Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

On Saturday, Ian ran a nice small “meander” along the Cape Ann coast. After days of nasty weather, we were fortunate to have a spectacular sunny day. We started at MINI of Peabody in the morning, then headed out Rt. 128 to Manchester-By-The-Sea and some wonderful driving and views along the shoreline on Rt. 127. We stopped at some excellent shoreline locations and again in downtown Gloucester before we hit some spectacular forested twisties. We finished at Woodmans of Essex, inventors of the fried clam, for a tasty lunch.

The sun and views were very conducive to photographs, so be sure to check out the gallery. [route map]

Last weekend was the fifth annual Monadnock Area Mini Association’s Come to MAMA run in southwestern New Hampshire. This is one of my favorite MINI runs of the year with tons of driving fun on great New England roads. Tons of twists and turns through densely forested roads and many beautiful views along the way. Nearly 50 MINIs were in attendance on a beautiful October day. Be sure to check out my gallery as I add photos, and compare to the varying weather in previous years’ galleries.

On Sunday, Cape Cod MINIs hosted a Lighthouse Tour around the northern Cape. Like the run in the spring, we stopped at some popular sites and again visited Provincetown, where we preceded a Dog parade with one of our own. We stopped for some wine tasting at Truro Vineyards at the end of the day, and concluded with an excellent lasagna dinner and some raffle prizes. See more photos in the gallery. This was the first of many upcoming events over the next few weeks, be sure to check the calendar!

My Yokohama AVS ES-100’s have been on their last few millimeters this summer, and with that my MINI has been experiencing increasingly louder rolling noise. Or so I thought…

Though I was very happy with my Yokos, I wanted to try something else in the same range. Others in the $80-90 (per tire including shipping) Ultra High Performance Summer tire range that I considered were the BFGoodrich g-Force Sport and the Kumho Ecsta SPTs. I decided on the BFGs, and thanks to a rebate I got them from Discount Tire for just $330. They sat in my garage for over a month while had a chance to get them mounted and balanced.

Which brings me to another issue. I’ve had a tough time with tire balancing around the Boston area. Most places charge well over $100 and in my experience have a bad track record with balancing it perfectly on the first try, and often won’t rebalance for free. I’ve even asked in the forums and no one had a reliable tire guy to recommend. Then I remembered Sublime Restorations recently expanded and got a tire machine so I had Julian mount them. As usual, he put in more care than you’d find at any other shop (along with the comment that they are “sticky as hell” after he road tested them). Now that I work nearby, I finally have a tire guy who is convenient, inexpensive and trustworthy.

Sadly the deafening rolling noise did not go away with the new tires. Julian suggested bearings and when I got home I jacked up the front, spun the wheels and sure enough the right side was grinding. I had ignored the problem for many, many months and was now suddenly very scared about the issue, especially with my long daily commute and an upcoming trip.

So I bit the bullet and dropped it off at MINI of Peabody. Chris did me a favor as usual and squeezed me in and had the replacement wheel hub installed the same day. The lack of an extended warranty bit $350 out of my wallet, but my MINI now drives quieter than I EVER remember. Either the issue was around for well over a year, or these BFGs are much quieter than the Yokos. They’re also very sticky (as were the Yokos when brand new–we’ll see how long it lasts) yet have a longer wear rating than the Yokos. I’m extremely pleased with the BFGs so far and now really look forward to wearing them down at the many MINI events this fall!