Miniology would like to make a shout out to O2 MotorSports of Redding, Ca. Owned and operated by Steve and Stacy Lowery, O2 MOtorSports provides factory trained European specialists committed to quality, service and professionalism.

O2 specializes in Mini, Audi, Porsche, VW, Land Rover, BMW and Volvo service.

If you are in the Northern California area, Miniology highly recommends O2 Motorsports for all of your service needs.

Give Steve and Stacy a call at 530-243-2002 or check them out on the web o2motorsports.com.

Back by popular demand is MINI Thunder II. This event will be held on the 3-day Presidents Day Weekend. The track day will be Sunday Feb 20, 2011, leaving Saturday and Monday as travel days for those coming a long distance. Last year we had entrants from Southern California, Oregon, and Washington. We are currentlt setting up a registration website, but already have an event website going. Please check http://www.minithunderhill.com/Home.cfm for details and updates.

We will have three groups, Advanced, Intermediate, and Beginners. We expect to have 5+ 20 minute sessions, plus instruction, classroom, demo and parade laps. Entree for single drivers will be $199 for the day and include an event T-Shirt, breakfast, lunch, and sodas/waters during the day. If you made it to last years event, we figure you will return and if you missed it, shame on you, but you can make this one. For those that wish to share a Mini, the cost is $275 but you will have to run in separate groups.

The event will include a Saturday night BBQ dinner and “Casino Night” at Thunderhill Raceway Park. You will get a chance to meet some of the instructors and other drivers, learn the track, and socialize, before getting a good nights sleep. There will be camping available at the track and they do have electrical hookups, bathrooms, showers, and BBQ pits. Most will probably stay in WIllows which is a short 7 miles way. They have several hotels to chose from.

You will need a certified helmet that meets the requirements of SA 2000 or SA 2005. The SA is for automotive and SM is for motorcycles. SM helmets are not allowed. You will be able to rent a helmet from the track for $30 for the day.

You will need to fill out the entry form and waiver, plus fill out the Safety Tech Sheet (attached) for your Mini.

Track Day will begin with the track opening at 7:00AM, we will have time for drivers to grab breakfast, rent helmets if necessary, attend a mandatory “all hands” meeting, with first Minis on track at 8:30AM. This is also a good time to empty out your car or ALL loose items, check your fluid levels, tire pressures and torque your wheels.

There will be complete personnel including tow trucks, turn workers, flaggers, grid-control, communications, ambulance and safety equipment.

Here are some links for further information and videos from last years MINI Thunder:

Facebook link to Minithunderhill website page.
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=320123864188

Video links to Mini Thunder hill webpage.

KRCR TV7 News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH0ZENPLTkU

Dennis Racine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsNSp3N8ORU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1NXXD28kVU

Niello Mini

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTy-u7LiUOE&feature=youtube_gdata

Dateline: MC2 magazine offices Seattle, June 10, 2010

If you read the NY Times “A” section last Sunday you saw the full-page, four-color ad by MINI USA challenging Porsche Cars North America to a race at Road Atlanta, Monday, June 21st. What so very few know about are the details behind the curtain. It’s the sort of factual info we’ll be presenting soon with the re-launch of our GoMotoring.com site. Not just “exclusive” details but hard facts and insight on a daily basis!

The story started about three months ago with Jim McDowell, V.P. MINI USA. Now our Jim likes a good joke or two; it’s said that he’s a bit of prankster, too. He shared his idea only with 5-6 US staff, and with the help of Trudy Hardy (US marketing exec), he planned this bold and crafty campaign, telling no more than the people that can comfortably fit into a MINI Clubman. It was that tightly guarded until the Wednesday before the NY Times ad, when he called Munich and let the cat out of the bag to his Munich bosses our Scoopertm tells us. Even we at MC2 had no details until Monday morning.

We’ve been skulking around in dark places since then, with our contacts.

Click here to read more.. »

Join Hudson Valley Minis at Prestige MINI’s annual Movie Night! We’ll be meeting at 6:00pm at Prestige MINI for pizza, and rallying over to the Warwick Drive-In at 6:45pm. Further details and RSVP information will be announced shortly.

Hello MINIOLOGY fans.. just a reminder about graphics and a sweet discount to pass along to our audience!

I was just speaking with Robert from MINI Motoring Graphics – these guys (aka Original Graphics) have been doing this for quite a few years and have an online previewer of what some common graphics look like on your MINI, and can do custom You-if-i-cation as well, just based on your drawings, photos, or whatever

Other (in some ways, better) than paint — it’s a cool way to customize your ride by adding vinyl wrap to your roof, a-panels, doors, bonnet, boot, or the whole car if you want hehe… this isn’t some lame generic tribal or flame sticker like you get at the major autopart chain stores …. its the latest 3M technology, very cool long lasting stuff looks completely awesome. Think of it like Tattoos for your MINI hehe..

Well, if you mention “Miniology” (that’s us, for those that have been hiding in a cave the past 8 years) you will get a 10% discount off MSRP — if the program is successful or at least gets a lot of attention and leads then maybe bump that up to 20% — also, they are always down to help with give always or contests or anything that will generate attention. So, the next BIG event YOUR local Mini/MINI club has, as always, take pics and video, and let us know! These are a very passionate group of people there at MINI Motoring Graphics.

Oh, and any dealerships reading this (we know who you are!) please contact me or Robert Burris (robert@minimotoringgraphics.com) directly for deep wholesale discounts! They are the only official partner for MINI USA and run their Graphics program.. All the dealerships can order from them and he is working hard to get the clubs (like Mini Club of Calgary, MOASF, REME, others) and website owners to work with them to get some really sweet discounts. I am thus posting this wherever I can hehe.. you may see this reposted at your local club

Ok, enough babble — get creating cool stuff and put it on your ride! Here is their website.
MINI Motoring Graphics

Cheers!
–StarLord

Mini enthusiasts in the United States will, after all, get a chance to buy the hot-looking John Cooper Works World Championship 50. This so-called “ultimate Mini,” announced last year at the Mini United Festival in England, is limited to a run of 250 vehicles, none of which were to be sold in the United States. But apparently dealers whined loudly enough that Mini now says 50 of the special-edition cars will be culled from the herd and sent to the United States. Deliveries begin in late spring.The World Championship 50 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of John Cooper’s motorsports successes, which included a world championship with Australian driver Jack Brabham. The new Mini is essentially an appearance package variation for the John Cooper Works model. Each car is painted in British racing green — “Connaught,” it is called — with a white roof and racing stripes. The package also includes blacked-out 17-inch wheels, xenon headlights and black leather seats with red piping.The World Championship 50 is powered by the John Cooper Work’s 1.6-liter, 208-horsepower turbocharged 4-cylinder, and has the same performance suspension package as the standard John Cooper Works model.

Photo and text courtesy Niello Mini, Sacramento, Ca.

Always a leader in the world of automotive safety and technology, MINI has announced the development of a nighttime driver safety product that they feel will greatly reduce the nighttime accident rate and allow cars parked in dark areas to be located quickly.

Called the MINI Nighttime Luminous Safety Tyre (NLST), the new safety device will be offered as optional equipment on the new Countryman S, Clubman S and as standard equipment on MINI’s newest automotive product, the as yet unannounced MINI Nighthawk, a luxury 12-seat limousine, which will be built in conjunction with the Brazilian automaker, Empreendimentos Loucos, Ltd., and debut in 2013 (MC2 will be covering further developments on this story early next spring).
According to Vilhelm Ungesüßte-Kekse, marketing manager for MINI Special Projects, the NLST exceeds the Euro NCAP safety standards for 2013, which state that all vehicles manufactured after 1 April, 2013 must feature illuminated or reflective materials on the vehicle sides to improve nighttime safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.
“Our luminous tires exceed the new NCAP standard by a wide margin, said Ungesüßte- Kekse. “They not only glow out to the sides, but the tires are bright enough that ingress/ egress into the vehicle in the dark is now easy. Furthermore, in an emergency situation where the headlamps fail to light, the driver can see well enough from the light of the tires to drive in total darkness at speeds up to 25 mph. Plus, as the tires are also runflat design, drivers need never worry about nighttime blowouts on lonely country roads.” According to Ungesüßte-Kekse, the development team came up with the idea for nighttime glowing tires after reading an old issue of Life Magazine from 1961 that had an article on Goodyear Light-Tires.
“Of course, the problem with the Goodyear tires was that they used semi-transparent synthetic rubber and the glow was made from super bright light bulbs affixed to the inside of the rim,” says Dr. Hans Leuchtkäfer, head of BMW/MINI’s secret development department, the Abteilung von unechten Leistungen. “The safety issues of neon lightbulbs bursting inside the tires were huge, which is why Goodyear stopped the project.”
Leuchtkäfer says that the NLST solves the problem by using a blend of synthetic transparent rubber and luminescent neoprene, instead of light bulbs. The luminescence is activated by static electricity, so the tires glow as long as the vehicle is moving. However, should the driver not want the tires to glow for any reason, a grounding device, activated from a stalk on the steering column, cancels out the static charge. And, for nighttime parking in unlit lots and narrow alleys, a small, static storage battery located in the engine compartment, supplies the static charge to keep the tires lit for up to 12 hours.
“Upon seeing the technological and driver safety advantages of our latest development, it becomes immediately obvious why our work, and even our department, was hitherto unheard of,” says Leuchtkäfer. “Now, with the development work of MINI Nighttime
Luminous Safety Tyre being completed, we feel that making ourselves and the technology known is important.”
In fact, the company believes the work is so important for nighttime driver safety that they are giving away the technology for free to other automotive manufacturers and tire companies after they have had the product on the market for one year.
While it is too early to know if this latest safety device will spur a lot of interest with automotive enthusiasts, a number of European consumer safety groups have already endorsed the product. In fact, the European Union for Nocturnal Safety has issued a press release praising the new tires, but pointing out that they don’t go far enough.
“It’s all very well to have luminous tires to enhance nighttime safety, and we applaud MINI for its efforts,” said Jaqui Plaintes, managing director of the group. “However, these new tires do not meet NCAP safety requirements for 2016, which require all glowing vehicles to also emanate a chirping sound, so that blind people will know a car is crossing in front of them.”
Plaintes went on to point out that in the view of the European Union for Nocturnal Safety, what really is needed is the development of red/blue flashing tires for emergency vehicle use, as well as the eventual banning of nighttime driving of private vehicles.

From the staff of MC2 Magazine

MINI TAKES THE STATES SET FOR DENVER IN AUGUST By Peter DuPre, MC2 Magazine

Bi-annual event kicks off from five cities with auto cross events and road rallies to MTTS.

26 March, 2010 ~ With the official release of preliminary information on MINI Takes The States 2010 released today, MC2 can confirm what we have suspected for some time. MINI Takes The States will be held August 13-15 with Denver, Colorado as the event headquarters.

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