jcwgp.com

MTTS 2008 - Miami Day 1

June 13, 2008 on 10:14 pm | In MTTS_2008, Recent Posts |

Flew into Miami and rented a Cooper S Convertible to attend the kick off of MINI Takes the States 2008.   I went straight to the hotel to check in and catch the rest of the Netherlands-France match.  It rained for most of the match but no sooner did the match finish did the sea part and the sun shined once again.

 

So I had a few hours to kill before the start of the MINI Owners party so I took a drive to Key Biscane and enjoyed the scenery.

Then it was off to Bicentenial Park where it felt like a MTTS 2006 reunion meeting up with all the folks from MINI USA, RAEvents and many folks from last years Mickey and Mini event.  (Ian, many folks asked about you)

Special Guest in attendance is the legendary Rauno Aaltonen who won the 1967 Monte Carlo rally in his 1275cc Cooper S who was kind enough to pose for a few pictures.  Its unfortunate I won’t be able to do the Miami to Boston drive as I am sure it will be a blast.

 

Two GPs were in attendance Florida ‘GP MINI’ GP1215 and GP0972 amongst the ~200 cars in attendance.

 It wasn’t all new MINI’s, The Classics were well represented and a group of four all came together and looked like little toys cars amongst the landscape.

After a snack it was time to get some popcorn and sit back and watch National Treasure on the big screen.

 

Ran into Todd and DB and on my way out there were two Cooper Sports, a Tahiti Blue twin to my Blue Cooper Sport and a Red Cooper Sport.   I wish I still had my Red Classic so I could have driven her down here :(.    hmm, maybe I can convince the guy who owns this Red one to sell it to me tomorrow and I can drive it up on the rally? Oh if it just wasn’t for that damn annoying ‘work’

 Convertible? I think this is the most time I’ve spent driving a MINI Convertible.  I have never been one for convertibles but did enjoy driving around with the top down though I find the inability to view anything in the rear view a bit getting used to but found the damn automatic transmission to be the real annoyance.   It is just god aweful! (maybe since its a rental its never seen the inside of the dealership for any sort of maintence… yeah thats what it must be.)

Can’t wait for tomorrow festivities and maybe let’s make a deal…..

For all the pictures