Wow, I would have to say the Dragon bit back HARD this year. Makes me want to bring our Element next year as a parts truck.

• Extra power steering pumps
• Fuses
• Driver/Passenger window motors
• Wet/Dry vac
• Assorted exterior parts

Maybe the vendor person can get a MINI dealership to MOTD next year and do warranty work there.

 

My convertible top quit working this morning Does that count? It could be a delayed reaction from the dragon

 

I had the fuses and the wet/dry vac with me.

 

Luckily the only thing Kieran got was a tribal graphic on the bonnet

 

TrickyFish and I each got 15% pulleys, she got a carbon fiber M7 wing, and we got assorted other goodies. Had a couple great runs through the Dragon Sunday evening and made it the whole time with no tickets. All in all a great vacation.

 

Wow, sad to say but I think you hit the deer I was going to make a post about that Me, MINI Lee, and two other MINI's narrowly missed.

After the Drive IN I was headed up to the Dragon from Fontana and caught up to a Red MINI with MINI Lee right behind him. After a few minutes one more MINI pulled up behind me, so the four of us were just enjoying the night time run up to Deals gap. Suddenly around on of the hairpins I hear a tire screech from the lead car but can't see him around the turn (probably slide sideways under sudden braking since ABS would rule out brake lock up). MINI Lee jumps on the brakes in front of me and we all barely avoid running into each other.

When we get back moving I see that the lead car must have just barely missed hitting a small dear that is now galloping along the side of the road next to us as we try to slowly get past it. Lead car gets past and now MINI Lee tries to pass the deer but you know deer..........

Deer jumps DIRECTLY in front of MINI Lee, he slams on his brakes and then with all my windows and sunroof open i hear THIS (<<< Clicky) echo through the darkness.

Luckily we see the deer skamper up the hill unphased and me and my wife bust out into laughter. Definitely made our entire weekend.

Shame it sounds like the Deer didn't make it through the same stunt the next night....

 

Ohh BTW, after last years mess I surpisingly made it through pretty well this year. Only thing i lost were two Rota wheel caps which I'll have to order tomorrow.

Funny hearing about so many people loosing Power steering this year. Last year i lost my power steering on my first run back down the Dragon but it only lasted about 5 minutes mid way through the run and came back. I haven't had a problem with it since!

 

-cd player stopped working.
-paint on my aero kit is chipped... dont know when that happend
-got harassed by police but no ticket

 

First trip over and back on the Dragon the radiator fan goes into high speed and doesn't stop. Like 15 minutes non-stop so I pulled the fuse. Chad took a look at it but his do-dad couldn't access the computer which worried me even more. So, each time we went somewhere I had to place and remove the fuse. Next day we did the parade and on the other side it is working right again and still is. Seems the Dragon can actually fix a few things. Since returning the fan seems to operate more but closely to what everyone says it should do so maybe it just got woken up.

All else was fine other than the bugs and the bugs, bugs, and more bugs.

We did 1,700 miles of driving last week and I got pulled over in New Philidelphia O-H-I-O 30 minutes from home. Says the "plane" observed me trailing at the end of our caravan too closely. I got a seminar on assured clear distance and a warning. I haven't been stopped in 30-years but I wasn't given any kind of award or anything. :-(

 

hay custom cv!
I took all of your $$$ at poker. Who gave you that winning ticket?
cant wait for poker on the dragon.

 

Well.... I had a incredible time of course.. but now I have a broken sterring colum I had to have new front pads put on after the first day (thanks waylen) and of course the tires are completly rounded off bald now... and a wonderful dash rattle that would make one go crazy.... but other than that it was great!!!

 

My MINI (Honey) got some sort of foriegn accent... I think it was Russian!

We also had lots of fun, met some new friends & got some new decals.
On the way up we met the Tennessee Highway Patrol for a not so friendly lecture and good old fashioned butt chewing- no tickets though & I'm saving the mods until after warranty runs out in about 5000 miles.

 

WOW I really didn't know just how many people had some difficulty this year! And such weird things too! Strange....Must have been that wild mountain honey....

And we get a call this morning from the dealer...we now need two new tires!!! Guess Jay was REALLY pushing it when we broke everything!! Thought we would get at least a year out of the runcraps...but new soles it will be for Soulfire!

 

On the way to the Dragon, still in Virginia, gas gauge read one needle below a quarter of a tank and the motor shut off. Quick call to AAA and the kind man added 2 gal of gas to the MINI and we were back on the road. The fill up only took another 9 gals....... so 9 + 2 = 11.... I wasn't out of gas but the motor thought we were.

 

I clipped a dog on the way out Sunday morning. I swerved to avoid running over him as he ran out into the road so he just bounced off my passenger door. He was okay and my only damage was dog snot on the door.

 

I got 70 in 55 Wasn't even trying to break the law...just as well give thanks for not being caught 10 minutes earlier when I was somewhere north or 3 digits...

 

Unintended Rhinoplasty of my wifes 06! A nice chunk of tire rubber was kicked up and took off the hood scoop.

Anyone have a CR hood scoop sitting in their garage?

 

We picked up this sign for the MINI port

Mark

 

Well,for the seecond year in a row,my '74 Mini broke down on the way to the Dragon. Last year it was as simple as replacing the alternator that locked up,but I was able to at least drive 700 miles on or near the Dragon before heading home. This year the problem wasn't so easy to repair. I think the gearbox is trashed. I wouldn't dare drive it any further once I heard a terrible grinding noise. I did get to spend an unscheduled night in Locust Grove, Georgia. I trailered myself back to Tampa on Wednesday evening. Next year,I plan to get the mini there some other way and I'll have some serious miles to make up for. I am all for the MOTD '08 to be a 4 day event. At least I have my MOTD 07 t-shirt and goody bag. I would like to see some videos from this year. Thanks, Phil

 

I lost power steering on Thursday morning & went into Greenville, SC to get repaired @ Century Mini.

New PS pump / fan & back to MOTD in time for Thursday PM welcoming dinner.

 

MINI Papa and I only got to ride the Dragon ONE time! Bummer. There's just too much stuff to do and we didn't have time, then it rained. Oh, I won a stubby from Craven Speed and bought hot wires, a MINI Fini Sport Link with trailer hitch, some new "eyes" from StoopidGirl, some wheel caps from Aesthetic Creations, and a freakin' traffic ticket from the idiot forest ranger at the Dam the day of the group photo shoot. I told him it would have been very helpful if he had some freakin' signs posted telling people not to park in areas they didn't want people to park. He was a real jerk.

On another note, where can I find a chrome dragon stick on? Are they on tailofthedragon.com? I love those!

 

Well, I picked SoulFire back up from the hospital today. Here is the list of what they replaced:

New Coolant Tank (large leak)
New Oil Pan Gasket (small leak)
New Flywheel
New Clutch ---> Both Flywheel/clutch were for the EEERT sound when moving
New Power Steering Motor/fan (broke on Mile 7...thanks to my husband!)
New throttle body bracket (was missing somehow)
New passenger side engine mount (don't know where that came from)
New bypass valve

So I now have more power and a new car!

 

My MINI stayed at home in the garage while I was at MOTD. BUT, my SO kindly washed her and tucked her back in before I returned.

 

Well, Sir Alfred's body damage is due to my own stupidity. I went through the auto car wash in Robbinsville!

I know, I know, I know, I know....or at least if I didn't know I know now!

This is not just normal car wash damage. This is scratches on everything on the exterior of the car. At first we (meaning everyone around the car wash area on Friday) just noticed the damage on the paint. OctainGuy had it all day long buffing and doing his thing. It looked great...but with the rain on Saturday they all came back...even he thought it was very strange.

Stopped by the wash on the way back to Atlanta on Sunday. It was closed but took pics of the lack of liability waiver. Also, stopped in at Sweetwater BBQ next store to get the name of the owner of the wash.

Went to Magnum here in Atlanta as they are the best body/paint place in town. They noticed that the scratches were on everything - chrome, plastic, headlights, tail lights, etc. Total damage $5,600!

Oh, and I got dragon graphics installed the Sunday before the dragon so I have a timeline and witnesses...yes there were people who told me not to do it and I did not listen.

Drove back up to Robbinsville on Tuesday...the owner sent me to his insurance agent who gave him his policy information and claim number. Tho he did install a pretty new liability sign!

I am not worried, have already spoken to the claims adjuster. Now I just need to forward all of the back up, invoices, estimate, pics etc.

The good news is that you can only see the damage if you are right up on the car.

Oh, and I rashed out my tires...so out with the run flats!

Everyong keeps saying...well at least you will now get the color that you want...Well I wanted Astro Black. So Alfi will just be like me...spend a lot of money to come out looking the same. I do it every six weeks with my hair dresser. Let's just hope this is a one time thing for him.

 

That sucks! We were standing there watching but couldn't tell if he actually gave you a ticket. The cops at the Dam were being real ******bags. They were yelling that they were going to ticket people for standing on the road too.

and if they are the chrome dragons i'm thinking of, ATL MINIs ordered them off ebay last year.