I Hate Road Debris!

Well it finally happened! After reading hundreds of stories over the years about MINIs having the worst luck with windshield damage, it finally happened to me. I was driving down the highway last weekend and POW! I almost had to change my shorts due to the loud sound of the impact. What I can only imagine to be a rock, nailed my windshield and put a nice quarter-sized starburst on it. Just great!

MINI Cooper Windshield Replacement

Luckily in Florida, there is zero deductible for windshield repairs or replacements so at least I had that going for me. I just was worried about breaking the factory seal and all that stuff… sigh. After talking to other MINIacs who have gone through this before, I was put at ease after learning the process is really not that big of a deal. Safelite Windshield Repair came highly recommended and, luckily, they were on the list of approved contractors so I placed the call and they were out yesterday. The technician was nice enough to let me snap pictures throughout the process and talked me through each step as he saw I was interested in how windshield replacement is done.

MINI Cooper Windshield Replacement

Continue reading I Hate Road Debris!

RSR MINIs @ Homestead 2009

I just got back from a day at the track at Homestead-Miami Speedway where I got to see the 3 RSR Motorsports MINIs put on quite an impressive showing! The three RSR MINIs finished 7th, 12th and 17th in a full field of 30 cars. Randy Pobst, who you might remember took my MINI out for a spin at Daytona, finished 1st in the Compass360 Racing Honda Civic Si. It is important to note that fuel mileage played a part in the MINIs final results. The yellow 198 RSR MINI driven by Burrows/Hopwood was running 4th when they had to pit for fuel, which placed them at the very back of the field when they returned to the track under caution. Within 20 minutes, the #198 had made its way through the field in amazing fashion back up to 7th!! It reminded me of an old Herbie movie watching the MINI race through the field. What a great show!

RSR Motorsports Compete at Homestead Miami Speedway

After the race, Randy and the team were great hosts to the MINIacs who showed up to cheer them on. They made time to answer our questions and give us a run down of how the MINIs were handling throughout the race (which obviously they were handling pretty well). It turns out the MINIs may be allowed to run an extra gallon of fuel in the future, which would have helped them stay out longer today and probably finish in the top 3. The RSR pinball machine was also running, providing entertainment for all ages.

RSR Motorsports Compete at Homestead Miami Speedway

I have TONS of photos and video to sort through and should be posting them soon, so check back shortly!

2009 Undie 500

This weekend, the second annual Undie 500 took place to benefit those less fortunate. Once again, MotoringFun.com member, speedy1 organized a state-wide rally that brought out the generosity in people. Thousands of undergarments were collected at various stops along the rally route. I caught up with the rally in Jupiter, Florida at the Queen Mary British Pub. It was great to see such a good turn-out once again for this event. Make sure to check out the photo gallery at the link below. A HUGE thanks to speedy1 for organizing another well-planned event. There is some talk about taking the Undie 500 national so stay tuned for next year’s event!

2009 Undie 500

[ 2009 Undie 500 Gallery ]
[ Undie 500 Information ]

RSR MINIs Set To Tackle Homestead

The three (yes I said THREE) RSR MINIs will be coming down south to my neck of the woods next week for the Grand-Am Koni Challenge at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. I plan to go down and cheer the team on. The RSR team has really made some dramatic improvements and I can’t wait to see them be competitive at one of my favorite tracks. I plan on taking photos and video while I am down there so keep an eye out for those.

RSR MINIs in Homestead

On another note, the South Florida MINI Track Junkies (hmmm… I just made that up, but I like the sound of that!) will be heading back to Homestead for another fun-filled track weekend April 25-26th. If you are in the area or can make it down to participate, I HIGHLY recommend it. Single day registration is $275 and it will be a BLAST! If you just want to come down and hang with us, please do. We have gotten a reputation around the garage area as one of THE most fun groups at the track. Hope to see you there!

[ RSR Motorsports ]

Win a Free MINI Cooper!

The Miami Children’s Chorus is having another raffle to give away a free 2009 MINI Cooper. Here is your chance to help a great group and support the arts. The raffle will be held on Sunday, May 17, 2009 and you do NOT need to be present to win. Tickets are $100 each, but there is a limit of 500 tickets that will be sold. If you buy 5 tickets, they will even give you a 6th one for free! Get your ticket ASAP before they sell out!

[ Win a Free MINI Cooper ]
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Free Turn-By-Turn GPS w/ Voice Prompts

Hey gang! Hope you all have been well. Thanks for the kind messages you have sent during my “time off”. It is good to know people actually read this blog :). Aside from the few MINIacs who hang out with me in person or those that I chat with regularly, I haven’t really talked much about my switch to the iPhone late last year. At first, I will admit, I thought the iPhone was stupid. Why? Because you could not add any 3rd party applications. Well once Apple opened up the App Store, the iPhone platform just exploded. There are sooooooo many cool things you can do now on that little device, it is just amazing!

So what does this have to do with motoring? Well Apple allowed the first turn-by-turn application into the App Store in December. The only problem (aside from the more-than-fair $20 price tag)? It is lacking voice prompts. Kinda silly if you ask me (Note: Apple is at fault here as they are the ones who will not allow a GPS app to include voice prompts). Enter the world of Jailbreaking. For those who don’t know, Jailbreaking your iPhone basically opens up the phone to allow the owner to install applications that are not in the Apple App Store. I refused to “jailbreak” my phone for ages, until recently. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, you are in for a treat.

Just a couple of hours ago, the first turn-by-turn GPS app with voice prompts was released for the iPhone. It is called xGPS and, oh yeah, it is FREE! The developers have done an amazing job so far. The product is in its early stages, but what they have so far is very impressive. It uses Google Maps, but saves map data locally to the phone as you encounter new areas on the map. You can also save map data from where you are going through a “map download” utility included in the application. While you may not want to throw away your Garmin just yet, if you have an iPhone, I highly recommend you check it out at the link below!

[ xGPS Main Website ]