Author: admin

I spent today in San Diego, first at Gillespie Field in the simulator getting my instrument currency back and then in the afternoon did a little flying to the usual places on my own. Whilst I was at Gillespie I saw a red MCS parked outside Anglo-American Aviation International; it had the plate “RED MCS” which I thought was cool.

No sign of my plate, I think it is probably at the DMV waiting for me to pick it up but the form says they will write to me to let me know when to come in for it. I have until the end of the month to finish the registration so will wait a while longer yet. I do have the title documentation from Arizona, though.

My stripes should be here on Friday.

My passenger window is stuck again. It started to stop on Weds but I thought I got it working again. But now it refuses to budge again. Sigh.

I bought the Italian Job yesterday, in both original and remake flavours. I had forgotten what a great film the original is, even if it does have “My name is” Michael Caine “and not a lot of people know that”. CostCo has a $4 rebate on the new film DVD. A must for all MINI owners!

Back from my trip to San Diego and I only saw one MINI the whole time, a yellow one coming out from the road to IKEA as I went by. I waved and got a wave back.

Then just before my turnoff on the 8 in El Centro I spied a red MINI coming past me very fast. He came alongside and we exchanged visual pleasantries. After that, he dropped down at least one gear and then floored it, racing away. Er, why on earth did he do that? I know how fast MINIs can go, I was driving one – was I supposed to be impressed?

Anyone feel the earthquake today?!

I didn’t make it to the British Car Day, spent the whole day pretty much doing nothing in Brawley. I didn’t even take the MINI out of the garage, shame on me.

Today I am off to San Diego for a couple of days flying, hopefully the clouds will be sufficient to let me fly visually, my instrument rating is not current right now. You can find out more about my flying at my flying website.

In the Jeep I used to get about 10mpg going over to San Diego and it would really struggle to get up the grade. My MINI however flies over the hill, gets a decent 23-26mpg and is a lot more comfortable. Hopefully I shall see MINIs over there.

Thanks to a link from Don at dbmini.us I have a spiffy new look, and had an excuse to put Photoshop Elements to work in creating the banner. I think I still need some tweaks but its starting to look better. Why not email me using the link on the right and let me know what you think?

I’m pretty sure I won’t be going to the car show tomorrow. My parents have been in Cuba for three weeks and Sunday mornings are the best time to talk to them.

I don’t know how I got so ‘famous’ but I had a guy email me today asking for a picture of my MINI with the sunroof open, wants to know what the union jack looks like in that position. Any excuse to show off my baby:

Someone on the Yahoo group for the MINI club posted recently about the annual San Diego British Car Day and Picnic taking place this Sunday and I am thinking of going. But I have the car window fix taking place on Saturday and I don’t feel like driving over there twice in one weekend. And I will be back there again on Monday.

So, since the window is still working, I called Brecht and cancelled the motor swap. We’ll see if I get to the car show. Teri can’t make it so I will be going alone.

The stripes are ordered, can’t wait to get them.

Its been 6 weeks since I ordered my personal plates, wonder where they are?

The new coolant tank seems to be holding up well, the window is still working and now I am thinking about mods. My other vehicle is nicely kitted out:

I can’t have Sarah feeling like she isn’t as well loved: for she surely is.

So right now I am thinking it would be great to get the K and N Intake Filter and rev my baby up a little. First though, I want some bonnet stripes. And after taking pretty much the whole afternoon looking at websites I have decided on the Shelby Style ones from Cooper Flags:

Not sure if I will try installing them myself or not, guess I will see how it looks when they arrive.

A few days after the Stomp my MINI again comes close to overheating at the car wash. Getting it home I check the coolant to find the tank bone dry. Oops. Guess I have a leak somewhere.

Some research on the net shows that its likely to be a leaky tank and a little poking around makes me think that is right. So here I am at Brecht’s again but at least I can get the window fixed too while I am here.

Except that on the way here this morning, the window started working again!! I had read that it might though I don’t appreciate the timing of it, how will Brecht find how to fix it?

The tank is replaced and a new motor ordered for the window meaning I will have to come back again for that.

Sometime during August I joined the SoCal MINI Maniacs Car Club and signed up to join them on a trip to a grape stomping at one of the Julian wineries.

The trip was a blast, 45 MINIs snaking their way around the country roads was quite a sight and there are some excellent pictures to be found here:

• My pictures
• DB MINI pics
• JC’s pictures

The parking for the event was in a rough field on an incline and there was much clutch burning smells as we waited for our turn to park. My temperature guage had started to rise, I turned off the a/c which helped for a while but eventually I had to turn the engine off until it was our turn to move. Time for another call to Brecht when I get home.