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THE MINI MAG. Volume 2 No.8 |  |
 August 2000Vol.2 Home Page | Index Page |
| I had the pleasure of attending the Victorian Mini Club’s first indoor car show and possible the first indoor show for Minis in Australia. The idea of the event was to have a show with a difference, away from the normal Concours type show. Of course having it indoors saves the worry about the cold chilly Melbourne weather, although the day saw a brilliant Queensland type sunny winter’s day. If only we could get a venue that would hold the Lakeside Raceway complex! The day was the brain child of Henry Draper from Northern Minis and Jan Small who a lot of us know from her visits to our last two big shows. 140 top Minis entered the various categories which saw cars from an original BMC works Mini to Peter Manton’s first race Cooper to the latest Rover Cooper S Works. The standard of the cars was great and I was given the task of judging the Clubman Modified Class, of which there were some top contenders. The judging was based on the presentation of the vehicle rather than its closeness to original specifications. Exhibitors were encouraged to display their vehicles with imagination with the use of carpets, props, signage, mirrors, ramps etc. Apart from the awards for the best cars in the different classes there were trophies for such things as Best Boot, Best Engine Bay, Best Modified Interior, Best Engineered, Best Unfinished Project and most Creative Display. The day also saw a first for a car show in Australia as it was telecast live on the club’s web site all day. Another highlight of the event was the “Head Shaving” (not the engine type) of Paul Baker, who you all meet on his visit to the Mini 2000 in his Works Rally Replica. Paul had his head shaved live on the web to raise money for disadvantaged kids. The club raffled a second hand Mini Deluxe which was a great fund raising success with the 1200 tickets selling out before the draw. And no, Dave Perkins, you did not win it, it went to one of the Vic Club members. All in all it was a great weekend and I must thank my mate Terry Hickey for looking after me during a tough time for his family. I hope everything is back to normal. John Heselwood.    |