AMVIV IV: A Brief Recap

For those playing along... We got back from "A MINI Vacation in Vegas" on Sunday afternoon, with minimal traffic. That's what you get when you're already on the road by 8am!

I took about 400 photos this time around as well as about 2 hours of video. I hope to have everything edited and posted in the next couple days but in the meantime, here's a brief recap of AMVIV from my perspective!

For the record, this year's event was totally awesome. Last I heard there were about 450 and about 600 people. There were twice as many vendors as last year and a little something for everyone- well except for ladies' t-shirts in small. The product I noticed "flying off the shelf" the most was the M7 Strut Brace. Even with 4-5 vendors all selling them, I think they each sold out of them! Heck even *I* bought one! I didn't get it installed though due to some minor suspension issues I wasn't aware of. :(

The North American MINI Cooper Challenge race was fun to watch despite a pretty significant fender-bender in the first race. Even more fun to watch were the Bikini All Stars from MAV TV! (raaar...)

I didn't do any of the runs this year. One reason involved the installation of an ALTA 15% Pulley! (Yeah baby!). Other reasons involved me not getting up at 8am every day while on "vacation". The Boot-n-Bonnet Show was spectacular this year as well. Many of my favorite MINIs were back, along with a lot of really really nice ones I'd never seen before. I didn't win anything but I wasn't trying. It was great meeting new people and people I "know" from NAM but never met in real life. Ironically, many of the folks I know "IRL" ("in real life" that is)- I didn't get to spend much time with.

The Strip Cruise had about 260 cars involved this year. An awesome sight to behold. So much so someone felt a couple rounds from a BB gun into some cars was warranted.

This year marked the first time DB, Todd, and Gabe from WhiteRoofRadio were all in the same room. Their MCing of the banquet was well done and I hope they recorded it and just post the whole thing as an episode.

Overall, not a bad extended weekend, and worth every penny. I'll have more detailed recounts of particular events as the days and editing of photos and video progresses!