MTTS’08 Saturday evening

After a morning meet-and-greet, then driving through town traffic from Boston to Gloucester, lunch in Gloucester, and a spirited ride back to Boston, we spent the afternoon at MTTS’08 Boston driving MINIs on the auto-x and meeting MINI friends old and new, including auto-up-windows MINI circuit fan Mike (left, with Pete). Throughout the afternoon, it was never busy – maybe everyone was still out stuck in traffic between Gloucester and Boston – so the parking lot was sparse, but with two happy GPs:

 

At 6pm, the beer taps opened – to the relief of many, including Gerry Matthews and his MINI USA colleagues; and as 7pm closed in, people headed over to the music stage for The Fountains Of Wayne – but with few MINIs in the parking lot, there weren’t many people at the stage either … and many of them were MINI USA or R.A.Events folks, including Trudy, sporting skid marks on her arm 🙂

 

 

Oh, there was also a proposal! The girlfriend was shocked silent but did manage to say “yes” eventually …

 

And that’s the end for me – I’ll spend Sunday not doing MINI stuff, and prepare for another MINI marathon next weekend!

Many thanks to MINI USA (especially Gerry, Jim, Steve and Trudy), R.A.Events (especially Kevin & Ray), to Margaret, George & Jayne, Theo & Carol, Michael & Pam, Richard & Lynne, Ivan & Norrine, Brian & Susan, Sheena, Mike, Peter, Todd & DB (of White Roof Radio), and everyone reading … it wouldn’t be much fun without all my MINI friends!

MTTS’08 JCW cars

Nearby the auto-x track, a couple of new factory JCW cars were parked – and they look nice! I wonder if they’ve improved the clutch feel to make them more driveable?

If I had to get an R56/R55 factory JCW, it would have to be the Clubman! It looks so much better than the regular car in JCW form – the twin rear exhausts are much nicer, the stance of the car is much better, and in red/black form, the black pouring down the back off the roof gives it a beautiful look.

You might have seen on MotoringFile that Todd got a ride in a (non-Clubman) factory JCW on the auto-x course … and GBMINI was there with camera 🙂