[FONT='Times New Roman']I went to MTTS LA and had a blast driving the course. I was just wondering if any other stops had people smoke the clutch. I saw one couple kill 2 cars. It was just nasty. That dead clutch smell just lingered.[/FONT]

Yes, it screwed everybody else (and me too) that wanted to drive the JCW Stage 2 cars on Sunday. I have some choice words for that "couple"......

Bummer. The cars at Chicago definately smelled of clutch and brakes, but the course was so tight and short that it was hard to really kill them. We went near the end of the day Saturday and everything was still running fine, and didn't hear anything bad on Sunday when we walked by - just the lovely lovely burbling. I just figured that MINI would write off a clutch and brake job on all of them at the end of the tour.

Could hardly get to 2nd gear at Road America. After my third lap, they were complaining about our group driving too hard and asked us to leave. Wasn't much of a test drive. I'll go drive one when the dealer get them in.

At MTTS Miami, EVERYONE were driving the cars "HARD" and no one ever complained. I even beleive that some of the cars were driven up to Boston during the rally.

Unfortunately for us, there was no JCW available.

I worked the est drive at Boston and Chicago (Sheboygan) and YES, the clutches were given a pretty hard workout. I was amazed how bad some people were at starting! Equally amazing was the number of people starting off in 3rd gear in the works cars. At Boston we even had a Clubman that had a couple of laps made with the parking brake on!

I worked the start at Boston most of the day and all day both days at Chicago and I'm kinda worried about the health risks from breathing all that stuff Ron from RP Performance, the group that organized the activities for MINI USA, asked me to tell the drivers to do a "nice easy start" mid way through Saturday at Chicago.

BTW, the Works cars are awesome!

I only drove the auto Clubman S (since I drive a manual every day and didn't have time to wait for the JCW), but I was just told to make sure I had the e-brake off and got a look, but not a dirty look when I chirped the tyres a bit. More of a "didn't think the chick in the auto Clubbie that in her" look.
By the time I got back around my boyfriend had waited long enough to get a JCW and I rode with him - he didn't get told what gear to start in, but why not 1st? You could barely make it to 2nd, let along 3rd.

It just seemed people weren't paying attention to what gear they would start off in. It was kinda comical.