ALLGBMINI – Page 390 – M&I / GBMINI

Burning MINIs 2 & Guy Fawkes Day!

Posted on November 5, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

Burning MINIs 2 was a very blue event! It even included MaxaMINI‘s MINI, driven by the lovely Mart:

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On the drive, there were other colors, with the fall foliage still looking good (with early November temperatures in the 60s and sunny, it’s not surprising!). Our first stop was at MINI Peabody where our MINIs joined the new ones and nearly filled the lot (made worse by a delivery of brand new MINIs!):

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Then, more driving, to a destination of Russells Orchards:

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And finally back to the farm starting point – where we were joined for a short time by a few MINIs who had spent the day driving the Mohawk Trail:

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Now it was bonfire time – since the day (November 5th) was Guy Fawkes Day in England, I made a Guy who had driven up with me in the morning; during the day he had gathered some friends but now it was time to send him up in flames! We finished the evening enjoying the fire, lighting sparklers, and eating burgers & steak cooked on the BBQ …

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Driving to work

Posted on November 3, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

… in this late fall, with beautiful trees and beautiful skies; so I stopped a took a few pics:

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The Haynes Manual for MINIs

Posted on November 1, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

I just received my Haynes manual for the MINIs (see this weblog entry)!

The Haynes manual makes an interesting comparison with the Bentley one which came out last year; the Bentley manual is much more expensive ($100 compared with less than $30) and it shows – at least in the quality of the paper – the Haynes manual is printed on very low cost non-white paper, with a rough feel; the Bentley is pristine smooth & pure white.

But in other respects, the Haynes wins easily. I may be biased to Haynes having used them regularly in my earlier fix-my-own-car years, but the contents of the Haynes manual seems to me to be much more useful. For example, they have taken the trouble to re-draw the electrical schematics so that you can actually understand them – see above (Bentley simply re-printed MINIs own wiring diagrams).

I freely admit that I don’t own either the Bentley or Haynes manuals because I plan to work on the car – they are just part of the collection – but if I did need one, the Haynes would win. Three times less expensive, clearer wiring diagrams and actually the less quality paper is probably a benefit – you won’t worry so much about dirty fingerprints getting on it!