Most liked posts in thread: What did you do with your MINI today?

Went to donuts this morning with the MoM gang and met some guy driving an Altima which he claimed was the fastest car there

 

Warsched my MINI and took some quick picksures....

 

Sprayed the beast with damp grass clippings and fire ants... sort of a redneck's walnut shell treatment.

 

It's a night for amateurs, so I stay home.

 

Foggie will be going out in the snow later. She is justa real MINI.

I love not working and being home.

 

The best one for me was when the local Police pulled me over because my window tint was too dark. He walked up along side, I rolled down the window and he stepped back with an amazed look on his face.....then he asked, is this your son's car?

 

:cornut: Patrolled the perimeter of Grayson County. All quiet, No Okies detected infiltrating TX.

Jason

 

Stuck this to my sunvisors in anticipation of an upcoming club run that requires a passenger.

 

Gave Dr. Phibes a much needed under carriage cleaning, suspension and wheels cleaned and changed the flat white M.O.M. Gang stripes to flat black.

 

Worked on my MOTD checklist today.

New valve cover and gasket installed.
New coil
New plugs
New wires
New IC couplers
Cleaned air filter
All installed and running great.

 

Have you thought about trying out some of those nice Alta IC couplers....

 

Well......got these today! :biggrin5:




Just in time to start hittin the backroads. Watch out you bikers..... oh wait....I'm one of you :lol:

 

Drove the shuttle bus/MINI to Best Motor Werks. Picked up good buddy Nathan & dropped him off at Motoring Alliance world headquarters. Good deed for the day done.

 

Jason sold me his old R56 mirror caps.... Thanks again Jason...
So this morning I wet sanded them and applied a coat of primer....

Yup.... Justa Jim.... Startin another project.... Gots bunches of projects runnin and none of them are completely done..... Bruhahahahahahaha.....

 

This.

It's no Dragon, but it's still a pretty damn good road.

 

My Chili red mirror caps got cleared today...

 

Ok I am back from the dealership and let's just say the car is still ugly and long in the tooth. The rear of the car did not look that bad but the huge SUV tail lights killed it. They are huge, did I say they huge, and they stick out too far.

I drove an S auto-tragic HARD because they did not have any sticks yet.

It drives like a BMW and not a MINI. It does plow (under steer) in the turns and the tires (run rocks) make a lot of noise for a new car. The ride rides soft, very soft and a suspension upgrade will be very important upgrade on this new car. The fit and finish is nice inside but the speedo tach look like a very cheap plastic afterthought. The center stack infotainment thing is just EFFIN HUGE. The color ring around the radio was annoying. As for the start and stop feature you can turn it off buy just tapping the toggle up once. I think if you hold it up you can also turn off the DSC but I could not get it to turn off because I was driving at speed. :devil:
We were able to turn the DSC when we got back to the dealership. It does brake well then again so does my car. The dash is very deep and you can see the hood and corners of the front fender parts of the hood. (too BIG)


Now for the FUN part. The sales guy had never road in or drove an R53 so I gave him a rare chance to drive one done right, MINE and tossed him the keys. :eek6:

No, I was not crazy I went with him.

Let's just say you could not get the smile off his face from the time he turned the key and heard the exhaust rumble to when he pulled back into the dealership with the GM standing outside with a big smile on his face. He loved the Supercharger sound coming from under the hood and all the power. He looked at me like I was crazy when I told him to take it up to 7,200 rpm and then shift to second. On the next turn into a straight I told him to hammer it and the tires (new Dunlop ZII's) broke loose at 5k and grabbed again as he feathered it and took it up to 7k. He pulled 2nd gear and we were spinning again. Whoo hoo! He said he was sorry I said for what having fun? I need to burn off some rubber before the Dragon since the tires are new and you are doing a great job of that. :lol:

We had a FUN drive and like I said the GM was outside when we came back. I know the GM well and the first thing the GM told him is WOW you got a chance to test drive a really nice GEN 1 MINI and by looking at your face you enjoyed it. Just remember other customers will not allow you to do that and we all laughed.

So we went inside and the sales guy went back to his desk and the GM and I went back into his office to talk about the new car. I gave him the same review above and he agreed and said few MINI owners really like the new car. He did say this car is a way to attract new customers to the MINI brand from the Mazda 3, Ford Focus, Toyota / Scion brands. This MINI is not a upgrade to an older MINI unless you like and wanted the changes which most MINI enthusiast don't. He also told me from his older MINI's this car is more BMW than MINI and he missed uniqueness that the older MINI offered.

Here is a pick of the one I drove.

 

No more barefoot driving for this R53...

 

I use palm fronds.......

 

Drove home from work as usual. Bobbing and weaving through traffic. I am starting to lose hope in finding a MINI owner who is as enthusiastic as me. Every MINI owner I see I either wave at them as they pass or chase them down and give them a thumbs up. Lately all the owners I've seen are older women who seem to be driving their cooper only because it's CUTE. I was even flipped off by a clubman (older woman) owner who must of thought I was some jacka$$ waving at her. Have yet to see a customized MINI between Portland and Salem Oregon. Maybe i'm the only one hah