THE MINI MAG. Volume 2 No.7
  July 2000

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Presidents Report

400, yes we have just about reached the 400 mark with our membership. Not bad for a club only that is only 16 months old. I think that we must be doing something right. Speaking of new members, I would like to make a special welcome to some new members from my home town of Maryborough. Martyn Andersen, with whom I used to terrorise the town in our Cooper S’s back in the late 60’s early 70’s and Anne and Warren Dawes who now live at Hervey Bay. It turns out that Warren used to live in the same street as I did. Anne and Warren visited us at the last monthly meeting.

Our guest speaker at the last meeting was John Butler from NGK Spark Plugs. When we arranged this I was wondering just how much you could say about spark plugs, but as it turned out it was a very informative talk. I did not know that you could tell so much about a car’s engine from the different indications on the spark plugs. We also learnt that you now have a greater range to choose from to suit any motor you have no matter what state of tune it is in. Even plugs that for that motor which is on it’s last legs!

We have a busy few months planned with day runs and shows, but we still welcome new ideas as to what we can do and where we can go. One suggestion at the last meeting was for a “Drive-in Night” for Minis only. What do you think? I will be going down to Melbourne at the end of this month to attend the Victorian Mini Club’s indoor show. They are running a show-n-shine with a difference and I hope to pick up some ideas from them. I have also been asked to be a guest judge for the show. A full report in the next mag.

Sorry I missed the run to Toowoomba but I had to work. The boss could not give me the day off, so I will have to talk nicer to him so I can make the Bundaberg weekend run. Even being the boss does not help! Captain Tony has the details of the Toowoomba trip in his report.

If you have not heard yet, the club is staging another big show next year on the Queens Birthday Weekend. It will be called “The Australian Mini 40” and will be held at Lakeside International Raceway. The venue has been booked and Captain Bob has guaranteed that he will get the days right this time when arranging the weather. As you know he got it wrong by a day this year, but he said he won’t let it happen again. The theme of the show will be to celebrate the 40 years of the Mini’s release in Australia. It will be along the same lines as the Mini 2000 with Sprints, Motorkhana and show-n-shine. If we get our act together we might even be able to stage a full on Mini Race with an interstate flavour. Can we Glen?????

A representative from the U.K. magazine “Mini World” will be visiting Queensland in October. While he is here he will be doing features on some of our members cars. These include Andrew’s Deluxe, Charlie Nivin’s Van and my Mk1 Cooper S.

Another of our members cars has been featured in the other U.K. mag, “Mini Magazine”. Jeff Chang’s “New 850” has a three page spread in the latest edition to hit the stands here. And while we are on a roll with our club cars being on show, the 2001 Australian Mini Calendar features Darryl Osborne’s top Mk1 Cooper S on the cover. Order your copy now, only \\$19.80.

Don’t forget to support the businesses that support our club. Without them we could not keep up the high standard of such things like the Mini Mag and the Web page and without us giving them support they cannot survive.

See you at the next Mini Meet.
John Heselwood.