Mickey & MINI 3 Is Officially In The History Books

WOW – what a weekend!!! Just got home and I am WIPED! It was great to see so many familiar faces and meet new ones. I took plenty of photos and video which I will post once I have a chance to catch up on some sleep. Three hours a night for the past three nights has taken its toll ;). Here is a photo from Friday night’s welcome banquet where just about 1/2 of the attendees participated. As you can see we about quadrupled our attendance from last year! Stay tuned for more Mickey and MINI “stuff” in the next few days!

Mickey & MINI 3

Video: MINI Cooper Vs. MINI Cooper D

The guys over at Fifth Gear took the Cooper and Cooper D through their paces and found that while thrifty, the Cooper still is the better bang for the buck (if you are not going to drive like a grandma). The Cooper D, however, was not a total loser. It was only 2 seconds off in the auto cross test and still made the hosts as sick as the Cooper did (just watch – you’ll see).

Part 1:

Part 2:

Mickey & MINI 3 Is This Friday!

Only 5 days left before over 140 MINIacs converge in Orlando, Florida for this year’s Mickey and MINI festivities! Things are coming along very nicely for this event and the finishing touches are just about complete. For those participating in the car show this year and are worried how to get their MINIs clean after the journey through lovebug hell, have no fear as there will be a car wash area at the hotel. Registration check-in times have been posted up at MickeyandMINI.com along with a few other updates. So if you have not checked lately, head on over there for some final tips. ALSO – if you missed out on registering for this event and are bummed out that you are missing out – DON’T! Please still come out. Out of all the activities on the schedule, only 2 really are limited to prepaid registrants and that is the Friday night banquet and the Saturday scavenger hunt. There is PLENTY still left to do for people who just want to show up and participate. We would love to have you. See you in a few days!

Mickey and MINI 3

[ MickeyandMINI.com ]

Where’s Pedro?

So what gives? Was this a 1 year exercise in blogging? Some 1 year experiment? The site turns one and the guy behind the scenes is not heard from again! Well….. not exactly… First of all, a special thanks to those who checked in with me to see if I was ok. Makes me feel like there are people who actually read this stuff :). I actually have been sick in bed and not doing much of anything online. What started as flu-like symptoms quickly turned into one BAD reaction to some antibiotic and my stomach has never been the same. The BRAT diet is getting old, but those last 10 pounds I needed to lose after my summer vacation…. well – those are pretty much gone (NOTE: I do NOT recommend this as a weight loss strategy!). Guess that just means I will go faster next month at Sebring ;).

Peeking in my inbox and feeling totally overwhelmed at the 1000+ e-mails waiting to be sifted (yes, contrary to John C. Dvorak, I get a lot of SPAM) , I see that I have missed quite a bit of MINI news and happenings from around the web in the last week or so. As I sift through it all, I will post some of my favorites even though it may not be “breaking news”, but the idea is to have fun with all the cool things out there. I will leave you with something cool that I did happen to find today in my inbox though… Looks like MINIUSA programmed some cool keywords into MINIUSA.com that activates some cool “hidden” features. Go over to www.miniusa.com and in the keyword search box type in one of the following 4 words/phrases:

“Reverse”, “Take It For a Spin”, “Under the Hood”, and “MINImize”.

Hope that keeps you entertained until I get a chance to catch up :). Till later… Keep Motoring!

MotoringFun.com Turns One!

Wow! I have been so busy lately that I almost missed this! I finally had a chance to sit down and relax for the first time in a while and looked at the date. In addition to reflecting on the tragedy of 9/11, I realized that one year ago today, I embarked on a new online journey that would introduce me to some of the coolest people I know – you! 🙂 What started as a collection of cool MINI-related video links and photos, has evolved into mixture of everything MINI. It has even become an online meeting place for MINI/Mini owners from all over the world to sit around and chat in realtime about there day and their MINIs/Minis. Through MotoringFun.com, I have gotten to know some great friends who I have yet to even meet. To those who have stuck by this year and watched things evolve, thank you! To the sponsors who support the site, thank you! Without your help, the site would not be what it is today. I look forward to another exciting year coming up. More cool MINI events to attend and track days to participate in – stay tuned, the best is yet to come :).

Pedro
Motoring Admin

MINI Takes The States 2008 Survey

We have been informed by a friend at MINI USA they are going to send out an e-mail today on the subject of the MTTS 2008.

As I wrote in this month’s magazine column, it will likely be e-mailed to everyone that gave MINI their e-mail when they signed up for the 2006 MTTS event, plus the obvious of loading it into their own site, using the Owner’s Lounge.

They want our collective input as owners about when, where, and what we want, as well as the ideas of do we want a national event from coast to coast, an event with a national collection point to which we all travel to assemble, or even regional events, as we travel to one national collection point? The questions are as numerous as the needs and personalities of we the MINI owner collective.

It’s your turn to tell MINI. The MTTS 2006 had about 4,000 drivers, and 45 coast-to-coast die-hards. From our perspective, we will take what you all vote on and MINI presents, but we will vote for a national focus point outside a major metro. No more city hotels, we want to park our own MINI, rub elbows with everyone, and travel in large convoys from all over our nation with lots of clubs hosting “surprise and delights” along the backroads of America. The clubs are up for it!

I’m off to Frankfurt and Madrid with video camera and notepad, so I’ll talk with you from Europe in a few days. Please visit our Website (www.mc2magazine.com) starting Tuesday.

Watch for MINI’s e-mail, or visit their website today,

Barry Brazier (Sunday Driver), Publisher, MC2