Big Rocks

Posted on by Ian C.

Near the British Invasion field in Stowe, VT is Smugglers Notch; a twisty road winds up into hills and gets very narrow through some huge boulders … back in 2002 I drove there in my first MINI and took a picture of the car in front of a rock which made it look like a toy!
Finally this year I remembered to repeat the picture, this time with GPMINI:

GPMINI and big rock

Here’s the original picture I took, back in 2002:

 

Unfortunately on my way home from British Invasion, I had an encounter with another rock, not so big but big enough to do this to the windshield:


(since GPMINI doesn’t have rain sensing wipers, maybe I’ll try PPG glass this time …)

British Invasion 2006

Posted on by Ian C.

This years British Invasion was blessed with a dry field (thanks to relocating) and good weather! And I was “blessed” with a second first place win, this year for GPMINI instead of GBMINI:

Competition this year was generally un-modified MINIs in class 11; many other British cars on the field too – apparently their best attendance ever at over 600! Loads of different marques, ages, etc:

British Invasion always spills over into Sunday with the Competition Of Colors, and more “fun” – again this year a “backseat driver” competition where the driver is blindfolded and the passenger calls out directions …


New for this year was the “Rats Cage” competition – an octagon cage where the car has to be driven in forward, turned around without touching the cage, and driven out; small cars had an advantage but Jason couldn’t quite succeed in his MINI:

This classic Mini managed the course in about 1-1/2 minutes and showed everyone that it could be done – and more importantly how it could be done). After that times got better and better, eventually down to 20s, though the longer sports car couldn’t do it, running out of time at 5 minutes:


For more, see the British Invasion website, and previous years GBMINI trips:
British Invasion 2002
British Invasion 2003
British Invasion 2004
British Invasion 2005

UPDATE:
Jason has posted pics over on Flickr