ALLGBMINI – Page 396 – M&I / GBMINI

British Invasion 2005

Posted on September 18, 2005February 19, 2017 by Ian C.

Another year, another trip to Stowe for British Invasion (see also 2003 and 2004)

Once again, a serious amount of rain made the show field very muddy, and I think many cars were put off – the attendance looked down from previous years, and modern MINIs counted more than classics this year, for the first time (14 moderns, 11 classics):

Minolta DSC

Many other British cars too, old & new, including a handful of $$$$$ Astons – all owned by the same guy (that’s just showing off)!

Minolta DSC

I was thrilled this year to get first prize in the peoples choice – what’s more, the prize plaque was the correct color for GBMINI#3; a really nice Mini pickup, owned by Shannon, got first in the classic Mini section:

GBMINI#3 gets first prize

Minolta DSC

On the Sunday, more overnight rain caused the “backseat driver” event to be cancelled. There were a few “tailgate picnic” entrants and a reasonable turnout for the “parade of colors” displays, but many people had headed home. But one Mini / MINI pair had accidentally posed for me:

Minolta DSC

33mpg!

Posted on September 18, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

Just back from British Invasion …
Responding to a request from Ivan, and recent weblog posts from Josh and Don. I decided to experiment with fuel economy. The drive to/from Stowe VT is mostly highway and once you are out past Manchester NH it is quiet too – so I drove the whole way there and back with cruise control locked in at 68mph; I figured with the speedometer optimism I am really doing the speed limit of 65.
At that speed you rarely need to brake/accelerate to deal with other traffic, and the few times I did stop/start I was very gentle with the pedals to minimize fuel guzzling acceleration.

The result:

GBMINI#2 gets 33mpg!

This is pretty accurate too – the OBC on GBMINI#3 is close to correct, other than it is brain dead; it hovered at 32.1 for ages, then jumped to 32.6, then to 33.1 – my guess is it really calculated (European) litres/100km to the nearest whole number, then just converts the result!

After driving up (about 220 miles) and “hauling ass” with Jason & Ricardo yesterday evening taking the “MINI scenic” route from Stowe to Burlington for dinner, I filled up at 420 miles (!) on the way home today – my calculated figure for that is 31.5mpg but the original OBC figure on the way up was drastically reduced by the spirited driving last night.

Driving home today, as well as the speed & (no)acceleration limits, I did not need the A/C; as a result even with the drive yesterday, I believe the 33mpg overall average.

Apparently if I drove continuously on the highway at about 65 with no traffic and no A/C, I could get about 500 miles from one tank!

BUT:
Driving the MINI like this is VERY boring – this was a one-off experiment …

Spa Excellence

Posted on September 15, 2005February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

Today I took GBMINI back to MINI Peabody to get the SES light solved; as suspected it was a return of the spurious fault P0136 and hopefully the software update will eliminate the issue.
While I was there I also had GBMINI properly “spa cleaned”; MINI Peabody charges a reasonable $129 and the results were stunning when I picked up the car this evening (shame it was raining so hard on the way home!)

GBMINI#3 spa

GBMINI#3 spa inside too

I am so pleased with the results 🙂

I know I can do my own thing with Zaino but here I did nothing (except hand over a credit card) and got fabulous results – GBMINI looks brand new again! Actually it was particularly nice of MINI Peabody to park the car in the delivery area, keeping it out of the rain, because I never had a true delivery with pics, so now these pics can substitute!

One other thing that I had done today was to switch the tailights from the USA all-red version to the European red/yellow version:

Minolta DSC

Gabe recently switched his to clear/white but I don’t like that look too much; but when following the links to MikeyTheMINIs NewMINIstuff web site I found that he also sells the (European) stock ’05 taillights, which have a yellow flasher in place of the red one that USA cars have …
So I ordered some, they came quickly, and now they are installed … little differences that make each MINI unique 😉