Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

Nothing significant but plenty of things to update on.

First and foremost, MINIsOnTop is just over a week away! This is the biggest and best MINI event of the year, and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since braving the 90mph winds and below-freezing temperatures of last year! I will be heading up Saturday morning (please see MINI2 for times and locations for the several caravans heading up there). First thing in the morning, I am assisting with the R/C MINI rally–please sign up! I will then be attempting to organize a MINI group photo in the Loon lot when hopefully everyone is there around 10:30am. I will have two video cameras, one film, and two digital still cameras in an attempt to document as much of the day as possible, and hopefully beat my best photo from last year.

I finally came up with a location to mount the G-Whiz and did so today, as shown here. I removed the adhesive on the back and replaced it with velcro so it can be removed when desired. This is a much better view for the driver and feels like a special analog guage–representing Fun Level! 😀

Tonight I also quickly built a camcorder bracket, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It is simple and mounts between the headrests, I plan to use it to capture the trip up Mt. Washington. It will also hopefully have a good view of the G-Whiz Fun Level Meter!

A few new products arrived this week-it’s getting back to the season where I’m on a first-name basis with the UPS man! First, I had an idea to make the red S badges fit my black & white color scheme, and was about to attempt it with electrical tape or something, when I saw an ad for Bimmian.com that offered them in any color for $15. I went with Reflective White and (better photo soon) I think they look good–not to mention reflecting the S to anyone who shines their lights in my direction.

I can never place an order for just one item, so I also ordered the Solaris Electrum Invisi-Bulbs for the front directional lights. I have noticed in several MINI photos the orange bulbs when unlit color the entire reflector orange and it doesn’t look right. As you can see the silver-coated bulbs, which still glow amber, now photograph great.

Wait, there’s more! I finally found the white R81 7-holie rims I’ve been looking for on eBay, and they arrived today. No, I’m not downgrading from the X-lites, one will be used as a spare, then they will be fitted with snow tires for next winter. I’m looking forward to that next blizzard! Also a new shipment of goodies from Autopia Car Care, the highlight of which is 303 Aerospace Protectant which I will use for the plastic fender trim and rims, along with a new wheel brush.

OK last thing: some site updates. Up top you may have noticed the new Google MINI search; use this to search the internet for things MINI related. I’ve tried to combine both their keyword searches and automotive category search to give somewhat more accurate results. Give it a try. Finally, I edited the page code to make this column slightly wider so the 500-pixel images from Flickr fit inside and should no longer cause issues with PCs and IE.

Stay tuned next week for a major milestone, and a major MINI event!

I came home from work and was about to start washing the car and I discovered this:

I know the JCW is smokin’ but jeez! 🙂
I should note I can’t stand it when I’m stuck behind a smoker, I can usually smell the cigarette even with the windows up…and I especially hate when they fling their flaming butt out the window! This was just an amazing shot I guess.

Waiting on my doorstep was my MotorMate G-Whiz! It is a little bigger than I thought but certainly functional. I have no intention of mounting it on the passenger visor as instructed; I want to be able to see it. I sat in the car trying a few locations, ideally if there was some way to mount it sticking up from the dashboard, but I can’t think of a way to fix it there. Any ideas on where and how to mount it? It is adhesive backed but I would probably replace that with velcro so it is less permanent.

With a drizzle this afternoon, I think that made every single day in May see rain. Good riddance. The weather has prevented me from doing several things, including washing the car and some projects that I’ve been meaning to do to it. The forecast is finally looking better and I hope it stays that way. Especially with MINIsOnTop coming in less than three weeks!

I drove into PA to see family this past weekend. I’ll be heading to NY next weekend. Suddenly a lot of highway miles! I hit 15,000 miles over the weekend but missed it with the camera. I guess I’ll have to concentrate on the tens from now on. The Gas Charts have been updated for the month, and this was a new record; nearly $200 spent on gas. June might be even worse. The photo was taken on the return trip, at a rest area overlooking the sunset. Unfortunately there were tons of bugs and rained on dirt, so I’ll need to try it again if I ever get the opportunity.

A year ago today, my MINI was born from the factory in Oxford!
I would have loved to give it a nice wash, but it continues to rain as it has the last several weekends. But when you were one did you really like taking baths? Naah…much more fun to go out and play in the rain!

And my MINI did play. Today was the second Autocross, and unfortunately for me the second rainy one. Of course it’s still plenty of fun!

As I pulled into the convenience store in the morning, I spotting my 1-year-old MINI looking at itself in the mirror:

Although I still have no action shots due to the weather, I have started an Autocross photo gallery. You can see all the MINIs that attended last month. Hopefully the weather will improve for the next few!