Hello fellow whiptastic drivers!
I like to hear some what people thought about the Boston Rally & Festival!
As for us the best part was meeting everyone Sat. morning at Pier 4! Then, of course, the rally was awesome! it was so much fun whipping up the MA. coast in an unstoppable line of 300 MINIS! . Don't you just feel so cool when All the bystanders do double takes then watch as smiles break out on thier faces and then, a tap of the horn sends the children into fits of excitement! .
Not sure what happened at the Gloucester pit stop-we really didn't stop- no place to park-but we were handed a top secret medallion as we cruised by. Then we were kinda on our own to get back to Boston- got lost once . But had a great time anyway!
The bike stunt show was also very cool-we saw him jump over a guy lying down and touched his nose with his front tire! Also- driving in the Autocross was a blast!

 

ARRGGG!
By the way, We left the festival at about 4pm to go see some of Boston's highlites (North End-Quincy Mkt.) Then we were comming back to see the concert at 7- well, we got stuck in that aweful I-93 traffic! tokk over an hour to get onto I-93 and 45 min. to go 3 exits down to UMASS! when we got to UMass at 8:45 The festival was dark! no people, no minis, no concert.-I thought the concert lasted until 10pm? - my fault I guess for going into the city-We didn't realize it would take so long to sit in that horrible traffic! How was the concert?

 

I didn't attend the meet & greet b/c I made it to my friend's place in Wellesley Hills at 8:30 pm. I could have gotten there sooner but the Merritt Parkway/15 was basically a parking lot . Besides, by the time I got to the front door, I was dead tired.

Next morning, we got to UMASS at 10am for the driving event. They had a really good selection of cars to drive. They had pretty much every combination of body style, engine and transmissions available to drive. After we drove a few cars, we headed over to the main grounds. I guess since we were there pretty early, not much was goin' on. So we just headed back to the driving area to get some more seat time. Then around 1pm we left.

I'm wondering if things picked up after we left. But anyways, my friend was so impressed driving all the MINIs, he's planning on purchasing a Clubman S in the near future!

 

Wife and i got there around 11:30am. We were early wasnt many people there. I was disipointed in the whole thing really, the people in the registration area had not a clue about anything. The market area didnt have much to offer although the flying finn was great whata cool guy. There really neeeded to be more vendors i came fully prepared to buy performace stuff.

The autocross was great as someone before me said you were able to drive one of everything (except JCWS) what a great sales tool.It may have sold me to trade in my 06' for a new one. The people running were very knowledgable. However the people that were posted around the event with new mini's didnt know a darn thing about them, very unfortunate.

Music was great the local bands were very good,food was over priced. Note to mini dont sell 3.00 a bottle water and then have vending machines 50 yards away selling the same bottle for 1.30 .

All in all i expected a lot more from mini i could go on for ever in what they could have done. But the big one is dont but it so close to Minis on Top again. I know a lot of people that didnt go to this event because MOT is next weekend and MOT is a much bigger event. Sorry mini usa but it is.

 

We also came to the rally ready to buy. We thought there was supposed to be a "Boot" sale. you know, where we might could buy some aftermarket stuff, T-shirts, etc. I guess the 5 tents in the parking lot where the village market area doubled as the Boot sale as well.

 

Friday night karting was great!

Saturday morning before the rally was nice meeting everybody. The route of the rally was a little to urban and at the when I got the prize at the far point (left over mini confidential medallions) I quickly became separated from the little pack I was with.

UMass was plagued with poor choices of musical acts and a tiny vendor area.
If they hadn't tried to stretch about 2 hours of entertainment into 8 I think it would have been excellent...

Also claiming the test drives were an autocross was highly misleading. (but still fun)

Nothing ever picked up....

 

The highlight was the very beginning of the morning drive on Saturday, when there were police barricades. It went downhill pretty fast after that when the 300+ MINIs hit traffic right after hitting the tunnel.

The Friday night carting was fun, but I felt some of the people working it hadn't a clue what was going on.

The festival on Saturday was a bit disappointing. I was excited to be able to drive the Clubman and the turbo S, but that "autocross" course took all of about 30 seconds to get through. Plus, I was excited for the boot sale, but that was pretty much non-existant.

All in all, I am really happy I went, and I know I would go next year. However, I doubt I'd be willing to shell out another $40 bucks for the registration.

 

Friday night meet and greet was great. The go carts were awesome. Came in first both times. Sliding around the turns. If only it was that easy in the Mini.

Saturday morning was great and the rally was better. The event itself was ok for an hour. Then after that there was nothing to do because we seen it all. Hopefully they do it again but they have to come up with some other ideas.

I think there was about 250 mini's there. I attached a picture.

 

For me, a highlight of MTTS Boston was meeting Chilibomb at the Sat morn rally on Pier 4. Recognized "Sperbie" right away, being CR/W with black bonnet stripes and the coolest sunshade in the windshield. What a wonderful couple my wife and I met.

The rally from Boston to the Gloucester monument and then into Rockport before heading back to Boston was fun. The start with 300 MINIs was awesome, and the police escourt a kick, especially stopping all traffic at the intersections as we headed to and through the tunnel. After that, though, twas marred by traffic tie-ups and congestion here and there but nothing horrendous.

On Sunday we met Carla 99 and Schatzy62 and had a lot of fun talking MINI.

My MINI, which had a dragoon helmet on the roof and checkers set up on the sunroof's checkerboard graphic was picked as a semi-finalist for the competition. Didn't win an award, but it was a thrill to park in the competition circle.

Had fun on the motor cross. My wife Pat and daughter Victoria too. They drove auto S's.

CROC 411

 

Red Dragoon's car was hot!!! He had large checker pieces on his checkerboard roof....very MINIfied will post pics later

 

Exactly my thoughts. I was also upset to get to the pit stop only to find out they ran out of medallions? What were they and who can I email to get one? Also, why didn't we all have a designated time to leave the pit stop so we can all rally back together? I was by myself the whole way back!

I felt the same about UMass, we left and came back to Fountains of Wayne.

 

Greetings carla99,
Thanks so much for the compliment on my MINI. Yours was so cool with the red roof and red turbo vent. A definite standout.

And Adum,
The medallion has MINI confidential on it, then a couple of lightning bolts, and down the center are a triceratops, scorpion and bee against a red background. It has a small chain. If you'd like, I'll mail you mine. I have the small folder it came in too. Give me your address.

CROC 411

 

I didn't get to F1 in time to race, but it was still fun to see the carts on the track. I was very disappointed with breakfast. It was great to see everyone and see all the cars, but the carb loaded danish and bagels didn't go very far. The parade up to Gloucester was pretty cool, but I expected ice cream at the "Surprise and Delight" spot. Wasn't sure where the surprise or delight came in. The festival itself was nice, and the motocross event was great! We left in the afternoon to get some ice cream in Cambridge, and we came back for the concert. We came back on Sunday because we were nominated for the vanity award, but we left immediately after we didn't win because we had to get to a party in RI.

Overall, it was okay. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 5. MOT is this weekend, and I'm expecting to have a blast up there.

 

By the way, it was great meeting a bunch of you and your MINIs!

 

Thanks that is really nice of you but I'm not taking your hard earned medallion, if you sat in traffic as long as we all did up 1A you deserve it!

I'm sure I can email Mini USA and ask for one? I do remember the secret passcode...

I had a blast and I'm really considering going to Chicago, hopefully many of you guys come out too.

 

Greetings Adum,

Am used to traffic, living in Jersey. If you email MINI and cannot get a medallion let me know and I'll mail you mine. Actually, tried to figure out where to mount it in my MINI, rear view mirror sprang to mind, but that's already taken with the Hammer & Coop lightning bolt. And I hang only one thing at a time from the mirror, it's a quirk.

Take care.
CROC 411

 

Hey, we loved the checkers on the roof. My wife took a picture of me pretending to play yesterday.

 

Where in Jersey are you? I'm in Hoboken so I know what you mean! I sat in an hour worth of traffic on the FDR just trying to leave Manhattan on Friday.

I will let you know what they say and are you a member of the New Jersey club? I was thinking about getting involved.

 

I enjoyed meeting fellow Mini owners. I had a great time in Boston out of the MTTS venue. I look forward to meeting more Miniacs at MOT!

 

Hey Tim781996 Delighted to hear you pretend played checkers and hope you pretend won. Was a kick setting it up and being called as a semi-finalist (my Dragoon helmet helped no doubt). Actually the checkers has been a running gag with some of my non-MINI friends who've teased me for a year that I should play chess or checkers on the sunroof. So we did. And I too have photos to prove it.

Adum I live in Bloomfield just west of the Meadowlands. There is an NJ thread here on NAM under state clubs which I scroll through. And on Nemini.org there is a New Jersey chat section on this website which I hit now and again.
I know Prestige MINI in Mahwah does quite a few events. Haven't been able to hit one yet. Does a drive-in movie night I've seen.

CROC 411

 

My wife and I had a blast, it was a great event and MINIUSA did a fantastic job, the only bad thing for me was the speeding ticket I got in MA I am trying to find what to do with it. Do anybody have experience with tickets in this state?

 

Hey red dragoon, i didn't get to talk to you but i was the other chili red mini that "followed" you up to the circle parking on Sunday...good thing i didn't follow you all the way out to the main road. Walking past i definetly noticed the dragoon helmet...do you reenact? nice to finally see other NAMer's out in the real world.

 

I thought pulling into the pier parking was pretty cool, awesome to see all the minis lined up with escorts waving flags, I got a cjill up my spine.

Found quite a few people to be stand offish when talking about their ride and there were soooo many nice minis, how about the mini with the lambo doors, didn't like the body kit, but the doors rocked.

I only wished I had my sunroof unionjack graphics on, my ini was pretty plain compared to many others, so I'll have to make some modifications for the next rally.

The saturday rally up to Glouster was fun, ya it was broken up a lot due to traffic lights and people cutting in and out of the column and with no where to park once we reached the rallypoint I circled the area a few times and then went home.

And where were the vendors, I was looking to purchase an event shirt and yet, nothing. I almost asked one the people working the event if they would be interested in seeling there shirt.

I would like to see additional images that I could use as a monitor wallpaper.

 

Greetings clayvt,

Yes, I missed that turn, having noticed it too late. So I drove to the end and pulled a fast and tight U-turn around the barrier. My record is secure, I always make at least one wrong turn everywhere I go. The fun is figuring out how to fix it, though sometimes the wrong turn has led to the discovery of a cool bookstore or coffee shop.

Your MINI looked really cool, and glad I didn't lead you astray.

I re-enacted the Revolutionary War as a trooper with Sheldon's Horse - The Second Continental Light Dragoons fom '88 to '98. Kept the carbine, sabre, bayonet, equipment and uniform.


CROC 411

 

I DO! I DO! I got a ticket for doing 82 in a 65, failure to signal, and unsafe lane change, all of which were not true, on I95 in Boxford on Memorial Day Weekend 2006. I fought it and managed to get a $300 ticket down to $100.