London to Brighton, Sunday 21 May 2006

The Miniacs attended L2B as Marshalls again this year and I think we all enjoyed marshalling more this time around as we kinda knew what we were supposed to do! We managed to get out of the park at about half 8 and with James leading the way in his safety car and Neil's local bus driver knowledge of Crystal Palace we got quite a good head start on the main run.

Neil and Ria decided to dress up as rally drivers this year, to give our club a bit of a theme, unfortunately Ryan didn't manage to bring the other rally style Mini, but Lindsay and James got into the spirit by donning crash helmets. James even dressed up his Vauxhall Omega as a Safety Car to watch over the "Rally Drivers".

We managed to have a convoy of about 10 Marshall Minis, including Nikki and Paul from Team Tatty, that stayed together for the whole run and had great fun with the radios that James had given us!

Karen bought lots of shiny bits to tart up the Chocolate box, but was unable to find any dark brown carpet. Neil managed to get a 2004 L2B shirt after his got lost in the post in Thailand sometime last summer, but mostly we didn't spend too much money buying tat. The weather was truly horrible and we spent most of the time being very wet and not being able to find anyone!

This year's Italian Job night at the Ace Cafe was a fantastic night out. This event marks the 2nd anniversary of miniacs.
Neil, Ria and Lindsay all arrived at about 7 this year and got good parking spaces!
Matt's Mini was having water pump trouble so he had to come in his Mercedes, bringing Jon and Nikki (Jon's girlfriend), James arrived a little later in the red Mini.

The raffle was a little disappointing this year with only Jon and Neil winning anything, and it was towards the end so all the good prizes had gone, Neil only had the choice between a model of an MG Metro or a hat.

He chose the hat

Neil bought this nice fibreglass bootlid in the auction.

MITP, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire 21st August 2005

Ria, Neil, Lindsay and James went to Mini In The Park. It was hot and there were lots of stalls. The day was slightly hindered by Ria losing her wallet (it was found, but minus cash), but otherwise a great time was had by all. A few things were bought, everyone was a bit strapped for cash though so not too much.

Click here to view the contenders for Shitter of the Show, MITP.

The Miniacs attendance level was much more acceptable this year, Neil, Ria, Ryan and Karen camped for the whole weekend, James camped on Saturday night and Alex came for the day on Saturday with his girlfriend Jo. The theme this year was medieval and occasionally we saw castles and siege towers being towed around the campsite and knights sword fighting with chavs.

The glow show was very amusing. We preferred these silly entries as opposed to the people with neon lights under their cars and in their boots.

The concourse entries also amused us greatly. There was a woman opposite us in the campsite that spent six hours on Saturday polishing her car and was still at it on Sunday morning.

The club stands were nice to see, hopefully one day the Miniacs will have show attendance that is worth making a banner for.

Most of the Miniacs managed to get down early enough to park in the car park which was a step up from last year when James parked practically on the junction!
Ria as always didn't know where she was going and got lost, so all the Miniacs in her Mini didn't arrive until 8.

But all was well. Food and drink was bought and consumed. The auction was watched with vaguely interested expressions as you can see above...
None of us bought anything this year, although Mark was after the mats, he just wasn't willing to spend any money on them!
Nearly everyone won something on the raffle, although the prizes weren't as good this year.

Ria met up with Freda, CharlieBrown and JamesBrown from Theminiforum for a chat, and had her picture taken with her mini by CharlieBrown.

        CharlieBrown and JamesBrown             Charlie and Freda's minis                     Bob

All of the Miniacs (except Jon cos he is a boring old fart!) went to Reading, even Timmy. We managed to get four minis to Reading this year, and only one major incident on the way.  James' mini decided to drop an engine's worth of oil onto the road about 10 minutes from the car park as the hose to the oil pressure gauge split. We did a quick bodge fix and re-fill of oil but it dropped it all again within 5 minutes and he had to walk to Halfords and get some more hose. We got there eventually though.

It was all marvellous, apart from the rain on Friday which turned the whole site into a big sticky mess. Wellies were donned and bands were seen, GREEN DAY being the highlight of the weekend. Also the joy of Phil Kay dropping his trousers whilst standing in the middle of the sitting crowd.  The White Stripes and The Libertines being amazing and just having a brilliant time setting things on fire and drinking far too much tea.

James' Mini made it home, but Matts was overheating and Ria's clutch went four junctions from home. Fortunately we had some spanners and Sainsburys had some brake fluid, so all was well in the end.

Neil, Mark and Ria attended the V festival this year. Neil drove Ria's Mini and had a great time rallying it across the car park. It was very muddy due to the previous night's rain and all the mud went up under the bodywork and out through all the holes!

Neil was dressed in normal festival clobber but was a shock to the eyes of all the townies at the festival.

Ria and Neil were the only ones to make it to Southern Mini Days. Jon and Matt went to the Imp National, Mark was packing for his trip to Canada, Linz had a BBQ to attend, Ryan was in Wales and everyone else was mysteriously absent.

Click on the above link to visit the SMOC website. We found this nice purple mini and trailer in the camping area, where we bumped into James' sister Nikki of LSMOC and had a little chat. Although she didn't like Neil's new hair colour!

A nice Moke and a Java Green Mini like James' in the car park. A Wood and Picket Mini Van at their trade stand was for sale, but as it was concours standard it probably isn't available to any of the Miniacs!

This nice Union Jack Mini was in the queue for the polish-athon, as was Dave's on Tour 2004, complete with sails!

London to Brighton, Sunday 16 May 2004

The Miniacs attended L2B as Marshalls, which was yay because we went for free and got free breakfast and seafront parking, but not yay cos we had to be there at 6am on Sunday and show people where to park.
It was a brilliant day. We stopped  a few times on the way to Brighton due to minis overheating, but nothing serious. A wonderful time was had by all, lots of stands, and many minis to stare at. Getting back was a bit of a mission though, due to an accident which closed the A23.

MiniWorld 45 at Sandown Park 3-4 April 2004

Neil and Ria were the only two Miniacs that made it to the MiniWorld 45 show, which is a shame, because it was a cracking show. The standard of show minis there was fantastic, as illustrated by these two fine examples!

The stalls weren't all that good though, as there was no second hand stuff. But we bought lots anyway. We also bumped into James' sister Nikki a couple of times, and admired her mini of course! Above Right.
Neil's mini broke down on the way back, which was a little disturbing, but it was only a minor problem and was quickly fixed and we were away.

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