Faces of MINI Takes The States

The dust has settled, the buses have left and MTTS withdrawal has afflicted moterers from coast to coast. We’ve seen pictures of the cars but let’s meet some of the people who made this event so epic.
The car that “comes standard with friends” proved true to that claim in the relationships and bonds that people formed at MINI Takes the States 2014. The finale in Boston was a collection of creativity and friendships on display. The cars bring us together but the people bring us back. Here are a few of the 1,300 faces from the MINI Takes the States finale in Boston.
The event had several feeder events, one of which was hosted by MINI of Peabody at the British Beer Company in Danvers, MA.
Gene and Roberta Myerov, from the Boston area, own a 2014 MINI Cooper Hardtop and were attending their first MINI event by driving in for the Boston finale.
Sarah Schultz, also a Boston area resident, owns a 2013 Countryman. Sarah attended the Boston event.
Cidalia Schwartz from MINI of Peabody organized the Danvers, MA feeder event at the BBC.
Shari Baughman from Reno, NV drover her 2004 Cooper Hardtop from coast to coast.
Buffalo, New York residents Robert Bond, his wife (not pictured) and his daughter Diana, drove the legs from Cleveland, OH to Boston, MA in their 2014 Countryman, which is their third MINI.
Karen and Rich Kosher drove their GP2 from Paris, Ohio to San Francisco, CA all the way to Boston, MA then back home – nearly 9,000 miles in all.
He may not be old enough to drive yet, but Josh King from New Hampshire was already showing his true colors as he sat down for a MINI-styled face painting.
Who doesn’t love a puppy? Sherri Savella from Hebron, CT drove her 2010 JCW Clubman and her husband Greg drove their 2006 Hardtop S. Both of them drove the entire length of MTTS (“Chowder to Chowdah” as a MINI t-shirt proclaims) and picked up their new puppy, Macy the day before the finale in Boston.
Ali Mir (right) flew from the U.K. with two friends, Chris Daniels and Phil Kitchen (left and middle) to San Francisco, CA. How did Ali get to Boston, MA? He hitchhiked – really. MINI owners and MINI USA welcomed him into the family.
Mary Wellington from Thousand Oaks, California is another coast-to-coaster, having driven her 2004 Cooper S with 193,000 miles on it all the way to Boston.
The Ly family live in San Francisco, CA so the starting line was home, but they made it to Boston, MA in their 2013 Pepper White Hardtop that started the journey with just under 500 miles on it.
Ian and Jackie Hardy have a Wallace and Grommit-inspired Clubvan, which they drove from their home in Hollywood, FL to San Francisco, CA to the end. By the time they get home they will have logged over 8,600 miles.
Clubvan owners are pretty rare sights, but Barbra and Dave Newman also own a lovely Clubvan wrapped with a woody-style side paneling. The Newmans live in Kingston, MA and drove from Buffalo, NY to Boston, MA.
As one might expect there was plenty of creativity on display with the MINIs so we’ll sign off with a few pictures of the cars in Boston as we said farewell to MTTS 2014:
14 Comments
<p>Good to see Ali on there, what about the other two Brits that flew over there; Phil and Chris.</p>
<p>Thanks for your comment, Mart. When I met and interviewed Ali, his friends were unavailable for the photo. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them. Anyone out there have a picture of Ali’s friends?</p>
<p>Plenty of pictures from Phil’s Instagram & Blog (although there are some problems with it at the moment).</p>
<p><a href="http://instagram.com/pkitchen15" rel="nofollow ugc">http://instagram.com/pkitchen15</a>
<a href="http://sixgreenbottles.blogspot.co.uk/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://sixgreenbottles.blogspot.co.uk/</a></p>
<p>Here’s a pic of all three of them on Phil’s G+ album</p>
<p><a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/111386740589935592228/albums/6047415511196918977/6047416536557817906?pid=6047416536557817906&oid=111386740589935592228" rel="nofollow ugc">https://plus.google.com/photos/111386740589935592228/albums/6047415511196918977/6047416536557817906?pid=6047416536557817906&oid=111386740589935592228</a>.</p>
<p>Great! Got it. Do you know Phil and Chris’ last names?</p>
<p>Phil Kitchen, Chris Daniels</p>
<p>Thanks Martin! Wish I had known you wanted us, as I would have been happy for a picture – although Christine wasn’t well that morning. Just for clarity, Christine & I had arranged to be peoples co-pilots months in advance, only Ali gets hitch hiker status!</p>
<p>Great post! Nice to see the MINI community, as well as the cars</p>
<p>GP0411 in the house…Thanks MotoringFile…</p>
<p>Surprised that Christina Kroner isn’t in there…</p>
<p>Great photos of participants and cars. I note that those folks displayed are not the young 20-somethings that MINI keeps targeting in advertising and sponsorships.
Good to see that MINI ownership in the States is reflected as in other countries. When will MINI get the message about owner demographics?</p>
<p>A couple interesting facts:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ownership is slightly younger outside of North America.</li>
<li>On average those who are active in MINI activities in the US are older compared to Europe and are slightly older than the average age of owners in the US</li>
</ul>
<p>I would think one group of people who would have the time to do MTTS would be retirees, which would skew the MTTS attendees a bit older anyway.</p>
<p>Yeah that’s my thought as well. Makes me want to retire :)</p>