jcwgp.com

MINI United 2009 – Day 1

May 22, 2009 on 11:30 pm | In MINI UNITED 2009, Recent Posts | 2 Comments

I arrived at Silverstone about 30 minutes prior to the official opening and there were already a large number of cars/attendees queuing up for registration.

At the entrance way to greet everyone there was a Red MINI and a Tahiti Blue Cooper Sport.  Something seemed familiar about the Cooper Sport,  the registration X5230FC belongs to my Cooper Sport.    My Cooper Sport was a former Mini UK Press car that they exported early last year and I checked that X523oFC has not been reissued and still shows  assigned to my vin so they must have had an extra set of plates laying around that they placed on this LHD for the display.  So Blue is here in one fashion

In the lot there where lots of cool cars, plenty of GP’s as well and counted 20 roof numbers during the day.  Pictured is ‘Snowie’ who just acquired his second GP earlier this year and it is fitted with the R56 JCW Brakes indicating that it is indeed possible to fit them to the GP but more on that on a separate post next week on GPMINI.  Also pictured is perhaps the most drastically altered GP though I was pleased to find out it is just a body wrap and underneath it is still Thunder Blue that can be set back to original.

 

Inside the setup was similar to  that of MINI United 2007 but this year they had added a few more areas.  ‘Flaunt your Mini’ – Prior to the event attendees were able to post pictures of their cars on the Mini United site and of all posted 100 were selected by the Mini Design team to be on display for a car show with a winner selected on Sunday.  Red was selected to be on display but unfortunately she’s in garage grounded from the road travel but she would have faced stiff competition from this Mini 40 who I first met last year and has won just about every event its been in.

The MINI 50 Year Anniversary area has place holders to cover all 50 models years and was growing as the day progressed and YES in the GP spot is indeed GP0001.

 

They also have a Traders area and a MINI United Club tent area that has various clubs setup like Russia, Holland and also where I found the MINI USA tent shared with White Roof Radio.

 

Across from the MINI USA tent is a John Cooper Display to support the new JCW Championship 50 aka F1 all finished in nonmetallic British Racing Green.   I was asked what I thought about it and it is an attractive car but not something I would add to my fleet (personally would not get a green car)  Only 250 are to be made and it doesn’t look like the US will get a single one so that just makes my decision easier though I do have to admit I had inquired about availability at my dealer a few weeks back.  Yes it will be a limited edition and  outside of the unique paint and a few badges it does not sound like there is anything separating it from a normal JCW car.   I guess if I was a green puff I’d be drooling over this and had this been some really cool blue variant I’d be all over it.

Lots of GP’s in attendance, documented 20 roof numbers but I’m sure there are more out there I didn’t catch.  We’ll know tomorrow night at 6pm when 50 GPs are schedule to take to the track in a parade lap.  Should be the largest gather of GPs.

The bears had a great time as well taking a ride on this Riley and playing with Scooby.

 

Met up with Mark ‘GP1996′ and his newlywed wife Teresa and her mom Olga who are making Mini United their Mini Honeymoon.   Later that evening we all attended the Mini USA sponsored ‘Pub Crawl’ event where we headed up to the wonderful village of Yardley Hastings to two very traditional pubs for initially drinks at the Red Lion and then dinner in the later at the Rose & Crown.  An absolutely fantastic setting and a lot of very familiar faces with many of the attendees having previously attended MTTS ‘06, ‘07 or Mini United ‘07.  Well done MINI USA.. again!.

 

For all the days pictures