In case you missed it, SPEED Channel will be re-broadcasting the last Grand-Am race from Mid Ohio early tomorrow morning at 3am, so set your DVRs! Why would this interest you? Because the #196 RSR MINI took the pole position and led the first 35 laps or so - that’s why! The 3 RSR MINIs ended up finishing 13th, 19th and 27th due to some rain, but man what a showing!
I think this is the best media coverage to date that I have seen for MINI Takes The States 2008. It was aired on Univision and shows quite a few of our MINIs. Even if you don’t understand Spanish, you get an idea of how much fun we had. Look closely and you will see some familiar faces, including Pedro Vidal, who raced in the La Carrera Panamericana of 2007 and our good friend Alex Fuentes (nice job on the interview Alex!). Enjoy!
First of all, sorry for the delay in getting this video posted. Priorities had to shift when my 4 year old got a stomach virus and between taking him to the ER and various doctor appointments, let’s just say that editing video just did not make the list over the past week or so. Anyways, here is the video for day 2 of MINI Takes The States 2008 from Miami, FL. I had a lot of footage to sort out and wanted to include as many different MINIs so that, if you were there, your MINI hopefully is shown. I tried to cover as much of the rally as possible, without it getting too long. I hope you enjoy it!
The day started early with a continental breakfast at Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami, courtesy of MINI USA. The number of MINIs/Minis that showed up for the owners-only rally appeared to be over 300. For me, it was the largest number of Minis I had ever seen in one place - very cool! Read the rest of this entry »
CNNMoney.com released a list of the top cars American’s love the most. Guess which little British car made the top spot? Yep - the MINI wins another one . The VW Rabbit and the Ford Focus round out the top three.
“Not surprisingly, the Mini’s exterior design was a favorite point among owners. The engine and transmission also earned praise.”
Being a recent “switcher” to the Mac, I have been noticing more and more certain subtle jabs from each camp. Mac “fanboys”, as they are called, take swipes at Microsoft every chance they get, even if it is only comedic. “Winblows” users do the same . Well, it would seem that someone over at MINI USA’s marketing team has a sense of humor and may be on the Mac side of the fence.
In an animation displayed on the site, a large vehicle is shown, trying to parallel park into a tight spot. When the car can’t fit, a text bubble is displayed, showing text characters, representing curse words. One of the characters used happens to be the Windows logo. Quite funny, if I do say so myself.
Between catching up on sleep and trying to figure out how to use my new Mac, I feel like I am playing catch-up lately after last weekend’s MINI Takes The States kick-off in Miami. I finally got to play with iMovie ‘08 and posted my first Mac-editted video.
This video pretty much sums up the first day of MINI Takes The States 2008 for the Sunshine MINI group. We spent the majority of the day traveling South. Since our members are spread out over such a large geographic area, we decided to meet in a central location for lunch - the Queen Mary British Pub in Jupiter, FL. Huge thanks to Neal from the pub for putting on such a wonderful buffet. Also, special thanks to Tom Bush MINI and Downtown MINI for picking up the tab! Read the rest of this entry »
It sure was hard getting up today and having to get back to the grind after this weekend. I was pretty wiped, but managed to sort through my photos (all 359 of them!). Don’t worry, I cut them down to the best 140 pics . This gave me my first chance to do something like this with iPhoto on the Mac - pretty cool piece of software by the way.
Next on the list to tackle is sorting through all the video footage and finish my review of the weekend (what I liked, what could be improved for next time, etc.). For now, enjoy the photos.
Phew - I am beat. What a weekend. MINI Takes the States 2008 - Miami is officially in the history books. I had a great time seeing old and new faces this past weekend. I can honestly say that was the most MINIs I have ever seen in one place in my life - WOW (ok - I have never done a Dragon event so bear with me)! I have tons of photos and video to sort through, but for now, enjoy this video that was produced by Sunshine MINIs member, Rowan. Great job at getting this up so quick Rowan!
Huge props go out to Sarah from SunshineMINIs.org for being the first person to catch photos of MTTS 2008-related items here in Florida. Sarah snapped this photo in the Oaks Mall parking lot in Gainesville. Nice find Sarah!
For those heading down to MTTS tomorrow, if you see a Chili Red Cooper S with a Team Minspeed banner on the front, make sure to stop by and say hi! See you at MTTS!!
Monday, June 30th, 2008
3 Comments 
Posted by Pedro in Modern MINI, Track Talk 
. The VW Rabbit and the Ford Focus round out the top three.
. Well, it would seem that someone over at MINI USA’s marketing team has a sense of humor and may be on the Mac side of the fence.
