hi there,

I am new to NAM, i have recently moved to San Luis Obispo California from Ireland and am the proud owner of a 2008 R56 Cooper in Lightning Blue, i got the MINI on thursday and am LOVING it!!

this is my second MINI, i owned a 2002 Cooper PS/B in Ireland, and took part in many MINI runs across the UK, Ire on MINI2 and TotalMINI, and made a ton of friends along the way!

I was wondering if there was anyone living in or near SLO??

 

heres a few pics of my New MINI -Nitro-

 

sorry trying to get post counts so i can add pics it wont let me do it right now

 

Welcome to the forum, will check back to see how the picture postng is going, good luck

 

Welcome Dean. My daughter attends Cal Poly SLO and we make it up there to visit her as often as we can. What a beautiful area! We have a Lightning Blue Cooper as well. It's one of the best looking blues made, IMHO. And as for Ireland, I'm part Irish and would love to visit some day. It seems like a great place to live.

Doug

 

SLO is a beautiful area. I use to attend CalPoly. I can't wait to take the MINI there for vacation and explore some of the twisty roads there.

Welcome!

 

I'm about an hour south of SLO, used to do a lot of Miata runs in that area until I fell in love with the MINI! Welcome and hope to meet you someday

 

thanks guys for the welcome! yeah SLO is an awesome place! and having a MINI here makes it all the better!

so i have done a lot of runs back in the UK and IRE, but are there MINI runs that happen in the central coast??

 

welcome dean! SLO is a bit of a drive from el monte, ca (SGV area), but if you ever come down further south, don't hesitate to hit me up! :D

 

Welcome- You must do the drive up HWY 1 thru Big Sur to Monterey. World Class excursion. Check out Mid-Cal Minis, a club based in Fresno. Look them up on the club directory here on NAM. Happy Motoring.

 

Have you checked out MidCal MINI's out of Fresno? They are close by and a nice bunch of people in my opinion to hang out with. I live up North in Sac but I have been with them on a couple of outings and it was fun. Check it out. I have a contact number if you want one. You can PM me.--My name is Stacy

 

We have an informal Central Coast Mini Coopers (CCMC) club with members from San Luis Obispo and North Santa Barbara counties. We usually have an event every other month or so. We do not have a website or regular meetings. I contact the club members about events through an email distribution list. PM me with your email address if you are interested.

 

ok so just thought id update this fred! its been a while and i have been reeeeally busy with work and making / bottling wine!

so heres what ive been up to!

i have had my first service up in San Francisco, was fun as i was able to drop my MINI into the dealer, they used the key like a USB into the computer, and was able to see what i needed.. i was amazed!! so i got to look at the new 50th annersary MINI they had on show, was well nice.. thenwas able to go round San Fran with my new lightning blue matching Bike that i could conveniently take up there on my bike rack!




i then went back home and decided after being told the grille was near $100 dollars, that i would get the good old PVC tape out and black out the grille! until i can afford to buy the S grille! :D




i then decided (after some good consumption of Wiiiine! ) that i needed a fun mod, so while looking on outmotoring, i went for a "john cooper "plays" badge, since the 2 MINIs that live next to me each have a works, i may as well try and fit in haha





( the HB one is a works, but the badge fell off when the heat made it tacky and then fell off!?):rolleyes:

so after that i then decided that i needed stripes for it, so i managed to talk to my friend in San francisco who conveniently works in a vynl studio, so he has got me a set of silver, black and dark mettallic for me to use, remove / change .. i just have to pick them up, :nice:

so then had family visiting and we drove all around California, up HWY 1 lots of twisties, and amazing scenery! was a great MINI trip!






then since i got back i have been speccin a spoiler, and some other things that i can put on that makes it a bit different! also decided to clean the inside as it was boggin and semi detailed the outside before going to the dusty ranch to get it dirty again.. then decided to go to the james dean memorial thats just up the road to my work, it is the junction that he was killed at when his porshe collided with a semi truck!




then tonight i decided to perform the channel swap on the sound system, it was a tough wee time in the dark, trying to get the pins out.. but we got there in the end! and is well worth it! :wh:


so thats whats been happening the last few months, i am still waiting on my california number plate coming, so i am driving with a MINI dealer advertisement as my plate, and just got a random letter saying that i have to have my MINI smogged, (MOT'd) before they will gove me a number plate! :rolleyes: stupid! considering its only a year n a bit old!?? but hey!

still thinking about this plasti dipping too, so may play about with it in the next few days! :nice:

 

Lovely Mini, and great update! I'm up here in SF but try to go down to Santa Cruz, Big Sur, SLO when I can. I got a white 2008 MC as well, see you on the road!

MC

 

One thing... if you're talking about the JCW Blackout grille for your Mini, your dealership is quoting a little high (unless that's their price to get the grille and install). Much better bet is to order the grille from one of the vendors here on NAM that carry them - I got mine from OutMotoring.com for $49.95. It is a very easy installation... I'm not the most mechanically inclined person but I did it myself in 5-10 minutes. You can find the directions on how to do it here on NAM in the modifications forum.

 

took a nice drive out to the san miguel mission today to explore, also had time to kill.. got some nice pics along the way...

 

The next time you are in that area, take Fergusson-Nacimiento Rd over the mountains to Hwy 1 and the BIG Sur coast. A beautiful curvy drive.