A red Mitsubishi 3000 GT Twin Turbo VR4 AWD.

We haven't gotten the official news quote from the newspaper sent to us yet, but this was what I got when I emailed the paper. They got the story all wrong. Even after we explained it to them.

Jesse,
We did receive a report, it came in earlier this week during my day off
and would have been handled by another reporter. I don't know if it got
printed or not so here are the salient details according to the California
Highway Patrol.
John Grow and Soledad Showers, both of Fort Bragg failed to
negotiate a series of curves on State Route 128 for unknown reasons.
The vehicle left the roadway, struck a milepost marker, traveled through
brush and overturned into the Navarro River where it sank.
Grow and Soledad were transferred to Mendocino Coast District
Hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
Ben Brown

"Failed to Negotiate..." This guy was completely out of line.

So I'm thinking I'm going to make a silhouette for the Mini Cooper looks like this:



Link to estimated crash site. I can't be sure, all the turns look about the same on the road at night. If you want to drive and find it look for the burnt marks from the flares on the road and bent mile marker 1.65.

some peopel never learn... ::(

Here's a map of where it happened:

http://superchargerresearch.com/copp...h-site%7E0.jpg

The 3000GT/Dodge Stealth. Nice styling, but heavy, underpowered, prone to crankshaft breaks, expensive and hard to work on (esp. the AWD/4WS versions). A friend once had one and it was a pain in the rear, VERY high mtce. A Supra makes much more sense....

In Before the Lock? Doubtful it'd be locked because you didn't provoke or start this little raod race, the Mitsu driver did. You're just retelling the story FCOL. jimbo

LMAO. The guy was an idiot for driving like that and trying to beat a MINI in the twisties. He got what he deserved for driving like an idiot. I'm glad there weren't any serious injuries. I do hope you get that sticker made and put it on your MINI. It would be funny to see the reaction on the other driver's face if he saw it.

I was in CA in Jan and took our reantal out for a drive from Petaluma and headed north on 101. I decided to take the 1st left I came to that looed to be a state road. It was 128. What a great road. I took it all the way to 1 and decided to head south back to Petaluma. All i can say from this point is: Great scenery, great road & the best twisties I've ever been on. Much better than the Dragon here in NC. After 6+ hours of driving and stoping to take pictures, I was exhausted. I could not sleep all night because of the thoughts of flying off a cliff and no one would know where I was at. Cell phone coverage was zilch. I will always remember that day. Only one major issue, I was driving a Nissian Murano and wanted to have my MINI so bad. Photo link attached:http://blog.gomotoring.com/SF/

And then turn onto Mt.Veeder off of the Oakville Grade. What a sweet road.

We took video of driving the road too. I'll post that up as soon as I find some time to edit it.

Oh man, Japanese Camero.....that's funny and kinda true.

You can get the 4WS up to snuff, and can be a great racer, but you have to know your stuff and realize that a stock one will understeer like no other....and then some. Luckily our Mini's are so neutral in turns that a lot of newbie drivers can zip along with little to no effort.

hmm. Why would you say that. MCSs have so much understeer built into that the universally accepted first suspension mode is to get a larger rear sway bar to reduce the othersteer???

I'm not trying to damper the "MINIs walk on water" enthusiasm, just asking a serious question

Agreed on this. MINIs aren't very "neutral balanced" at all.

Thank you. Sometimes it gets very old to keep seeing the "oh my MINI is so good in the twisties" line. Fact is out of the box, there is quite a bit of understeer inherent in the design. Far from neutral.

Well, it may not be perfect, but I'm more than pleased with its abilities, and I can definitely say it beats out the rest
My car isn't at the bottom of a ravine right now...

I am happy your OK and the other guy drove like an idiot!

I was referring to the "neutral" out of the box comment. thats all

Sounds like your car did fine

It's also FWD so there's going to be understeer to begin with. I wouldn't be surprised if my Dad's Audi S4 could out handle the MINI in some ways. I might be completely wrong though, but the S4 can take corners quite nicely without much fuss. The same can be said for the MINI.

We got the official CHP report scanned in. They got their facts wrong on
multiple points.

Scanned article:
http://superchargerresearch.com/copp...HP-Log%7E1.jpg

Here is what they ment to say:

July 1, 12:01 a.m., John Grow, 50, of San Francisco, was traveling at a
high rate of speed westbound on Highway 128 approaching milepost 1.67
when he failed to negotiate a series of curves in the raodway. His '95
Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4 Flew off the south road way edge with a
spetacular dustcloud, struck the milepost marker and then traveled
through the brush through a tree where it overturned and sank into the
Navarro River. Grow and his passenger (Girlfriend) Soledad Sowers, 40, of
Fort Bragg, were transported to Mendocino Coast District Hospital with
minor injuries. They were released the later that morning.


Reading the other CHP reports in this paper is highly entertaining. Half of
them seem to be about amazing car crashes. Luckly they seem like they
are all ok afterwards. Shows how dangerous the roads are in Fort Bragg.

FYI, Gloves is bad at introducing himself.

He is my co-pilot and was the one who
had the huge flashlight that helped
saved their sorry butts.

What? When you turn 50 you have to go buy a Chevy 4-door and a bottle of prune juice? Experience counts for more than youthful optimism any day. Just because this guy couldn't drive doesn't necessarily mean that it was an age thing.

I plan to keel over at 95 from a heart attack doing 250 on a salt flat, after leaving my 22-year old mistress' house.

But all that wonderful MCS understeer just jumps the fun factor up a couple notches, and keeps one honest behind the wheel, eh C4U??

Swaybar? Don't need no steenkin' swaybar Jimbo

PS do those overhyped JCW GPs come with beefed up rear swaybars? I've not dared re-enter the GP threads to find out, for those folks are waaaaaaay too sensitive about my callous, yet sincere disregard for their product...

Sounds like the Mini version of pen*s envy!

You forgot about the Hoarkin' Fiber Chunks for breakfast and the Metamucil before every meal too.

Seriously though,

I was referring to the fact that he had to flex his you-know-whats to try and show up a MINI. While I know the fun factor does not diminish with age, I would expect the "flex-your-wing-wong" factor does.

My death is planned very similiar to yours. Only, I don't plan I doing 250 riding in a car. I'll still be at her house... riding... ... erm...

If the newspaper article is accurate, he was 63! Driving a '95 Mitsu Eclipse, with a 40-year-old girl friend. Just a foolish old man. You can't erase the years with a sporty car and a "younger" woman. He's just a bit older than me. but my attitude is - I'm having fun, if you want to pass, go ahead, I'll still be having fun.

Well, hey, eventually you have to leave the house to get supplies...

Dead at 95 years old at the hands of a jealous with reason hubby.