Just returned from MINIs On Top 2012 and I am worn out...

To set the stage, MINIs On Top is a regional weekend event. The highlight of the weekend is a trip up the Mt. Washington Auto Road to the summit of 6288ft. 2011 was the 150th anniversary of the Auto Road, but 2012 is the 10th anniversary of MINIs On Top. This year was the biggest yet at 288 cars.

Normally, I would have been driving from my home in NYS, but not this time. I've been working in North Carolina since the end of January, so my trip to New Hampshire was about 1000 miles instead of less than 500.

The Evolution of MINI show was pretty cool. The MoT crew worked with MINI USA to put together one of every MINI variation from Gen 1 and Gen2. Unfortunately I don't think they had one of each model, but there were some fairly rare cars in addition to my Clubman. In attendance was a GP, a WC 50, various Hampton models, a Sidewalk, a Camden and some others. I'm trying to find out how the List actually turned out and I'll post what I find out.

The drive up and down the Auto Road at Mt. Washington this time was a Stone Trip. It rained in the afternoon and into the evening. I was in the group of 15-20 cars that went up ahead of the main body for the Observatory Tour of the weather station at the top. I was the second car in line as we followed one of the vans that ferries people up who don't want to drive. Obviously you can't drive very fast, so it seems that the usual speeds are 20-25 mph. However, with the ratios in the JCW's gearbox, the possibilities are sort of limited. If you slip below 20mph, you start to fall below 2000rpm and get close to lugging the engine in second gear. It may be necessary to go down to first gear. If you start to go over 25mph in second, you start to exceed 4000rpm. I'm perfectly willing to buzz the engine well over that coming up through the gears, but I don't like to leave it there. Some of the switchbacks are quite sharp and blind, so speeds are up and down. Anyway, if you do this in a JCW, bouncing between first and second is necessary.

There is one section of the Auto Road that is not paved. I believe it is above the 6 mile mark out of the 8 mile total distance, but you do finish on pavement as you near the summit. The dirt is graded and rolled to make a hard smooth surface. Last year was dry, so there was no problem. However, with the rain, there was a thin film of mud on top of the hard pack. The Traction Control light did blink a fair amount as I crossed the dirt section.

However, the descent was a different deal altogether. I was ready to return to the mountain base after the Observatory Tour and a little souvenir shopping. When I finished, the first cars of the main group started to arrive. Although the Auto Road is designed to be wide enough for 2 of the passenger vans to pass side by side, it seemed to me that the rain may have washed away a bit of either side of the road. Therefore I decided to wait until all of the other cars had made it to the summit.

That turned out to be very helpful as the dirt section was a bit slippery. Towards the end of the dirt section, something had carved ruts in the surface. My guess is that this was caused by the passenger vans. The Clubman is not particularly heavy (~2900 lbs), so it wanted to jump sideways from rut to rut. You have to stay on top of this considering that there are no guardrails to keep you from going over the edge. Trust Me, I was very happy to get back to the base!

There are some other details that I will be filling in over the next few days and I also have photos to share.

 

My photos from MINIs On Top - 2012 are here:

http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q...op%20-%202012/

Our car is the 2009 fJCW Clubman, HzB/PS, silver hood stripes (with text overlay on the image)