2008 MINI Takes the States – Miami Wrap-up

We arrived in Miami on Friday ready and rarin’ to go! First stop was Bicentennial Park for some meeting, some greeting and a viewing a National Treasure 2. I heard that Nicholas Cage might have been at the park that night, but didn’t see him myself. We did see, however, Rauno Aaltonen and The Stig’s fat cousin as you have seen and heard. The fat cousin guy is actually a great chap by the name of Ian that tells a great joke!

Saturday started again at Bicentennial Park with a breakfast and even more MINIs! The MINIs of Miami club and Sunshine MINIs were almost all in attendance. Once all of the MINIs were there (I didn’t get an exact count, but I think it was almost 400!) and lined up, Florida’s Finest gave us a police escort from the park all the way out of the downtown area! It was like a parade of MINIs!

After a short popsicle stop, we all continued to Homestead International Raceway to get things underway!

At Homestead there was live music, including a set by Michelle Branch, auto cross where I got to drive a Clubman, R56 S, R56 MC and Cabrio back-to-back-to-back, go-carts, plus a rock wall and a bungie launcher! The whole time there were also cars on the track, which added a very cool soundtrack to the day!

In the back MINIUSA was selling accessories, MINIs of Miami had a great booth setup to sell all manner of goodies and Rauno was trying his best to stay cool while explaining traction dynamics and good driving technique to all that would listen!

Interview with Rauno: [audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://www.whiteroofradio.com/podcasts/Rauno2008.mp3]

Toward the end of the day, all in attendance got the chance to do a few parade laps around the infield track, which included one of the high-bank turns the left-turners usually use. I’m not sure how long the Homestead course is, but there were so many MINIs on it that they covered, end-to-end, a full lap with a few cars left! That’s a lot of MINIs!

Like I mentioned, Saturday night ended with Michelle Branch playing on stage. We got the chance to interview her as well. She was very nice and put on a great performance for everyone!

Saturday from the track: [audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://www.whiteroofradio.com/podcasts/SaturdayMTTS08.mp3]

Sunday finished with more live music, the chance for everyone to pickup the gadgets and gizmos they didn’t get the day before and more auto cross or go-carts. Todd and I took the chance to drive the MINIs as well. I will have a full write up of my thoughts later in the week.

Since Sunday, we have driven from Miami to Virginia Beach. Today the journey continues on into Philadelphia including some helicopter levels shots I do believe.

MINIUSA is doing a great job putting everything together and making sure everyone is having a good time! If MTTS is going to be near you for Boston, Chicago or LA, I highly recommend going.

Still wanting to keep up with the action? Be sure to keep an eye on my Flickr stream for more photos and the MTTS Blog for even more daily updates!