Well I picked up my mini yesterday (friday) and as a new stick driver, i am slowly getting the hang of driving the car. But all in all I can tell you that this is the most fun car i have ever driven. With some time I think i can get good at driving stick. I do love the six speed. I have already out over 150 miles on the car in one day just driving around town. I also installed my pilo intake on the car and it sounds really nice. I think i am going to take the back plate out to allow more air into the intake. What do you guys think? Well ill stop my ranting and just say one more time that I LOVE THIS CAR!!!! The best money i have spent!!!!!!

Garrett

P.S. All my friends who have driven the car has fallen in love with it as well. Including one who has a turbo charged lexus IS300 that does low 12s!!!

Congrats! Enjoy the car! I have an MCS on order... someday I will post one like this.

Just picked up mine yesterday too (MCSa). Hard to wipe the smile from my face!


- John Connor

We picked ours up Thurs night. Lola is looking for reasons to drive now.

[QUOTE=garretwp]Well I picked up my mini yesterday (friday) and as a new stick driver, i am slowly getting the hang of driving the car. But all in all I can tell you that this is the most fun car i have ever driven. With some time I think i can get good at driving stick. I do love the six speed. I have already out over 150 miles on the car in one day just driving around town. I also installed my pilo intake on the car and it sounds really nice. I think i am going to take the back plate out to allow more air into the intake. What do you guys think? Well ill stop my ranting and just say one more time that I LOVE THIS CAR!!!! The best money i have spent!!!!!!
QUOTE]

garretwp,
Good to hear from you. The MINI is definitely a fun car to drive. If you drive a manual transmission and don't think so they you are "dead" or sleeping or both.

The Pilo intake will do fine with no back plate or you can drill a bunch of large holes in the plate to allow some air in from the cowl area and to allow for the intake noise to reach you in the driver's seat.

However the intake noise will be best at wide open throttle which you are supposed to refrain from doing until you reach the end of the breakin period or about 1250 miles. So hurry up and do some driving!

Congratulations. Even though the MINI has been around for awhile now and folks in bigger cities have stopped waving you may be surprised by how many greetings and compliments you will get in your car.

Today was the first refuel for my car (since the dealer filled it up) and in the next stall was a woman with a 2004 BRG/W MCS who said she liked my car's color (PW/B) while I told her I liked her car's color. Typical, friendly exchange in MINIland. It was blissful until I got the bill. First time I have paid over $30 for a tank of gas. But my little MINI is worth it. Have fun. It's summer.

Congrats! If I knew how to drive stick or knew someone that could teach me, I would've gotten stick as well.

Gongrats to all you new MINI owners! Welcome to the MINI family.

Hey, congratulations, especially on learning to drive a stick. I have always thought that if you want to learn to drive a straight-shift, you just need to buy one. They you hafta learn! Enjoy.

that's exactly what i did (my mini-first new car/first stick shift)- my motoring advisor gave me a crash course and now i'll probably never drive anything but a stick shift - way too much fun!

to all the new owners!!! "First motoring" is very, very exciting. Sometimes I think the break-in period is as much for the drivers as for the engine. That much euphoria is hard to manage in one massive dose...best to ramp up in stages! Or else issue smile suppressants w/ the car. I really do wish I could report that this condition evens out eventually, but it just ain't so. Happy Motoring!!!

Alright Garrett, congrats!

Let me know when you'd like to motor - I'm actually moving closer to you in July (East windsor - hightstown).

mb