On Sunday 16th May a large number of 22 Minis and 1 Lotus turned up at Hampton Downs for a fine afternoon run on the club circuit.

The weather during the week leading up to the afternoon hadn't been quite so ordinary, but, on the day, the sun came out and it was quite warm.

Entrants had been split into groups prior;
Beginners/Slower drivers
Advanced
Race cars
As the afternoon progressed the 3 groups merged into 1 group for an open track session.

Standouts from the afternoon had to be Trent Dixon in his VTEC Mini and Ray West in Monte, with no cars breaking in the process (our last track day saw cracked rims and a lack of oil) and all able to be driven home.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself (2nd time on a track - I think the track bug now may have bitten me!!) which seems to be the general feedback received, although I've now discovered a few more (than normal) oil leaks that will need some attention.

Thanks to Steve for his organisation of the afternoon, and also to Alison West, Lesley Robinson and Graham Wing for volunteering to man the light tower and pit exit.

Bring on the next track day!!

-Darren Clark

More praise for the Track Day from Facebook:  

Matt Hanna: Had the Mini club track day at Hampton downs today. Such a good day. Got a couple of things to correct on the beast and she should be good to go. No major hitches today. 
So much fun.

Carissa Thaver: So much fun! I definitely caught the bug!!! Time to prep for classic Trials.

Gary Ashton: A good day at the track. A big thanks to the people that organised and helped run the day. Without people like you the rest of us would not have been able to have fun.

​Pics: Shane Neal, Gary Ashton, Sean Brennan, Matt Hanna

An interesting and eclectic club night with a variety of Minis on show: Richard Atkins immaculate 2000 and its almost-twin Kevin Taylor's 1999 Sport 5, Ray's 33EJB Paddy Hopkirk replica, and the future of MINI: the Cooper SE Electric. 

Our original Sun Setter Run certainly did not disappoint. This year we wanted to mark the end of Summer so before daylight saving took effect it was time to head off to the West Coast and watch the sunset. As we know the West Coast can be brutal, rain, wind, cloud, and usually at the same time. The best sunsets are on clear calm days so it was a bit of a gamble!

Meeting at the Auckland Domain cricket pavilion at 5pm we found the meeting spot had been occupied by the re-scheduled Horse Polo event. No matter, some of our members had found an alternative location round the corner of the hot house. A fabulous turn out for a night event, 15 cars filled the car park and we shared stories. Marcus' beautiful mulberry Mini 40 was stunning, Yvonne’s foot had healed and she was at the controls of her red Rover Mini Cooper. Phil Kane was set up with under car LEDs. 

As a casual follow the leader run it was a make it up as we go along affair. Our first stop was Kumeu, heading out through Auckland and picking up the North Western saw a comfortable drive with 15 Minis in convoy. Pulling up at Kumeu we were joined by Matt in his stunning Mint Green Machine.

Our next stop was Muriwai, Trigg Road followed by Foster Road laid out some wonderful Mini roads. Heading down the hill into Muriwai we were greeted by a stunning evening, no wind, little cloud and the sun hanging low in the sky. I can't recall seeing so many people on the beach. The light was intoxicating as many of us took photo after photo capturing the ever changing colours. I did sneak off to the boat ramp to capture a Mini shot in the orange sky.

As the last photos were taken some of us headed to the Riverhead Tavern for a relaxing drink, chat and food. Interestingly on the wall of the Tavern there was mention of the Muriwai Beach Races which first took place in 1921, 100 years ago this year.

The evening was well established and we departed at 9pm, great memories of an evening drive, we’ll look forward to the pictures. 

-Steve Broadbent

Another stunning Sunday with a huge turnout at Caffeine and Classics, with Ian's Smoke Grey Cooper (left) and Tony's Tweed Grey Cooper (right) drawing the official photographer's attention.
​And now, a note from the organisers: 
Thank you to everyone that made it out to Caffeine & Classics on Sunday. A beautiful day to see some beautiful machines. Well done to the owners and the amazing condition that your vehicles are in. A pleasure to see!
We do have limited space at times for these events, so with that in mind Protecta Insurance would really love to keep the essence of the event being for ‘classics’. Vehicles at least 30 years old are welcome, and newer vehicles that are scratch-built, obscure or exotic are really what we are looking for. Basically a vehicle that isn't something that people are likely to see or use on their daily commute. For those who drive something a little more ‘modern’ or every day, whilst being great cars too, our sister event at Caffeine & Gasoline (https://www.facebook.com/CaffAndGas) would love to see you.
Many thanks also to Paul for the fantastic photos. Have a look at his Instagram account @paul_maxey_photography. 

Eight Minis converged on the starting point at the Parnell Rose gardens at early o'clock.

Those with a competitive streak were flagged off at set intervals with the remaining Minis happy to adopt a "follow the leader" approach.

It was a pleasure to drive round the bays with no other traffic and a couple of the clues around this part proved a head scratcher, as some of the names for the answers were no longer displayed on the buildings!

We followed the bays round through Glenn Innes and headed for Musick Point in Howick where Steve had sorted an awesome photo spot (I recognised it immediately as a spot he had photo'd his previous Cooper at!).

Photos duly taken, we headed off round by Maraetai and finally finishing up at the cafe at Ardmore Airport where excellent breakfasts were had by all.

Answers duly compared, the Murrays were declared winners.

An excellent morning was had by all and thanks go to Steve and Darren for organising.

-Alasdair Willis

​Sunday the 14th June 2020 dawned overcast and nippy but no rain, wind or tornadoes so the first run since lockdown looks hopeful.

The weather stayed in our favour so after lunch a quick burst down to BP Papakura and only one Mini there, Club Captain Adam who had organised the run.

Thankfully a few moments later those that assembled at Greenlane arrived followed by more and before long about 22 Minis were lined up to follow the leader to Hunua.  At the debrief we were told that  Watercare had closed the gates to the dams but we will venture to the falls instead. 

A short trip down the motorway, off at the Drury off ramp and then a right hand turn into the unknown Mini made roads with many twists and turns. As I had no idea where I was, like many others I stuck to the car in front like glue. As Murphy has not turned a wheel since Brits and Euro I hoped Jason following behind in the immaculate  White Japanese prepared John Cooper S didn't get showered with any carbon exiting the exhaust. One minute high on the hilltops we could see a glimpse of the Firth of Thames in the distance, and some how after more twists and turns going past the Ardmore School, and a short time later we turned right heading to the falls.

Arriving at the falls the car park was near capacity. Luck was on our side and due to the size of the Minis we managed to angle park the majority side by side. Everyone wandered around, catching up with members again, enjoying the tranquil setting and taking photos of the adjacent falls. A very pleasant outing to get the post lockdown activities underway. As the afternoon sun started to go down members left in dribs and drabs and the conclusion of another outing drew to a close.

Big thanks to the organisers and all those who attended and also must mentioned Richard, he got two non-club Mini owners along, which hopefully turns into two new members.

Sarron Bennett

Editor: Thanks to Club Captain Adam for organising such a great run. Also to Richard Undie for taking charge of the Greenlane meetup. 

​We haven't had an Economy Run for a while, which is a shame: today's run was a lot of fun! 

A fair turnout of 6 Minis met at BP Takanini at a very reasonable 9am. After filling the fuel tanks and refusing to share our fuel-saving secrets, we gently departed one at a time. 

The Muries' route was cleverly planned to avoid traffic lights, and even managed to avoid a fair amount of traffic. 

Some of the twisty, scenic roads around Clevedon and Hunua were sheer torture to drive so lightly, though on a couple of long downhill stretches we managed to get up to the speed limit in neutral (or "6th gear" as Kevin called it, not so subtly bragging that his Mini has 5 gears). 

The questions along the way were very easy, and were mainly to reassure us that we'd gone the right way. Even still, I managed to go the wrong way a couple of times; conserving speed through a roundabout doesn't do any good if you're going too fast to count the exits.

After a couple of hours and 113km of pleasant, relaxing driving we all made it back to the Friend of the Farmer Cafe in Takanini, where we shared our stories and fuel-saving tips:

Alan Murie had the clever idea to fold down the Moke's windscreen to reduce wind resistance. As a result navigator Michelle received a (small) bird to the face at speed. Ouch!

Adam and Jessica's orange Mini was loaded down with 4 people, so they decided to aim for the "most fuel used" award. Their wildlife encounter was a wasp inside the car, while negotiating a very challenging piece of road at speed. 

Richard and Anthony were driving Steve's yellow track day car, which seemed to save fuel when going downhill only to blast it all out the exhaust pipe when the throttle came back on. Time to do something about those valve stem seals, Steve! 

Kevin's injected Sport 5 just seemed to cruise along with no drama, though it rolled faster downhill than my car. Something to do with the extra weight of that 5th gear I think. 

We didn't see Simon's Mini 1000 until well after we'd finished, it turns out he'd been taking it very seriously indeed, even going so far as shutting the engine off while going downhill. Those of us with vacuum assisted brakes considered this an unfair advantage, especially since he won the economy run by a huge margin. 

Results: 
Carburetted Mini:
1st - Simon Lawrence, 4.82 litres
2nd - Richard Undie, 6.14 litres
3rd - Grant Bowyer, 6.45 litres
4th - Alan Murie, 8.93 litres
5th - Adam Jenkin, 11.84 litres

Injected Mini:
1st - Kevin Taylor, 6.31 litres

No new MINIs entered. Maybe next year? Speaking of next year: 

Thanks again to Alan and Shelagh Murie for planning and organising such a great run. It sounds like we're all looking forward to doing it again next year, if you're still keen! 

‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’ the opportunity to get all those Minis out, cover them in lights, decorations and spread some Christmas cheer. We started of at Greenlane with a turnout of over 20 cars, there was discussion of whether president Steve and his temperamental Cooper would show, but it arrived fashionably late driven by Santa Steve exclaiming “HoHoHo, Merry Christmas”

With the convoy all together we head out to our first stop out east. Here we cruised down a street with houses covered in lights and a large crowd of children smiling, laughing and waving as a mass of Minis rumbled down the street.

From there we wiggled our way out of the suburbs to a short open road cruise out to Beachlands. We all parked up on another beautiful street full of lights and got out to enjoy the cars and the lights together. There was lots of conversation with locals who were grinning from ear to ear. What a beautiful sight to see. In conversation with two children, one being the daughter of the club president and the other the son of our club captain, the decision was unanimous that the orange mini was the best..... :D (Sorry Steve and Zac)

 From here it was back to the suburbs to spot a couple houses scattered around the place while we enjoyed the loud pedals down some back streets. We ended up at Uldale Place, which was East Auckland’s ‘Franklin road’. The road was coned off to the public but we had special permission to park the cars down the street, a Minis-only line up in a street covered in a serious display of lights.

After we had spent a short while walking around enjoying the view, a bunch of cars made their way home and a group of about 10 cars headed to McDonalds to enjoy a late night snack or hot chocolate. We debriefed on the evenings adventure and shared the countless photos that had been taken throughout the evening. Was a night full of Christmas spirit and I look forward to next year. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hello Officer, I see you have decked your car out in festive flashing lights too!