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| Barbie | in the Dark | Some music ? | Desert ? |
On October 4th 2000 the production of the Mini would be
stopped.
In order not to let this black day in Mini history go by
unnoticed some Dutch Miniacs got the idea of holding a small but
tasteful commemoration.
Personally I've always been in favor of Viking funerals, but
those are a tad difficult to organize these days.
So it was decided that the Mini would be given a decent funeral.
Prior to the funeral an equally tasteful BBQ was held. As I only decided a couple of hours before the event that I should indeed pay my 'last respects', I hurdled to the local butcher shop to get some meet and other BBQ essentials and drove down to the campsite/farm where the event was being held.
The BBQ was already in full swing when I arrived so after introduction to some new faces (but mostly familiar names from the Dutch Mini List), I sat down and burned some meat.
When the BBQ was done and desert was finished it was time to
bury the fully stripped Mini.
Fully stripped ? Well, no, there still were some salvageable
parts on it, so they were. In the end some were misplaced again
and now most likely are resting in peace too.
We decided that to keep in line with the Viking funeral ritual the Mini should be torched before it would be buried. Unfortunately the oil from the torches didn't burn, my spare fuel otoh did the trick :)
After an eulogy was given and a moment of piece held, the Mini was placed in the freshly delved hole, sand was tossed and it was covered. To indicate that it might be on it's way out but would still continue to exist the Mini refused to be fully covered though and kept sticking out a bit above ground, no matter how much sand was thrown at it.
After the funeral we retired to the 'coffee table' and talked some more (mostly but not exclusively Mini's). Later that evening some more Miniacs arrived who'd taken part in a rally in Belgium.
Part of the event was also a rally on the next day, but as I had to skip that one I headed back home at about 1-ish in the morning, grateful for having been part of a tasteful 'goodbye' for the car that will keep on going strong for decades to come.
More on the 'Demise of the Mini' (featuring 'Ze
Mini(tm)) is on the Ze Mini
page
Other reports of the Funeral;
MiniPower
Eulogy*
Eulogy
(* = in Dutch)
Other reports of commemorations for the end of
the 41 years of production of the Mini;
FatBloke
Racing SMOC/Trafalgar
Square 'Official'
and Manchester;
