maacodale

Hey DC Guys and Gals, Don't miss this chance to take your MINI out and have some fun with it! Gimmick Rallies are a LOT of fun. It's easier than it sounds, trust me! When you get the directions they'll have questions spaced in between the directions. If you get to the next direction before you answered the question, then you know you missed it. You just make a U turn and go back an dfind it or decide to keep going and get the next answer. Don't think you need any special equipment or a super fast car. You don't! In all my years of running and organizing gimmick rallies, I've never seen the first car in win. Besides, it's for a good cause and Ali has put a ton of work into it. AND...ya get to hang out with a bunch of MINI folks.

If you've got a Northern Tool or Harbor Freight up there, they have a set of smallish plastic pry bars that work great for this and they're less than 10 bucks if I remember right.

It was good seeing my DC MINI friends again! Thanks so much for coming down! The Pub guys asked if we were planning on doing this again next year. Of course we are! We have dinner once a month at the Park Lane Tavern down here in Hampton, and the Fredercksburg Tavern wants in on some of that action. We were planning on heading back to the Tavern for drinks last night, but dinner and ice cream kinda changed those plans! But next year.......

Welcome from down here in Hampton Roads! That's one of my favorite colors. Especially when combined with the redwood lounge leather, but that's an personal choice. Black is much safer. Tint yes! Premium, yes as well. By the way, you will want to start doing mods to the car before you'll know it. Trust me,it just happens!

Two of our members just took up kayaking. Sounds like a lot of fun.

I'll throw in an opinion as well. We ditched Tyler's RF after we had one go bad and another on the way out. 500 bucks for two tires on a car with less than 20K miles wasn't gonna happen. felt an immediate difference without the RFs. Smoother ride, better cornering lots less noise. LOTS! In fact, when we got the Clubbie, the RFs came off within 2K miles. I picked up a space saver tire from a Chevy Cobalt and also carry a full size spare on out of town runs. Juts in case. We also had put new struts on Tylers 07 MCS after lowering it. Went with Koni Yellows. Also felt smoother and stuck in the twisties better.

Just be forewarned, our event name isn't correct any longer! Seems between then and now, they decided to re badge the Pubs. Same place, but now they're the Park Lane Tavern. Bar and adult beverages are still fully British, but the menu now has a more European flavor. Still great selections, so have no fear. Besides, enough alcohol and ya don't care how good the food is! Still, the Tavern to Tavern Runs just doesn't sound as good!

Feel any "seat of the pants" difference? You know, the old Butt Dyno! Very interested. I talked to the Helix guys at the Dragon about the IC.

I'd love to be there, but too manythings around the house have been put off while I worked our Relay for Life rally. I will put a post on the HR site and try to scrounge up some MINI's

Major congrats to Ali and Mark for their second place trophy at the 3rd annual Relay For Life Gimmick Road Rally. For a team that was from far out of town, they did a very impressive job, missing first place by less than 6 points!

Voted, as did as everybody at the shop!

Hey Celia, Check this out! Stickers is famous! Not sure how long it'll be up, but there ya are! http://www.tailofthedragon.com/

That stinks! But, it's the exact same issue I ran into last year. If you have a room at Fontana, and it's paid for, ask them to roll the reservation over to next year. They did that for me last year. I thought it was real nice of them, especially since I wasn't able to give them a 24 hour notice. They coul dhave easily kept my money.

Did that sound kinda dirty or is it just me?

Welcome from down here in Hampton Roads. The DC guys are a great bunch to hang out with and we get up that way every chance we get. If you're down south make sure you check us out at http://www.hrmini.com and there is a new group forming in the Richmond area.

I can also add, it helps to take it out and wash it with dish washing liquid every 6 months or so. That keeps the little grooves clean and helps it work better.

Pretty sure the HR MINI guys are going route 58 west to I 85 south. We're leaving the HR area at 6 AM on Wednesday.

CarlB, you said it perfectly!

Lets go for a ride when we're in Fontana.

Hand positioning is crucial in performance driving and racing. But corner entry and exit is of greater importance. Picking a good line through the corner is also important. Best rule of thumb: "Easy in, power out". Enter the corner under control and on line that will give you the best possible exit. All too often people charge into a corner and have to wait for the tires and suspension to catch up and make the car work to get through the corner. Generally, taking a late apex and putting down the power earlier will give you a better feel through the turn instead of punishing your front tires with a too fast entry. But hey, that's just me.

You've got some great advice so far! I'll chime in on tires as well. I've got two MINI's The kids car, an 07 MCS went to non RF's when he had a failure on his RF's at about 12K miles. On my Clubman, we swapped to non RF's atabout 2K miles. He has General UHP's and my Clubbie has Continental Extreme contact DW tires. While my car isn't a track car, I do drive it aggressively enough that I want more performance than the RF's offered. Not to mention the noise and ride factor for RF's. My MINI is lowered and rides better with the non RF's than it did stock on RF's. I'm just not a fan of RF's especially after seeing Brian's RF have a catastrophic failure on HR MINI's Fall Colors Run 2 years ago. OH! And run flats are super expensive. These cars are expensive enough to maintain. I don't need the extra expense on a wearable item when I can get a higher performance tire for less money than a non performance run flat.

We'll be heading out of Hampton Roads at 6:30 AM. Still some option on routes to be taken. Some want the direct route (Rte. 58 west to I-85) others are thinking more leisurely route further west on 58 then down into Carolina. Two years ago we went the entire route without hitting the interstate. Maybe we can join up somewhere along the way.

Agreed on the exploding head. Nice looking shirt, PM on the way.

I can't remember, does the Spring Fling Run end at the Griffin Tavern or did it continue afterwards? And if it does this year, and idea where it might end this year?

Last year HR MINI had our Spring Fling on Saturday and met y'all on Sunday for your Spring Fling. Maybe we can do a Spring Fling on Sunday. Would love to hit up Wrights for a wheelie or Franks for the Memories in Buena Vsta for lunch.