Coastal MINIS

MTTS 2008 Update

2008-05-09T08:02:00.002-05:00

Just a quick update regarding MINI Takes the States 2008. All the details of MIAMI leg of MTTS 2008 are now updated and available here. Then, Rauno Aaltonen affectionately known as the Flying Finn will be driving north with the entourage: Sunday, June 15, 2008 - Miami to an overnight in St. Augustine, FL. Then on Monday, June 16, 2008 on to Savannah, GA for the afternoon, early evening, then on to the next overnight in Charleston, SC. We will certainly be doing all we can to entertain them while they are here and some of us may even do the run to Charleston. Stay 'tuned' for more details.

It's May!!!

2008-05-04T18:44:00.002-05:00

How did that happen? May already? We didn't skip April, but it went by so fast that it almost feels like it. We had a casual meeting over coffee, and today we did the same. Yes today was our first Sunday meeting! Shame on me for not posting a reminder.

However, now there is plenty to post about because Coastal MINIs has a full summer schedule ahead! We have several events for the summer that are in the planning stages. First off, MINI is planning another MINI Takes the States (MTTS) Event. It's not going to be a drive across the country adventure like 2006. This time they are staging 4 MINI extravaganzas. There is more here on MINI's official site. The event closest to us is in Miami on June 13-15. There are some MINIs driving from Miami to the next event in Boston, and they are planning on overnighting in Savannah! We would obviously want to give them a welcome party like only Coastal MINIs can. This would take place on either the 16th or the 17th of June which is a Monday or a Tuesday. Let us know via some comment love or an email if you'd be interested in welcoming the MTTS participants.

Next, remember the Great Ice Cream Run? Well, we'd like to do it again! It's just too much fun to close down Broughton Street and chow down on some ice cream for the sake of MINI camaraderie not to do it again. I mean really, who doesn't love Leopold's? This will likely take place in July or August, so stay tuned for more details!

Finally, the Savannah Sand Gnats have invited us, as a club, to a baseball game to showcase our cars and our club. How fun is that!? We're not sure when this is going to be happening yet, but we'll be sure to keep everyone updated. We are working with the Sand Gnats on a date, but in the meantime we need to know how many people would like to join us, so let us know!

Stay tuned for further updates on these events and more. It's going to be an exciting summer! :)

March Madness

2008-03-31T11:40:00.001-05:00

Oh my, March has just about come and gone and whooshed right by us. It was a busy month! I hope everyone had a good Easter and kept their MINIs safe during St. Patrick’s Day and all the crazy weather that came with it. At our last meeting we had a good time sharing about the Helen trip that some of our members went on. Stephanie has pictures on her blog as usual. Go Stephanie! Looks like a good time was had by all!

Our next meeting is this coming Sunday the 6th of April. We’ll be at the usual time and place of course. We don’t have any formal plans to take a drive somewhere, but we could decide to take an impromptu trip out to Tybee or something if the mood (and weather) strikes us right. I know there were talks of going to Jacksonville soon to see our friends there. That might make a good May trip. We would also like to drive to Macon to meet with Middle Georgia MINIs sometime. Any ideas? If so, bring them to the meeting!

Now that it’s starting to get warmer, does anyone like the idea of a group carwash? Some of us (not naming names) have been way too swamped lately to pamper our MINIs (myself included) as we really should. However, we’re all detailing freaks at heart. Instead of running up someone’s water bill (unless there’s a volunteer), we could drive to a local car wash and make an afternoon of cleaning our cars together. Does anyone like the sound of that? We could even do it this Sunday! Comment if you like this idea and we’ll all plan on bringing our wash buckets, detailing towels, and quarters galore.

Cheers guys!

yes, we're alive

2008-02-24T18:05:00.002-05:00

We're still alive over here but we did have a close call at our last meet up. Ok no, not really, but check this out:

Look at that sucker!!! He was HUGE!!!!

This guy and others were spotted at our February meeting at the beginning of this month. We had 7 MINIs get coffee, and 5 went on to a drive around the Nature Reserve. We even had a newcomer named Kevin in a lovely GP edition MINI. It's the only one in town, and we're so glad he decided to come along! It was a nice drive on a gorgeous day. Our cars got a bit dirty, but nothing a good California duster wouldn't fix.

Right now some of our members are on their way back from Helen, GA and the big rally organized by Middle GA MINIs. I'm sure there will be updates on how the trip went at our next meeting on the 2nd of March at the usual time and place. For those of you that went, share a link to photos you took and I will post it here.

There are more pictures of our February meet at Stephanie's blog.

See you next time!

February!

2008-01-24T18:54:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, long time no update…

We had a nice get together in January with what’s becoming a good sized group of “regulars”. Our little club has come a long way in the past year, and your dedication has been fabulous. Thank you! Anyway, the stalwarts of Coastal MINIs had a nice chat over coffee before heading our separate ways. We all decided that we’d like to have an informal outing for February (weather permitting). I think the general consensus was to head to the local wildlife refuge just over the bridge in SC. It’s a lovely drive, not very far at all, and we’ve made that trip before. We’ll plan on finding lunch somewhere afterwards of course. We haven’t been “motoring” in a while, so I’m looking forward to it. J

For those new to Coastal MINIs we will meet at our usual time and place on the first Sunday in February (the 3rd). We’ll hang around and get caffeinated for a little while, and then head out around 11. We’d love to have you, and feel free to bring friends!

There is also a big even being planned by our friends at Middle GA MINIs for the end of February. There is more info on the event here, but in short there are several GA MINI clubs getting together for some motoring, sightseeing, and twisty road driving in historic Helen, GA. Coastal MINIs has been invited, and we’d love to make a good showing for our new friends. If you’re interested in going on this trip, we will make plans at the February meeting. If you can’t come to the meeting, then email us and we will keep you informed.

Thanks for reading, and just a reminder, any suggestions for club matters or future motoring outings are always encouraged and appreciated.

Happy Motoring!

Brimming with Cheer

2007-12-20T12:40:00.000-05:00

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!!

Coastal MINIS has been business as usual lately. We met on December 2nd for some coffee and good company. We had some old faces, and some new ones too. It was also good to see our boys from Charleston again. Thanks for making the drive guys!

For those that were there... my car only smoked for about an hour or so after adding that oil. Lol.

We will also continue business as usual in 2008. I know we'll be getting together with the Middle Georgia MINIS, and we've always talked about making a trip up to the Dragon, plus our usual excursions to Charleston and Jekyl Island. It'll be a lot of fun! We hope to see you in 2008 at our usual time and place, for some motoring adventures. Feel free to bring along ideas, or anything else you have to share.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Coastal MINIS!!!!!

Anniversary

2007-11-20T12:34:00.000-05:00

I just want to thank everyone SO much for their attendance on our anniversary run!! We had a total of I think 12 MINIs with about half from Savannah and half from Jacksonville. We had two clubs combine for this event, and it turned out wonderfully! The Savannah group stopped at the mini church as usual on our way down. It was a beautiful day, so when we got there we treated ourselves to lunch on the deck at Blackbeards that had a nice ocean view, with a little tour around the island afterwards. Our anniversay meeting turned out to be one of the best ones yet! Hopefully many more to come!

Our wonderful photographer Stephanie has loads of pics here on her site.

If you can pry yourself away from Thanksgiving leftovers, come get coffee and talk about your MINI with us, at the usual time and place on December 2nd.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

November and British Car Day

2007-10-29T11:48:00.000-05:00

First off, a BIG congratulations to Stephanie and Matt on their wins at British Car Day in Charleston last weekend! They represented Coastal MINIs in fine style. We're proud of you guys! :D For pictures of the event, visit Stephanie's blog, All Things MINI.

This coming Sunday, the 4th, will be our Monthly Motoring Sunday. We will be celebrating our anniversary by heading down to Jekyll Island. We'll gather at our usual time and place, and we'll plan on leaving Savannah before 11. I think we'll have some members meeting us on Jekyll, and we hope to see some of our friends from Florida there too. We'll grab a bite for lunch once we get there, and motor around the island. With the change in the weather, it should make for a nice trip. Those of us with supercharged MINIs, remember our cars love this cold air! Plus it makes for a good excuse to go motoring. We hope to see you there!

October!

2007-10-16T20:34:00.000-05:00

Hello!
At last, mother nature cooperated, and Coastal MINIs had a nice meet up on the 5th. We hung out at Starbucks for a bit. It was almost the usual crew with Murray, Stephanie and myself (we missed you Matt), along with our two new friends Brian with his British Racing Green Cooper S, and Amanda with her '07 Pepper White and Black Cooper. Someone brought along with them the latest issue of MC2 magazine. There is an article about the Great Ice Cream Run close to the back, with pictures from the Savannah portion. We're famous! Check it out (I know Books A Million carries it). October is a busy month for everyone, so we ended up not going to Tybee as planned. It turns out Larry and Martha from last month tried to meet us there, and we didn't show! Oops! HUGE apologies to Larry and Martha!!! We will stick to the plan next time, we promise. To prevent further accidents like this, if you would like to meet up with us later in the day, let us know with an email or a comment here, so that we don't change plans at the last minute and leave someone stranded! :)

Speaking of plans...
It almost passed us by unnoticed but Coastal Minis has been meeting as a group for a YEAR!!! It's our anniversary!!!! Well October was technically, but we're going to celebrate in November. On our very first outing, we headed down to the Mini church (the smallest church in America). Let's go that way again next month, and then head further south to Jekyll Island to visit our friends in Florida. We'll meet at the usual time and place, and plan on leaving around 10:30. If anyone has suggestions for lunch places on Jekyll, feel free to let us know. We've met the first Sunday of every month for a year, and it keeps getting better. We'd love to see you come motor with us!

Also, as a reminder British Car Day in Charleston is coming up on the 27th. Plus, there is an autocross going on this Sunday the 21st on Roebling Road! If you've never autocrossed your MINI, it's really fun! More info here.

Happy motoring!

September and October fun

2007-09-19T06:39:00.000-05:00

Despite the disgusting weather at the beginning of this month, Coastal MINIS actually did end up meeting. It was almost washed out, but at the last minute we gathered at Starbucks. Matt came down from Charleston as usual, our new friend Paul was there, and we even met some new motorors, Larry and Martha (I hope that's right, I'm bad with names). They just bought an '07 MINI Cooper S Convertible in blue. It was nice to meet them, and we hope they come back! We all just chatted and enjoyed our coffee. It was a nice relaxing start to September. Unfortunately I do not have pictures, because it was still raining.

For October we are going to be staying in Savannah again. If the weather cooperates, I thought we should head to Tybee before it gets too chilly out. We'll meet at our usual time and place on Sunday October 7th. We'll plan on motoring to Tybee after 11, and have lunch at the North Beach Grill. This time we'll talk about logo designs and future motoring sessions with the beach in the background, and hopefully not a torrential downpour like this month. Afterwards, those who want can stick around and go swimming (30 minutes after eating of course), or walking along the beach.

I also want to remind everyone of the fall events that are coming up. At the end of this month is the Phil Wicks driving school on September 22 and 23, and on Saturday October 27th is British Car day in Charleston.

Happy Motoring!

Fall Activities for CoastalMINIS

2007-08-21T12:51:00.000-05:00

It’s hard to believe that it’s almost fall, considering the heat index is still over 100° here on the coast. We’ve almost made it through a summer of sweltering in parking lots or streets with our iced coffees and ice cream cones. It’s been a great summer, but the coming of fall brings with it a few events just for us Coastal MINI enthusiasts. The Phil Wicks Driving Academy and The Charleston British Car Day are both great local events and to make it all a bit easier, we have whole page of information on these events here.

We will be talking about both of these events in our upcoming Monthly Motoring on Sunday September 2nd. Phil Wicks has expressed an interest in coming to our next meeting to talk to us about his driving school. This is still up in the air, but we will keep you posted. We would like to get an idea of who wants to attend either or both of these events, so if you have more questions or just want to discuss it then we encourage you to come to our next 1st Sunday Motoring meeting on September 2nd. 2007. Usual place: Starbucks in the 12 Oaks Shopping Center on Abercorn Street. Details here.

And so we went to Charleston

2007-08-12T15:27:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday the Coastal MINIS motored up to Charleston. 4 cars left Savannah, and 10 joined up with us in Charleston, making a record total of 14 MINIS!!!!! We saw some old friends, and met some new ones. We had one newcomer, Paul from Beaufort drive up with us from Savannah in his brand new 2007 Cooper S.

Our trip was delayed slightly by a truck on fire on the side of I-95 that halted traffic for a little while. By the way, MINI sunroofs are wonderful for observing long lines of stopped traffic. After we finally got going again, we met up with our very patient friends in Charleston. We really appreciate them waiting for us in the hot hot sun! Then we motored over to Davis Island to a very nice restuarant for brunch. Afterwards we headed to a place called Turkey's where they had several imported classic minis. It was so wonderful to see how far our cars have come! For our final stop, Matt and Jimmy took us down the street to Ye Old Fashioned Ice Cream where MINI of Charleston treated us, because it was SO hot. Thanks guys, it was delicious!

Check out Stephanie's slide show!

Our next meet up is going to be on Sunday, September 2nd. Because of Labor Day weekend, we will be staying in Savannah for this one. We're just going to have a low key planning session of sorts. We're going to work on ideas for future trips, logo and sticker designs, etc. We'll still meet at Starbucks, as usual, and probably head somewhere in town for lunch. Anyone is welcome to come! We would love to hear your opinions on what you would like to see happen with Coastal MINIS. :)

Happy Motoring!

Monthly Motoring to Charleston!

2007-08-02T16:19:00.000-05:00

We have finally finalized plans for our monthly motoring trip to Charleston this Sunday! (yes this Sunday. Last minute, I know)

The Savannians shall meet at the Starbucks in 12 Oaks at 10am, as usual. We plan on leaving Savannah by (hopefully) 10:45. The Charleston people should meet in the Sears parking lot on Savannah Hwy (across the street from MINI of Charleston and in the strip with KMart) at 12:30. We will probably all leave there together about 1:00 and head over to Daniel Island for late brunch at McCaffrey's Irish Pub & Restaurant. It's an all-you-can-eat thing for like $14. From there we plan to take a drive through downtown Charleston making a stop or two, including one at the port where all the MINI's come-in the US for the South-East. Then we can venture to West Ashley for a look at the 30-or-so classic Mini's at Turkey's.

I'm am SO EXCITED about this month's trip. Sorry for us being so late in planning! I hope lots of people can come because it's going to be awesome! Special thanks to Matt for organizing the itinerary for this one. :)

Monthly Motoring - August 2007

2007-07-29T19:43:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, I wanted to give everyone a heads up that we are still planning to go visit our friends in Charleston for our Monthly Motoring trip next Sunday the 5th. We will meet at our usual time and place. We should plan on leaving Savannah around 10:30 (but no later than 11) to make it to Charleston in time for lunch. The lunch place is yet to be determined, so please speak up if you have any suggestions!

We had lots of fun the last time we went to Charleston. That Monthly Motoring trip holds our records for the biggest turnout. The picture on the banner at the top of this blog was taken in front of the USS Yorktown during that trip. Let's try to break that record this time (of 11 cars I think). Let's get us many of us from Savannah as we can to go see our friends in Charleston. :)

2007-07-07T09:03:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, our monthly motoring group headed down to St. Simon's island. Two MINIs from Jacksonville came to join us, and one met us there. We had a delicious lunch at the Sandcastle Cafe.* We had a blast, and we really enjoyed motoring with our friends from Florida. We hope to see more of them! :)
You can see more pictures on QWKSLVR's all things MINI blog slideshow.

Our next monthly motoring trip will be to Charleston on August 4th.

*Lunch was sponsored by Tom Bush MINI of Jacksonville. Thank you!!!!

TGICR Recap

2007-06-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

I just recieved something in my email that I had to share with all of you. It's The Creative Coast's wonderful recap of The Great Ice Cream Run. Make sure to watch the video. You just might spot your car!

Once again, to recap for Sunday, we are going to St. Simon's Island. We are meeting at Starbucks at 10am, and plan to arrive on St. Simon's by 12 for lunch at the Sandcastle Cafe & Grill. We will be taking Hwy 17 south, instead of I-95. Hope to see you there!

July monthly motoring

2007-06-25T20:49:00.000-05:00

Well with July 1st coming up this weekend, I just wanted to let everyone know that we continue to go south as planned. However, instead of going to Jekyll Island we will be going to St. Simons and having lunch at the Sandcastle Cafe & Grill on Mallery Street. St Simons is having a festival that weekend. So all of us MINIs should just add to the fun! More info on the festival here (at bottom of page).

We will gather at the Starbucks in the 12 Oaks Shopping Center at 10 a.m. as usual. We hope to see you there. The more the merrier!

TGICR and July Monthly Motoring

2007-06-20T17:23:00.001-05:00

First off, I just want to give a long overdue thank you to everyone that helped out and participated in Savannah’s portion of The Great Ice Cream Run. The event was a huge success with a total of 42 MINIs!!!!! Our parade down I-95 and through downtown went smoothly, and a massive amount of ice cream was consumed by all. This wouldn’t have been possible without the marvelous effort from Leopold’s Ice Cream, The Creative Coast, Sunshine MINIs, MINI of Charleston, and of course Murray Wilson and the Coastal MINIs. Thanks SO MUCH!!!!!!!

If you want to see how the rest of The Great Ice Cream Run went, or photos of the Savannah portion, check out Ian's GB MINI blog, Murmini.com, or The Great Ice Cream Run website. If you have pictures of your own that you want to share, please comment with a link to your gallery.

The Great Ice Cream Run generated a lot of interest in our local Monthly Motoring events. If you had fun at there, come join us on the first Sunday of each month for some MINI motoring fun. Next month we will be meeting at the usual time and place on Sunday July 1^st. We are planning on going south for a Run to Jekyll Island. The routes, schedule and restaurant for lunch will be posted soon, so stay tuned. I hope you can join us!

Cheers and Happy Motoring!

Heather

The Great Ice Cream Run - In Savannah !

2007-06-05T07:35:00.000-05:00

The Great Ice Cream Run is heading our way, We just wanted to make sure the local MINI owners are fully 'up to speed' on the weekends events. Most local MINI owner are meeting at the Best Western on 1 Gateway Blvd. East at I-95 and 204, between 5pm and 6pm on Saturday.June 9th. 2007.

We will be meeting up with the Florida SunShine MINIS, MINIs from the Charleston Low Country MINIS, the good people from MINI of Charleston and the participants in The Great Ice Cream Run event and then drive via I-16 to down town. Or, you can come down to Broughton Street between after 6 pm. We are closing the street between Lincoln and Abercorn, so there will be MINI parking outside Leopold's. This is a free event... just bring your MINI or some else's and join in the fun.

Here are the route maps and details of the event can be viewed here.

The first one is the Hotel to Liberty Street

The second is the Downtown route

MNI owners can congregate between 5pm and 6pm at the Best Western Hotel, 1 Gateway Blvd. out tat I-95 /Hy204. The parade will then depart for down town Savannah around 6:15. and head to Leopold's Ice Cream 12 East Broughton Street, for the evening's activities.

The Great Ice Cream Run Final Planning Session

2007-06-02T10:20:00.001-05:00

With our first Sunday meeting coming right up, we will be meeting at our usual time and place, to finalize our plans for the Savannah leg of The Great Ice Cream Run.

We will be finalizing the route for the Parade of MINIs and getting the last few details on place. We will then run the route to make sure we are all familiar with it.

With less than a week to go we are all looking forward to this very special event that we are honored to be hosting, right here in Savannah.

The Great Ice Cream Run

2007-05-15T14:37:00.001-05:00

With less than a month to go, we are all looking forward to The Great Ice Cream Run coming to visit Savannah on June 9th. 2007. CoastMINIS will be escorting MINI drivers and their cars from their hotels to Leopold's Ice Cream on Broughton Street. More local events will be shaping up in the next few days.

There are going to be a lot of MINIs in town coming from Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachussetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.

We have a lot of fun stuff planned. Details of which will be released next week.

Next meeting will be usual place, usual time...We will meet at the Starbucks in the 12 Oaks Shopping Center at 5500 Abercorn Street, Savannah at 10am. on June 3rd. 2007

1st Sunday Motoring Motoring May 6th 2007

2007-04-15T18:46:00.000-05:00

1st Sunday Monthly motoring heads south this time to Shellmans Bluff. We have tried to make this run before but we eneded up doing a parade of the squares down town and ran out of time. We will stop by the MINI Church in S.Newport then on Shellman's Bluf for lunch at the Hunter's Cafe.

Let's meet at the Starbucks in the 12 Oaks Shopping Center at 5500 Abercorn Street, Savannah at 10am. Details here.

1st Sunday Monthly Motoring April 1st 2007

2007-03-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

Well it may be "All Fools Day" but with this beautiful spring weather upon us we are looking forward to a grand day out!

Heather, one of our monthly attendees, is entered into the a local autocross event in her MINI and so we are going to go along and cheer for her! It will give you a great chance to see the fun of Autocross and as these events are with some frequency, you may chose to sign up for one in the near future.

The event takes place at Armstrong Atlantic State University at 11935 Abercorn Street in Savannah. We will meet up at our usual gatherng spot, the Satrbucks coffee shop at the Twelve Oaks Shopping Center.

The Autocross event is being hosted by Buccaneer Regional SCCA - Coastal Empire Chapter. There is more information on their events page here.

We will meet at our usual time of 10am, and then go over to Armstrong in time for the event. Hope you all can make it.

Teen Driving Academy Event

2007-03-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

Free for Teens and their parents

On April 21, 2007, between 9:00am and 12:00pm, there is going to be a Teen Driving Event, open to all teen drivers and their parents. Sponsored by MINI of Charleston, this event offers instruction in safety techniques geared towards new drivers. Participating cars will undergo a brief safety inspection and must be in good operating condition and have seat belts. This is NOT is not a performance instruction class. Many insurance companies will honor this course for a discount on premiums but above all, it will arm teens with the knowledge and skills required to be a safe driver on todays highways and byways.

The event is free of charge and will take place at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center, for more details and to make a reservations, contact Matt Hair, at 843-402-6327 or Matthew.Hair@hendrickauto.com. All applicants must have a valid drivers license/permit and individuals under 18 must have a parent or legal guardian present. Space is limited and is on a first come, first serve basis.

These courses are great and give every teen driver a huge advantage in developing safe and defensive driving practices.

MINI Event in Charleston

2007-03-10T10:49:00.001-05:00

MINI of Charleston and the Lowcountry MINI Club are holding an event at the Charleston Coliseum on March 16th. Come show-off your MINI before the Four Tops/Temptations concert and see the all new 2007 MINI Cooper and Cooper S. Winners of the car show will get a pair of tickets to the concert that night. Runners-up get tickets to the Stingrays game also that night. Those who want to purchase tickets to the concert can do so here. The car show starts at 5:00pm, the Temptations/Four Tops concert at 7:30pm, and the Stingrays game at 8:00pm.

To enter your car (no charge) contact Matthew Hair at 843-402-6327 or here.