This is the original transcript of the article 'Loonybin' wrote for a local newspaper, describing his planned trip to the UK for the celebration of the 40th year of production (and then some :) of the Mini.
[some editting has been done]
As you may know there will be two mini's with Bonairean licence
plates traveling to England.
The mini from Bonaire light blue with the white roof you all know
which was shiped to Rotterdam last april.
And one which I purchased from a mini-magazine in januari this
year.
My brother in Rotterdam in the mean time also got infected with
the mini virus and bought himself a mini too!!
At that time we decided to team up and Mini Team Bonaire was
born.
Mini Team Bonaire is a group of 3 mini's covered in stickers of
Bonaire and our sponsors that will go to the mini40 week.
The team is of 6 people, Bas Tol & girlfriend Carmen Wagir
from Bonaire, my brother Jan-Willem Tol & his wife Yvette,
Inmar a nephew and Carl Thompson a fellow mini-nutter from Akron,
Ohio USA.
The mini's are:
1982 Austin Mini 1000 HLE (blue with white roof)
1972 Morris Mini Pick Up 850 (blue)
1991 Austin Mini Cooper S 1300 (racing green with white roof)
We are going to England to celebrate the 40th birthday of the
mini. It has been 40 years since Sir Alec Issigonis created the
mini (aka Austin Mini, Morris Mini, Mini Cooper) which design is
basically unchanged and is still sold today.
There will be 10 days of festivities going on in the form of
rallies, navigational runs, shows, races, club meets,
'mini'morials and plain good parties. All ten days we will be
camping. The events are as follows:
-on aug. 7th. we fly to Holland
- aug. 11th. we drive to Calais, France for Ferry to Dover,
UK (maybe catch an eclipse too if the wheather allows it)
-13th./14th. aug. *Int'l Mini Meeting* at British Motor Heritage
Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire(club event with show, club stands,
inter-club competitions clubs from ALL over the world and party.)
-15th. aug. *Mini In The Park* at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire (a
nice all mini gathering)
- 16th. aug. a nice drive through the English country side
- 17th. aug. *Mini Magazine Racing School* at Thruxton Circuit,
Andover, Hampshire (driving instruction course, Ferrari circuit
drive for winner)
- 17th pm , *MiniList Test 'n' Time navigational rally* thru
Romsey. for members of the only truly global mini club "Mini
Inter-Net International" an e-mail based mini club/list.
with BBQ at night.
- 18th. continues with navigational rally then lunch and
pricegiving
- 18th pm *The John Cooper Garage Experience* in Sussex. ( Cooper
is to minis what Shelby was to Ford, and Abarth to Fiat.)
- 19th. scenic drive
- 19th pm *The MiniList Grand Celebration Curry Dinner* in
Woking, Surrey. Listers get together to see what other listers
look like, drink, eat and
be merry.....
- 20th. *Issys Lost File* at Crofton Park next to the mini
factory in Longbridge/Birmingham. meeting in memorandum of Sir
Alec Issigonis (mini designer)
- 20th pm off to Silverstone Circuit for the main event
- 21st. mini 40th celebrations at Silverstone. 5 to 6000 mini's
expected to attend with over 100,000 people expected from all
over the world. With shows, races, parades, cavalcade*, trade
stands, parties, fireworks display etc etc.......
*Cavalcade is a selected group of 800 mini's parked on a
dedicated area on the circuit. They are selected by year, model
and the country they're from.
The minis in the cavalcade get to do 3 laps around the famous
Silverstone Circuit. Mini Team Bonaire is also in the Cavalcade
:-)
- 22nd. continuing the parties at Silverstone
- 23rd. starting to slowly make our way back to Rotterdam,
Holland.
-27th. deliver the minis to the freight forwarder and come back
to Bonaire on the 28th.
We could not have done it without the help of our sponsors.
Sponsors are: <See 'Loonybin's
Mini' page>
Special thanks go to
-my family in Rotterdam for getting the mini's ready or England
and organising many things,
-my girlfriend Carmen for putting up with all my mini-madness the
last year and
-Anne Krijger for making the web
page.