GPMINI ready for winter

Posted on by Ian C.

(if it ever comes!)

It seemed a bit silly having heated washer jets and snow tires installed on GPMINI today, with sun and 55 degrees! But supposedly it’s winter in New England so …

The heated washer jet retrofit (p/n 61 66 0 029 716) for some reason isn’t available from MINI USA – so I got it from MikeyTheMINI. Installation is quite easy – the jets are replaced, a wiring harness is added under the hood and wired back through the firewall to the fusebox in the driver footwell … The more important job was fitting snow tires to GPMINI – there’s no 18″ snow tires available, so I needed new wheels too. Initially I was going to use the 17″ S-lites but I just don’t like their look! So I paid extra to get 17″ bullet-spoke wheels … a much nicer look for GPMINI. The tires are Pirelli Winter 240 SnowSport 205/45R17 84V, and I bought MINI tire totes to keep the original wheels / tires nice.

So now we’ll see if it ever gets cold / snowy … but really I won’t mind too much if these snow tires get no use 😉

The 2007 NorthAmericanMotoring calendar

Posted on by Ian C.

A great tradition – and another great calendar this year!


Like last year the NAM calendar is in color and is of course fabulous quality! I always buy two of these – one to keep and one to use 🙂

The picture above is quite interesting; a GP – actually a very specific GPMINI!
Other months feature a classic Mini (January), a great line-up of MINIs in Las Vegas (March), classic Mini rears (May) and an amazing green aurora (December).

Thanks to Mark @ NAM and everyone that provided pictures to make this excellent calendar 🙂

Head over to NorthAmericanMotoring to order your calendar

(previous years: 2006, 2005; apparently I never posted the 2004 calendar!)

The Awesomeness Of Small

Posted on by Ian C.

So … who still remembers the secret black box, containing the Awesomeness Of Small book? That book “secretly” contained three decoders to reveal messages in MINI advertising:
– The first used the Magic Window Decryptor, leading you to a strange website which, with a MINI VIN, took you to a Super Secret Insider page where you learned about MINI Takes The States.
– The second advert used the Super Secret Decoder, revealing letters that took you to a website which was (shockingly) soon announced on MotoringFile: MINIspygear.com; this site offered the chance to acquire a neat MINI Adventure Toggle Switch Panel Kit.

Now, the third advert has appeared – I got mine from Rolling Stone today, and here’s a scan (UPDATE: I’ve now included the decoded image too, photo’ed through the red glasses!):

The text below says “Attention non-MINI owners: This is the blurb of copy that you’re relegated to reading, instead of enjoying the hilarious and finely crafted ad above. You’re missing out. It’s really quite good. But hey, this little paragraph is yours, and no one can take that away from you. So, enjoy it. Bask in it. Relish every single word. Yeah, it may not be as fun as the ad above, but your car isn’t as fun as a MINI, so you kind of asked for it. Find your nearest dealer at MINIUSA.com” – hope it doesn’t upset too many non-MINI owners!

To decode this advert you need the Red Glasses – they reveal another message and a link to yet another website related to the Awesomeness Of Small … the message says “Congratulations. You’ve discovered a secret message. Try to play it cool. We know it’s hard with the glasses. Your next MINI confidential destination is … LET’S MOTOR”

When you follow the newest website link, you get to see a few more “trinkets” (including a fun song which I hope we will be allowed to download!). Once again, a MINI VIN will take you deeper into the website and this time you get the chance to order a Totally Awesome Medallion (Hooray – more collectibles!):


Keep watching (in a month or two?) for when I get my medallion 🙂

UPDATE:
When you decode the advert, it sends you to this AwesomenessOfSmall website, so now you can go and see what it’s all about! 😉