MINI Meets

After a great drive along the Kancamagus Highway and Bear Notch Road, or one of two Franconia drives, everyone meets up once more at the base of Mount Washington, for food and prizes! MC’ed by Michael – the heart and soul of Saturday afternoon 🙂

 

MINIsOnTop receives many wonderful donations from various MINI dealerships and aftermarket companies, and we offer most of them as “door prizes” – you put one or more of your “door prize” tickets in for prizes you’d like to win; you can purchase additional $1 tickets if there’s something you really want to win … prizes are displayed in the boots of MINIs, and everyone spends time checking them all out:

 

Before announcing “door prize” winners, we had many other announcements … first up, the Concours D’Elegance winners, announced by Josh; various categories, including cleanest, dirtiest, best sound system, most creative display, and best overall – which deservedly was won by Jim Smith and his NIIICE MINI, tricked out with an amazing custom body kit, lambo doors … the list goes on and on 🙂

 

Next up, Ivan’s new-for-2008 event, the Driving Skill (O)Lympics, which was VERY popular both with the drivers and spectators that attended – I’m sure this will be an even bigger hit next year (prizes donated by NMA)!

(Ivan posted DSL results on MINI2 here)
Then, the “MOTY”, presented to the compiler of the best themed music collection:

 

Now we moved on to the major raffle prize of a two year MINI Cooper Clubman lease, sponsored by Herb Chambers MINI of Boston; this prize alone raised more than $5,000 for our MOT2008 charities, and was won by Jocelyn of Jersey City, NJ, presented by Giovanni, Motoring Manager of Herb Chambers MINI:

 

And then on to the many wonderful “door prizes”, including a few big ticket items such as MINI luggage from MINI of Peabody and a trailer hitch from MINI Do More, and the much coveted prize, the Zeppelin iPod speaker kit from Bower & Wilkins:

 

Special thanks to all our sponsors, to David & family for their stellar job organizing door prizes, and to Michael for incredible MC’ing under the tent …

 

MINIsOnTop is a collection of MINIs, MINI owners, and traditions – one of which is the Saturday morning gathering at the Loon Mountain parking lot in Lincoln, NH – that company generously allows us to take over their location, and asks for nothing in return … many thanks!
(even more thanks, Loon, for having a welcome on your website for us!)

A new style of parking was tried this year – we may not try it again – but with so many MINIs, there’s no way to not get good photos!

Again this year we had some MINIs set up to sell things in the “boot sale” area, and the Concours D’Elegance with winners for best stereo, best decorated, etc:

Also of interest was MINI Do More who arrived again this year with the miniature trailer in tow (and thanks guys for again donating a trailer hitch and cargo carrier!) …

We round off the morning with Richards also-traditional drivers speech, after which everyone headed off on one of three beautiful drives, heading eventually to the Mount Washington Auto Road …

In the foreground is the MINI Clubman donated as a two year lease from Herb Chambers MINI of Boston – which raised more than $5,000 for our MOT2008 charities!

And here’s an assortment of other pictures from the morning:

Arrived at the Town & Country around 4pm Friday, having passed the Area 51 caravan of 40+ MINIs on the way, now it’s time to meet & greet, including trivia contest organizers Libby & Bill, MOT Maestro Steve, moose hunter Brian, MINIs, ducks …

The evening brings friendship, drinks(!) and the trivia contest … we had another great turn out this year, bolstered by Sundaes on Friday sponsored by New Country MINI – and with an additional donation per attendee, we received more than $1,000 from New Country MINI in addition to the ice-cream!

And again this year, the Trojan Peeps won!