on mud and leaves on the left side of the road, I could have gone right and end up at the bottom of the mountain. Thanks to 2 bikers and the other Mini that stopped and pushed me out of the ditch.

 

She was just happy I didn't get hurt
But she's getting tired of the modding and I need to fix this and do this to the car stuff
I need to cool it for a month or two

 

So Soulfire is now safely in the shop at MINI of Towson (thanks Phillipe!!) He just laughed at the list (7 or 8 things I think it came out to) So we shall see how long SF is in the shop. but I do have a nice BRG to drive at least.

Oh NO!! I guess hanging out with Soulfire rubbed off on your baby! I hope everything is ok!

Make SURE you take it in to the dealer...we had a leak (drains clogged up) and it all MOLDED!!! It is warrantied, get it all replaced (we had to get the headliner, the ENTIRE carpet, the body computer, the sunroof gasket and the sunshade replaced)

So glad to hear no one was hurt! Lucky it wasn't a bear!!!

 

well, my brake light lit up on the trip down but was able to get a complete set of brakes-calipers/rotors/pads at a great price from the used parts table at Way Motor Works. Thanks Way, and Thanks EDGE Also had a TSW damper put on by Dan @ Grassroots Garage

 

yeah what he said ^^^

 

oops

 

Oh no But I am glad you made it home ok

I too had the DDM Works CAI installed on my Cooper. Got close to 38-40 mpg on the way home Plus Sunnie sounds quite lusty, thank you

Took a little rubber off the tires but that's a good thing since I'm looking for some new performance tires to put on Sunnie.

She also got a few new stickers

Lois

 

Mine got really, really dirty.

And there's this strange looking pucker in the middle of the passenger seat that wasn't there before. I have no idea how that happened.

 

Well, I am so glad that I wasn't the only one who had something go wrong....The list of things they are replacing at the dealer is rather funny...and long! Good thing I have 5K left on that warranty!

 

Did you forget the gift from the North Carolina State Police that we got heading home from the 1st Annual Heinzelmaennchen Microbrewery run? Or your new boot protector?

Rules to live by- Never... Never let a guy who chose a supervillain for a username lead.

 

Dan told us of your "adventure". He thought it would make it back to Queens and it looked like he was right. He is a great mechanic and we are lucky to have him in our club.

I have nicknamed him "Capt. KirK" as when we drive he is the last car in line with his BMW 3 series ("the Mother Ship")

 

WOW, sorry to hear about all the hard luck folks had
We personally avoided at least 2 tickets because the cops had already pulled cars over ahead of us.
As for DB's first Dragon experience, she got IE Fixed Camber Plates installed by Waylen (THANKS Way) and will soon have a set of TSW Sport Springs installed as well (Thanks again to TSW and the whole crew @ MINI Monte Carlo Night )

 

He's a great guy
I just got off the phone with him he will be shipping out my parts out soon
he did me a great service

 

1. Car overheated on way down. (Blown radiator fan fuse.)
2. Large screw went through a new F1
3. Dropped a wheel off the edge of the road and broke a wheel.
4. Engine SES light stayed on most of the way home.
Chad at Detroit Tuned help me out with 1 thru 3 and will be addressing #4, as well. Thanks, Chad.
Feel a little bit better reading here that I wasn't the only one.

 

I agree don't follow the Professor....BTW made it home in 11 1/2 hrs compared to 16 hr GPS nightmare drive down. Anyone want to buy a Garmin GPS?

 

All's well thanks to Rich from Custom MINI Shop (and Patrick MINI) who I met at MOTD I called this morning and I was able to drop off my MCC for work. I went to the mall with Lori and Peter from CMMC since they had work done as well, ate lunch and my MINI was done. They replaced the steering pump and performed Inspection 1. Good as new

 

Well.... 3/4 of the trip to MOTD, I had the SES light on, exhaust blaring and power seemed weak.... mysteriously, as soon as I hit the Dragon, the light went off, exhaust quieted down, power came back and I had a blast on my initial run to Fontana.

Next day, SES light still on and drivers window gets stuck in DOWN!! position and it starts raining MANY THANKS to Dan from Grassroots Garage for running over and pulling my door panel off to fix the window just before the big downpour.

SES light stayed on most of way home, again with exhaust blaring, this time, power was fine.

During all this, I did manage to get an Alta 22mm swaybar (Thanks Soulfire!) and take second place in the Lucky Dog dyno challenge

 

I took it as a compliment that a state official was so impressed by our MINIs that he actually extended a personal invitation to all of us to come back in July to visit him again.

Note to everyone driving east of Fontana: Once the twisties go away and the road widens to 4 lanes, you may notice that the speed limit tends to fluctuate frequently for no apparent reason. We believe it's part of a Meet and Greet PR campaign hosted by the NC State Troopers and their Crown Vic Car Club.

I didn't forget about the new lacey,silky boot protectors, I was just embarrassed to mention them because they make me feel all funny "down there", like when climbing the rope in gym class. When we're back there in July, we're going to see if they sell the crotchless variety so we can use them as bonnet protectors without clogging the scoop.

I should have known you were a supervillian when you told the cops over the radio that "we were not the droids they were looking for" and "the Audis are the ones you seek"

I forgot about the other damage that happened to Blooper this weekend; I rubbed the hell out of my rear fender liners hitting all those twisties with the hatch loaded down with 3 cases of beer, a cooler full of growlers, 2 lawn chairs, a stepstool so the little people could see Bloop the Dragon on the roof, and 1 ginormous pair of high speed granny panties

The H-Sport springs and fixed camber plates that Way put on a couple of weeks ago kept the car nailed to the road. I knew I needed spacers in the rear until the 205/45/16s are put on, but time and the Dragon wait for no man.