So after six years of practice, untold dollars, many teachers and many more mistakes, I left home for the 1,530 mile pilgramage to the 2010 SCCA National Solo Finals to test my progress against the best in the country.

On the morning of the second day of westward travel I left Youngstown Ohio at 4 am headed for West Des Moines IL, the final stop before Lincoln.

It was a cool morning, and Gollum was bundled a bit and chock full of everything one needs to go racing halfway across the country, including the driver with head full of dreams. I forgot my cell phone in the hotel room, which I did not notice for two hours at which point it was too late - this would make the coming day much more challenging.

The trouble started when I put the defroster on before sunrise, and it created a mist on the windshield rather than getting rid of one. Throughout the morning the symptoms became more noticeable, with a slight smell of anti-freeze appearing, and at one point a whiff of steam emerging from the defroster vent.

I started checking coolant, and indeed I had a leak. The car was apparently slowly pushing the anti-freeze out of a small hole in the heater core, and out an overflow pipe to the ground. The wind from driving was then snatching the droplets of coolant and sticking them to the back of the car, which over the morning started to become smelly and opaque.

By 9-10 am I was carrying a gallon of coolant, and stopping every 20-30 miles on I-80 to top up the radiator, as I was terrified that I would overheat the engine which of course would be an utter catastrophe.

I called Mini of Peabody, and Richard my service gent suggested that I call Mini Roadside Assistance. I called them, and a nice young lady then kept me on the toll free line (remember, I had to deal with this with NO CELL!) and found a dealership on the west side of Chicago (in Naperville) that was open, and even connected me through to the dealership.

To my amazement, the dealer gave me a good set of directions, and after three more hours of limping and worrying I finally arrived at a huge BMW/Mini dealer in the western suburbs, having gone about a hundred miles out of my way to get there. They admitted the slightly steaming Mini, and I began a long fingernail biting wait. At this point I was pretty sure that the whole trip was off, and that I would have to hole up in Chicago and eventually limp back east. It was a very low moment in a very long day.

After an hour and more of inspections and such, Brad (the Bill Jacobs Mini SA) came out to me and said that the heater coil had indeed failed, and that the repairs would come to $775 but that they could not find the parts required anywhere in the Chicago area, so they would have to order them.

Without panic, and in my most persuasive tones, I begged him to consider a temporary repair that would just bypass the heater coil completely. I assured him that in the next 10 days I would avoid all sub-freezing weather, and that I simply could not remain in the Chicago area while proper repairs were made.

To my delight, he disappeared to chat with various other parties, and returned a few minutes later to say that they would indeed do that for me, and that the effort would come to $265 plus various small sundries (like hose clamps from a parts store down the street).

And in fact they did - putting me back on the road about 5pm Eastern, after I had spent five hours cooling my heels and waiting and worrying. That left me 325 miles to go, and those miles went by without any further troubles.
I am deeply grateful to everyone at Bill Jacobs Mini, whose efforts saved my dream. Thank you very, very much indeed.

 

Great story, and your account of MINI not sticking to the letter goes a long way with this MINI owner.

Hope you had a successful SCCA event.

 

It must be a really good dealership to do that for you. I really like stories like this.

Now tell us---- HOW DID YOU DO RACING????????

 

"WITHOUT A CELL PHONE!"



I had to laugh at this, because not that long ago there were no cell phones, and people still managed to live just fine, TYVM.

Nice to see you made it thru a difficult situation wthout yours too.

So, how were the races? Got any video?

Did the hotel find your cell and send it home to you?

 

thanks for your replies folks.

yep - coin operated phones are still out there...

as for the Nationals, I will be competing tomorrow and wednesday so there is nothing to report as yet.

i am delighted to have made the pilgrimage - there is nothing like a couple of acres of race cars, trailers, RVs, and all the wonderful folks that gather annually for this event. I really have never seen anything that was quite on the same scale as this. There are 1,320 drivers in this event - racing in many different classes over the course of four days.

I am also seeing folks that I had previously known only through the forums - both NAM and SCCA, which is a pleasure.

Some of you may have seen a brilliant blue Works DSP Mini, which was featured in the MC2 magazine recently. That car is here, as are many more Minis - all well turned out, and some certainly destined for trophies.

As for me, well, it's my first time -- I will be well pleased not to be DFL.

Cheers,

Charlie