Lunch at MINI Peabody

Posted on by Ian C.

Today there were a number of MINIs at MINI Peabody; some in for service, some just visiting … Steve needed a wheel hub replacing after a bolt sheared in it at the end of his track day this week, Ivan had a strange noise from the front of the car (turned out to be loose suspension) and Jason had a Borla exhaust installed!
Lunch (pizza from Steve and cake from Dan) was served, while watching one of Hrach MINI videos, upstairs in the “staff canteen”:

(Jared, Susan, Dan, Ivan, Steve, Evan and Jason)

Thanks to MINI Peabody for allowing us to hang out – more like visiting family than a car dealership!

“mini MOT”

Posted on by Ian C.

Today I joined some other MINIs for a “mini MOT” trip around Worcester, including Wachusett mountain. The day began at Bancroft Tower in Worcester, with MINIs gathering:

 

For a while we had 11 MINIs but Jeff dropped out and headed home, leaving us with 10 when we arrived at our first stop – “Major Willard Moore State Park”:

Minolta DSC

After a pleasant walk around the park, we returned to the MINIs and headed up Wachusett mountain, for some great views and light breezes to help cool us off:


Next stop was Wachusetts Brewery, including free samples (and no, I did not try any!); then, after some interesting back road driving, we arrived at Mikes house where a BBQ was on offer – Mikes home is a very nice place, with great landscaping for a very peaceful afternoon. And loads of food!

Eventually I had to leave, along with Jared, Harvey and Jason, heading up 290 and 495 in speedy convoy:

 

Special thanks to Mike and family for organizing the day, and for providing a spectacular quantity of great food and hospitality! Thanks also to Jeff for the Friday night personal tour of Worcester, for modifying my EZpass, and for the “eyes”:

Cape Cod MINI relaxes after MINIsOnTop

Posted on by Ian C.

On Monday, MINIsOnTop Mountain Maestro Steve (Cape Cod MINI) found that the best way to wind down after organizing MINIsOnTop is to wind up the revs on the track at NHIS, organized by the SCDA. For my part in easing the end of MINIsOnTop, I went up to watch him drive and took some pictures and video!

The SCDA events are quite expensive ($235/day) but with four half hour sessions on the track and a lot of class time, it seems that Steve got value for money! I saw three track sessions, and sat in on a couple of class times too (which were very well presented and educational) – Steve improved throughout the day and on the final run was passed by no-one!
Steve’s MINI Cooper S, like all MINIs, performed very well on cornering (beating all other cars in his class) but on the straights he was beaten by the higher power engined cars – this resulted in Steve being stuck behind some cars for most of the track (many corners at NHIS) but being unable to pass on the main straight.

This was solved on the last run because some of the drivers had quit, and because Steve was at the front of the queue so never got stuck behind more powerful cars, and instead had fun passing the slower cars (including another MINI Cooper S running on runflat tires!) …