NEW MINI PRESS RELEASED ISSUED ON REAR FOGLIGHT SAFETY ISSUE

We're now at over 500 signatures so I've sent out another press release. Hopefully this one gets picked up as the last one did (by AutoWeek). You can find the press release text along with the full discussion thread here at MINI2.


Over 500 MINI Owners Sign To Support Petition Urging MINI USA To Enable Safety Feature


Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – February 28, 2003 – Owners of the popular MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S continue to push MINI USA to enable a safety device that is switched off only for buyers in the U.S. market. MINI owners in the U.S. are using web message boards and an online petition to rally support for enabling rear fog light safety devices, which were installed when the cars were manufactured, but which are disabled in software for the U.S. market. Since the petition drive began in November 2002, over 500 current and future (cars on order) MINI owners have signed their support. [click for more]

HONEYMOON PICTURES FINALLY POSTED

I have finally gotten around to posting all of the digital pictures from our honeymoon in Italy. We traveled to the Amalfi Coast and Rome in June and July of 2002. We first traveled to the island of Ischia and stayed at the Grand Albergo Mezzatorre. From there we traveled on to Positano, where we stayed at Le Sirenuse. After a total of ten days on the Amalfi Coast, we went to Rome with a brief stop at Pompeii. It was an incredible time and we cannot wait to go back.


The people of Italy were exceptionally friendly and the food was unbeatable. For those of you who speak a little Spanish, as Katie and I do, you will find Italian a fairly easy language to learn. Enjoy looking at all of the photos!

MINI FOGLIGHT PETITION PROGRESSING

The rear foglight petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/MINIfogs/petition.html is moving along nicely. We now have over 500 signatures of support. I think it's probably time to get another press release together! For more details, please see the thread on MINI2 here.


If you have not yet reviewed and signed the petition yet, please do so now. :)


MINI USA continues to claim that fog is just not a problem for drivers in the United States. I guess they didn't look out the windows of their northern NJ headquarters this weekend when the length of the NJ Turpike was closed due to dense fog! For a news story from WPVI-6, check out this page.

NJ Turnpike Reopens
SECAUCUS, NJ-February 23, 2003 — Nearly all of the New Jersey Turnpike has reopened. Dense fog forced the 148-mile toll road to be closed for nearly three hours today.
The eastern spur remains closed because of lingering visibility problems.
The fog reduced had visibility to zero in southern reaches of the turnpike.
State police called for the closure after an accident involving two buses and ten cars happened at 9:35 this morning on the eastern spur, just north of Exit 15.
No serious injuries were reported from the accident.
The toll road was last closed by fog in 1982.
In 1996, then-Governor Christie Whitman ordered the road closed during a blizzard that prompted neighboring states to close their roads.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

FALL 2002 MID-ATLANTIC MINI DRIVE

I met up with a couple dozen or more fellow MINI drivers on November 23, 2002, in Morgantown, PA. We had a great, scenic drive through Lancaster county. You can check out all of the wonderful pictures here. I am looking forward to the next one of these!

MINI SNOW TIRES

When I bought my MINI Cooper S, I opted for the 17-inch high performance tires. These were not all-season tires and I did not think it'd be a big deal since we never seemed to get snow anymore. Well, as we near the end of the winter of 2002-2003 I realize how wrong I was that we'd get no snow! The first time we got more than two inches of snow my MINI got stick in my flat driveway so I knew I needed snow tires if I wanted to drive this winter.


I am very pleased with how well the MINI has done with snow tires and I can say that this was the best purchase I have ever made for the MINI. As long as the snow is not more than a couple inches above the front spoiler, this car can get through any snow and is sure and steady all the while. I picked up everything within a few days of ordering from the guys at Helix MINIsports. You can learn more about the tires and wheels I chose here.

MINI HEADLIGHT WASHER MOVIE

Ever wonder how the headlight washers worked on the MINI? Well this QuickTime movie will show you all the details.

MINI EUROPEAN FIRST AID KIT INSTALLATION

I posted detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to install this part from the European MINI. I have also included a list of part numbers and tools needed to do the job. For details, please see this section of the site.

MINI EUROPEAN PARCEL SHELF INSTALLATION

I posted detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to install this part from the European MINI. I have also included a list of part numbers and tools needed to do the job. For details, please see this section of the site.

MINI EUROPEAN TOGGLE SWITCH PANEL INSTALLATION

I posted detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to install this part from the European MINI. I have also included a list of part numbers and tools needed to do the job. For details, please see this section of the site.

MINI EUROPEAN WARNING TRIANGLE INSTALLATION

I posted detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to install this part from the European MINI. I have also included a list of part numbers and tools needed to do the job. For details, please see this section of the site.

MINI CONFIGURATOR CD

My friend Todd, who runs AWE Tuning, picked up the MINI Configurator CD when he was at the 2002 Essen Motor Show in Germany. I have formatted all of these files and organized them for the web. You can check out all of the JPEG images for options and other MINI things as well as some QTVRs here.

MINI COOPER S DELIVERY

While I was on my honeymoon in June and July of 2002, my MINI Cooper S was being built. I actually used my GSM phone to call MINI several times since it was actually on the production line while I was in Positano, Italy, and I wanted to follow-up on each step of production. Shortly after we returned, my new MINI arrived. I took delivery of the car from Tony at Don Rosen MINI on August 16, 2002. All of the pictures are available here.

DON ROSEN MINI GRAND OPENING PARTY

In May of 2002, I attended the grand opening celebration of Don Rosen MINI in Bala Cynwyd, PA. Check out all of the pictures here. The dealership is managed by a great guy named Alex Nitterhouse, who used to be at Vision VW / Porsche / Audi in Reading, PA. Alex has done a great job of bringing on enthusiastic and knowledgeable sales people like Tony, Mark and Amos. The local crowd on MINI2 has given the dealership very high marks in the Dealership forum.

HELIX MINISPORTS DYNO DAY

On December 14, 2002, I went to Helix MINIsports new shop for a MINI dyno day. A number of folks showed up and I was able to get a baseline reading on my stock MINI Cooper S. All of the pictures and some AVI movies are here.

TEST DRIVE OF HELIX'S MINI FROM SWEDEN

A long time ago I posted some pictures of the first MINI I drove. It was on January 16, 2002, that I had a chance to drive the MINI Cooper that Eric Savage from Helix MINIsports had imported from Sweden. This was about three months before MINIs were officially being sold in the US and if there were more than 3 or 4 other new MINIs in the US at that time I would have been surprised. I had my MINI Cooper S on order at that time and had recently seem the new MINI in person for the first time in December of 2001 at the Essen Motor Show in Germany.

FITTING AN INFANT SEAT IN THE MINI

For those of you with MINIs you know that it's not exactly SUV-sized. That makes fitting a baby seat a bit challenging!! Since it is such a new car there have not been too many people on MINI2 and other forums that have fitted infant carriers. So Katie and I recently trekked Babies-R-Us and made sure the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio seat system would fit and we took a few photos.


This setup is complies with the ISOFIX / Latch standard and features a fixed base that the baby carrier clips into. The setup was a tight fit in rear-facing configuration.


We plan to pickup our seat from BabyAge.Com. BabyAge is a great web site run by Jack Kiefer, a friend and fellow Drexel University alum.





If you are facing this issue yourself, I recommend searching MINI2's forums. In particular, check out this recent thread on baby seats.

BLIZZARD OF FEBRUARY 2003

We had a wonderful blizzard on February 16th and 17th, 2003, which more or less shut the whole region down. I shot a lot of photos in Chestnut Hill, which looked beautiful with all of the snow. I also took the opportunity to "explore the handling characteristics" of the MINI in all of the snow! ;-) Make sure you download the hilarious AVI movie of this effort, as over 1,500 people have to date!

SNOW - FEBRUARY 7, 2003

We've had lot's of snow this year, which has been fun. Here are some photos of the snow on February 7, 2003. The snow was deep enough that the MINI started acting like a snow plow.

CLIFF AND MARISSA'S WEDDING

Cliff and Marissa were also married in 2002. We have a bunch of pictures from their wedding here for your viewing pleasure.

CLIFF AND MARISSA'S REHEARSAL DINNER

We also attended Cliff and Marissa LePage's wedding rehearsal dinner in 2002. All of the pictures can be found here.

GREY'S 30TH BIRTHDAY

For Grey's 30th birthday, Cherie planned a big day. First we went to the Wharton Esherick Museum which is, ironically enough, about a mile up the hill from the house I used to share with Cliff and Alex in Valley Forge. After that we had a wonderful sushi dinner. All of the pictures are here.

GREY AND CHERIE'S REHEARSAL DINNER

And from out of the archive are photos from Grey and Cherie Cremer's wedding rehearsal dinner in 2002. I was privileged to be the best man. Get 'em all here!

MY NEW BEETLE IS SOLD BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

In order to buy my 2002 MINI Cooper S I had to sell my 1998 VW New Beetle, which was a great, great car. You can find some of the old pictures of the car and the excellent condition it was in here. I even have some pictures from delivery of the car!

MINI FEATURED AT 2002 US VINTAGE GRAN PRIX - WATKINS GLEN, NY

I travelled to the 2002 U.S. Vintage Gran Prix at Watkins Glen in September, 2002. It was a great road trip as I took backroads most of the way up to The Glen. The featured marque was the Mini. As a result, lots of new MINI owners like myself planning to drive up to meet and participate in some special events like the Tour de Marque.





All of the great pictures are here.

WATKINS GLEN TRACK EVENT - AUGUST 2002

Here are some photos from the driver's education weekend at Watkins Glen in August 2002. The track weekend was organized by the Riesentöter Region of the Porsche Club of America.






Lots of great pictures can be found here.

SOME WISSAHICKON TRAIL PHOTOS

In June 2002 I rode around on some of the trails of the Wissahickon as part of my duties as a mountain bike patroller. My objective was to photograph some problematic or deteriorated trail areas for the upcoming IMBA / Subaru Trail Care Crew weekend.





The pictures can be found here if you are interested.