With fewer than 30 days until this year’s largest State-side MINI event, White Roof Radio and MotoringFile are getting very excited! So is MINI USA and they have provided some more details for us to share with you! First of all, if you haven’t registered yet, or had difficulty registering, please try again! Some changes and updates have been made to the official MTTS website that should help to streamline your process. While you are there, you should also book your hotels since the majority of group rates for MTTS will be closing by the end of this week, if they haven’t already. The sponsor lineup is almost complete and includes Liberty Mutal, Allstate, Sirius, Playboy, MOG, 3M/Original Wraps, Tetley Tea, Red Bull and Burton. White Roof Radio and Motoringfile will be partnering with MINIUSA along with Garmin, Autoweek and others to be named soon. Don’t forget to register! You can do that at minitakesthestates.com. Full route details can be found here, including host hotel information and group codes. More details to follow as we get even close to the event. Stay tuned to White Roof Radio and MotoringFile for all of the details as they become available! MotoringFile
Looked at the route map, their big one. Oh, how I hate I80 and I25. MINI5280 is looking at a club level Boulder/ABQ alternate route, folks are welcome to join us. It will be 10 hrs, so a longer day and potential to miss the ending event in ABQ or go back and forth between I25 and fun. Don
Their big map is still showing the generic, straight-shot, interstate highway connections between many of the major stops. More interesting routes have been coordinated by selected local clubs in concert with the MTTS planners (e.g., Chicago to Des Moines) but for whatever reason they're not sharing these additional details yet.
I don't recall them sharing routes until right up to the beginning of MTTS 2010. Some routes weren't shared until the day of the run.
Yes, we had some dialogs with the MTTS folks a month or so back, then they went silent. We suggested a couple of routes for them and some area rides, we shall see. In the meantime the folks in the club are planning. Don
While I'd like to see this as well, some of the stops are 400+ miles (7+ hours) apart, based on interstate travel alone. Gonna be a lot of wheel time.
Even in weighing the more interesting routes, it's clear to me that they're taking transit time into consideration. Our original proposal had the primary route passing through some Driftless Region twisties with an intermediate stop at the Field of Dreams site near Dyersville. This idea was shelved by the MTTS planner who came out and pre-drove the route because of the additional time and distance. They did not want to jeopardize the target arrival time in Des Moines. We were told our original idea will now be advertised as an optional side trip for folks who really want to make the pilgrimage to the FoD. I think you'll eventually see more interesting routes, but nothing prohibitive time-wise.
Looking forward to an interesting day drive across Iowa, if for no other reason than from that point on, I'll be fully equipped to prove that phrase isn't a contradiction.
For those making the transit from Chicago to Des Moines on July 9th, information on our club's recommended feeder routes is now available on our website: EIM Feeder Route Recommendations for MTTS 2012 on July 9th | Eastern Iowa MINIs – A Local Group of MINI Motoring Enthusiasts We'll try to get this linked on the main MTTS 2012 website soonest. :wink: