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MINI United 2009 – Day 3

May 24, 2009 on 11:50 pm | In Classic Mini, MINI UNITED 2009, Recent Posts | 2 Comments

Last night, onstage they unveiled the two new models to celebrate the 50th anniversary the MINI 50 Mayfair and the MINI 50 Camden.   This morning I was able to get up close and personal.

The Mayfair features Hot Chocolate brown with Leather Lounge Toffy interior, 17″ Infinite Streem wheels and unique mirror caps,  toffy bonnet stripes, side scuttle and bi-color steering wheel amongst a few other cosmetic items to make it unique.  

 

 The Camden is finished in a rather nice White-Silver and has a combo cloth/leather Ray Tech White interior and 17″ Silver Shield Camden wheels as well as unique side scuttle and mirror caps and xenon headlamps.  The Camden will come standard with Harmon Kardon which after a few years absence will be available for the R56.  The new HK system is supposed to boast 10 speakers and 480 Watts and does sound very nice though not sure its better then the DPSM.

Found and signed the Birthday Wall which was behind the stage where selected owners with unique or compelling cars could bring their cars onstage. GPMick arranged to have two GP’s come up to help celebrate yesterdays 62 GP gathering/track drive.  It was a real site to see 50+ GP’s on the track at the same time. 

GPMick pointed out a rather unique GP, GP0727 which was repainted white and has a tremendous amount of carbon fiber bits I have not seen previously offered anywhere.  I never met the owner to query on where he sourced the many unique carbon fibers pieces which many I wouldn’t mind adding to GP0154.  Personally I would not have repainted a GP a different colour but guess that is what makes this one stand out amongst a crowd of 50 others.   If I had a choice of the GP being a different color I do have to admit it would have been white with the red mirrors though really glad it is Thunder Blue.

Having covered most areas in the prior two days and since we were scheduled to go on a MINI USA sponsored track drive in the afternoon I chose not to do any of the several driving programs offered, some repeats of MU2007 though if I had Red with me I would have gone on the drive your Mini on the track. GoMiniGo!

After breakfast in the hospitality tent it was time for the Mike Cooper guided tour of the Challenge Garage area which provided a great opportunity to get some more autographs and pictures with Mike Cooper.

afterwards we had an opportunity for a Q&A with Mike and I inquired if he still owns any classics and appears that most of his family either have a classic or a new MINI and that he will be getting one of the 250 WC50 aka F1 cars.

After the tour it was time for Lunch with Mike Cooper and MINI USA provided us a copy of the MINI 50 Years book that we could get Mike to autograph.    As chance would have it Rauno and Paddy came in around the same time and provided the perfect opportunity to have Rauno autograph the model of the Mini he won the Monte Carlo in.   My deepest thanks to all three gentlemen who were so generous with their time as  they had an incredibly hectic schedule over the weekend.  I must one of these years go to Finland and attend one of Rauno’s driving clinics.

Then we had an opportunity to watch the Challenge race from one of the hospitality rooms overlooking the track which provided a fantastic view of several cornersand would make for a fantastic area to watch F1 from.

Then it was off for another walk around to see if any new cars came in today that I had not  seen previously and as luck would have it I spotted this absolutely stunning Mini 40 in the 50 years section and it was for sale!  Where are my pills?… So I ask you my kind sir, what does a man with a Blue and Red Mini need?  Yes, you are correct… an Old English White Mini and probably a straight jacket and a 12 step program.   The Mini 40 was a very limited edition car offered in 1999 and limited to 250 cars in the UK in Old English White, Mulberry Red and Island Blue.  This Old English White with blue leather interior would be a fine addition to my stable.

As we waited for the Track drive to take place several went off to take a helicopter tour around the track.   When it was time for our laps I ran solo in a Clubman which was right behind the convertible driven by Mark.   The pace cars kept us at a snails crawl as they probably figured these damn Americans can barely drive stick let alone RHD though I was able to sit back a bit and rush into the corners a few times.  There’s a reason I don’t do track events.  I have Montoya disease and spent most of the time fighting the urge just to overtake the cars in front up me in the turns.

And then it was time to bid everyone a farewell goodbye as the festivities had come to an end.   Walking out of the track everyone had gone and the dismantling had begun. 

Several of us (Robert, Jennifer, Mark, Teresa, Kat, Brent and Olga) decided to go to dinner at the same pub MINI USA brought us to on Friday night so we all got into our cars and made our way up to Rose & Crown only to find it closed, then off to the Red Lion and yippee they were open but only offering drinks and no food. Guess not all pubs offer food on Sunday.   (had Ian came he could of told us that   )  So we head down the road to another Red Lion we had passed earlier and yippee they were open but had just missed serving hours. We had a drink there and then headed to Britannia which the folks at Red Lion were nice enough to recommend and verify they were serving food.

It all worked out in the end as we had a great meal with great friends capping what was an epic weekend at MINI United and Many many thanks to everyone at MINI USA who made this weekend even more memorable!

Click For Day 3 Pictures