Mini World Challenge 2008 and now 2009 going to Silverstone, UK ... !!! ... and finally back home

2009-10-12T07:38:00.001-05:00

Under the bonnet ...

2009-10-12T07:26:00.002-05:00

This is Gp 0823 ... she has been in the family for few months now and she wont go thru any World Challenge ... she has been getting few mods, mainly from Alta Mini Performance, M7 and Mini Madness.

Over the Atlantic ...

2009-07-04T08:02:00.000-06:00

As today Gp 1922 is leaving the Port of Genova, Italy on the Maersk Denpasar tanker ... and arrival in Miami, USA is for the 20 of July ... cant wait to have her here.
Thank you to all of you guys in Italy ... she will miss you all !!!

" Gp 0001 "

2009-06-05T12:11:00.000-06:00

We even got to see the very first Gp 0001 ...

Mr. Bean's mini ...

2009-06-05T12:07:00.000-06:00

Mr. Bean was not there ... but I sure was glad to see his Mini

3 of the best classic

2009-06-05T11:55:00.000-06:00

Gp 1922 meets Mick's Gp

2009-06-05T11:50:00.000-06:00

Silverstone, UK ... May 22/24 2009

2009-05-23T14:58:00.001-06:00

Rides were taken, pics were taken ... and new friends came on board ...
I will tell you all about it when I will be back in Italy

Winter 2008/2009

2009-04-26T08:19:00.000-06:00

Mini had to go thru a one cold winter ...

April 19 - 2009 @ mASTIcazzi

2009-04-25T16:04:00.000-06:00

To all my old and new friends ... enjoy a good glass of wine with a nice MC2 Mini magazine and be safe out there.

They came, got fixed up and left to conquer the Atlantic!

2008-09-21T13:34:00.000-06:00

Well ahead of schedule, the brave team of Oscar and Mini Gp 1922 arrived to Moscow on late night of Tuesday, september 16th. Due to uncertainty of the time that they would arrive, our MINI Club could not arrange a proper meeting ceremony. However, I did my best to guide them into Moscow's suburbia and arrange a hotel for them.

Here are some photos for you:

After the night excursion to Red Square, we went to Moscow American style iner, where we sat and talked untill 4 in the morning. Then I took them to a small hotel and left them to rest. The next day, one of our oldest club members to them to Moscow's, hence Russia's oldest MINI dealer. While Oscar car was being brought back to it's showroom state, he was taken around the city by dealer's brand manager Kathrine. They left on Friday morning heading west towards Poland and over to Portugal. Thier plan is to end their epic journey on the east coast of the Atlantic, as it started on the west coast.

Got a text message from Oscar a few hours ago. They should be in Lisbon by tomorrow morning.

From Moscow, with.....

2008-09-12T11:37:00.000-06:00

Hello all!

On behalf of our brave travelers, I am writing this message to let everyone know how things are going. My name is Dimitri and I am the president of MINI Club Russia (www.MINIpeople.ru)

I haven't seen or spoken to guys, but Oscar's wife called me today and here is the info I got.

Oscar and Mini Gp 1922 are in Novosibirsk right now which is here

They are planning to reach Moscow by monday. Which is here

They are making good progress though the country, through not without adventures. More information on Sunday.

God speed them.

Dimitri

Update Sunday Sept. 14 th.: Guys are bombing it through. They are past Omsk right now and should be in Ufa by the end of tomorrow.

We expect to see them in Moscow by Wednesday night.

To our friends

2008-09-02T06:45:00.000-06:00

I wanna thank all my old and new friends for being there for us.
Etienne and Oscar for being a big time support in this crazy drive of mine.
Oscar, gracias por la tua amicizia. Etienne, u know how much I do appreciate your friendship.
To Baby Sue, our newest friend from Korea, you are in our hearts, and thank you so much for being there for us. I hope that we will have the chance to see you again. We miss you baby Sue.
Pagliaccio So and Lina, so sorry we did not see you the last day we were in Korea but so glad we had the chance to meet you, even if was only for a few hours ... thank you for your friendship.
To the Miko Club ... thank you for showing me some "extreme" fun with all of your Mini's.
Misha, our new friend from Vladivostok, Russia. Thank you so much for taking care of us and showing us around. I did love the history part of your guided tour of your city.

Mini Korea Club

2008-08-29T16:43:00.000-06:00

Today we meet few of the mini Korea club members ... and I have no words. Totally surprise for the way that they "baby sit" me thru the day.
Beside getting in direct contact with the well known Korean education, we also made new real "mini" friends.
Soo Yeon, So Yeon and Lina took us to visit the Royl Palace or better Known as Deoksugung Palace and for me was a real first encounter with Korean History ... fantastic !!!
Mini dealership was our next stop, and again we meet with education itself, from the salesmen to the proprietor. We also get nice Mini gifts that I will keep as "memorabilias" for this second part of our Mini World Challenge.
Thank you MIKO members for the wonderful time you donated to us.

Seoul - S. Korea, August 28-2008

2008-08-28T03:56:00.000-06:00

We are in Seoul and we spent the day with Sammy Lee from Seko Worlwide. He did help quite a lot, if was not for him we would be still at the Incheon Airport trying to understand where to go to get the Mini Gp.
We got the permits, insurance and Korean tags to be able to drive around, and they told me that is the first time that this kind of permits have been issued for a foreign car ... there is always a first time and Mini is the first.
I talked to Sue and I will meet her tomorrow for a little Mini spin around town, and I know that we will get some eyes on us.
I even got an e-mail from Sergey. He is from Rostov in Russia and he is a big Mini fan and he left me his contacts in case we would drive by the area ... Thank you "Sergio" I will call you for sure if we decide to drive by Rostov.
I am working on the pictures we took so far and I will post them as soon as I can.

Sparco seats

2008-08-14T12:43:00.001-06:00

We just had the two Sparco seats mount in the Mini and they look fantastic. We also installed the intake hose from Alta.
Ryan Brennan was the Mini Tech that did the all job, and he was as professional as you wish when you take your car for the first service.
Redline BMW Performance was the shop were we took the Mini and its owned by Rennie Bryant, also very friendly, and the person you wanna talk to if you have an issue with your car/Mini

Sparco U.S.A. is sponsoring us

2008-07-31T06:31:00.000-06:00

We just got a great news ... Sparco U.S.A will sponsor us with Racing seats, Jackets, shoes and gloves. We will be in Miami on Tuesday the 12th to collect and install the seats.