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MINI United 2009 – Day 2

May 23, 2009 on 11:57 pm | In Recent Posts | 2 Comments

The festivities continued on Day 2 and we could not have asked for any better weather.  Believe it turned out to be perhaps the warmest day of the year.   Attendances was up over yesterday but due to the massive size of Silverstone it is difficult to gauge if attendance is higher then in 2007 where MINI reported 8000 people and 3000 cars.  I am pretty sure we should top 2007 but we’ll see by how much.

Started the day by heading to the ‘Mini 50 Year’ area where they have on display the First Mini, George Harrison’s Mini that was handed over to charity and the 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally Car.

Then off to the ‘Best of Mini Originality’ area where the collection of unique cars are on display.  Everything from the most recent Crossover and Geneva concepts to the  Classics of Mr Bean,  David Bowie and Paul Smith to the more recent Madonna and Alan Aldridge MINI’s.  There was no stopping the bears they wanted to sit on everything.

Headed over to the garage area where the Mini Seven cars had just finished racing and I left the bears with their new friend who promised them a track ride.

The MINI Challenge cars were preparing for their race and spotted some drivers relaxing prior to the race.   Amazingly the Mini Seven race laps were just .05 seconds off from the Challenge car races.

 Special Guest’s in attendance, the legendary Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk who both won the Monte Carlo rally with their respective classics as well as Mike Cooper who entertained fans playing guitar with his Band.

 

Met up with Robert and his sister Jennifer who also attended MINI United 2007 and MTTS  and the always very hospitable dutch friends prior to taking in a few minutes of Paul Weller before calling it a night.

 For all the Day’s Pictures