ALLGBMINI – Page 376 – M&I / GBMINI

Astro Black & English Leather

Posted on February 8, 2006February 7, 2017 by Ian C.

Dropped by MINI Peabody today to see how everyone is doing – lots of MINIs in the lot and a nice Astro Black in the showroom – this one also has the “English Panther Black Leather” interior ($1700 option!) – it looks fabulous …

Minolta DSC

… but I found it much less comfortable to sit in than GBMINI; the seats felt very stiff. Maybe it’s just because it is new (I remember GBMINI#3 was not initially as comfortable as GBMINI#2 when I traded), or maybe the English Leather is just much thicker and less giving than the cloth/leather combo that I have.

But anyway, if it looks great, who cares how comfortable it is 🙂

Another way to replace the HK

Posted on February 6, 2006February 12, 2017 by Ian C.

A while ago on NorthAmericanMotoring was another interesting discussion about upgrading an HK equipped MINI – the basic problem is that the HK amp requires to “talk” to the stock head unit (unless you fool it with an HKenabler); also the speakers are tailored to the HK amp, with no crossover (filtering is done inside the amp) and dual-voice-coil rear speakers.

However, there’s always a way if you work at it, and magic mini successfully replaced the HK amp while keeping the HK speakers – you can read his post on NAM here and see pictures of the install here.

With permission, I copied a couple of the most interesting pictures …

magic mini had hoped to fit the new Alpine in the original HK amp position, but sadly it did not fit (as shown in the pictures), so eventually the amp is installed on the floor of the trunk.

Great work magic mini, and thanks for permission to run this story. If anyone else is thinking of doing the same, please realize that you need a good understanding of wiring / speaker impedance / crossovers / etc to make it work!

IKEA & BBQ with MAMA

Posted on February 4, 2006February 12, 2017 by Ian C.

After cleaning GBMINI I headed south to meet up to 20 other MINIs at the services on I95/128 just south of I90:

Minolta DSC

From there we took a very circuitous route first south, then north, then south again, back past where we began, before finally heading properly south towards IKEA!

Minolta DSC

We did successfully arrive at IKEA and after admiring their IKEA zipcar MINI we headed into the store to do some shopping!

Minolta DSC

After IKEA we headed to Smokey Bones restaurant for lunch, where they coped admirably with being invaded by 20-30 MINI folk!

Minolta DSC

We ended the day with some of us heading back north through Boston and the Big Dig tunnels, sadly too busy with traffic to be as much fun as the run back in 2004

It was a great day to see MINI folks, chat, shop, eat, drive and just have fun! Thanks to everyone that came 🙂