I think it will be tomorrow before I sort my piccies out...

Apologies for not spending too much time with the MINI2 crowd, but wanted to see the show and get home to spend some of the weekend in the sun with Abi and little Alfie.

:cool:

I got on the detour route too and unfortunately took everyone else with me (sorry) but we did get our own special carpark which we were 'escorted' too. Lots of security ppl on radios and moving barricades around to let us through. Thanks to the organisers and the free parking and thanks to MINI for letting us onto the arena floor and get some pics and sigs :D

Attched Pics:

1. Mini car park 2 (for lost minis ;) )
2. Some bandit about to drive off in the cooper cab (me :eek: )
3. FAB 1
4. The highlight of the Ford show (the only good thing about it)

:eb: What a Great Day especially Hams Hall and the convoy :D :D :D Heres a couple of pic, like us Russ was on a high ;) the panoramic 1 wont fit in large size I'll put it up on my web later for all to see or mail me and i'll send it to you :) :eb:

Well done Hat and the rest of organising the possie :D :D

Well done Hat and Mand Brummie, great day Thanks :D

aye!

Home at last :D

Thanks Hat and mad brummie for organising a smashing day out.

It was great to put names to faces, and such a good turn out too. MINI-only parking right up by the entrance was just ACE! THANK YOU!!!

Thanks also to Soggy, Harpo, Trainman, scooperman_uk, Jasonfields007, minisoopercooper, giest, and Chill for keeping me company throughout the day :D

A big thank you to scooperman's aunt for providing us with the much needed cup of tea, coffee and yummy sandwiches - sorry about dropping in on you like that! :o :D

Last but not least, thanks to those who kept me sane towards the end of the day - you know who you are :D

Hope to see you all again soon ;)

TTFN ;)

DK ;) :apple:

P.S. No doubt there will be loads of quality pics and vids about, so it is unlikely that I would put up a page on Apple's site with my poor efforts ;)

P.P.S. A big thanks to MINI UK for their hospitality - you guys did an excellent job looking after us :D

:red: :red: :)


Great day:D :D All those MINI`s a sight to behold. Thanks go out to all who organised the event and to whom ever arranged the photo shoot after the show, awesome:D :D :D
Had a run in the cateram:D marginally more fun than the MINI:rolleyes: :D
Think early night called for absolutley :bad::bad:£"$!d:D

:red: :red: :)


Just found this one. Thought it would make a good Caption competion. No prizes;) :D

most definitely a MINI adventure on the big scale. :)

thanks to everyone who was friendly, old and new.
Highlights were the MINI show, getting the mention for MINI2.com over the PA that i asked the staff to do. Getting into the live show arena, meeting Russ and his crew. Great hospitality from MINI UK with the free drinks and free jelly beans :)

ive got the whole MINI action show on video, which will be soon available for download on my website. Ive now got to sort through 300 pics for the best ones to put up... knackering but great day out.

I would also like to thank the local MINI2 folks for their welcoming hospitality in leading us to a pub after the day at the show.

thoughts go out to all those in the SCNM convoy that got involved in the lorry tire blowout. It happened just behind me when i was passing the lorry in question. Im glad to hear that no one was really hurt. Also zippster, hope you made it back OK, sorry to hear you supercharger pulley went on your first MINI2 run :(

a big well done to Hat, Brummie and MA for the organising and leading the pack to the NEC from Hamms:)

a busy and tiring weekend had, but well worth it:D Wish I had got mre time to talk and meet people, but hey there are other shows so hope to see you all on them too:)

As for the show, well and BIG thank you has to go the staff on the MINI stand who were superb, friendly and great fun. The Open Arean was the the highlight for me, so much so we watched it twice, a great show put on by Russ and team.

The MINI stand was good, wish there had been more cars on show, but it was so good to see the BP and HB in the flesh, both great colours.

The rest of the show was a bit of a let down really, not many new cars on show, not much for sale on accessories:( But mind you when you drive and own a MINI all other cars are pretty much the same old same old:)

Had no idea you was there scoop, looking forward to the vid on the run :D

Well I'm going to have to disagree with all this motorshow was great feeling. I thought
it disappointing with the Carrera GT the only non-MINI highlight. Well done to Ford
though, I couldn't help smiling at the way the kids were excited by Thunderbirds.
There was three outstanding aspects of the day
1) Russ Swift and co, they are amazing and you need the smell of tyres to complete
the experience. 2) The Hams Hall meet, so many MINIs and MINI people all together.
3) Seeing the new MINI's and colours in the flesh and the MOO lounge/goodies/etc
A big thanks to all the organisers as the convoy driving and Hams Hall meet made the
day special when the show itself didn't. That includes our very own minisoopercooper
for organising the yokels, townies and Welsh in convoy. I'd like to finish with a question.
Did any MINI peps dress in pink and get their photo taken in a pink car :eek: ? Be brave,
own up.
I feel the same about the motorshow, the motorshow really was the MINI show! I went earlier in the week and it was nice to see what else we common folks (without MINIs) were missing out of in that lounge. :D

Even with Passes to the backstage or the Porsche stand, like the MINI owners lounge it was still rather dissapointing, but enjoyable none the less.

BTW - What was in the goody bags? :D:D:D:D

Motor On!

Hi everyone, Just want to say a big thank you to the people I met today from the south, this was my first run and it was GR8 fun, also a sorry and a thank you to the guy I nearly smashed into the rear of TWICE , oh my god feel so guilty, second time he had to stop quick and dodged so id have enough room so stop, man have never an accident, did not want one to be there, Hope everything turned out for you JONES felt for you on that one, did anyone get video of it happening I know one of you had a video camera wired up?

Again thanks so much for being so friendly , dam hard to keep up with your cooper s’s

Hope to see you in another meet, I will keep my distance this time, still feel so bad even now, stupid me. Those stunts where so cool!

BTW - What was in the goody bags?
A MINI fidge magnet with pull back and go (only just found out it did that!)
A tin of mints
A Mini cab pin badge

Had no idea you was there scoop, looking forward to the vid on the run :D
theres a little teaser from the MINI action arena now available on my website for download.

full length vids soon.

Hi everyone, Just want to say a big thank you to the people I met today from the south, this was my first run and it was GR8 fun, also a sorry and a thank you to the guy I nearly smashed into the rear of TWICE , oh my god feel so guilty, second time he had to stop quick and dodged so id have enough room so stop, man have never an accident, did not want one to be there, Hope everything turned out for you JONES felt for you on that one, did anyone get video of it happening I know one of you had a video camera wired up?

Again thanks so much for being so friendly , dam hard to keep up with your cooper s’s

Hope to see you in another meet, I will keep my distance this time, still feel so bad even now, stupid me. Those stunts where so cool!i didnt get any of the accident on video, my incar scooperman cam is forward facing, i was level with the cab of the lorry when it had a blow out. that was scary enough. :eek:

right i'm back too :D

great day peeps, there were 134 cars-ish given how many parking passes i had left at the end of the day so thats a new MINI2 record :D :D :D :D

thanks to Hat for his idea which turned into a momouth meet, thanks to BMW for the use of their car park and thanks to MINI for their wonderful hospitality. I agree the motorshow itself was pretty disappointing but the comany and MINI made up for that :D

Look forward to seeing you again sometime :D :D

Ciao all :)

great convoys and great MINI stand and Show, I didn’t think much of the other stands and being a keen Motor Show goer was disappointed after returning to the show scene after nearly four years :(.. Geneva next i thinks ;).

Sir R Swift if you are reading this.. many thanks for the autograph and picture and would just like to say that you and your team were great and made our day

Cheers once again all

<------- offff to pack for Le Mans :D

ditto all the above praise & gratitude

Glad everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the run from the north (Leeds) was interesting - boy racer in a Nova getting up everyones rear end (pardon the phrase) was shown his nova wasnt as fast as he thought :D .

Thanks to Mad Brummie and Hat for organising a meet for the Mini2 massive

Glad the photoshoot and Mini2.com mention on the tanoy went down well as soon as we asked Russ he went to sort it out straight away :)

Dont think security at the NEC had ever driven a car before though as they managed to box-in about 80% of Minis, but managed to get out doing a reverse spin on 2 wheels :D

Right next step clean the car again

Well I'm finally home.:D

Thank you to Hat and MB for sorting out the parking - it was really a nice touch. It was nice to see such a brilliant turn out and the convoy to the NEC was sight.:) The only downer was some idiot in an all black Mini+Viper Stripes nearly smashing into the side of me as we were leaving the car park.:rolleyes: Two Mini's also collided on the way there, I hope there wasn't too much damage done.:(

As for the show - well LMB got the right Royal treatment today.:D

My friend who accompanied me to the show not only works for Jaguar but drives a Porsche. His dad drives a Bentley so we got access all areas for Bentley, Porsche, Jaguar, Austin Martin and Mini.:p I had Lunch at Bentley, and some Tea at Jaguar.:D The pressure was on me when we got to the Mini stand but BMW didn't let me down. They were very impressed how well we were treated and they loved the show/atmosphere – you guys were great.;)

This meant I got to fly through the show and saw most of what I wanted to see. I must have sat in over a Million pounds worth of cars.:D The stars of the show for me were:
->The Carrera GT :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
->The GT2, GT3and GT3RS – amazing cars all of them :cool:
->Exige - I want one :(
->The Lotus women - They were stunning.:D
->DB9 – Very nice car.

All in all I think it was one of the best Motorshows for a while, hopefully it'll continue to get better.

oh something else i forgot, thanks to DK for the use of the loud hailer, most useful, thanks Dora :D

Thanks to every one for a great day :D
The pull back car is really cool, goes down the fridge real fast but does not have the power to go up, might have to get it superchiped :p

Great day all!

I have loads of pics that I need to sort through. Had a great run down with the north convoy. Funny moment when my car park pass blew out of the window doh! Cheers to the organisers. A brilliant day!

Nick

A big thanks to the thief who decided to steal one of the valve caps off my brand new 04 MCS (less than 3 weeks old). Last event I'm attending if things get nicked. :mad:

Cheers

PS It didn't fall off cos they left they finger prints in the brake dust.
that happened to me about a week after i bought mine... i bought an entire replacement set from my dealer for 80p.. i know it's not the point, but just so you know...

i personally have plastic caps off of my old volvo on my cooper, and my metal caps live on my mantle shelf....

Now I know why that clio was parked behind me:p

The Mini Live display was excellent, it made the visit to the other stands quite mundane as i was expecting some burning rubber:p Left early as my dad needed to get back.:(

Thanks again for the organisers for an excellent meet:)

Heere are some pics


4. BEP Cooper S
the guy with the cow t-shirt is me, the mighty imp, and driving the BEP is Michelle, my better half!!

nice to see you there steven, if only for a minute on the ramp...

WOW !!! What a fantastic day it was. My First MINI Run and it was freakin amazing ! :D

The North West guys are NUTS !! :D but it was such good fun - Thanks guys, hope I didn't do anything wrong on the convoy (my first one) :)

Anyway here are my MINI pics :) they're at 640x480 for the forums However, I have Zipped up the original 1600x1200's and they can be accessed by clicking on this text (http://iclark.linuxdriven.net/motorshow/Motorshow2004.zip)

I will also post a load of videos I did as soon as I get done uploading them :)

Thanks to everyone who arranged this and thanks to everyone we spoke to for welcoming us to our first MINI run :) - Was a fantastic sight to see so many fantastic MINI's and ALL the people who own them :)

Some more...

oh something else i forgot, thanks to DK for the use of the loud hailer, most useful, thanks Dora :D

You are welcome :D

DK ;) :apple:

and some more....