This weekend I attended a world record attempt. It is the third such attempt here in Northern Michigan. Mini of Grand Rapids (MI) puts this event on every two years. It is called Mini on the Mack. This year was my second time attending. We had 13 classics show up. One guy out of Grand Rapids showed up with a 1967 Austin Cooper S in the original almond green paint even with the original dents, paint drips, interior, everything. Very cool. The news paper was there. They did a video article. My mini was not the first thing in the video however, it was the mini they decided to use as the cover for the video article.
I've placed the link below. Later today I will add some more pictures.
We fell shore of the record by 133. The record (longest parade of mini's over a suspension bridge) is held by the London and Surrey mini club over the London bridge and they had 1450 mini's gathered. We brought in 1328. Lots of fun, lots of miles driven (I trailered). Lots of good friends met. Every classic mini owner that was there I told them about the forum. Many have had issues with the other forums (bad advice, not authentic enough). One brand new owner (literally 2 weeks) of a Canadian mini was confused by the dash pots and asked what weight oil to use. He said they about ran him out of the forum making fun of him. I tried to lead him to our forum. We will see.
Link to article - http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2017/08/mini_cooper_drivers_miss_world.html#incart_river_index (http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2017/08/mini_cooper_drivers_miss_world.html#incart_river_index)
pictures to follow
I have several MINI friends at the event this weekend, looks like you all had a fun time. I hope they keep trying, but the London MINI/Mini club did have a slight advantage in the huge number of Minis that live close to the location.
a 1967 Austin Cooper S 1275. All original, even the drips in the paint from the factory along with the dents and dings from a life well lived.
a 1963 Austin Cooper with a what I assume is a rare 997 motor.
Myself and my two youngest having a blast while crossing the bridge during the parade.
I'm not sure why that picture posted upside down. How do I fixe that?
One of my favorite views when running up I-75 here in Michigan. Coming to the bridge and then crossing it. The waters it crosses are awesome. The temperature difference when one is on the bridge to when one is on land is almost 25 degrees different. The bridge is just 28ft shy of 5 miles.
a nice view of all of us classics all together
Do they still walk the Mack too? Many years ago I did that with some friends from Stockbridge....
A running 997 is indeed a rare beasty!
Your boys look like they had fun!
11 classics has to be a significant uptick from before, right?
Did I count 6 green Minis in various shades? My car would be lost in the crowd!
I don't know how you fix your pics, but I use Irfanview - it's a free program and very easy to use.....
Dave - Yes they do still walk the Mack. As a matter of fact that takes place on Labour Day Weekend. This year for the first time they will actually close the bridge to all motorized traffic during the walk because of safety and terror concerns.
The 997 was cool. The guy who owned it said he cracked the crank and sent it to seven. Seven tried to convince him to go with a new 1275 bored out. They said it would be 2 grand cheaper than just finding a new 997 crank. He refused and actually found a 997 crank in England and had it shipped in.
There were 11 in that picture. We were having trouble finding the owners of the other 2 and their cars were locked or we would have just rolled them into place.
I met a guy from my home town who just purchased a mini and had it imported. Just sent me some texts today that he is going to be doing a v-tec swap. He wants to sell me his 998 a and gear box for $200.00 is that a good deal? It seemed to run fine this last weekend.
$200 is worth it for one that runs and shifts properly, I'd put it way for future needs or trade material. If you can drive it before he pulls it so much the better. Is it an A+ with a rod change box?
998's are fine for scooting around town and most Mini driving, you really only need the 1275 if you want to pull hiway gears or mountains, then the extra torque really makes a difference.
Dave - I've actually come across 2 998's in my area in the last week. one is an a and the other is an a+ if I'm correct. Both run and both and the gearbox. Both are up for sale for $200.00 each. I think I'm going to grab them.
there were only 2 green minis. The rest were gray, blue, black, red, (surf blue - maybe), and my yellow mini.