Rain, Apples, and Sundaes

Posted on by Ian C.

Today was wet – but it didn’t stop 10 MINIs getting together to drive, pick apples and eat ice cream, including Brian, recently from Indianapolis, joined us, showing off stripes from Todd Pearson. The wet roads and sometimes heavy rain slowed down the drive, but with the trees starting to turn it was still pretty!

Arriving at George’s Hill Orchard, we met Peter who had driven up from New York, and had the choice of buying or picking apples, and having lunch:

 

After lunch, more driving, partly through roads with no surface(!) and our final destination of the day, to Colonial Candies – with candies, and penguins!

 

Many thanks to Sheena for organizing this event (see this MINI2 thread) – also thanks to Ivan for putting together a great music selection (and he asked me to say “I didn’t skip any tracks!”)

GP in a GP

Posted on by Ian C.

My colleague Christians father, Guy, has been visiting USA from France recently … Guy has driven many cars during his life, including F1 and Formula 3000 cars, and has raced – including “real” ice racing … so yesterday I gave him the keys to GPMINI!

Guys first comment on his return – what a shame the speed limits are so low around Essex & Gloucester … He also thanked me for letting him drive “his” car – the GP is perhaps named after him (Guy Peyla)!

GPMINI’s window specification sticker

Posted on by Ian C.

I was asked today why GPMINI’s rear windows weren’t tinted … good question! So Joe suggested that I check the “window sticker” specification sheet:

 

Tinted rear windows aren’t listed – but they’re also not listed for GBMINI#3 so that doesn’t prove much.

Interestingly though, there are some other quirks of the GP specification:


I wonder where passengers 3 and 4 are supposed to sit?!

And, it’s claimed that the GP is pre-wired for CD changer but many owners have tried but failed to find the wiring; it must be really well hidden!

Finally, although not really an error, whoever edited the GP specific document must have run out of space – they listed DSC in the “engineering and safety features” section, but overwrote the “flat tire monitor” option which appears in the same place on normal MINI lists (hopefully they didn’t omit the actual flat tire monitor function!)

With errors like these, it’s no wonder we were wrongly told that the GP was pre-wired for the alarm … the GP drives wonderfully and looks fabulous, but it’s complete list of features & specifications are hard to find 🙂

(and we’re still waiting to discover if and how a factory alarm can be installed into a GP … are you listening, Mr. Stracco?)