MTTS2006

Tonights dinner at the Monterey Bay Aquarium was a wonderful end to an amazing day – the location was relaxed and peaceful (after hours), with live music and great food, and so many interesting sea creatures to admire … major kudos to the people that organized this event, for selecting such a great end to today: starting with anticipation, then the first sight of more than 30 GPs, finally getting the key and heading out for our first thrilling drive, and finishing quietly watching fish swim around 🙂

Todays GP delivery event at Laguna Seca was fabulous! By about 9:30 this morning there were people hovering around the hotel – but the coach did not leave till 11am! Soon enough though, we arrived and saw in the distance a cluster of GPs, arranged in a diagonal pattern of increasing roof number:

I quickly found my GP#0203, confirmed also with my name on a card on the dash and GPMINI license plates (see photos above). Immediately I noticed things I had not known about the GP – little extra surprises like the black handle on the trunk, and the repeated GP roof number (“0203/2000”) on the dash.

After looking over the cars for a while, MINI USA insisted we eat lunch, which was excellent; there was a speech from Tom Purves and finally they began to hand out GP keys, in numeric order – so the first USA GP owner is Bruce Mueller with GP#0016.

More owners were called up – it took a while because some owners needed guidance about MINI features like toggle switches, having never before driven a MINI (!) – but finally it was time for GP#0203, and Jim McDowell gave me the keys.

After that, we spent ages admiring the car, then headed over to watch some classic race cars on the track, before finally heading out for a few miles of driving.