I'm just in Charlotte for a few days and just had to say that I wasn't expecting as many MINIs! I'm from Boston where our roads are as narrow as a horse and buggy, parking spaces are the size of a thimble and thus we have a lot of MINIs.

Perhaps I didn't realize NASCAR, racing and cars in general are so popular here in Charlotte. I swear every place I've stopped at there's been a MINI. There was a chili red R52 by Zada Jane's last night, a nice Pepper White R56 S (see pic bellow) by the Manor Theater today as we were seeing "Waltz with Bashir" ( ) tinted with what looked like plastidip'd headlight rings, tail rings, grill surround, smoked taillights, blacked out beltline, debadged except for "turbo" and stubby antenna (confusingly with a ZUG topper -> Clubman envy ) and tonight after leaving the Penguin Drive-In (good banana pudding but I wasn't ready for the smoking-in-bars thing) I saw a hyper blue R53, black roof and stripes with some nice rims in the lot across the street.

Talking about rims, correct me if I'm wrong, but non-OEM customizing seemed to be more popular here. Up north we "generally" keep the OEM look (very rarely tint windows (keeps the police away) and keep it to OEM or OEM-looking wheels.) I definitely saw some unique cars (although the early 90s Chevy Caprice which may have been lifted with 20"+ chrome rims I saw downtown was beyond tacky.)

And lastly, an apology: I'm sorry if I brought the snow (I love it personally, although I was hoping for a little bit of vacation from it.) From listening to the news most people don't have snow tires and don't seem to understand driving on slippery roads as there were 60 or so reported accidents from 2" of powder on the 10PM news. I hope none of you were involved in any of those.

I'll be bombing about town tomorrow and Tuesday in my friends 08 non-S R56 pepper white, so wave if you see us. We've got to stop by the MINI dealership to pickup a replacement fuse-door cover for her passenger footwell. Beyond it, if there are any "must-see" or "must-dos" especially for a car/MINI fan, feel free to respond. Happy Motoring!

 

Tuesday night, some in our club will be meeting for eats at Buffalo Wild Wings II on the corner of Independence Blvd and Sardis Road North (weather permitting). You are more than welcome to join us. See the post "March 3 Charlotte Meet and Eat". We try to park all together on the Independence side of the parking lot near the street. We will all keep an eye on the post to make sure we are still meeting, provided roads aren't icey.

 

WoOT love to see the clubs logo!! lol.. There are a ton of mini's between NC & SC, and it is fun to mod our cars! Not sure if it is a southern thing, I think if you check the rest of NAM.. we are not necessarily out of the norm. Tinting windows.. is a must do down here because of the summer heat! I am wondering if that pepper white you saw belongs to jabel, I am sure if he sees this, he will chime in! Glad you like Charlotte.. fun town!

 

I just don't understand going overboard with all those mods?

 

I wish I could have made it but my flight was at 7:30!

It was quite fun. Thinking about coming back for the Dragon and perhaps some whitewater rafting which was suggested to me.

What I meant is that when you drive around Boston, the percentage of cars with non-stock modifications is lower than I noticed in Charlotte. I saw a number of BMW/Mercedes/Lexus (MINIs as well) in Charlotte with tinted windows which is unheard-of in Boston, perhaps this is partially due to the summer sun. Many more people have aftermarket wheels in Charlotte than in Boston (this is an observation across all brands, not just MINI). I noticed many of the MINIs had stubby antennas which are also pretty rare. I wasn't at all saying they're overboard, on the contrary I think it's a level of personalization of one's car that shows there's a deeper car-culture and appreciation than we have in Boston. Although most people on NAM are pretty enthusiastic, a general observation was that people show it more in Charlotte.

 

You have to understand where bluecooper is coming from, which is usually left field. His Mini is known as the Bling-mobile and Luke has never met a mod he didn't like which is to say there's no such thing as overboard for him.
Too bad you couldn't make it to our get together. Maybe next time.

 

You're killin me, Luke.

 

Window tint is a must here, it is frankly hot as hell in the summer up here. I agree that the lifted 90's full sized sedans look stoooopid, there were too many potholes in Chicago for rims like that and I am sure the same can be said for Boston. I find that you find less mods in and around a city because you cannot use them. Here, if you make your car faster or better handling, you actually can flex it on a twisty road out in BFE, NC.

 

Must Do= Epicenter, Blumenthal,

Must See= UNCC, Plaza-Midwood, Dilworth, Meyers Park... many cool places to hand...

Must Note= lack of Lombardi trophy at BOA stadium.

 

If you want to see and meet more Mini owners come to this www.carsandcoffeecharlotte.com this Saturday at North Lake Mall- I-77 ext 18. It starts at 8am until around 11. There were 13+ Minis at the last meet plus a lot of other cool iron!

Welcome to Charlotte! Come if you can!

Michael

 

HEY THATS MY WHITE R56 COOPER HE TOOK A PICTURE OF!!!!! Seriously I was looking through here tonight and saw the picture. I remember seeing that movie that SAME day! Wow, he named every one of my mods!!! I guess I have a cooper stalker. Sad to say I have turned in the Cooper S for my new Clubman S. Stand by for all my new mods to come. THANKS!!!!

 

I just arrived in Charlotte today to catch the "tail" end of the Dragon and for a little R&R. I hope to see your Clubman S around! We went to Trader Joe's tonight on Metropolitan Ave and I was lucky enough to park between a clubman and cabrio. Although the clubman owner was loading up her car and bemoaned the quality of the plastics, lack of ingenuity in storage and price. We can't all be MINI fanatics.

Tomorrow's the first Saturday of the month, so I'm assuming I'll be missing Cars and Coffee if I'm going to be heading to the dragon? Any other get togethers over the next week or is everyone else Dragon'd out? And two route questions: what are the best driving roads for getting from Charlotte to the Dragon and perhaps if I take a trip down to Savannah, GA?

http://twitpic.com/1jqz9a
http://twitpic.com/1jse0u

 

Hey Blimey, great seeing ya at the Dragon. I did not install one mod this time!