I found this photo over at BlueMeeny's "Cooper Cuties" collection. (and you thought it was just me. *blush*).
Show him (or her) some love and tell him (or her) Bushfinger sent cha! He (or she) has some great photos of lovely ladies and Minis that I will likely be stealing "highlighting" here in "Random MINI Babes" over the next few weeks.
Again, it's kinda hard to discuss the wonderful world of MINI without rehashing the big stories that are covered in 20 different places, however, the news this week that MINI is now doing a "mandatory recall" of all R56 (aka 2007+) Cooper Ss... and for what? To have their tailpipes moved in 1/2 an inch so people won't burn themselves? Please add me to the "gimme an effin break!" list.
But on a lighter note...
Lego MINI!
See more Lego MINI coolness on the "Brickblog"
Buy Condo, get free* MINI!
While in the last six month we hear more and more accounts of MINIs being thrown in as buyer incentives during this horrific US housing market, one Atlanta (Georgia) development makes no gaurantees when it says "for what you are paying in rent, you could win a BMW Mini Cooper." What no freebies?
Related Links:
And we're back...
Okay all kidding aside, "Bushfinger MINI" went dark for awhile there, but not for a lack of content. In fact, there are much rumblings in the MINI world- enough to garner the attention of a couple thousand blogs and text-based media sites. For awhile there I tried to bring you the latest news and information about our beloved MINI brand, which basically made me one of the other thousands of sites re-purposing Press Releases over and over (ex: I read a review of the 2009 Clubman today- that's been out for how long?)
In its original state, "Bushfinger MINI" was simply intended to chronicle the antics and musings of a MINI Cooper owner (yes, yours truly). Over time I found I had a fascination with MINI Cooper casualties and began archiving stories of stolen and wrecked MINIs and the photos that go along with them. After awhile this got a bit too morbid, especially on the rare occasion someone dies in one of these incidents.
I moved toward media legitimacy by covering the hard stories that made the press. Then the price of fuel in the U.S. skyrocketed. Good gas mileage and "small cars" became hip; The MINI brand was making huge changes in their mantra and model line up. Put the two together and soon the MINI brand became a darling of the media. I began to notice that for every story that was about, for, or alluded to the MINI brand, it was covered by 2000 websites for weeks at a time (this might be the same for other brands/industries, but I don't don't know because I don't care). I made a conscious decision to not recover/repost that which is out there in droves, and/or covered by sites and writers much better and more prolific than I (cough*motoringfile*cough). Hence the darkness.
But, it's a new year and with that comes new goals and one of mine is to keep up the posts on Bushfinger MINI. That's right. You thought you got rid of me, didn't you? I'm going back to my roots and returning to the concept of writing about what I know- Me, my MINI, and related events. And the occasional news story I find particularly interesting.
Here's a recent photo of the MINI right after a 7-hour detailing session (which would have made a great blog entry had I thought of it at the time!)
It's been kinda dead the last few days on Bushfinger MINI- certainly not due to a lack of MINI related news, but moreso a combination of 1) yours truly relocating to new abode (i forgot how much moving sucks), 2) a deluge of over-recycled news (mostly old news to MINIacs), and 3) quite frankly, all the other "big" MINI news, seems to be a tad bit over-covered lately.
photo found on motoringunderground.comMany of us in the MINI community know all to well that fellow MINI driver (and now official race car driver), Jerry "Siddhartha" Bradbury has quite a way with words.
(photo courtesy of newmini.wordpress.com)
Infineon Raceway, April 11, 2008
It’s quiet tonight under this hill in Sonoma. A few lights gleam and the faint tink-tink-tink of a hammer sounds from some hidden pit area where work continues as it always does on a race car. Bright stars look down on a few early arrivals and the air is redolent of hay and the sea. All through the night the transporters pull in, towing their brightly colored cars. They’ve come from Oregon, Utah, Nevada and all parts of California to become a part of this temporary community, to see old friends, to make new ones, to race. Dawn reveals a small village sprung up over night. There are streets, traffic, pedestrians, wives, sweethearts, kids and dogs. Cars of all descriptions, from daily drivers to factory sponsored racecars have become the focus of attention as they are prepared to go on track. An air of festivity prevails over this day at the races, but an undercurrent of the potential for violence and wreckage is present as well as the tow truck rumbles slowly around the perimeter like a bright red velociraptor, tail high, looking for prey.
Being the dork that I am, I like to keep a variety of statistics in both my work and personal life so I can then go around blurting out random numbers and factoids to anyone who will listen. (i kid!)
I bought my first MINI Cooper in 2003 straight off the lot. I fell in love with the car, the MINI "lifestyle", and coming from a 4-door Chevy sedan, I especially enjoyed the increase in gas mileage! But when folks would ask "What kind of mileage do you get in that thing?" while I had an answer, (being the dork that I am) I prefer proof (a.k.a. "statistics"!)
I have been diligently tracking my MPG since I picked up my second MINI- a 2006 MINI Cooper S in July of 2006. The process is quite simple actually:
Most die-hard MINI fans have already seen the results of Team Fireballed's entry for the 2007 Street Tuner Challenge on the Speed Channel, unofficially dubbed the "Pursuit MINI" or, the "World's Fastest Show MINI". However, as a diehard MINI fan, I couldn't NOT blog it too, now could I?
You know you're waist deep in the "internet age" when you somehow stumble upon a Japanese website with German content about a car made in the UK.
Incidentally, "Vergleich" means "comparison". But you probably figured that out already! Of course, if I were on my Macintosh, I'd have pasted in the Japanese text as well.
Auf Wiedersehen!
*I couldn't settle on a title for this post, so you get all three!
When I wasn't even looking, I chanced upon this awesome MINI blog, "Confessions of a MINIac".
Blog owner "Christina" writes, "I drive Stella: a pinked-up 2006 R53 MINI Cooper S".
Enjoy her pink MINI, recounts of MINI United, trips to Europe, photos, and... (record scratch) working for MINI.ca?!?! Okay now I'm really jealous. You can be too!
THIS JUST IN!
Through an unsolicited update, I have received more info on the Runaway Cavalier! As it turns out, our frazzled gentleman was teaching his daughter to drive.
In a crowded, apartment complex, even. Niiiiiice!
Father: "This is the brake. It makes the car stop. This is the gas. It makes the car go."
Daughter: "Which one is this again?"
twistybitz.com Blog and Store
No- not an avant garde public storage service with a propensity for broadband, twistybitz.com is a blog *and* a store for the MINI fan. A quirky personal blog about all things MINI, and neat little shop to pick up some cool t-shirts, clock and more! twistybitz.com
yellowminipages.com
What a great concept! I've been checking out "yellowminipages.com" (a.k.a the "MotoringUnderground.com Directory"*) for a couple days now and feel like I've barely made a dent in it's extensive listing, yet at the same time, see all these sites I've been to in one place to and think, "wow- I guess I *am* a "MINIac"!" "yellowminipages.com"
*(as you say "'Scuse me- What is "MotoringUnderground.com"?)
One of the coolest results coming from MINIUSA threatening to sue anyone with "MINI Cooper" in their website name, is that it has fully entrenched the word "motor"- and it's grammatical variations, into the MINI community. Welcome motoringfun.com
When posed with the obvious question, "why another MINI site?" Proprietor Pedro proudly posts:
