The Indy MINI Rally

It looks like Sunday's Indianapolis MINI Rally yesterday was an absolute success. The reviews and photos have been astounding. Here's a review from Steve R.:

The ride was an all day 200 mile loop from the Dealership south and east to Nashville for lunch, and after a short break, back west and north to Greencastle for dinner. After dinner the ride continued back to the dealership.

There were over 80 MINIs, all colors and options imaginable, and 160 or so people in attendance. The dealer provided drinks and doughnuts, and a nice goody bag that included maps, a road quiz for passengers of the ride, MINI pens, MINI pins, and discounts, as well as a chance to buy clothes and accessories before the ride.

Rich Rubin, an Indianapolis area MINI enthusiast worked with the dealership to organize the entire event. He did an incredible job. He picked a route that included plenty of interesting roads that ranged from highways to residential streets to higher speed curves and hills to very tight one lane twisty hilly sections. Due to traffic we usually wound up in smaller groups, but we stopped every 30 miles or so for a quick photo-op, and a chance to re-group.

Lunch was an all you could eat buffet at the Brown County Inn where they had an entire area reserved for us. We had an hour of so afterwards to shop in the area, or wander around and meet other MINI people and gawk at all the cars. Some cars broke off back for home after this point, but the tightest, twistiest and most interesting part of the ride came afterwards through the Cataract Falls area. A brief stop at a sleepy old General Store and we were off on the next leg for dinner at the Walden Inn in Greencastle. The results from the road quizzes were scored, and many nice prizes were awarded to the winners (MINI radio controlled cars and clocks), as well as awards for the newest and oldest Indiana MINIs, the person who showed up earliest and latest for the rally, and the longest distance award (which I missed by 11 miles).

I ran into a quite a few people who have joined us on previous Chicago area rides, and met bunch of new MINI people who I hope to see again soon on other rides.

My ride started out with a quick 200 mile early morning cruise down from the Chicago area, 160 miles for the part of the rally I drove on, and another 200 miles back from Greencastle. I haven?t checked my fuel mileage because my current tank is at 363 and hasn?t gotten to the red light yet.

I had a fantastic day, and hope to make the next rally that they plan in that area.

I swear I'll make the next one :) Congrats to all involved and a big thanks to Dreyer & Reinbold MINI for doing such a great job hosting it. For further photos of the event check out this gallery.