I received today a wonderful, signed, photograph taken by Juan Calderon during MINI Takes The States last year – framed and sold by Robert Ballard and his new TwistyBitz business:
I was tempted to leave it “installed” in the back of GPMINI – but I suspect it won’t fair well when I’m accelerating at GP speeds on twisties 🙂
(Thanks Robert, and Juan!)
GBMINI#3, that is – now to be known as “REDSX1” and owned by Paul & Pauline, who collected the car from MINI of Peabody today:
Coincidentally, Paul & Pauline are also British ex-pats, who lived within about 10 miles of me back in the 1980s (near Bath)! Hope to see you again next weekend, at the MINI of Peabody Spring Rally!
And here’s another coincidence …
Saturday, heading back from Pasta For Pat and having recently been listening to Gabe on WhiteRoofRadio singing the praises of the BMW Z4 M coupe, what passed me on I93 north of Boston but that very car!
The Z4 M slowed as it reached me, and checked out the GP, then pulled ahead and then pulled over – so I pulled up to it’s side and returned the compliment 🙂
Thumbs up for both drivers, and then the Z4 headed off …
Today, while I was meeting Paul & Pauline, tech Kevin introduced me to Robert – who had come in to learn more about the cool looking MINI he’d seen at the weekend, while driving his Z4 M coupe!
Robert also drives a very loaded MCS, with HK, NAV, JCW 210 upgraded engine, suspension, etc, etc …
I’ve spent some time investigating auto-up windows for the R56, and concluded that there are two possibilities, neither of which is an easy install … so for now, any R56 project is on hold.
Meanwhile, I got bored with the “old” MINI circuit for 2001-2006 MINIs (and 2007 convertibles), so I designed a new one and had a batch made! The primary difference of this new circuit, is that it integrates both Track Mode DSC and the “AFF” (auto-front-fogs) function, in the basic design! So now there’s only one basic circuit, which gives all features – of course you don’t have to enable the features you don’t want …
(adding a garage-opener-remote still requires extra circuitry so adds cost)
Another reason for the re-design was to reduce the component count, and thus reduce manufacturing cost – thus allowing me to provide all three circuit features at the old $45 price!
That being said, I still have a few of the original auto-up-only design in stock, so they’re now available-till-gone at a discounted price of $36! I will of course be sending refunds to people that purchased in the last couple of weeks … [UPDATE: ALL SOLD!]
