by Tony Maulder

​IMM and Mini 60th birthday were held at Washpool Farm, Easter Compton, near Bristol in the UK, from the 8th to 12th of August.
Bristol is known for the Severn Bridge to Wales, the iron steam ship Great Britain, the Clifton Suspension bridge, the first  Concord aircraft that flew (50 years ago) and the large international yearly balloon festival, which was on over the IMM weekend.

I turned up on the first morning, when the campsite opened, to the sight of over a thousand Minis queued up in a paddock to pay the £100 to enter theMini Meet. Many of the Minis were towing small caravans. Great to wander around and watch the muddy Minis driving in and out of the Farm.

Minis were well represented at the food outlets, as ice cream vans, barbecues, pizza ovens and food stalls
There was an Italian Job display, bus, police car, even a van with its doors still on ! and the three Coopers. Many clubs had displays, the Mokes, the Clubmans 50th and even Mr Bean wandering around in his Mini with his little puppy doll. Many clubs had camped together in the various fields and had displays there.

This was the 4th Mini 60 celebration I attended in the UK. Unfortunately it was disrupted a bit by the squally weather over the weekend, which even closed one side of the nearby Severn Bridge. 

Jo Wooding had a great Mini experience on the way to Caffeine and Classics:

Lee, Brook, Ryan and myself (Jo) met at Greenlane Mc Donalds carpark ready to convoy to Caffeine. 

A fire truck pulled in and 4 firemen got out. 3 went to have food and 1 stayed back and headed for our Minis. He spoke to us all about our Minis, the years and the difference between Japanese market and NZ new and UK new. He spoke of growing up with an uncle who owned a Mini and he taught him to work on them. He owned a Mini as a teen in UK. He talked to me about my Rover Mini and the oil leak clearly visible. He told me his surname was Morris so he named his son Cooper John Morris. His son is 8 and loves the car he is named after. We talked about Caffeine and Classics and Brook informed him it was not only Minis but all sorts of classics. He then told us about his brother in law who owns a Porsche 911 and bought it as a teen 35 years ago. He had spent over $100,000 on keeping it going and is now in the middle of a repaint (it was red) when all the exterior lights were pulled off they found blue layer under the red and a muddy light brown under that. Funny enough the repaint colour he chose was the same muddy brown so he is happy it’s going back to original. Mr Morris stayed and chatted to us the entire time his buddies were eating their breakfast. Now missing food to talk about Minis... well that's passion right there.  I love it when random strangers tell me their stories about Minis, so cool to see them get excited about seeing one, or in this case 4. 

By Jo Wooding

Photos: Ryan Horton, Dave Bates, Zak Gould, 
Report by Darren Clark

18 Cars (17 minis and 1 Toyota Camry) met and left Sir Barry Curtis Park for the run to Kaiaua on a fine and sunny day.
First stop was coffee at Maraetai, followed by a oil check from Richard on his mini. Co incidentally, it was also Richard’s birthday too. Happy Birthday Richard! Hopefully, older and wiser about front spoilers and dipsticks!!

We were lucky enough to have Andrew from Sky View Photography come along with us for the day so next stop was the headland just around the corner from Maraetai where we all parked up, and Andrew got some great drone footage (videos and photos are on the Mini Club Facebook page). Off to KawaKawa Bay for a quick regroup and a toilet stop for some. We had been warned that the coast road was quite rugged, but, there had been a considerable amount of repair work done on the majority of the road which made it quite passable. There was, however, a small unsealed section which had to be carefully negotiated and no mini related injuries occurred. There were a few fantastic winding roads which gave all minis a chance to blow out the cobwebs and for some, test driver skills as well!

 Arriving at Kaiaua, there was a considerable wait for fish and chips due to a couple of Motorcycle clubs arriving there before us, but, after a long wait, food arrived and was consumed rather rapidly. Some members went off to Miranda for a soak in the hotpools, while most decided to head back home.

 Steve’s car decided that it wanted to stay in Kaiaua, care of a fuel pump that decided to throw a tantrum. Luckily, he had a client living across the road so we were able to push the mini across to the clients house and Steve bunked in with Zak, then Richard for the trip home.

​A great day was had by everyone who attended with some great scenery, great roads for driving, and great food. Thanks to Steve for his organising the day! Awesome stuff!

The return of club Quiz Night was well received, with good attendance and only a few grumbles when the questions got too esoteric. Zak's special guest round on Mini trivia was very entertaining and informative. 

The club display at Caffeine and Classics before leaving for Wainui was well attended. 

​A great turnout and perfect weather for the Mini Car Club of Auckland's 25th anniversary run. Club Captain Steve had mapped out a fantastic route with some great driving roads and a few scenic stops for photos. 
The Wainui golf club reserved us a room and the top carpark, and supplied a light lunch. 

By Steve Broadbent

A big thanks to Gary Ashton for pulling together our 18th year Night Trial, a tradition for the club on the shortest day, longest night. This was my first and I wasn’t going to miss it, although my Mini’s had other ideas. The 5.15pm start time at BP Papakura was certainly achievable and the retro Cibie Oscar spot lights were hooked up and working on my NZ assembled 1275GT. Or so I thought… After the demise of the cooper at the Italian Job run, followed by a dashboard electrical problem and sale of the BMW JCW the GT was the only car running…. A quick job to fix the dash lights started at midday. That led to one issue after another…. On fixing the dash lights the main beam and spot lamps decided to latch on, fixing that issue led to no lights at all! Trying to keep some of the original parts on the car was proving an issue, the decrepit 1980’s wiring loom had other plans. About to give up at 4.30 I found the second faulty RHS ground connection bullet connector. Lights on! The 1275GT wasn’t exactly as it seemed, after blowing a piston ring the 998cc was proving a little underpowered but that wasn’t going to an issue afterall! 
The turnout at BP was amazing, we had 11 teams running, some with and some without navigators. Chris had driven his Mini Mack truck pickup 2 hrs to make the run and it looked amazing lit up like a proper big rig. Adam brought his newly assembled orange beast out to play and we had Dave who had eventually fixed his mechanical issues that lingered from the nationals. Ray & Alison West looked set for business in their Cooper Rally car, headsets on and dashboard electrics all working! Steff and me teamed up in the GT as it was my turn to repay the favor after Steff drove me around on the Italian job. What a fantastically well laid out route with some well explained (if not understood directions!). SO, we left the services and headed out to pick up the route and the problem soon manifested itself.  Back in the late 70’s I’m sure the GT’s lights and cibre Oscars were the things to have, but roll the clock forward nearly 40years and although the foresaid items were still very much original they are, well….. rubbish! As the roads fell dark the 4x candle power did nothing to help with the clues, but we laughed all the way. Phil and Ted behind and the Mini mack behind that, we grabbed some radios and leaned forward in the seats to see the road ahead. To add to the hilarity, the heater packed in so not only was it dark, it was cold and dark! Epic! Gotta love the 80’s. 
The run was such a laugh and once we met up with the other teams at BP Bombay the stories got exchanged. Clearly there are winners and people who come second, we came 7th! Thanks to all for another enjoyable evening, the trials and clues add another dimension to the follow the leader style runs. Can’t wait to the next one. Thanks again Gary! 
1st Adam & Jessica Jenkin

2nd Ray & Alison West
=Viv & Kevin Taylor

4th Alan & Shelagh Murie
=Murray, Grant & John Sweeney

6th Dave & Sarah Bates

7th Chris Westlake 
= Stephen Broadbent &Steff Harsnappe
=Chris & Steve McMurray

10th Jo Wooding
Phil Kane