Out and About in Sasha

Saturday, 2 April 2016

Driving around Market Harborough I found another British Open Classic.

Here we have Sasha and a friend.

There were 1000 British Open Classic’s made for the UK market, according to howmanyleft.co.uk Q4 2015 tere were 175 on the road and another 298 SORN’d,

Here we have two in Market Harborough, how cool is that!!!

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Abi and I spent the day at the Lincoln Big Mini Day at Brayford Warf Waterfront.

We managed to get there for 09:00 and there were already quite a few Minis’ there, there was a mix of BMW Minis and classics plus some derivatives like Mokes and a Midas that we parked next to.

We spent some time talking to a family that have recently bought a British Open Classic, so we traded some info on Sasha’s restoration.

There was also another British Open Classic there, an automatic, I have never seen an Open Classic in automatic. It was quite a nice car but they have had the seats re-trimmed and not managed to find the correct tweed for the inserts in the centre of the seats.

I estimate there were 80 to 90 cars there, all in all not a bad day.

Sasha was well behaved on the way there and on they back so that was a good shake down test ready for the London to Brighton in May.

Sunday, 8 May 2016

Abi and I took Sasha to Himley Hall today to the British Mini Owners club day, we also met Darren and Julia there in Lue.

Lue is the green ERA in this picture.

The day was very warm this cause Sasha to run a bit warm on the way home, the temperature gauge wasn’t in the red but between half way and the red, usually she runs on the half way mark. I’m not sure the electric fan is working so that will be the next little job to do, test the electric fan and maybe put a manual switch on it if the fan switch isn’t working.

On the whole Sasha was well behaved and I an quite confident in her ability.

Until next time, enjoy.

Sunday, 22 May 2016

London to Brighton Mini Run 2016, Darren and Julia in Lue met us at Market Harborough on Saturday 21st and Frances, Abi and I in Sasha drove down to Crystal Palace. This was a relatively uneventful journey, Sasha and Lue both made the trip with no problems. After checking in at the hotel we all walked to Crystal Palace park to where everyone else taking part in the run was camped. We had a good chance to look at all the Minis as they started to line up for Sundays run down to Brighton.

Sunday morning at 06:15 we drove Sasha and Lue to Crystal Palace Park to register and take our place in line ready for the run down to Brighton. After registration and the drivers briefing we have another quick chance to look round the Minis and the show and shine before it’s out turn to start the run.

The run out from Crystal Palace was just full of traffic and Lue and Sasha were struggling a little with the heat and stop start traffic but we weren’t the only ones. A couple of miles out of Crystal Palace saw the first casualties of overheating, things got better once we were out onto clear roads. Where the A23 turns into the M23 we lost Darren and Julia in Lue due to them getting stuck in traffic lights and taking a different route to us. We stopped at services on route for a short break before carrying on down to Brighton. Once on the outskirts of Brighton we called Darren to see how they were doing, it turns out they were not that far behind only about 10 miles. We continued towards Madeira Drive following the route signs until we could see the sea. Another check in with Darren, we find out he is about 10 cars behind us following a caravan, so at a convenient sport we pullover to let then catch up. We take the last few miles down to Madeira Drive together and park up next to each other on Madeira Drive.

We have a good look round all the Minis, club stands and traders before getting some lunch at Harry Ramsdens. After another good look round the Minis it’s time to think about making our way home. Our route home is a little different to Darren and Julia so they follow us as far as the M25 before we go our separate ways. We make it back to Market Harborough in about 3.5 hours and Sasha hardly missed a beat.

What a thoroughly good weekend, I would just like to thank the London and Surry MOC for putting on the event and thank you to everyone we chatted to on the event for making it such a great weekend. Lastly thanks to Darren, Julia, Frances and Abi for making my weekend. Also lets not forget Sasha and Lue.

Sunday, 10 July 2016

We haven’t been out anywhere interesting for quite a few weeks, but today we met up with Darren, Julia, Ady and Dawnanne and off we all went to MiniWorld Live at Rockingham Motor Speed Way in Northamptonshire.

The show wasn’t quite what I was expecting, it was more of a participation event than a spectator event, the infield circuit at Rockingham is a good circuit but you just can’t see very much of it. There were a few traders and a few Minis to look at.

All in all a great day out, just like old times with most of the old gang back together, we need to do it more often.

Sunday, 11 September 2016

Darren, Julia and Lue join me, Frances and Sasha at Stanford Hall.

A very nice day for probably the last Mini outing of the year.

There were some very nice cars there including a very good and rare Broadspeed GT, not seen one of those in quite some time.

We round of the afternoon by stopping of at a local event, the Lubenham Annual Scarecrow Festival.