Headed Down the Mountains Back Home....

As we headed home..some of the gang went to the winery, some went to the Woolwine Festival..and we had a bit of fun on the twisties...although there was some slow traffic in front at times the roads are great...here is a link to a short video of one of the runs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PXjRWgI96s

The Pic-a-Nic!!!

We made it to the picnic!! Here we are at Rocky Knob right off the Blue Ridge Parkway which you can see in the background up the hill just beyond the fence.....I never saw Yogi or Boo-Boo. But we had some great food! We also had lots of fun talk and music supplied by our fellow THMC members Jennifer and Van.
http://www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?AttrID=29395

The Line-up at Mayby Mill...

We made it to Maybry Mill and we had so many cars we parked in the overflow lot. We are not far from the site of the pic-a-nic...

The Staging Area...

A group of MINIs waiting for the run to Mayby Mill...by now we are getting hungry for that Pic-a-nic basket!!

A Car Guy's Kind of Bird House...

I really liked these bird houses. They make a cool picture too.

The Lovers Leap Birdhouse Store...

Always a cool stop, the Lover's Leap Bird House store.
http://www.featheredphoto.com/
There were so many cars in our caravan we had to visit in stages with a big part of our group hanging out in the parking lot back at Lovers Leap.

The Pit Stop Scene...

A quick pit stop near Stuart, Virginia where we all over-ran the rest rooms and filled our boots with fresh apples and mountain produce...

Those Cotton Fields of Home...

You never know what you might see on a day of cruising....I put on some CCR and hit the gas pedal....
When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home

http://yu.ac.kr/~bwlee/lyrics/cottnfld.htm

An Invasion of MINIs

The MINI invasion hits the Quick Stop parking lot. We needed to get the gang together as we moved through the traffic lights and multiple stops. The lady in the store said "The MINIs are here!"

You Ready for a Pic a nic Boo Boo?

The Beginnning of the Yogi & Boo Boo's Great Adventure....

We joined up at the Lowes parking lot in Winston-Salem from many miles around to create an adventure called Yogi & Boo Boo's Great Adventure...yes it was the day of the Pic-a- nic in the mountains and fun with some cool people driving MINIs.

Grand AM MINI !!!

There were two MINIs on the track yesterday. Here is a picture of one of them. This was a long race that ended well into the night but it was a fun one!! I have attached a link to a very non-professional video I made with my digital camera yesterday. This video will give you a feel for how the cars sounded as they go by. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7195356497834331408

My Loaner 2007 MINI...

Here is my 2007 MINI loaner car number 42 from flow MINI. I have been driving this one for a few days as my MINI is in the shop getting the OEM custom Digital Power Sound Module installed. http://www.motoringfile.com/index.php?s=dpsm
I can't wait for my 660 watts of power although I doubt my system will see the 128 db rating. I will tell you more about it in a future post. There is a 30 hour break-in required!
Meanwhile I am driving this R56 MINI with paddle shifters. As you can see I have given this one a bath before coming to VIR to view the Grand Am race as I always want my ride to look good. As they say, "It is better to look Good, than to feel Good." Actually I prefer both....

Grand Am Racing at VIR Yesterday!

The Number 69 Mazda RX8. http://www.speedsourceinc.com/
Our friend Jose Armengol from Miami was in town and we made the annual visit to VIR to see him race.
http://www.mondialforwarding.com/index.cfm?template=news
I think this year is the first year in several years that the race was held in the dry. Man we need the rain but it was a very nice day.
Not a bad picture huh? I took this one with my Sony digital from the edge of the s turns. I have many close ups of this car but I really liked this one. Here is a report from the race last night:
Mazda struggled through an uncharacteristically difficult day and an 18th place finish by the No. 69 Mondial Forwarding/SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 was the manufacturer's best showing of the race, but even that came with a silver lining. The result, which came only after a mid-race front suspension repair, was good enough for lead driver Jose Armengol to take third place in the ST drivers championship with 262 points. Armengol was capably supported Saturday by co-drivers and former Grand-Am KONI Challenge ST Champions David Haskell and Sylvain Tremblay.

My MINI in front of Graylyn...

A closing shot for the day. My car with Grayln in the distance. Off to the right you can see a few of the Ferraris present. There were some Bentleys in the white tent and some really nice British cars off to the left. I was surprised just how many Alfa Romeos were there. Many nice cars....This was a fun day. Quite hot for late September. Thankfully Amy Helton and company from Hanover Park Winery was there and let us cool off at their tent with a nice glass of North Carolina Chardonnay. Ah life is good.
http://www.hanoverparkwines.com/

Lambo Pipes!!

There are exhaust systems and then there are LARGE exhaust systems. The back of this Lamborghni has a serious set of pipes. Of course I have another picture of the price list for this car...can you say $282,000 including a $3000.00 gas guzzler tax? But it gets 17 MPG on the highway! There were many cars on the lawn at this event but this tent was particularly cool. There were several yellow Lamborghinis, all new, and man they were nice. I heard Steve's Sport Auto is moving from Summerfield, NC to Greensboro. I actually like the rural location he is in right now but I hear the new Lamborghini dealership is going to be a two story building on Wendover Avenue. Cool.
http://www.sportauto.cc/

Our line-up on the lawn.....

There were a few cars over my shoulder as I took this shot but I liked this one the best of all the ones I took. We had quite a line of cars and I believe we had the highest turn-out of any of the marques on the lawn last Sunday. You can almost see Twister way down at the end of this line...oh yeah... if you click on the picture you can zoom in on my new club badge on my grill...

MINIs on the way to the Concours....

A long line of MINIs on the way to the Concours de Graylyn.
http://www.concoursdegraylyn.com/
I took this shot out of my sunroof while motoring doen the road. At this point we had two lanes full of MINIs going through town. We started in Winston-Salem and went out west to Yadkinville. We twisted our way back through the scenic views of East Bend and even a Vineyard. Soon we were back in Winston-Salem at Graylyn.

My Brake Light will now Pulse!

The view just before the replacement of my third brake light led array. The board is installed....man those wires are tiny!! Thanks to Go MINI Go...awesome customer service and super fast shipping. High marks from me. http://www.gominigo.com/

Ah the Music....

Just a quick shot of my Milltek exhaust tips before I fire up for another MINI adventure....
http://www.millteksport.com/