hello! been up for 19 hours now, so just a few pics before i go to sleep..

see the damage to the underside of my car thanks to the amazing exploding lorry...
marvel at scooperman, dora, harpo, etc in the vip lounge grandstand seats..
see most of you who were not taking pictures of us on the skid pan thingy..
and marvel at Michelle as Russ swift poses for a photo with her...

many more.. not now though... catcha later... ian m.

And the last 5

Here also, is a link to other pics I took at the show

Click Here (http://iclark.linuxdriven.net/Photos/Birmingham_Motor_Show_2004/index.html) - A caption is posted below some pics

okay, just a few more...

the ramp.. about 6ft high, and longer than i thought!
burnt out arena floor!!
the amazing exploding lorry!!
and last but not least... (I'll get in trouble for this one...)
you don't have to br ginger to like the hot orange colour, but it helps!!

last one for this morning... for sure....

Why spend a fortune on fancy zoom lenses, when you can simply photo someone elses photo...

a big apology to the guys at the Jessops stand, as apparently this picture retails at around three pounds...

Reading thru the events on the planning thread and here for the aftermath, I'm once again left with the thought..It's not about the car, it's about the people. Well done and Happy Motoring.

All MINI Movies I took can be downloaded by clicking on this link (http://iclark.linuxdriven.net/motorshow/MINImovies.zip)

They're 15 second clips taken with my Camera - There are 19 clips

Ok, heres a few more pics for everyone. Tried to keep them different - and thats a hard job with all the great pics already posted.

Thanks again to Hat and MB for all the hard work. It was great to finally meet people like Paul M and Soggy (next time tell me where the Guiness is early enough for me to have one too;))

Finally thanks to all the cars in the South West convoy - it was great to see you all.

Paul

oh yes & nice job Dora on fly posting all the minis in the parking area with flyers for the charity ball :D

oh yes & nice job Dora on fly posting all the minis in the parking area with flyers for the charity ball :D

'twas me not Dora ;)

Excellent day out, many thanks to Hat and Brummie for organising.

Convoy up was great fun - tempted to do our own fuel protest for a while with Anand but thought better of it in the end :D

Convoy from Hams Hall to NEC was awesome, so many MINIs :cool: And the looks we got as we arrived at the NEC was great. After parking in our exclusive parking area I was fly posting the cars when a coach load of folks arrived. Out came the cameras as the wandered around all our cars - at one point nearly all of the were surrounding Rakey's car getting shots of the roof - it just goes to show the MINI may have sold tons but it is still a great attention grabber, people just love it.

Big thanks to MINI for a great stand and Ownership lounge, hello to Caroline if your reading this - thanks for all the info you gave us. Russ Swift show was awesome - and big thansk for letting us onto the arean afterwards.

As for the show itself - well I'd have been happy to just sit on the MINI stand all day - the rest didin't do a great deal fo rme, a few bits were ok but nothing special really. I will go next year though - Hat have you started teh thread yet :D

Anyone want some piccies? No, ok

oh, and jsut too many people to talk to again - Hickster, thanks for the convoy leader banner - dont think I saw you again after that :confused:


Rakey - didn't see you again after Hams Hall :confused: But thanks for the contraband ;)

i missed alot of people too :confused: too busy to see everyone :(

oh and thanks to Loosemoose, MiniAdventurer and Desert Storm for handing the parking passes out at Hams Hall ;) :D

what happened with the truck incident????

I know Veron781 got bumped at a roundabout by a mini2er but everything seems ok just a little damage

what happened with the truck incident????

I know Veron781 got bumped at a roundabout by a mini2er but everything seems ok just a little damage

The Truck Incident in short:

About 20 of us were driving up from the south on the M40 and whilst overtaking an artic lorry, one of his tyres blew sending debry all over the road, along with blocks of wood and a plastic bottle, later found to be containing brake fluid! So minis were darting everywhere to avoid the debry and I was travelling in the middle lane and had the choice of driving into a car in the outside lane, driving over the block of wood or over the plastic bottle. So chose the bottle and low and behold, it exploded covering the passenger side of my car in brake fluid and also spraying Trainman who was following. (Sorry Neal)
So we all pulled over to assess the damage in true MINI2 spirit and so had to go get a full polish to get it off. Set me back about 3 hours but car looked good. Damage is minimal it appears, but have to wait a few days to see any lasting affects. Convoy from hell? I think so!! ;)


Sorry to hear about your car Ian.

Jones! :D

Great day guys :D Thanks to Hat & Brummie for sorting it all out.

As Soggy said i think i could have spent the whole day in the Owners lounge, just could have done with a vodka and some ice with the lemonade ;) :D

See you all soon.

Great day guys :D Thanks to Hat & Brummie for sorting it all out.

As Soggy said i think i could have spent the whole day in the Owners lounge, just could have done with a vodka and some ice with the lemonade ;) :D

See you all soon.

yes - next year we'll have to take some bottles with us ;)

hi ho

i think also a repocussion of the truck incident was my supercharger belt snapping :( (36 hours old MCS) as at the time i head a 'bom bom' under the car but just assumed i got away with it !

soon enuff when we stopped belt started to squeel and by the time we got lost trying to find hams hall i turned round in the road and the belt snapped and pulley looks like it fell off!

anyways 4 hours towtruck drive later i arrived home all fed up, p1ssed off and spent the afternoon cleaning the dead things off the car for it to look pretty on the drive !

07:30 this morning it had its second trip on the back of a recovery lorry back to Woods in odiham to hopefully get things sorted !!

GUTTED !

Other than that, Had a great morning, Was really nice to meet up with such a friendly bunch and i hope to see you guys soon !


Andy..

Thats such a shame zippster that you didn't get a chance to go in the motorshow! It was great to see you though! Had fun on the radios! Lets try it again soon! Sorry again for your trouble mate! That's one nice car by the way!

some more of my shrunk to fit pictures...



as always, the ability to get them from me full size, and hi res is there... i can post them to you on a cd, or i can send them to a site of your choice....



1. Scooperman, Zippster, Trainman, IloveMiniLaura, and ‘TheMightyImp’, waiting for Harpo..

2. Loving those corners..

3. These side sunscreens are a great idea, as are the powered retracting mirrors...

4. Toys!! Nearly bought the tiny Mini.. but it was free in my goodie bag anyway!!

5. Stuff and Gizmos..


ARRRRGGHHHH!! It was brake fluid then Jones? I had that mystery liquid over the front and underside of my car.. I better get it checked before my floor pan gets eaten away.. or something...

Just wanted to add my thanks to everyone for arranging such a great day! Our first Mini2 run and absolutely loved it! The Mini's all look soooo cute all together and the smiles and reactions from other people whilst we were all driving along were funny. It was good to meet with other MINI owners - especially Nat and Paul(?I think that was your name, sorry if I've got it wrong). Hopefully we will meet up again at another event.

Loved the Mini event at the Motor show - it was just so cool, and being invited down for a photo shoot was fantastic! I forgot my camera so thanks to everyone who have posted their photos. Cheers. :) :yellow:

6. Russ takes a better photo than I do!
7. What Russ signed for me..
8. Camera out in the toilets?? Call the POLICE!! (make up your own jokes as to why this picture is BLURRY!)
9. Tenuous Mini references..

So, there you have it.. Once again 'TheMightyImp' brings you the pictures you either wouldn't, couldn't, or shouldn't have taken at the motor show!!!

Just wanted to add my thanks to everyone for arranging such a great day! Our first Mini2 run and absolutely loved it! The Mini's all look soooo cute all together and the smiles and reactions from other people whilst we were all driving along were funny. It was good to meet with other MINI owners - especially Nat and Paul(?I think that was your name, sorry if I've got it wrong). Hopefully we will meet up again at another event.

Loved the Mini event at the Motor show - it was just so cool, and being invited down for a photo shoot was fantastic! I forgot my camera so thanks to everyone who have posted their photos. Cheers. :) :yellow:
Please post a picture of me, 'TheMightyImp' i hear you say.....

Your wish is my command!!!!

So sorry to hear of your utterly rubbish day, but hopefully Woods will make your MINI better ASAP and you will be out on the roads soon. Felt so bad all of us driving away and leaving you still on the phone. See you at the next event! :) :yellow:

Nice picture! Was I hinting that much? Thanks so much I will treasure it always!!

does anybody know if they repeated the photo shoot with russ & the team in the mini live arena or whether they just did it the one time? the show we went in & got to pose with the cars was 11:30 i think

it was great that they allowed so much time as well - not just a quick photo & off you go, they were happy for us to spend as long as we liked & all of the people on the mini stand that i talked to knew mini2 were going to be there yesterday.

does anybody know if they repeated the photo shoot with russ & the team in the mini live arena or whether they just did it the one time? the show we went in & got to pose with the cars was 11:30 i think

it was great that they allowed so much time as well - not just a quick photo & off you go, they were happy for us to spend as long as we liked & all of the people on the mini stand that i talked to knew mini2 were going to be there yesterday.
I saw people trying to get them to do it again, but they wouldn't, understandably.... Once was enough for me... I'm just glad we went into the show straight away and didn't miss it... the 'hooray' from the MINI2ers was far better than the reaction from the mini owners in later shows!!

wow, 8 pages already!! :o

thanks Hat and MB for organising everything- the photo shoot was a nice surprise ;)

the MoO was great, and i got a little whizzy car magnet thing that matches my car :D :D

pics to follow... got some good ones coming out of Hams Hall :)

don't mean to be a pain but could people remember to blank out numberplates that are clearly visible please...? thankyou :)

cheers for the mention rakey ;)

does anybody know if they repeated the photo shoot with russ & the team in the mini live arena or whether they just did it the one time? the show we went in & got to pose with the cars was 11:30 i think

it was great that they allowed so much time as well - not just a quick photo & off you go, they were happy for us to spend as long as we liked & all of the people on the mini stand that i talked to knew mini2 were going to be there yesterday.

Yes-We the North West lot had another EXCLUSIVE Picture taken-Pictures to Follow :D

did anyone else notice the pics on the walls in the mini lounge were previous 'your mini advernture' winners? nice touch that.

as we were walking around the rest of the halls there were loads of times when we overheard people talking about the mini show & minis in general. Mind you, they were probably all mini2 people :D

134 cars x 2 or 2.5 people per car average = somewhere around 300 mini2'ers attended. Mini2 wins! :)

A BIG BIG thanks to Hat and Mad Brummie for organising such a brilliant day out. As everyone else has mentioned the sight of over 130 MINI's at Hams Hall was just phenominal!!!! :D As was the site on the way to the NEC. :)

I'm glad that I made it into the 11.30 showing of MINI Live - the atmosphere in the arena was amazing after the show and I now have Russ Swift's autograph on my 'sticker MINI's' roof. :D
The MINI stand was great.

Because my passport hadn't arrived from MoM - thanks to the guy who made me do a stupid dance to get into the Owner's Lounge. ;) (Even after I'd shown him my keys!!!!!)

Got loadsa picci's will post them in a couple of days when I've sorted thru about 100 photo's and I'll post the best one's.

The Motorshow itself was a bit disapointing - not many new cars and stands tended to be showing the 'usual suspects'. Didn't bother watching the Thunderbirds show, hung round the MINI stand some more instead :D

Did anyone visit the Maybach stand? One word - WOW!!!
Was too late to get onto the Porsche stand - didn't get into that Hall until about 5 o'clock but the Carrera GT looked really nice. Audi was a crappy stand - sorry. Best stand apart from the MINI was the..... was the..... was the...... Na! there wasn't one as good as the MINI stand.

Once again thanks 4 a great day, see you at the next meet.

Rakey - didn't see you again after Hams Hall :confused: But thanks for the contraband ;)
your welcome as always mate;)

guess I did well at hiding from you then:p:D