Most liked posts in thread: 2018 MINI picture thread

Roadtrip Feb. 2018 - Highway 4 between Port Alberni BC and Tofino BC.

 

Amongst the last of the snow day pictures.....

 

A fellow computer science alumni joining me for coffee before attending a symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality.

 

45 cars lined up at the Canada/US border at Blaine WA as the Great Canadian Bacon Invasion - Rally to the West. This was a feeder rally to MTTS 2018.




The gallery of that drive is here.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/beken/sets/72157699225190675

 

Sorry, I was out of town visiting the UK. The color on the R53 is called Black Eye Purple. It sold as Purple Haze in the US, but in Canada, there is plaque stuck to the bonnet that says Black Eye Purple on it. Best car for my purposes, I have ever owned.





The Countryman is the most carlike of SUVs I have ever driven. It handles well and I have driven it in conditions to notice the All4 drive take almost 100% of the torque to rear wheels.
The 8 speed automatic transmission (wife needed an automatic) likes to keep the revs low. Like cruising at 1200rpm as much as possible. Which means, it can drone a bit at highway speeds. It works well in Sport mode but also drinks a lot of fuel in that mode. I am a bit disappointed with fuel mileage overall but the power is quite decent.

Getting back to the 8 speed auto, I have a suspicion it isn't a true 8 gear transmission. It rubber bands a bit like it was a CVT with 8 fixed ratios. I could be wrong.

Other than that, so far, so good.

 

I've never seen this MINI in my office parking lot before, but it appears the owner of this coupe found me and parked next to me....like every good MINIac should do.

 

Coming down to the end of the year. Merry Christmas!

 

Wow!!! 50 years! Congratulations!!

My dad is turning 90 this year and he has a "smart" phone and iPad. I'm pretty sure if he was still allowed to drive, he would drive a MINI. I think the reason he got the phone and the iPad is so he could call me over almost every week to do tech support on his devices. It's a way for him to get his kids to go over and visit more often.

 

Playing around with some camera lens distortion.