I've always had a little thing for the British derived and German engineered modern Mini Cooper. It's a fine handling front-drive machine and, when you get one of the Cooper S models, it can be quite quick around town. I've loved the Cooper on the autocross course and so, when I heard that the Mini Takes The States 2008 tour would be coming to CA, I knew I had to make a visit. There would be an autocross course on hand as well. Case closed.
With earlier stops in Miami, Boston, and Chicago, the California stop would be the last on the 2008 tour. The seven-week long tour was basically Mini's way to giving back to the Cooper community and, at the same time, attracting new owners. Each stop on the tour featured a Mini Cooper meet, driving cruise, and an open free-for-all in a Mini-designated fun area. On hand was an autocross course (where you could drive brand new versions of every Cooper variant there was), food stands, carnival games, giveaways, vendor booths (including some track-prepped Coopers and a USTCC car), an evening concert, and some free sumo wrestler fat suits available for anybody that wanted to partake.
The LA stop took place at the parking lot right outside the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California and it was packed with Minis. And I mean packed. One of the biggest attractions was the parking area, where owners could cruise through and see numerous modified Minis and swap ideas with fellow fans. There was no timing setup on the autocross course (you never can trust some random yahoo to not crash) but it's always good to have a little bit of fun. And no, I didn't put on the sumo suit.
To check out highlights, visit http://blog.minitakesthestates.com.