Raceway Woods 5/24

Wrapup: Great weather, fun drive, good eats, and a cool destination!! We had a dozen MINIs and a bunch of dogs take a short trip out to Raceway Woods. There was one long pause for a slow moving freight train where we had a chance to pull over, take pictures and chat before the road opened up again. Burgers, brats, and side dishes were the food of the day, and people had a chance to explore the remnants of a very cool race track.

Send links of pictures to steve@chicagominiclub.com and I will add them here.

Pictures from Francis | Steve | Arnie |

Continue reading →

MINI Takes the States (7/25-7/27)

MINIUSA has posted up details, and registration is now open for the Chicago stop of MINI Takes the States.

Chicago: July 25-27

MINI Takes the States heads to the heartland to keep the summer of fun rolling along. With a rally kick-off at the Lincoln Park Zoo and a weekend full of events at the famous Road America race track, there should be no shortage of good times and adrenaline.

Photos by: Francis | 

Continue reading →

Upcoming Events

We have dates for our next couple of events. Additional details will be posted soon:

May 24th we will meet and hang out at the Spindle in Berwyn to check out a Chicago Icon before it is demolished.

UPDATE 05/03/2008: The Spindle has just been Dismantled, so we will be working on a different event on the same day.

We will have some brochures from http://www.langka.com/ LANGKA Paint Chip and Scratch Repair as well as a sample of their Blob Eliminator if anyone is interested in performing some chip repair in the near future.

June 8th we will exploring some fun roads in the Downtown area and South Lake Shore Drive.

Car Control Clinic (05/31)

Wrapup: Great weather, and a really well run event..

A bunch of MINIs from Chicago and Wisconsin area participated in the Car Control Clinic. We had an hour of classroom time where we learned about the dynamics of controlling your car and learned about the various drills we were going to perform. After that, we split into two groups and took to the parking lot with our instructors. Drills included a slalom, figure 8, skid pad circle, and a lane change avoidance maneuver. After lunch we had a chance to continue the drills plus run a course that tied all the elements together.

This type of event really is a must-do to help practice understanding what your car can do at the limits (plus it is a ton of fun!!)

Thanks to Windy City Miata Club and AutoXCooper.com for putting this together

Pictures from Steve |

Continue reading →