Had a little (mini) bit of fun last weekend.

[ChgrSteve67]

In december my daily driver had to be retired and I bought a 2011 mini cooper clubman to get back and fourth to work in.

Well me being a car guy I just could not let it just put put me back and fourth to work so I found an event called MINI Thunder that was held at Thunder Hill Raceway in Willows CA last weekend.
http://thunderhill.com/staticpages/index.php?page=TrackMap

Its a day of performance driving on the 3 mile road course. For the price of admission you get 5 20-25 minutes track sessions and an instructor if your are a beginner or and intermediate person that has not been on the track before. After three sessions my Instructor turned me loose to tear up the track by myself.

Anyways I know you guys like video and I'm working on my camera skills for my big cross country trip this summer so here is some of my video.

Me mowing the lawn (my first hot lap around the track)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCcXk8OG5tU

One complete lap at thunder hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzS9a1tgctE

Corners 15 through 6 at thunder hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPoRQ7AM4to

I have a 20 minute video of the trip but Youtube deleted it because it was too long.

Here are also my pictures for those who have the time.
http://s416.photobucket.com/albums/pp248/MPR67/MINIT22202011/?albumview=slideshow

I would love to take the Charger around the track but with a 5 speed, no power steering and no power breaks I'm sure I would have a hard time keeping it on the track.

-Steve

[NYCMille]

Steve that's awesome! I love Thunderhill - in fact I'll heading there next month to do a back to back session on March 19th and 20th. Those Mini's are a pisser on the racetrack... light, nimble and handle like champs. Last time I was there I took a buddy out for a couple hot laps and he almost lost his lunch - good times!

[Brock Samson]

Cool Beans Linda, is interested in getting one... clubman as well,.. trading in her camry, can't be soon enough for me...

   

[Dans 68]

Very cool, Steve. And you actually passed someone!  How did you secure your video camera?

Dan

[ChgrSteve67]

My mini did really well and since my mini is not a "S" model I could not pass people on horse power alone and had to plan ahead of time to sling shot around them comming out of the corners. I had a few incidents were people made the mistake of watching me and not the track and either almost ran into me or ran off the track while I was trying to pass.  Several times I took a cruise through the pits to get away from the pack so I could do more than 40 mph on the track.

I bought one of these for the front windshield
http://www.amazon.com/Delkin-Devices-DDMOUNT-MINI-Knuckle-Suction/dp/B002K8Q0EU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298499135&sr=8-1

I have a kodak playsport HD camera and I run it at 720p 60 frames per second. (about the same size as your iPhone)
Has a 32 gig class 10 SD card in it and will do just over 6 hours of video.
Bad news is the batteries only last about 30 minutes so I bought 3 extra.

So Mike are you sending one of your cars out here or are you driving someone elses car?

My instructor has a camero track car with a 450 hp motor, he took my wife and I around the track for a warp speed ride and we both had a blast.
My wife had a smile on her face for the next two hours.

-Steve

[NYCMille]

Naw... the Charger and Daytona are staying home. Actually running a 2011 GT3 RS that we're running in the One Lap of America in May. No joke, it's probably one greatest cars I've ever driven.

[tan top]

looks like an awesome day ! thanks for  sharing the links & videos !!