[MiniMan7]

I didn't realize we got the locals mad!?

That's really not good.

Hope we can have an awesome meet again time soon with much better weather!!

-MiniMan7

[tip]

I am not sure what we did to up set the locals, speed possibly. Or it may just be the snotty attitude of Oakville.

We will work on doing better to for the future meets.
Radios, maybe a route map, and a finale destination incase of seperation.

Cheers

Charles

[MiniMan7]

paulmon,

The website is great!!! I especially like the slideshow.

-MiniMan7

[HarryHBMCC]

Quote:

Originally posted by tip
I am not sure what we did to up set the locals, speed possibly. Or it may just be the snotty attitude of Oakville.

We will work on doing better to for the future meets.
Radios, maybe a route map, and a finale destination incase of seperation.

Cheers

Charles

Well, we weren't speeding until we hit Snake Road so I'm sure it was the Waterdown area that was unhappy. Didn't mean to go so fast but it is a fun road and speed creeps up in the MINI. I was in the lead and should have slowed down. Sorry folks.

We did have a final destination, Kelsey's, but without a map it didn't do much good. With that many people we'll need to plan better. 4 cars was the most we'd had before which is much simpler and much less likely to **** people off...

And sorry some of you had to eat at McDonalds, unless you like to eat at McDonalds, in which case I hope you enjoyed it

Harry

[Humourl3ss]

Quote:

Originally posted by HarryIndiBlue
And sorry some of you had to eat at McDonalds, unless you like to eat at McDonalds, in which case I hope you enjoyed it

Well, the food isn't exactly going to make the Michelin Guide, but I can't find fault with the folks I was dining with.

-CW

[paulmon]

Quote:

Originally posted by MiniMan7
paulmon,

The website is great!!! I especially like the slideshow.

-MiniMan7

Got to get more pictures up. Has everyone uploaded their pictures? If not PM me for an account. We've got 19 pictures and 1 video online.

Paul

[tip]

I have tried twice and was unable to get the video just sound?

Charles

[paulmon]

Quote:

Originally posted by tip
I have tried twice and was unable to get the video just sound?

Charles

Strange. What version of mediaplayer? Windows XP? I'll convert the video to another format and repost it.

Paul

[GordonD]

Great afternoon.

I suspect that 20 MINIs going down side street looks bad even if we were not going a little too fast. It's hard not to enjoy the twisty bits but residential areas need to be off limits i think.

the radios are obviously the right way to go with maybe a sweeper car at the end of the train - in contact with the head - so that we can keep the whole thing cohesive

the thing that most amazed me is that with 20 cars there -there were no two exactly alike (2 all blacks were the closest I think) and there was no green one.

Again great day which we need to repeat with a little more planning

[scollins]

Quote:

Originally posted by GordonD
I suspect that 20 MINIs going down side street looks bad even if we were not going a little too fast. It's hard not to enjoy the twisty bits but residential areas need to be off limits i think.

I agree. Residential areas need to be off limits. However, it may be impossible to avoid, so if a route does take us through streets with families, children playing, etc., best behaviour should be mandatory--I would go as far as suggesting everyone drive under the posted limit.

After Snake road, we went through a few narrow-street residential areas, and I thought the speed was a bit much.

Let's not tarnish the MINI's happy and friendly image with "Street Racer" stigma, or it won't be long before those smiles, waves and friendly honks we were getting yesterday turn into frowns and fingers.

I still had a good time, and it was nice to meet many of you.

Shawn

[paulmon]

I've converted the video from an AVI to a Windows Media Video (WMV). I've also added a few things to it.

http://mini.spider.org/ as always. It's the first icon.

Paul

[aircanuck]

Quote:

Originally posted by scollins
I agree. Residential areas need to be off limits. However, it may be impossible to avoid, so if a route does take us through streets with families, children playing, etc., best behaviour should be mandatory--I would go as far as suggesting everyone drive under the posted limit.

After Snake road, we went through a few narrow-street residential areas, and I thought the speed was a bit much.

Let's not tarnish the MINI's happy and friendly image with "Street Racer" stigma, or it won't be long before those smiles, waves and friendly honks we were getting yesterday turn into frowns and fingers.

I still had a good time, and it was nice to meet many of you.

Shawn

I've got to send a big 2nd to everything Shawn said. I really wasn't comfortable with those speeds in a residential area, and then those winding roads I had never been down was a bit hairy (DSC is my new best friend!). No one held my foot to the floor though , and it may be possible that my driving ability may not be up to snuff with the rest. Our speeds never seemed even close to the posted limit and I've got to keep my clean driving record so I can kill you from the cockpit of an airliner someday.

Now on the plus side, it was both a pleasure and honour to meet you all, and I look forward to the next meet! You couldn't ask for a better group. It was also great to see such a wide variety of Minis and not one matching was, as said, incredible!

Regards,
Neil

[HarryHBMCC]

I originally thought of just doing a loop back to Lakeshore Road without doing any of the fun roads but some people said they wanted some fun roads so that's where I lead. Sorry for going too fast. I know I can't keep the speed down on fun roads so the only way to keep the speed down is to stay off of the twisy bits or have someone else lead, etc. Curving open road in front is just too much of a temptation for me.

Next time we'll decide for sure, up front, if it is going to be a slow cruise or if it is going to have some run roads on it and whichever we choose, we'll pick the route out first and we'll supply a map with stops and we won't go off the plan. With a map you don't have to keep up for fear of getting lost, which can make people drive behind their limits.

Luckily this past event just has funny stories, "haha, that guy skidded out, good thing he didn't hit the guardrail", "haha, we got lost and ate at McDonalds", "haha I talked my way out of that ticket" so just good war stories but when you go a bit fast with that many cars, bad things can happen (e.g. a US meet last year that had a MINI go down a ravine) so we must be careful. I intended it to be reasonable but with 19 cars behind me, it was hard, too hard apparently.

I don't want people angry in that area. I grew up there. Now I hope we _didn't_ make the papers

Harry

[tip]

Sounds like a plan, Harry.

Harry, When I started yesterday my service indicator said I had 2500 km left to service, after that run yesterday I lost 500 km. It is now reading 2000km to the next service. That will mean I most likely will just make the 14,000 km mark. I can't believe that I was driving the car that hard?

Charles

[scollins]

Quote:

Originally posted by HarryIndiBlue
Sorry for going too fast...[snip]
Now I hope we _didn't_ make the papers

First of all, don't be too hard on yourself. Being first in line you may not have been going as fast as some of those further back desperately trying to catch up.

I hope we didn't make the papers, but I have to throw this out for dicussion: I wonder if printing something in the paper would be a wise thing to do. Thoughts?

Shawn

[HarryHBMCC]

I would only consider putting something in the paper if we did make them first. If someone writes a letter to the editor then we could apologize. Otherwise I think we'd best not remind them of it. We aren't the first to do such a thing -- the road is listed on websites as one of the best in Ontario for driving so they get a lot of enthusiastic drivers and riders on it.

Harry

[GordonD]

Quote:

Originally posted by scollins
I wonder if printing something in the paper would be a wise thing to do. Thoughts?

Shawn

Before we turn this into a James Dean/Marlyn Brando (sp?) angst thing i don't believe we were acting like hooligans or anything.

It is definately stressful for residents to see a large convoy and i'm sure that later guys playing catch-up were probably faster than early tight groups. Also that Magnaflow was pretty sweet sounding but being in 2nd place maybe brought some attention to later cars.

I suggest that we chalk it up to experience and plan a little better next time.

[aircanuck]

Harry, you owe us (me at least) NO apology. Like I said, no one put my foot to the floor I have to send you kudos for picking a really neat route. This is a work in progress, this was a first for many, and we will have a superb meet to look forward to now. And you're right, it's great that these lessons were learned safely! Nice Job on that one guys.

Keep us posted if the papers say anything!

Cheers,

Neil

[scollins]

Quote:

Originally posted by HarryIndiBlue
the road is listed on websites as one of the best in Ontario for driving

Can you direct me to that list please

[tip]

Hear hear Gordon.

If I have to spend more time with a fellow mini owner organising the next meet, then I will. Next time I can assure you that it will be fun and enjoyable for the mini owners and hopefully the onlookers. We have all learned alot from this experience, it really was not a bad experience things really didn't go wrong. I am sure if we fine tune what we have, as said a car at the back to gather up lost people, maybe radios, proper route map, as well as desiganted rest areas for lost people to go to to meet up with the group again, and last all cars stick to the speed limits and local traffic laws. It is that simple. At the end of it all head off for something to eat.

Anyone now if Mini Oakville has a BBQ. maybe we could next time go for a leisurely drive then come back for BBQ. Every one chips in a couple of $bucks$

Sound cool to me.

Charles