Here are some stories, comments and feedback from the attendees, just to let you know how things went.  You are welcomed to use any stories for your club newsletter, giving due credit to the author, of course, and any photographs posted here are free to be used, so long as you do not charge anyone for them on your end!

To submit your stories and photos, send then to ORMINISOC@COMCAST.NET in a text or MS Word format, the photos in a TIFF, JPEG or BMP format.  Please include any information on credits that may apply.

MINI MEET WEST 007 - Been there, done that

& still doing it somewhere else!

 

As you can plainly see, SOME PEOPLE have not been very active in writing the Great American

Mini Meet novel!  What can I say...?

So, I suppose I will start this off, but I really do expect someone else out there to come up with some other stories.   I won’t mention Tim Kolosoff’s name as one who may have a tale or two to tell...

Mini Meet West 2007

by Steve Malins

In the weeks preceding Mini Meet, the popular reasoning for going was “It’s too close not to.” After the meet, opinion was “If you didn’t go, you missed a good meet.” I would have to say both thoughts were right on the money.

Due to last minute changes and the usual pre Mini Meet SNAFUs, Kimberlee, Erin, Hobbes and myself would be driving alone. After a 15 minute wait, we cleared the border at a very reasonable 9:00am Monday morning.

On our trip down, we saw several MINIs - all traveling north and completely oblivious to what they were going to miss. It was in southern Washington about 90 minutes from our final destination that we spotted our first Hood River bound Minis, up ahead in the distance. We wound Hobbes up and swooped in behind the sedan and woody but I misjudged our closing speed and almost drove up the woody’s tailpipe. I jumped hard on the binders and then realized they were barely moving at 85km/h! Later on I would understand: the woody was Rick Terrell’s all original, unrestored 850cc jewel; a steady 85km/h was probably quite a feat.

That brief encounter aside, our entire trip was a steady 105km/h, and less than eight hours after clearing the border, we arrived uneventfully at Hood River. The parking lot was already full of Minis and MINIs, with more rolling in. After checking into the hotel and getting our entrant’s packets at the hospitality suite, it was time for dinner and then out to the parking lot for car washing and an all night gab session.

Tuesday morning was the concours, held a two minute drive away from the hotel at the marina park. The temperature was hot, topping 40ºC as we later found out it would do most of the week. Despite the heat, the setting was very pleasant. There was beautiful green grass to park on right by the water, lots of trees and covered picnic tables to lounge on. There were plenty of classes to accommodate the number of cars and voting was a rather untraditional people’s choice. I’ve been a traditionalist for quite a while, but I must say, not being a judge of a very large class schlepping from car to car in unyielding heat has a certain appeal. When lunch was served, it was refreshing to receive a real meal, not some token vending machine grade sandwich.

After the concours was the drive to the group photo shoot at the Stonehenge replica. The first thing to do was cross the steel grate decked, two lane toll bridge across the river to Washington. Someone was overheard saying that the sounds of the engine and the tires on the decking alone was worth the 75 cent toll. The rest of the drive was 40 miles in over 40ºC heat with poor directions to the wrong location and no signs along the way. Many people, not knowing if they were going the right way and finding it difficult to withstand the heat, turned back to the hotel. I thought we might be in trouble as Hobbes pushed his temp gauge half way to H. When I asked others how their cars had done, most had their heater on and one responded with “We still had a little bit of the H showing.” I guess Hobbes did pretty well.

Miraculously, we finally arrived at our destination, and found the sixty plus cars were lined up getting individual photos taken. The line moved like downtown summer rush hour during road construction with a 12 car pile-up and a jumper on a bridge. Classic drivers quickly abandoned their cars and fled to the one or two nearby trees for shade. Meanwhile, MINIs idled quietly with their windows up and drivers relaxing comfortably inside.

The site itself was very interesting, a full size replica of the real Stonehenge. A local of the area saw the real Stonehenge during WWI and was told it was for sacrifices. It is currently believed to have been a tool for measuring time and seasons.

It seemed to take an eternity but the individuals were finally done and we then assembled for the group pic. Just as we finished, a touring motocycle with matching 40s Ford trailer pulled up–very unique. Erin and buddy Brianna Fram were real troopers for the drive up but the heat had definitely worn them down. For the return trip they were handed off to Ken Martin and his A/C’d MINI.

Wednesday morning we were up early for motorsport day. The autocross is the event for many entrants, and the funkhana is merely something to warm up with. Warm up we certainly did; more 40ºC temps and asphalt made for a very draining day. Fortunately, the autocross site was a parking lot for some kind of convention centre; on the side facing the lot was a vestibule with large windows. How OMS managed this I would really like to know, but the centre, though empty was open. Not only was it open but the A/C was cranked up past “cold”, beyond “Antarctic” and somewhere near “the wife after you’ve mistakenly given her an honest answer to ‘Do I look fat in this?’”. The result was a shaded, air conditioned respite from the heat where you could still watch the day’s activities.

Because Erin and Brianna would likely tire quickly of watching motorsport day, Kimberlee took charge of them and headed to the beach. When Rob and I arrived at the site, the funkhana was already off and running, with full James Bond theme of course. Tasks included d(r)iving with a mask the driver can’t see through, stealing diamonds, backing into a spaceport and mixing a martini.

Early run times were upwards of a painfully long eight minutes. Organizers quickly made some minor changes and times trimmed to about five minutes. Despite long run times and a slow moving line, participants were still having a great time. Mike Smith and son Chris from Victoria managed the course in just over four minutes. When Rob and I were up, we clocked the only under three minute time of the day and received a round of applause.

Just past noon the funkhana was packed up and the site was reset for the autocross. Due to some safety issues, the course had to be reworked slightly and the runs got started about an hour late. Once we began, with the longest course times still under a minute, the line moved very quickly and two runs per vehicle were possible. Rob managed to clock FTD, and recorded an awesome bumpercam video of the achievement.

We had been warned that the rally Thursday was three to four hours long. This knowledge, coupled with the recent temperatures scared off some people from participating. Too bad for them, because the rally was, without a doubt, the most pleasant surprise of the entire meet. Kimberlee, Erin and I spent four and a half hours out on the roads above Hood River and we had a fabulous time!

Route instructions for the rally were dead simple, which meant if nothing else, you could still enjoy the drive. The questions were photo clues: find the location in the picture and then answer a question about something nearby. The first leg of the rally took us to a small local market up in the hills. We had a short break, were served lunch (another full-sized sandwich) and received more instructions. Leg two ended at Lost Lake, a state park and the end of a 14 mile road containing 141 curves! WOW! At Lost Lake we took in the sights, collected our final set of instructions and headed off. The last truly stimulating part before ending at the hotel was the 16% downhill grade that had Erin screaming "AGAIN!".

The banquet Thursday evening was just a short walk across the parking lot. OMS, recognizing that some (small) children could get restless, organized a separate pizza party in one of the hotel suites for the little ones. I’m told they had a great time and my thanks go out to the babysitters.

Food at the banquet was excellent and there were meet photos courtesy of VMCC’s Rahoul Ghose cycling through the overhead screen. In addition to FTD, Rob Fram took top honours in his concours class as did Larry Sutton. Best of show went to Rick Terrell’s all original Countryman but the big surprise was the “I wanna drive that one!” class. The winner was not something extravagant like a supercharged Moke or street legal race car but Larry Sutton’s restored Morris Cooper S. Full results and more photos from others can be found at http://mmw2007.com/.

OMS did a really great job with the meet. The hotel had everything we’ve come to expect at a Mini Meet and the riverside location was beautiful. The choice of dates and the meet schedule were excellent and venues were well thought out. One of the best things OMS did was to conduct a post meet survey. They are genuinely interested in what did and didn’t work, in hopes of doing it even better next time. That’ll be tough.

 

 

I Want To Go to MMW007, Really I do

 

Brian and I had not been on a real vacation (something longer than a weekend) in over 20 years  so, when I found out Mini Meet West was in upper Oregon, we decided we wanted to go. I cajoled my boss into allowing me to have a week off. Unfortunately, Brian was in a job that would not allow him the time off so we needed to find him a new job. He interviewed and was offered a new job. Upon accepting, Brian told them we had already booked our vacation for a week in July. Not a problem. So far, all seemed to be going well.

 

But, we have an older feline with abandonment issues (we found her as a new mom stray) so now needed to find someone to kitty-sit. My sister has always moved into our place for our weekend trips but was not available. A friend’s son said he probably could do it for us. A couple weeks later I found out this friend’s son was up for a job that would take him out of town at a moment’s notice. After several weeks of not getting a straight answer as to whether or not he could house/kitty-sit, I went searching and found a firm that business/house/pet-sits. They move into your home while you are away and pamper your animals. They were even available at the time we needed. Of course, the day I told the house-sitting firm that I wanted them to kitty-sit was the day this friend decided he could help us out since he didn’t get the new job. We tactfully told him we had found someone who would stay in the house the entire time we were away and didn’t have another job.

 

Now, it was time to start making arrangements. We had already booked the hotel on spec and now sent in our show entry form.  How long did we want to go for? We decided we wanted an actual vacation and were going to leave as soon as Brian got home from work on Friday July 6 and return on the dreaded Friday the 13th. We would go to Vintage Racing at PIR and putter around Vancouver, Wa and Portland for a few days before heading to the show on the Monday.

 

But, the car had other ideas. Monday, June 25 I noticed that there was an EP error showing in the dash. According to the owner’s manual, this means transmission problems. This freaked me out as the tranny had been replaced less than 20,000 km ago. MINI got me in to service on an emergency basis. They replaced the brake switch and sent me on my way. Wednesday morning “EP”. As I already had an appointment for Friday, June 29 for a pre-trip inspection, they told me the issue would be dealt with at that time. On Friday I was told that there was excessive side to side play in the brake pedal. I gave them a “give me a break” look. They tightened it up, did my pre-trip and sent me on my way. I did not even make it halfway home before the EP error showed up again. We called MINI and were assured that the car was completely safe to drive. So, we took it on a Sunday MINI club drive. The EP disappeared partway on the drive and came back about a half hour later. Car went to MINI on Monday and, suddenly, every light bulb on the rear blew out. They were on it for over two days and couldn’t find any electrical short. They then asked for approval to charge me over 5 hours to tear the dash apart. Like I had a choice as the car was undriveable as it was in pieces in the shop. What to do: I contacted MINI Canada to get some of this covered. This car has had issues since day one and it seems to me that it is ridiculous for a car to have major electrical problems so shortly out of warranty. The car has had all work done at MINI Richmond, including extra oil changes above the recommended.
 

MR told me that a bulletin (?) said the issue could be the second brake switch but replacing it didn't cure the error. So, out came the entire dash. The wiring was all traced (there are even diagrams in my file) and the problem was traced to a very mildly corroded connector deep in the wiring harness. This was cleaned and a few little parts replaced and then the proper grease was applied, to keep out the Vancouver moisture. MR worked on the car for a total of 24 hours and I was charged for 4 plus the second brake switch and the replacement bulbs. From what I can tell, MINI Canada absorbed the rest of the cost. They wouldn't absorb all of it as I am out of warranty, but majority is good.
 

MR worked tirelessly on the car as they knew I didn’t want to attend a Mini/MINI Meet in a Saturn. I got my car back on Tuesday, July 3 in the afternoon so ended up testing it on the trip. It ran flawlessly.

 

Thank you MMW for making all the hassles worthwhile. We had a great time.

 

Kathy Hahn, Vancouver MINI Cooper Club