Great news, Keith!

About one year ago, we learned that Keith Polischuk, Motoring Advisor at MINI of Peabody, suffered a terrible back injury leaving him mostly paralyzed from the neck down, and in a wheelchair.

In the months since, Keith has spent a huge amount of time (and, doubtless, money) in a fight to regain some of his lost mobility. There have been many fund raising activities, including the excellent Get Into It event organized by MINI of Peabody last year.

More recently, Keith has returned to work part time at the dealership, and today he posted on MINI2 that he has improved to the point where he is now once again licensed to drive!
… the state of Massachusetts has given me back the privilege to drive (technically I never gave up my license, they would have had to pry it from my cold dead grip lol) I passed my roadtest for handcontrols last Friday …

UPDATE: Just now, Keith writes on MINI2:
My New whip is a Black ’06 Toyota Tundra Access Cab, 4.7V8 TRD Offroad pkg, limited slip, 4×4. I’m in the process of getting a number of special mods done so I can drive it (a mere $13k-$17k of mods). The mods will allow me to get in and out easily, as well as having my chair picked up and placed in the bed …


CONGRATULATIONS, Keith

MINIsOnTop 2006 Sponsors #6

This is the final MINIsOnTop 2006 sponsors update – sorry it’s late but I’ve been somewhat busy recently, also waiting for confirmation from a few late sponsors …

First up is “Pinky”, a custom model MINI personally signed by Penn & Teller!


This model was provided by MINIsOnTop “yellow hat” volunteer Michael (M2Smith), then disassembled, painted pink, and rebuilt by Julian of Sublime Restorations. Meanwhile, the roof was signed by Penn & Teller. This prize, along with the many other donations, will be available as a “door prize” to someone present at MINIsOnTop – every registrant gets five door prize tickets, and more can be bought for just $1 each!

Sublime Restorations has also donated some other excellent gift certificates: An Autobahnd install on your MINI, two panels of paintless dent removal, and $500 towards any paint / body-work! Sublime Restorations is an excellent local body shop; they also did the painting on my union jack roof on GBMINI#2, and my “S” design and painted bonnet stripes on GBMINI#3.

Craven Speed has donated a great collection, including a 2% over-drive crank pulley and 5% alternator pulley, a hat & shirt and two custom engraved antennas.

Cambridge Soundworks (via Michael / M2Smith) has donated a Radio CD 740 table radio – it won’t fit your MINI, but it’s very nice anyway 🙂

Whalen Shift Machine (via Rich) has donated another custom gear shift knob (as he did in 2005 and 2004); better gear shifting and a much nicer feel than stock (but freezing cold in the winter!)

Towne MINI are donating a huge collection of stuff including a MINI convertible pedal car, remote control MINI, sports watch and an assortment of MINI clothing.

Previous MINIsOnTop sponsor shout-outs:
The major raffle prize from Herb Chambers MINI
Concord Motorsport, Bavarian Autosport, OutMotoring, SSG Precision Optronics
Prestige MINI, GBMINI circuits, North American Motoring, and John, Gayle and TiNY
The major raffle prize from MINI of Peabody
National Motorists Association, SooperCoopers, Chip and Derek
OceanStateMINI club, WebbMotorSports, Bentley Publishers
Oxford Motorsports, Miniature Trailers, Pete, Becca

Many thanks to all MINIsOnTop sponsors!

MINI Takes The States registration

If you haven’t yet seen anything about MINI Takes The States (and here), the new limited edition MINI Cooper S with John Cooper Works GP kit, GP delivery in Monterey, etc, where have you been? Not reading MotoringFile, obviously!

A big part of MINI Takes The States is to encourage MINI owners and clubs around the country to sign up and join in with part of the drive; visiting MTTS just now the “See Who’s Coming” button now works, listing the number & names of people signed up for each part of the drive (or the whole drive)!

Apparently almost 1300 people have signed up for at least part of the event:
Leg 1: 272 (Monterey to Santa Barbara)
Leg 2: 235 (Santa Barbara to Las Vegas)
Leg 3: 176 (Las Vegas to Flagstaff)
Leg 4: 157 (Flagstaff to Albuquerque)
Leg 5: 126 (Albuquerque to Amarillo)
Leg 6: 143 (Amarillo to Dallas)
Leg 7: 174 (Dallas to Memphis)
Leg 8: 166 (Memphis to Nashville)
Leg 9: 171 (Nashville to St.Louis)
Leg 10: 194 (St.Louis to Indianapolis)
Leg 11: 176 (Indianapolis to Charleston)
Leg 12: 181 (Charleston to Charlottesville)
Leg 13: 249 (Charlottesville to Washington, DC)
Leg 14: 274 (Washington, DC to Jersey City)
Leg 15: 300 (Jersey City to Lakeville)

Every Leg: 71!