468 replies to this topic

[Dom]

The brake disc back plates were loose so I've had them removed and also fitted new H/T leads.

[Dom]

Heres a link to the happenings of the Brands Hatch to Bluewater Kent Meet Run and some updated photographs of the mini.

http://www.dominicsa...s_to_bluewater/

[Dom]

OK. For the last month I have been working flat out on Uni coursework, which I have now finished all of and handed it in The mini has been running very well during this time. I went to a job interview in surrey on the 20th march in surrey 70 miles there and 70 mile back and averaged 42 mpg doing mainly 55 mph sometimes faster so I'm pleased with that. My usual mpg has been around the late 20s figure. I'm heading over to Tomf's tomorrow to fit the metro seats and then off to Brands Hatch Sunday for the first Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race HERE is a link to pictures from the day.

Edited by Dom, 12 April 2007 - 10:13 AM.

[Dom]

Today spent the afternoon round Tomf's house. We fitted the metro seats to my cooper, as well as the cigarette lighter. Also worked on his trailer. It's a nice shade of green now. The seats are a lot comfier than the standard cooper seats and I now have support on my neck and head thanks to the adjustable headrest. Thanks Tomf.

[Tomf]

Please you like them

[Dom]

Here at last are some recent pictures of the mini.

[mad4mins]

looks great Dom!

anymore plans for the beast??

[CooperTrooper]

what exhaust have you got on there Dom?? is it 3inch?

[Retro_10s]

Such large speaker pods!!! yet so little speaker!!! sort it out!

[Dom]

looks great Dom!

anymore plans for the beast??

Thanks

There are a few more in the pipeline.

what exhaust have you got on there Dom?? is it 3inch?

Maniflow, yes and I haven't seen one like it on any other mini.

Video can be found here on my website.

Such large speaker pods!!! yet so little speaker!!! sort it out!

Large speaker pods, well passengers often, by accident catch them, so its just the pod that gets caught not the speaker

[mad4mins]

doesnt that speaker pod get in the way of you feet when your driving??

[Dom]

Thats what everyone says but they don't. They look like they would but I've had several people ask that then had them sit in and they've said makes no difference. The front part of the pod is designed like this |_\ and fits in snuggly against the wheel arch. My legs never come into contact with it.

[Dom]

This morning, I travelled with my passenger sinuous to Leila's house where he bought her beloved mini Beast.

Sinuous and I then went for a ride in the east of Kent and these are a couple of random shots that I took.

[Dom]

London to Brighton Report 19th - 20th May 2007

I spent the Friday (18th May) afternoon washing and polishing the mini. Sometime during the morning I picked up an infection in my right eye, which I kept over the weekend unfortunately, causing a lot of pain.









I cleaned off the bird ******* that had been dropped that morning and fitted the CB radio, attached the ariel and loaded the mini. Other Dom arrived at the set 2 pm and James did his usual fashionably late arrival of half past. James climbed into the back and we put the rest of the stuff in the car. We drove to Brenley Corner where we met up with the other TheMiniForum members and were also joined by members from the Kentish Mini Club, eleven minis in total.



We set off in convoy up the M2 when Tom's (blue) CB ariel fell off, which caused the person who was in front of me to stop dead in the slow lane of the motorway! Clive pulled over to help the others catch up as he knew the route. Ant and Jodie took the lead and we continued on. The others caught up soon after and by the time we hit the M20, the convoy was back together with Clive leading.

As we ventured into urban surroundings the convoy was divided and we were again seperated. The group I was on consisted of Clive, Jodie and Ant, Gemma and Phil, myself, Other Dom and James, with Tom at the rear. We again seperated as Clive and myself, Other Dom and James went to Tesco to buy supplies while the rest of the convoy headed straight to Crystal Palace.

Myself, Other Dom, James, Tom, and Tom (blue), Phil (blue) and friend arrived at TheMiniForum campsite meeting up Ruth, Martin, Steve, Tom (van) etc. You can see Rich's car in some of these pictures as he was commuiting between TheMiniForum camp and the Kentish Mini Club camp.









I spent the rest of the evening chatting with Joe, Tom (van), Tim, Helen Steve, Tracy, Sue, Graem, Chris, Phillipa and Phil (Phillipas other half), Neil with his friends BMW Mini and other regular and new TheMiniForum members and wondering around looking at peoples minis and enjoying the free dodgems with Hanna and Phil (yellow). Tom (blue), Phil (blue) and friend and Tom enjoyed the naked bouncy castle. Here are some of my evening shots.











Tom


Later that evening there was an odd chap with a beard that was picked up by Tom (van) from a pub and brought back to camp who started shouting in a pirate style voice "OI! ARSE FACE!" at some woman in his drunkard banter. Later exclaiminig "F**K F**K F**K." This set TheMiniForum camp into stiches of laughter.

During the early hours of the subdue Crystal Palace, which seems to be getting quieter each year I attend, I chatted to two new members, who I can't remember the names of until about 3 am, just before getting some rest. One of the chaps I spoke to said he had just purchased a sportspack and was the passenger of TheMiniForum member Jimmy, the other had many Japanease cars before purchasing his first mini.

An hour later and Tom knocked on the window to say people were moving their minis. However I forgot to mention that at 11 pm people started moving their minis and bmw minis to the start of the grid. Last year this was not allowed but this year the marshalls didn't seem to mind. So with less than an hours sleep I moved the mini with Other Dom still half asleep in the passenger seat over to the grid. I was parked at the front of the third row until I moved back as I had no idea of where we were going and didn't have a map. Later Tom (blue) parked in front, with Gavin's wife in front of him.







A few hours passed and myself and Other Dom caught up on some sleep. I then qued up and got my run pack and then came back to the mini.





We then spent the next hour or so waiting around ready to get on and do the run. I went over to find James who had the longest sleep out of all of us. After some encouragement James, was awake, packed up and ready to jump into Tom's car about 30 mins or so before the run officially started.

[Dom]

At approximately 9 am runners started leaving Crystal Palace. As we left myself and Other Dom were seperated from all of the TheMiniForum members around us and got lost for the first time in my experience of doing the run Having no idea where to go I drove round a roundabout hoping that another mini would know the right way. However this did not work as the following minis joined me in circling the roundabout After a few times round one of the minis pulled off and we followed them. We ended up in Croydon heading into London. We soon turned round and headed what we thought might be south with a clubby that was determined on following us despite loosing us in traffic a few times. We carried on and later found signs for Crawley and then Brighton and then met up with loads of minis. We then continued down the urban roads of the A23 before joining the fast lane of the motorway. From this point on I followed the mini in this next picture all the way to Brighton.







The above are pleasant pictures entering Brighton. The pictures below show queing to get onto the marina. See if you can spot the blue mini of Tom (van)





We arrived in Brighton at half past eleven after the long wait and parked up near the centre of the marina at the British Mini Club stand.



After having our lunch we were joined by Rian and Wendy who said hello as well as Tim and Helen, and Rich, Jodie, Ant, Phil, Gemma, JoeBodge and Brother. Myself and Other Dom walked up the marina and met up with our favourite dentist Bek, the legendary Kentish German Leigh and Sue and Graem. We later met up with James and Tom and then Charlie Brown. We continued our stroll up the marina where I met up with my friends at Talk Audio who run the sound offs at various mini shows. Loudest mini of the day hit around 150 db, that was the blue clubby estate with the 8 18 inch subwoofers in the back, which reminds me I need to sort out my fuses so I can compete again.

At half one I called Ruth and asked her to bring the banner to the red bus, which was an obvious meet location for TheMiniForum meeting that was arranged for 2 pm. Unfortunately the banner we had was rather small so Ruth took it upon herself and became a human banner. We waited around and a fair number tuned up, one of which was my cousin Luke who lives in Brighton who'd come along to say Hi. Thanks to all those that made it. After standing around in the sun getting hot and tired, we decided to lie on the beach and relax.





At around 3 pm, I decided it would be a good idea to beat the rush and head for home. Myself, Other Dom, James and Tom got together and managed to get a hold of Tom (blue). At this point, communication was very difficult beacause most peoples batteries were dead on their phones apart from the Other Dom so full credit to him.

I took a couple of other pictures while we waited for the others to get back to the minis.



Me


James


We managed to get everyone together and ready to go when Phil (blue) headed off to see his girl friend. We thought fair enough, we shall start queing to get out. However this took shorter time than we expected and we were out and on the road. We spent the next few hours trying to get Phil (blue) and friend back to our location so that we could head home.

While we sat waiting kermit pulled up, as did Phillipa and Phil (Phillapas other half) who I had a great chat with while they were stuck in traffic.



There was a lack of understanding but eventually after driving down to the pier we got Phil (blue) and friend in Tom's (blue) mini, and heading back the way we'd come and toward the outskirts of Brighton where we found a petrol station, fueled up, bought supplies and headed for home. A journey that would usually take less than two hours took more than four.

To finish with, I'd like to say Thank you to all those that came along and had a good time. It was great meeting up with my good TheMiniForum friends and new members who I'd not met before. I have video footage of most of the event but haven't had the time yet to go through it.