British Invasion and driving with Jason Ross

Posted on by Ian C.

Back from our British Invasion weekend in Stowe. Drove a total of 583 miles – including an AMAZING 100 mile round-trip to nowhere planned and led by Jason Ross (“snid” on MINI2) who lives in the area and clearly knows it very well! Thank you again Jason! And I hope you find new employment soon (he was one of the many people recently laid off by IBM).
We arrived in Stowe at 5:30pm Friday evening, collected our registration package (which included a red coolbag gift) and checked in to the Olde England Inne, directly opposite the show field. Hurricane Isabel remained quite kind, with only light rain during our drive up.
Saturday morning I got up at 8, and spent half an hour wiping all the dirt off GBMINI before meeting Jason, and driving with him onto the show field, where I also met Keith (mudbud) on MINI2).

 

In total there were 8 or 9 new MINIs – but none of us got any prize! People still prefer the old Minis I guess (maybe next year we will get our own class). There was a long delay with the award giving on Saturday afternoon, so four of us left the show field early; we followed Jason on the 100 mile loop drive which, including scenic stops and a short walk on (a very small part of) “The Long Trail”, got us back to Stowe at 7:30pm.

After that we all enjoyed a great Thai dinner at “Red Basil” in Stowe, then headed our separate ways.

This morning Margaret & I left the Inne and followed route 100 south, down through Woodstock before joining the Interstate. Including many scenic stops and dinner, it took us 8 hours to drive the 240 miles home!


GBMINI claims 34.5mpg at an average 47.8mph … but the mpg estimate is always overconfident; I guess 31-32mpg but after filling in Stowe this morning and driving home, I am still at half a tank!

GBMINI goes to Brookhaven

Posted on by Ian C.

Headed to Brookhaven Retirement Community tonight! Life has not been that tough; we had a “Showcase Of Minis” event organized through NEMO (New England Mini Owners).
3 or 4 classic Minis and 5 or 6 new MINIs got together to show off the cars to the Brookhaven residents; two Morgans also came!
Many of the residents had fond memories of driving similar classic cars – some knew more than we did about Minis! Some people got short rides in new or classic Minis around the Brookhaven estate, which is a very fancy place! And we got free food too – hot dogs, burgers and even ice-cream.

A nice gathering – looking forward to more of the same.

 

GBMINI meets Mr.Tumnus (“Scooterboy”)

Posted on by Ian C.

This morning I drove to MINI Peabody to meet “scooterboy” (Scott Connell). When I arrived, Jayson Walkers red MCS was just leaving – he is at the dealership even more than I am!
Scott arrived shortly after (one of the rare moments when I photo a person instead of a MINI!); we compared MINIs, stereos, roofs – Scott had just fitted a static cling Union Jack decal over his sunroof (to keep the car cooler in the summer) – it looked very good and well fitted!

GBMINI meets Mr Tumnus

Scott has only owned his MINI since early July 2003, and has already put nearly 5000 miles on it! He has also upgraded his stereo system including a self powered sub under the passenger seat; it gave his system a little more low end bass than the Harmon Kardon system in my car, but it was not anything like as impressive as Jayson Walkers car (but then Jays speakers probably cost more than Scotts complete stereo install!)
Scott has also made a “decoy” faceplate to cover his aftermarket head unit, using a MINI factory head unit acquired on eBay – he kindly gave me the unused electronics from it, in case it helps with my Harmon Kardon investigations – what a nice person 🙂
I also asked him about the meaning of his cars name “TUMNUS” … he told me about “Lucy meeting Mr Tumnus, a faun, in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” (a childrens book by C.S.Lewis which I read many years ago – perhaps I should read it again when I finish with Harry Potter)!