DRP - FunRun to LA - Petersen Auto Museum Jan 25-27 BookNow!

[danjmcs]

The last couple of days prior to this trip i kept watching the weather and seeing more and more rain forecasted, and just kept hoping we'd catch a break in between storms, and sure enough, thats what happened.

We arrived in LA around 9-10PM Friday night after an uneventful drive over with pretty minimal traffic for Friday night in LA. Being the only R53 of the group, I was the only one pushing fuel mileage, but managed to make it with a few drops left Definitely the furthest I've ever gotten CoopahS on one tank of gas.



After a couple libations in the hotel lounge, we called it a night, and got a good nights sleep for a full day of activities on Saturday. We woke up to beautiful blue skies and headed out for the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).



Just as we got on the I-405 Northbound, we hear on our radios "Is that the Arizona Minis??" and a bunch of Mini coming buzzing around us, it was a part of the SCMM group heading to Malibu to meet us for breakfast. Talk about perfect timing!




We arrive at Coogies, and the SCMM Minis begin to fill the parking lot and everyone introduces themselves. After some socializing we head in for what was a great breakfast. Coogies is a regular breakfast meeting spot for the SCMM folks, so they know how to handle the crowd and we were in and out in not much more than an hour. Talk about a coincidence? We are all sitting there eating breakast, and in walk DMC Members Van, Gina & Sofie (okay, she was carried )! They happened to be in the area for the weekend and saw all the Minis parked in the lot along the road and and then recognized the AZ Plates after taking a closer look. They were as pleasantly surprised as we were, and joined us again later at the Petersen Museum!








After breakfast we returned to the parking lot for a pre-run drivers meeting, a nice hand-out of the "Mini - Mother of All Twistys" run that we were about to do and off we went!

Here is a group photo that will appear in the SCMMs next newsletter.



More pics of the day to come...

[danjmcs]

"Mini - Mother of all Twistys Run". The Mother of All Twistys is a run that the SCMM folks did last year, thats 100+ miles of a mix of some of the most fun roads in the Malibu and Topanga Canyon area. Basically you have the Pacific Coast Highway and Mulholland paralleling each other, running North/South, and there are amazing twisty roads that run up and down from East to West from the coast into the mountains. The "Mini" version they put together for us was about 70 miles and offered some amazing views and roads in the area.





After the first section of twisty roads, we re-grouped and let the brakes cool a bit before heading back down to the PCH and the next leg of the MOAT run. The stop also offered some fantastic views below to the ocean coastline.




Onto the next leg, and more twistys! We re-group at the top of the highest point we'll run today, and once again take in the gorgeous views that Mother Nature was nice enough to clear out for us in between storms.








That SpongeBob guy is everywhere!





At the bottom of the hill of the last run leg we re-group and take another break. It's now nearly 2PM and time to make our way over to The Petersen Auto Museum! A BIG tanks to Craig, the run-master of the SCMM for putting together this run for us!

[danjmcs]

One of the real unique aspects of the Petersen Auto Museum is the way they present a lot of their cars. They have streetscapes, garages, cafes, etc, to set the mood and look to go along with a particular car and era. You'll see a few of those in these first pics.









This early policeman and his motorcycle were hiding around the billboard/display in the picture above, very cool setup and display. Well, unless you were the one he was eyeballin' to write a ticket.



They had a glassed in area that was an example of what an early Rolls Royce showroom looked like. Notice who used to own this car?




Other great cars and displays...






Cars from collection either owned by celebrities, or used in movies.










Really great Motorcycle Display...



The Hot Wheels Display... gorgeous GTO out front. The inside of the wheel as you walk in is layered with the old orange track and then cars mounted on the track.







And the exhibit that originally brought the idea for the DMC to visit, the MicroCars























I can't say enough about how cool the Petersen is. There was another exhibit of Lowriders that had some amazing paint and designs on them, but my pics in that area didn't turn out very well because of how they were lit.

By this time it was nearly 5PM and we were ready to find some food! Off to the Fishermans Market/The Grove! What a really cool place, only a few miles from the Petersen, with everything you can imagine to eat, drink and just relax. It's an outdoor city walk type area, so we all grabbed some food a few drinks and enjoyed the rest of the evening chatting about our day. We got a few raindrops toward the end of the night, and decided it was time to head back to the hotel. What a fun day we had!

[danjmcs]

Sunday morning came and it was time to head home. We had considered hitting another car show about an hour south of our hotel, but with the weather looming again, we decided to head for home.

Mark had a great idea to stop for some pics with some prehistorics just outside of Palm Springs. Too Fun! And Hey, look, we found the DMC Banner!

Did someone say something about pics?










A BIG thanks to those of you that came on the trip. Thankfully Mother Nature blessed us with some great weather and the weekend really fell together nicely. I hope you all had as good of a time as I did, and are looking forward to the next one!

[deemotored]

Great pix!

[JPMINITUCSON]

The SoCal Mini Maniacs are a super bunch and were great hosts. We put 1178 miles on Smallville and consumed 2 1/2 tanks of petrol.

Dan, thanks for planning such a great weekend. The museum was outstanding and the Mother of All Twisties run was mucho twisty! I think not knowing what was around each corner made it that more thrilling: boulders, mud, water or a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean.

Dan's pictures are almost identical to mine but I'll post a few unique ones later.

Thanks to the DMC'ers that made the run, and to those who didn't, put this on your bucket list.

[scuzzlepook]

Dan,
Kudos to you for planning this trip with the SCMM group! Everything turned out so well and ran very smooth! We are glad that we went on this trip, found some great new places that gave us a reason to want to visit the L.A. area again and overall, had a blast!
Just as smallville indicated, we prob have the same pics as you - will post a few of ours later.

[th3118]

Great trip. Thanks Dan for all your planning. Nice to meet some S. Cal Mini people. Canyon driving on Saturday morning was a blast. Good test of the new Nuvi GPS, won't travel without one now. Took more of the same pictures too, I'll add this one of the Nissan GT-R we saw on the way home.

[azminiman]

Here are a few other pictures

[YELLOWMINIAZ]

Very beautiful pictures!!!

[danjmcs]

I'll add this one of the Nissan GT-R we saw on the way home.

Hey, a right-hand drive model just for Barney too

http://www.gtrnissan.com/gallery.en.us.html?img=GT-R_06

[danjmcs]

SCMM is the Whipnotic Club of the Week
http://www.whipnotic.com/need-to-know/mini-maniacs.html

[maxmini]

I wanted to say how nice it was to be able to show off some of our hidden treasures to fellow Mini enthusiasts. Sometimes we take them for granted but seeing the excitement through a first timer's eyes makes us realize once again just how special they are . You all were a nice bunch to drive with and our roads a always open to you and your fellow members. Anytime you want to plan a trip I am sure we can throw something together for you. As for me personally I am always up there anyway so if someone happens to be coming to the area even on their own , time permitting , I would be happy to show them around . Just shoot me an email and we can make a plan. I am looking forward to seeing you all again at AMVIV so do come up and say hello.

Nice motoring with you !



Randy
M7 Tuning