I’ve been busy over on the other side lately, so be sure you are following along over there. There is some very cool stuff coming in the next month and change that is MINI related and I’m pretty excited about all of it.

I’m also going to making some changes (again) to this site. No matter how hard I try, no matter how many resumes I send out, I just can’t seem to make anything happen. So it’s time to take off on my own and try to generate some income anyway possible. I need a website that reflects that.

What does that mean to you? I’m not sure yet. Of course it will be cool, but that might mean that I move my more ‘personal’ blog posts over w(t)f and keep this more technical, which I’ve already started.

Anyway, go to the MINI sites and see what’s happening. If you are in SoCal, stop by and say hi when I’m at MINI of Ontario or catch me at AMVIV with almost the entire WRR crew.

MINI United

For those of you that might have missed it, I’m heading to England this week for MINI United and will be posting photos, video and audio at Motoringfile and White Roof Radio starting this coming Thursday.

Keep an eye everywhere for updates as they happen. A good place to follow along (if you don’t use that fancy RSS all the kids are talking about lately) is the White Roof Radio Twitter Machine. Anything that goes on WRR ends up there, so follow along!

MINI United – Tech

In my bag, besides my toothbrush, will be the following.

• The The Flip Ultra
• Panasonic DMC-TZ3 photo camera
• Canon Vixia HF 100 HD video Camera
• Blackberry Storm (radio off)
• EeePC
• Almost a dozen SD cards of varying sizes and classes
• Edirol R-09 audio recorder
• My toothbrush

I’ll be back next week. Josh is in charge while I’m gone. Try not to piss him off this time, ok?

I have a couple of issues before heading over the pond however. One of them is communication. Verizon, while selling me this fine Blackberry World phone (even has a SIM card), wants to charge me an exorbitant amount of money to use that feature of my phone. I could go the Pre-paid SIM route, but getting the unlock codes for my phone is a serious pain in the ass (so I have read) and isn’t always successful.

Looking around a bit last night, and playing with teh lad’s iPod Touch, I had a lightbulb moment. No, a lightbulb didn’t actually appear, but you know what I mean. Look at the photo above and think on that for a minute.

Yes, it’s a microphone for the iPod Touch. Yes, it works with Skype on the iPod Touch. In fact, there is a whole bunch of them over at Touchmic.com. They work with current and previous generation iPTs.

Ok, it’s not an ATP, but it would work for me as long as I had WiFi, which I am pretty sure I will.

Has anyone used one of these mics, or any microphone, on the iPod Touch?

Quite a bit of chatter about my new camera, affair-proofing a MINI, Molly Wood, the weather in Kansas City, Todd sells 2 MINIs and Fireball Tim is selling his.

Then, on to news of the week from Motoringfile, including more making fun of the Clubman Spoiler.

Before we get into the content portion of the show, Robert in Toronto checks in. You can search for his AMVIV videos over at YouTube or check him out at his other podcast at MobileMovie.ca. It’s great fun!

Gabe checks in via satellite phone from an undisclosed location and he talks a little about the 135i he drove last week then Todd and Gabe spend pretty much the rest of the show waxing poetic about all things JCW and then on to talking about cars built in America. No, really.

Don’t forget, AMVIV is coming up at the end of the month and we have some cool stuff planned for those of you that aren’t going to make it. I’ve WhiteRoof.tv updated and warmed up and will be partnering with WRR listener and show producer Sherwin Smith from BehindTheVroom for any video we do. So, get over there and get subscribed!

Finally, if you are going to AMVIV and want Todd to install graphics on your MINI, you should contact him very soon.

Woofcast :

Download | 21.2MB | 46:11 | WRR @ iTunes

200K Miles in a MINI Cooper

It’s official as you can see from the photo. My MINI eclipsed the 200,000 mile mark recently and thought it would be a good time to give you my thoughts about this car since it has more than 10 years worth of normal driving miles on it.

I got my MINI on March 9th, 2003 and hit my first 100K miles on October 7th, 2005. Lots of miles for work, lots for SCMM events and just general motoring.

This 100,000 miles did take a little bit longer, mostly due to the extreme increases in the price of gas. When I bought my MINI, I was paying $1.899 for a gallon of premium in SoCal. We all know the rest of that story. I also drove less for work, which is another reason why it took a bit more than 3 years to hit this 100K versus 2.5 for the last.

I’ve said this here many times before, but the MINI is the best car I have ever owned. Except the alternator going out and getting 1 flat tire, this car has never left me stranded and never not started. I’ve driven this car in pouring rain, searing heat and even snow without a hitch. Never thought I would lose control and have always felt safe, even driving next to 18-wheelers with 60MPH gusts!

The following is a recap of the life of my MINI. Follow the jump!

Where I have been

Thanks to this amazing little car, I have been able to do some pretty cool things, meet almost all of you plus other great people and go to places I’m sure I would have not gone to otherwise.

I have…

• Helped to start one of the largest MINI Cooper Clubs in the world, Southern California MINI Maniacs (SCMM)
• Started a little podcast called White Roof Radio with Todd and Gabe. Thanks to you, it is one of the most popular automotive podcasts in the world!
• Been an editor at Motoringfile.com for more than 2 years
• Been the “Official” something at AMVIV, MTTS (covered it twice) and MINI United 2007.
• Driven to the Grand Canyon
• Driven on the track over 40 hours!
• Driven on the Las Vegas Strip with over 200 other MINIs, more roads than I can count with 30 or more

Pretty amazing stuff, all because of the MINI!

Repairs

Since my MINI was built in the first year (11/15/02 to be exact), the first 50k miles were slightly problematic, but covered under warranty. Steering wheel, seats, latches, numerous software updates and a new transmission are on the list of things that were replaced or repaired. In total, my MINI spent over 1 month at the dealer for the first 50K miles. Did I mind? Not even a little bit.

From 50K to 100K everything was exactly perfect except for the A/C pump going out during the hottest summer we have seen in 20 years. It was replaced and now my MINI has a part on it that can turn sub-12 second quarter mile times, should I ever need to do that.

Once I was passed 100K, wear and tear started setting in. First thing to be done was a tune-up, which is fairly minor. I was amazed it didn’t need it until 120K miles. After that was the battery at about 145K. Should you need this, I highly recommend going to the dealer. I’ve recently tried a battery that was non OEM and the bracket to hold it in it’s little box wouldn’t fit correctly.

Next up was the power steering pump. And it wasn’t cheap. If you are getting up in miles and think yours might be failing, be sure to have an extra $US1,000 handy for the job.

Following that, I had a control arm break. Scary, but cheap and easy to fix.

Finally, at exactly 200K miles, the alternator decided to give up the ghost. While I was driving in the middle of the California desert. At night. It made for a fun experience.

Wish List

I’ve really not had to do to much to my MINI to make sure everytime I put in the key and turn it, it starts. There are still some things that I really need to get done, hopefully sooner than later.

• Complete suspension rebuild, including new upper control arms for the rear, shocks and springs. And all the parts that make the MINI front-drive.
• Radiator. It doesn’t really leak, more like a slow steam. Not a concern now, but I want to replace it before it becomes one
• Belts and hoses. After installing the alternator, replacing the main belt on my car might be doable, if not terribly time consuming. Hoses shouldn’t be too bad either.
• Wiring harness. This is a concern for many reasons. I’m hopeful that getting it replaced will also turn the airbag light off. Pretty sure this one will have to happen at the dealer
• Brakes. New rotors and pads this time around. Power slot rotors have lasted me 170K miles, so I’m pretty sure I will use them again.

Overall impressions

There isn’t anything that I don’t like about this car. I can keep up with you in your MCS on the track and get 35MPG on the drive home. I can cruise at 70MPH all day long in comfort. I can suffer in bad traffic or dodge the cell phone using idiots on SoCal freeways with ease.

Besides the cost of dealer service being extraordinarily high in my opinion, this car hasn’t even cost me too much. Sure the repairs I need to do will be a bit spendy, but my car is, essentially, 10 years old (depending on who’s math you use). Most cars that are as old as mine always require something.

Like I mentioned above, Roxy has always started when I turn the key. Always moved when in gear and has done so with more style, flair and fun than any other car I have ever driven. This is a car I hope to keep in my driveway for as long as possible!

New Toys

I’ve had a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate burning a hole in my account for the last month, so I thought I would use that to get a new toy or two, plus a book for the lad.

First up, a replacement clip for my Gorilla Pod. I lost the original one somewhere and Amazon sells them for $5, so that’s done.

The other thing I’ve been wanting to get is a mono pod to use with the The Flip. You might have seen the test I posted the other day. So far, I think it’s pretty awesome. I can’t wait to try it with the other cameras in the house either.

It’s an Opteka. Collapsed it’s only about 18″ long. Fully extended it’s 6′. Lightweight, nice handle with a wrist strap and it even has a spike on the bottom if I’m in grass or dirt. Pretty snazzy. Oh yea, and cheap! This only cost $12.95. Not too shabby.

You will see this device in use at MTTS LA for sure. Just look for the dork carrying the black walking stick, that will be me.

Wordpress stuff

As much as I’m totally diggin’ the new pressd section, I’m still not 100% happy with the way it works. I managed to make the single post pages look right and the navigation is pretty ok, but it’s screwing up the front page. I’m not sure if I want to hunt down that particular fix or not, so I might be moving it into it’s own Wordpress installation on w(t)f. Watch for that, possibly later this week.

Next up for w(t)f as far as Wordpress goes is a modernization of the theme. I would like it to work with widgets and to get the avatars working in comments. Plus some minor refreshing of the layout is in order. Again, watch for that to happen later in the week.

I’m hoping to get those changes done and start possibly on a redo of WRR. I’ve not been pleased with it’s appearance for quite a while, and have a some huge ideas for it. So keep an eye out for that in the near future. Besides, we are 3 years old. Time for something really really cool I think!