Entertaining Article about MINI of Loveland Grand Opening

Mini Cooper, Car, Career or Life Style

Edward Steel, reporting for ON SCENE NEWS

Loveland Colorado…When I was given this assignment to cover the grand opening of a “MINI of Loveland†dealership, in of all places, Loveland Colorado; I really didn’t know why I was given the assignment. I mean really, car dealerships I thought, open and close all time with a ho hum, just another place for those “LOT LIZARDSâ€, to hang out to scam you into a 5 year financing and buyers remorse 5 days later.

So I show up at 6:00 P.M. of the Grand Opening, to see if I could interview the owner, Christina Daukins and her husband. Well, as I drive up I see, 40 to 50 Mini Coopers of all designs, lined up and waiting to park. I mean these people were really very excited! Reds, Greens, Blue Checkerboards, MINIs of every color and every design, I don’t think any MINI looked like any other. As the drivers and passengers, (including children), exited their rides, the real passion for these, fuel efficient, “lifestyle carsâ€, became apparent; the occupants clothing matched their real passion for the machines they were driving. The word MINI plastered everywhere!

So, I walked into the building and really noticed a strange feeling welling up inside of me, a feeling that I never felt before. I felt sad that I drove a gas guzzler from one of those Government owned car companies. Yes, just walking into the dealership I felt calm; yet excited to see what all of these people, who seemed to be in some sort of a MINI Cooper trance, were all about.

I walk in and am immediately handed a MINI Cooper mug, Tattoo, (fake of course), posters and sent to the service bay, I am told to enjoy myself, (â€HEY I AM WORKING HERE PEOPLEâ€).

The service bay looked as though it was some type of operating room or laboratory. I fully expected to see MINI technicians enter the bay with masks, scrubs and gloves. I mean really this is just a car dealership, isn’t it? Well the “patients†in the Bay were, obviously meticulously cared for “props†weren’t they?

Until I met the owners of these patients, I mean CARS…Yes these are merely cars, however, not to their owners, the owners speak of and treat these, “CARSâ€, as actual members of their own family. When speaking to 10-year old Cindy, wearing her MINI Cooper shirt and Union Jack headband in her hair, states, “I can’t wait until I am old enough to drive, cus Mom and Daddy, say I can have Constanceâ€. Constance was/is a 2005 Red MINI Cooper S. I am telling you this obsession must be in the Kool Aide that these people are drinking. Little Cindy asked me if I was attending the “festivalâ€, in Denver with my MINI? I didn’t want to admit I was one of THOSE OTHERS, who didn’t have a MINI. I guess I really didn’t want to admit that I have really never thought of me, having one of THOSE fuel efficient, type cars. I did manage to find out that the transition from child to MINI Cooper driver does have its twists and turns. I could not help noticing a bright yellow MINI with stickers on every flat surface where a sticker could be applied. Standing next to this bright and shinny MINI stood Grant Barclay; the owner of SCR Performance and next to him is standing a young red, haired girl, who I assumed was perhaps his daughter. (In reporter school, they tell us never to assume!!). This red haired girl is actually the driver, (WHAT???) of this MINI. Yep that’s right this 16-year old Savanna Rickli, will be the youngest driver to ever complete the race on the “Pikes Peak International Hill Climbâ€, also know as the “RACE TO THE CLOUDS†on June 27th 2010, in Colorado.

Now, I know many parents would hesitate to allow their 16 year old; who has had a drivers license since July of 2009, to even borrow the family truckster, to run to the store. Sixteen year old Savanna, has been in the drivers’ seat since she was 18 months old, being born to a racing family, speed and control has always been in her blood. Watching other drivers Savanna got tired of just watching and saved up enough money to buy her own racing Go Kart. This hobby soon turned into a passion spending any free time on the track or tinkering with her machine.

Driving her Go Kart Savanna was noticed by the SCR Performance teams, Grant Barclay. When asked why he felt Savanna was going to be a good driver for his team, Barclay states, “Savanna is the entire package, a natural skill, developed from a very young age, and a fresh and enthusiastic young woman with attitude, that really gets noticed in the racing contests of the worldâ€.

I spoke with Savanna, and found her to be a very soft spoken, “typical appearing 16-year-old girlâ€, with a real enthusiasm for the custom racing MINI COOPER she is about to rocket up the 12.42 miles of 156 turns, climbing 9,390 feet into the atmosphere on grades averaging 7% of both gravel and pavement. I only hope Savanna gives her parents a valium, before the flag drops.

And as for me, I am considering trading in my gas guzzler and becoming a member of the MINI COOPER family or is it “CULT� It’s not that I just want a new car, but I really want a MINI COOPER to call my own, to love to name to bathe , take pictures as it ages, to wear its name emblazon on my clothing.

And yes, 10-year-old Cindy, I will be at the MINI COOPER festival (MINIUSA),in Denver Colorado, August 13-15, 2010, in Denver Colorado.

Hopefully, lovingly driving, Molly, my new MINI COOPER!!!!