News

9/4/2008 - Motor In for September - ICE CREAM RUN #2!!!!! The Cone in West Chester

http://www.cinciminis.com/Event_View.asp?id=46

8/30/2008 - Loveland/Little Miami Bike Trail ride Saturday August 30th 10AM

Motoring without a motor!??? Dust off those bicycles and join the CinciMINIs for a bike ride on the Loveland/Little Miami Bike Trail Saturday August 30th at 10AM.

8/7/2008 - Ice Cream Run - Motor In August 7th

I scream, you scream. ICE CREAM RUN! August Motor In.

http://www.cinciminis.com/Event_View.asp?id=45

7/15/2008 - CINCINNATI MINI - MINI Takes the States - Chicago send-off on Tuesday July 22 from 6:30 to 8pm

Motoring to Chicago? Have to miss out on the trip? Either way, join CINCINNATI MINI for a Chicago send-off on Tuesday July 22 from 6:30 to 8pm. Get a taste of Chicago with some deep-dish pizza! RSVP by emailing Jenna at jbellinski@bmwstore.com or call Jenna at CINCINNATI MINI 513.271.8700 or 1.800.651.4960

7/14/2008 - If you missed this one, you really missed it!

The M&M Picnic Drive was an outstanding success. 23 cars, great roads, perfect weather, 40+ people picnicing on the banks of the Ohio. Thanks to John Watson, my partner from the Miata Club, for the great route. This is what it's all about!

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/casanewt1100/CinciMINIsGreaterCincinnatiMiataClubMMSummerPicnicDrive2008

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/564104117QbeaoU?mediaPosition=1

Tommy Dee

7/13/2008 - Picnic drive is a GO!

The sun will start coming out this morning and we should have good weather most of the day. See you at 10!

7/2/2008 - The 3rd Annual Summer Picnic is coming up on Sunday July 13th

The picnic is coming up!

http://www.cinciminis.com/Event_View.asp?id=58

6/11/2008 - Check out this story!

http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/trafexp.html

6/10/2008 - Vintage Racing is now Sunday.

Check the Event Schedule. (All races will be on Sunday.)

6/4/2008 - Scavenger Hunt is coming up!!!!

First ever CinciMINIs Scavenger Hunt!

Please join us Saturday June 14th for a different kind of driving fun for the whole family. Starts at the Root Beer Stand in Sharonville & ends at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Eastgate (can't go wrong with that). Follow the link below for details:

http://www.cinciminis.com/event_view.asp?id=57

5/29/2008 - Detail Party on Saturday May 31st - Rain date Sunday June 1

Don't miss the Detail Party on Sunday June 1

Info here: www.cinciminis.com/event_view.asp

5/17/2008 - Cinco de Mayo Drive was a blast!

Thanks to our host Kevin Bartels for a very nice drive out to Metamora & up and around Brookville Lake. The weather held out, we had some great Mexican food and a canine companion named Dickens along for the ride as well. A link to the pictures is below:

picasaweb.google.com/casanewt1100/CinciMINIsCincoDeMayoDrive51708

4/27/2008 - Live Strong Rally

Live Strong is the Lance Armstrong Foundation that helps victims and families who have been touched by cancer. They help to educate, comfort, and fund cancer research. My mother died of this terrible disease and I am sure every one of us has been affected as well.

The rally will be a question and answer type rally that will start at Kohl’s in Western Hills on Harrison Ave. You will get a list of turns that you need to complete and a list of questions that need to be answered. Some of these can be tricky so you need to keep your eyes open. The first car will be heading out at 10AM so try to get there early. You will need to bring a pen/pencil and a clipboard.

If this sounds like fun and you want to join the event, the cost to do so is $20 per car. Feel free to contribute more. We will have prizes for the winners and possibly food at the end for everyone. You can pay me at the start of the event or you can pay online here: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=259771&supid=207069319

If you plan on attending I just need you to sign up via the above link so I know how many Q&A/Direction sheets to print up.

You will also need $1 to get into the park at the end of the rally.

I hope everyone can join us.

Jon Roberto

3/17/2008 - Cab O'Grady captured!

Cab O'Grady captured!

CinciMINIs are pleased to announce that the infamous leprechaun "Cab" O'Grady has been taken into custody by our members Chris & Cheryl!

Pictures of the apprehension are here:

picasaweb.google.com/casanewt1100/CinciMINIsLeprechaunRun2008

2/10/2008 - The Clubman is Here - Two Clubmen meet The Clubman - The Greg and Tom Report

Greg:

I swung by Cincinnati MINI today with our very own Tommy D to check out the new Clubman. We ran into Rick Kilburn & John & Carmen Elliot out there as well. The first thing I have to say is that you have to see it in person. Something you do not get from pictures is scale. In a picture, MINIs can appear the same size as any other car. When you see that the Clubman is almost as tiny as the Cooper, then the longer lines diminish. IMHO, it actually looks smaller than the Cooper from the back because of its new design. The Clubman looks
much better in person. This Clubman is going to sell. I got in the back & fit comfortably with the front seat almost all the way back. I am 6'4" & 250 lbs.

I test drove it as well. Mind you that this was my first second gen MINI test drive. It was a Clubman S. These new MINIs are a very different dog than my '06 R53. Much more refined ride quality & much quieter interior & engine note. Man does that new turbo engine have
power all the way across its RPM range. Tom summed it up best when he was test driving it. "This feels like a VW Golf." He was exactly right, except that it was more like the new GTI I test drove before I bought the R53. I'll keep my R53 because it "feels" sportier and seems more "raw," but I can't help but think that you could mod the living heck out of one of these R56 or R55s and when you got done it would be just as day to day liveable as my stock R53. (That is very tempting to me the more I think about it.:)

Tommy D here:

What we have here is the first sports car/Shooting Brake in many years. Aston Martin used to make them. Volvo made one. Now Mini has brought out just about the most trendy new car since the original New Mini. This love child from a chance meeting between a Mini and a Mazda 3 MazdaSpeed is going to be a major major winner.

This new Clubman is a solid sender. It is a true 4 seater, but the guy behind the driver has to scoot over after he gets by the suicide door on the curbside. Plenty of room ‘fore and aft, with good foot room also. I can easily sit behind myself, which I wouldn’t recommend to just anyone. The car is faster than Coopd Up by quite a lot, even with Greg in it. The lines are better than the smaller brethren, the two back doors are tres cool, and the carrying capacity is about double than the std. Mini. It’s a little quiet, even under acceleration, which I didn’t quite like, but it’s fast enough to generate a whole bunch of torque steer. The C’man looks good from all angles. Both of us liked the silver treatment on the aft corners, which harks back to the original Clubman.

Greg and I were scoping out a Blue and Silver model being brought in by a “55 vintage babe who said, “No no boys, this is all mine”. Unfortunately, she was referring to the car (no matter what Greg thinks). She bought it right there for 30 G’s. Clubmans can be had for about $24 G’s, (I can be had for far less). I predict that more Clubmans will sell than all other models combined. In this case there is no penalty for the larger car that I could see. They are going to be flying out of the dealership.

1/28/2008 - We're Loaded For Bear!

CinciMINIs had a great planning meeting at The MINI Store last week. As usual, The MINI Store went all out to make our meeting a success, and boy, was it! We've loaded in all the main events for the year so you now can plan ahead to join us for events throughout 2008. Just check out the Event Schedule. You'll see that there's something for everyone virtually each month. The group has certainly come a long way in just a few years. Our participation has never been greater and many members stepped up to lead events, which gives the Planning Team time to think up even better things to come.

Just as your MINI runs on gas, our fuel is your dues. It's time for dues. $25.00 for the year is the best bargain in town and your financial support is absolutely necessary to keep us up and running. If you have not sent in your check for 2008 please do so ASAP.

Annual membership fees are due each year by January 31st.

To pay you membership fee, please mail your $25.00 check to:
CinciMINIs
PO Box 72841
Newport, KY 41072
Attn: Gaby Batshoun

Thank you

Team CinciMINIs

12/17/2007 - Planning meeting Thursday January 24th, 2008 at Cincinnati MINI

Once again, Our super dealership, Cincinnati MINI, has generously offered to host our annual planning meeting on Thursday January 24th, 2008 at 7:00PM. Please go to the Event Schedule and sign up for this important meeting. We need your support and participation!

Thanks,

CinciMINIs pit crew

12/4/2007 - Fun with Gasoline 2 -- Tom Draper

My First 109,000 Miles or How I Cured a Slight Case Of German Nut-Ball Engineering.

“Coopd Up” was adopted by me in August of 2003. A green over green model with a sunroof and no other options. Every time I saw something that I wanted, it was already on the car as standard, unnecessary, or too much money to be worth it. (Luckily the British leather seats were not available when I ordered the car). I started the process when I was living in Pittsburgh, with the legendary Amy Childers doing the honors on the sales end of The BMW Store. By the way, the “BRG” green that is advertised by BMW is actually “Moss Green”, a color that Sterling Moss, the great British privateer race driver, applied to his race cars. It was a standard color on the last of the original BMC Minis at the end of their production life.

When I entered the BMW Store, I parked down below in front. I was greeted by a distinguished gentleman of decidedly continental bearing in a while lab coat, looking like he had just finished bringing the Frankenstein monster to life, and weaving around all the silver $80,000 machinery.

“Kan I hep you?” he asked.

“Well I am looking at the Minis,” I replied.

“Ah, za Minis are upstairs,” he said. “Vat made you interested in za Mini?, he asked.

“Well, I had a Triumph and I thought I would get another British car,” I answered.

“Za Mini iss a Cherman kar!” he exclaimed, turning on his heel and walking away.

It’s true that I had had a BRG Triumph TR-3 for many years and my new Copper S cured my slowing escalating LBC (Lack of British Car) syndrome. I was a little nervous that the car would combine the worst of two worlds – British car reliability (or lack thereof) and German complexity. In the event, my fears were unfounded. Coopd Up has had virtually no mechanical problems. That’s not to say that I haven’t spent some money on the car in upgrading performance and eliminating nut-ball German engineering faux pas.

First to go was the original nut-ball cold air induction system that, much like a soda straw, can under certain circumstances funnel large quantities of H₂O, as opposed to 0_2,into the interior of the engine causing inter-cylinder mayhem and the installation of a heretofore superfluous second motor. In its place appeared a K&N Typhoon induction system (AJ-USA.com) that still gathered cold air, but not via a dangerous closed system.

At 45,000 miles I got rid of what was left of my god-awful nut-ball run flat tires and replaced them with regular Bridgestone Potenzas, one size large than spec. Everything improved. My CD player no longer skipped, my ride was smoother, my cornering better, my tires quieter, and my tire life expectancy doubled. I have rotated the wheels once at 35,000 miles and the wear was even and hardly noticeable. I don’t believe in constant tire rotation if the tires are wearing smoothly. Since the Mini seems to hold its alignment super well, I leave things alone. I expect to get at least 70,000 miles out of them. I’ve picked up two nails with the Potenzas, but the inflation monitor has done its job, alerting me in time to get to a tire store for a patch. I do carry an electric tire pump and patch kit, hoping never to use them.

When I got my Potenzas, a concurrent check of my brakes disclosed that all that brake dust was not coming from the pads so much as coming from the brake rotors. This ridiculous condition was being caused by over-aggressive German nut-ball brake pads. The condition was so bad that I had to replace my front rotors at 40% brake pad life. Good ol’ US of A Hawk pads (again from AJ-USA.com) cured this condition and eliminated most of the brake dust in the bargain. Now I stop smoothly without having to worry about my head going through the windscreen and last check of brake pad life on the fronts indicates I have 70% pad life left after 65,000 miles.

I’m happy to say that The BMW Store has always treated me well, even when replacing my hatch latch twice and my entire sunroof module at 65,000 miles (both for free). I also use Performance Alignment for brake, wheel, and alignment (oddly enough) and am always pleased with the result.

My next modification was a pair of dark silver diagonal stripes on each side of the car. They were put on unprofessionally by a professional who really didn’t know what he was doing. But because I was there for the whole process, things ended looking fine. The stripes have made the car look lower and longer. Best of all they have increased overall acceleration dramatically by micro-disrupting the laminar air flow along the sides of the car, thus decreasing skin drag 12%.

Next came a good English driving light. I bought a repro Made in China Lucas Flamethower and installed it on a modified stock grill light mounting, drilled out to accept the Flamethrower. The Sports Car Store in Florence did the wiring. Of course, being a British product, it leaks – in this case, water gets into the light when it rains. Silicon sealer may have solved the problem. I mounted the light on the left side of the car, which achieved the desired asymmetrical look I was after. It puts a massive amount of light out in front of the car. Because the light is incandescent, it also puts out a beam of heat that rivals the global warming death ray which hits the earth occasionally from the planet Mongo. I also added a white ‘50’s style number roundel on the hood (bonnet) offset to the right to give Coopd Up a jaunty new look.

Now, on to my second 100,000 miles.

10/15/2007 - Sign up for upcoming events. Here's how!

10/10/2007 - Welcome to the new CinciMINIs website!

Welcome to CinciMINIs

Now that you have bought one of the coolest cars on the planet, it’s time to have some fun with it!

CinciMinis is a group of Mini enthusiasts that get together to go on drives, enjoy good food and conversation, and share Mini info.

We come from all backgrounds. Some of us own or have owned other sports cars. Some of us just bought our Mini just because they like the looks of the car. No matter. You’ll find lots of people in our group of 120 plus members with which you can share stories and information to maximize your Mini experience.

Some of our cars are surpassed 100,000 miles, some are brand new. We know what to modify, what to leave alone, and where to go to get the most out of the car. Some of us use their car in competitions, most just like to get together for a weekend cruise. We often join other clubs to go on drives to interesting places or just to get some ice cream – kids are always welcome.

Come out and enjoy the fun. We’ll be glad to see you and you’ll be glad you did!

We hope our changes to the site will make it a little bit easier for our members to stay current on our events and also make it easier for the core members to administer the site and communicate to all of you as well. Check out our events page!

10/1/2007 - Street Survival School ( Event Date 10/20/2007)

Your daughter, son, niece or nephew or perhaps a neighbor's kid has just graduated from 'Driver's Ed' at their high school so now they know everything. Or do they?

Does your kid?

�X Know how to react in a decreasing radius turn?
�X Know how to apply their brakes and steer at the same time?
�X Know how to recognize when a skid is about to occur and perhaps control their car in this dangerous situation?
�X Know how to steer around obstacles safely while looking ahead for more danger?

Many of you have experienced these situations in real life and were not prepared for the event or the consequences.

Please enroll your kid, encourage your neighbors to enroll their kids.

�X Click here for the SSS Home Page
�X Click Here for details on the SSS for Saturday October 20th

This will be the best $60.00 you have ever spent on your child!

When: Saturday October 20th 2007 - 8:00 AM Sharp - Rain or Shine
Where: Eastside Christian Church, Milford Ohio, (5874 Montclair Blvd, Milford, OH 45150)

For more info contact Tim Beechuk, tbeechuk@one.net (Phone: 513-232-5804)

They are setting out in their own new car or more likely your new new car and fortunately all the situations that they will be facing, they faced in their driver's education course. It's a well known fact that all the drivers out there on our roads are well behaved and always follow the rules. All the roads they encounter will be pot-hole free, always perfectly dry with no sand, gravel, oil or other challenging substance like snow. If this is the world that your new driver is facing then all is well and the kid will not need Street Survival School.

Street Survival School is a "hands-on" driving experience in real-world situations. You use your own car to teach you about its handling limits and how you can control them.

9/19/2007 - Fun with Gasoline

Fun with Gasoline 1

Mini Meets Draper’s Two Rules of Car Ownership

The new Mini is a truly unique car. It combines reasonable speed and tenacious road holding with an amazing carrying capacity for a car its size. It provides a very reliable machine, avoiding as it seems to do, the downsides of nutball German over engineering and traditional dreaded British automotive assembly quality. In fact, it also seems to violate Draper’s Two Rules of Car Ownership”.

Rule 1

“A specialized car can do about 80% of what a standard car can do, but a standard car can only do about 20% of what a specialized car can do.”

In other words, a sports car can be pressed into service to provide almost everything a standard sedan can do, but a sedan can do virtually nothing that a sports car can do.

The Mini seems to break this rule because it is so utilitarian when it has to be. I’ve gotten chairs, TVs, and an entire boxed Miata dashboard into in my Mini, not to mention a group of four big guys who soon stopped grousing about the “clown car” they were about to ride in once we got started.

This is because the Mini acts like a sports car without actually being one. A true sports car is a two seater with a removable top. It has little in the way of creature comforts or reliability. A perfect example of a true sports car would be by dearly departed ’56 Triumph TR-3. When it was cold, you were cold. When it was raining, you got wet. You were at one with the elements whether you liked it or not. Not so with the Mini. You can be at one with the elements by making, using little electric motors, various parts of the car disappear. With the TR, those parts were not there to begin with, and had to be added. Why, with the Mini, a heater is even standard. Not only that, the Mini can out corner virtually any sports car built before 1985, and stay with almost any 4 cylinder car on the road today. Not bad.

Rule 2:

“Within reason, the slower the car, the more sport in the car”.

My brother has a Corvette. It looks nice, but it’s so big, driving it feels like you are driving the state of New Jersey. Moreover, in many ways, the car is boring to drive. This is because it is faster than you are. Whatever gear you are in, you can’t drive the car to its maximum potential for more than two seconds without being illegal. Since in sixth gear, the engine fires once every 60 feet, the car goes down the road half asleep, bored to tears with its driver. Meanwhile the Mini can if it wants to, also go illegal in two seconds (OK, four seconds). So it is a fast little sucker, without being boring in the slightest at any time, while keeping its driver essentially unknown to the local constabulary.

Finally, The Mini is a truly historic car. There are plenty of other small cars around, but the new Mini started the third small car revolution. The first was started by the MG TC. There you had a small car that was cooler than any other car on the road, but it was also slower than any other car on the road. The second small car revolution was started by the Beetle. Then you had a small car that was reliable and somewhat fun, but it was at most, just small. Now we have the third small car revolution. Not only do we have a small car and a reliable car, we have a car that can run with the best on the road. A car that is cooler than almost any other car regardless of price.

Not bad.

Tom Draper

5/20/2007 - Cooper Flags donation to CinciMINIs at MINIS on the Dragon 2007

Down at MINIs on the Dragon this weekend, Doug & I got to know the super folks at Cooper Flags. I happened to be around on Sunday when they were tearing down & getting ready to drive back to Texas when they asked if I would like to take home one of their demo sunroof graphics for free because they didn't have any room left on their trailer.

I have decided to use this generous donation as a small fundraising opportunity for the group's upcoming website upgrade. Cooper Flags has donated a perforated sunroof graphic in the 7" checkered flag design and its retail value is $160.00. Please follow the link below to view the graphic on Cooper Flag's website. If you are interested in making an offer on the sunroof graphic, please see Greg at the next club event

Cooper Flags roof graphic

-Greg

8/1/712 - We are going!

Clearing will start about 10 AM and it looks like no more rain today (Sunday). See you at 10!

- DISCLAIMER:

CinciMINIs is not a club or a non-profit organization and carries no insurance of any kind. All individuals participating will be held liable for their actions.

- Live Strong Rally

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am planning a very fun rally on the West side of town. It is called the Live Strong Rally. Live Strong is the Lance Armstrong Foundation that helps victims and families who have been touched by cancer. They help to educate, comfort, and fund cancer research. My mother died of this terrible disease and I am sure every one of us has been affected as well.

If you plan on attending I just need you to sign up via the above link so I know how many Q&A/Direction sheets to print up.

You will also need $1 to get into the park at the end of the rally.

I hope everyone can join us.

Jon Roberto