Day 3 starts early for MTTS! 6:00 am at Charlotte Motor Speedway for a quick breakfast, a sight of the new B-Spec MINIs (that can be built for about $US6,000 plus tires, wheels and seats) and a chance to drive on the 24 degree banked oval. Funny thing that 24 degree banking. Turns out that most MINIs didn’t really care for that. I’m sure it was the yaw sensor trying to figure out why the car was on 2 wheels. A quick restart sorted everyone out and we were off to Nashville!
For those that don’t know, one of the better things that happens to be between North Carolina and Tennessee is US 129. Otherwise known as The Tail of the Dragon. Our mid day stop took us to Fontana Village to regroup before heading off. I’m told it was at a much slower pace than normal, but I still really enjoyed it, especially since I was driving a certain JCW Roadster with the top down. Dear God, that exhaust!
Shortly before dark we rolled into Nashville. Quickly headed out for the car show/party thrown by MINI of Nashville. A street was blocked off and the finest MINIs in all of Nashville were there showing off. Toss in some line dancing and live music and another great night of MTTS partying was had by all!
The next day our journey was too lead us to Knoxville. We thought it would be a great opportunity to try to get in a distillery tour, but we were a few minutes late. Didn’t keep us from enjoying some of Kentucky’s great backroads, and Todd got to drive them in the JCW Countryman. Yes, there will be more details to follow.
After that, a quick trip up to Louisville for some minor league baseball and more MINIs!
Tomorrow brings us to Chicago. It will be amazing and we hope to see everyone there. Don’t forget you can follow along at home with almost hourly updates on the Whiteroofradio Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or, just follow the #mtts2012 hashtag on twitter for updates from all MTTS 2012 attendees!
Good evening from MTTS2012! Tonight finds us in Charlotte, NC after attending a fabulous party that Hendrick MINI and MINIUSA put on for the owners at NC Music Factory. This event, like everything else so far, has been perfectly planned and executed.
We are keeping busy with long drives every day and long nights meeting MINIs owners, listeners of Whiteroofradio and of course readers of MotoringFile.
You can read a quick recap of where we’ve been and what we’ve done after the break.
MINI USA head honcho Jim McDowell was on hand to talk to the Today Show as professional stunt driver Han Yue replicated the 5.91 in., world record parallel parking stunt performed a few weeks ago in China. Reporter Jenna Wolf takes some time to talk with Jim about the 10th Anniversary of MINI in the USA and the Beijing stunt. MINI Takes the States is tangentially mentioned, but not directly talked about. With the event kicking off tomorrow, it’s an unfortunate omission, but it sounds like there were other segments leading up to this one. Hopefully MTTS got the mention it deserves.
Lots of show for you on MTTS eve eve. Lots of show. A very large portion of that is getting caught up on news from MotoringFile. Some really great things covered including Gabe and Nathaniel’s take on the Abarth 500. Also, we are looking for you thoughts on the sound of the MINI in this video. Check it out and leave a note below.
Starting Wednesday we are all MTTS 2012 all the time for the next 2 weeks. Stay tuned for daily updates. White Roof Radio will be all over twitter and Instagram (@whiteroofradio, both counts) or follow the #mtts2012 hashtag. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the Clubs and Dealers page for updates closers to you like feeder routes and what your local club has planned.
Woofcast 429:
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MTTS starts next week! As we continue to receive updates, we’ll keep sharing them! We’ve got more information about the headlining act in LA at the final stop of MTTS 2012 below. We discussed this during Woofcast 428, along with a few other things. Full press release after the jump!
MINI TAKES THE STATES 2012 is ROCKIN’ IT COAST TO COAST.
More details about MINI TAKES THE STATES 2012 have been released. Earlier we let you know about registrations. We have learned that they have increased capacity at most of the events along the way, so if you encountered a problem registering for something specific, please try again!
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