MINI-Brooksie, my car's teeny mascot, was a ride-along on the recent MINI outing to Julian, CA, and was almost written-off. I picked her up in Nawlins last April while passing a toyshop - it was in the window, priced at like five bucks, so I figured a BRG&W matching 5 inch long would fit well sitting on the dash of my soon-to-arrive real Brooksie. MINI-Brooksie went on all subsequent outings, and never had a problem until Julian.

As we were blasting up Mt. Palomar thru the twisties, I had the windows down and the sunroof open and in the first real hard right turn, damned if MINI-Brooksie didn't start rolling acros the dash, and up & sailed right out the driver's window! I spotted her in the mirror her bouncing off into the weeds, and I stomped on the brakes and pulled over at the nearest spot to park, and sprinted back to pick up the pieces. I had never needed to secure her before, so all I got was a flash out of the corner of my eye as she went flyin', and was expecting the worst, but was pleased to see she only had a few scratches, a bent rear spoiler, and a cracked rear window, but sorta tweaked! Even the toy MINIs evidently hold up well!

Anyhoo, I had to retire her, as she had been thru a lot, and deserved a quiet spot on the shelf. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Sniff. I had looked for an exact replacement, but no joy. Then, as before, a chance finding in an obscure toyshop in Lake Elsinore brought us a NEW MINI-Brooksie - and it even has a pull-back friction motor, an upgrade. Chris had to snap it up fast, before the un-knowing masses sucked it up. It was a karma day - we parked a few spots down from a B&W MINI with a roofrack, and the same store had the Tamiya Racing Cooper plastic kit from a number of years ago. Motoring on with a new mascot...

BCNU,
Rob in Dago