So, it all started with a little MG Midget I drove for a semester in college. It was a maroon 1980 soft-top with a wimpy motor, too many miles on the odometer, a penchant for transmission problems, and the typical british electrical system -- you know the kind where the headlights dim when you turn on the wipers. It was true love.
As a project and weekend car it would have been the perfect little roadster, as a daily commuter...well, let's just say it had personality.
Alas, the maintenance costs were more than my college budget could bear and we parted ways. But it left behind an indelible impression: given a choice it was to be a european coupe or bust.
Well, several *sensible* autos later, I find myself in need of a new vehicle. Lo and behold the MINI was introduced. I stared. I goggled. I googled. I admit it, I drooled. Supercharger. Must have the supercharger. I plotted, I pondered.
I finally went to the newly opened NW MINI dealership outside Seattle, where I was politely ignored. After poking around the classic Mini they had in the showroom, I inquired about a test drive. Though put out to be interrupted from reading her magazine, the receptionist did me the *honor* to inform me that the waiting list to test drive was 2weeks long and MINIs were backordered for the next 9months. Hmm. I was getting the sense she didn't particularly care one way or the other where I spent my money. I have since come to understand this is what is called *a seller's market*. Bastiches.
Well, need and *sensibility* reared its ugly head and I went with a little SAAB 9-3 turbocharged coupe. It wasn't a MINI, but it had its own brand of quirky, a rich history, and a somewhat friendly on-line community. Thankfully, it would look no more dignified than the MINI with an elk strapped to the roof.
Hey, at least I managed to avoid one of those soul-less Japanese cars.
No offense.
During my tenure with Annika (SAAB) a couple of buddies managed to pick up an R53. It was cute, it was fast, it was NOT MINE!
But it kept the fires from dying out.
Several years later, my little Annika (SAAB) was becoming a bit of a maintenance problem and I found myself once again looking at autos here in the Valley. I looked at vehicles including a SAAB (4doors only anymore
), a Volvo C30, a Toyota FJ Cruiser (for hauling aforementioned fictitious elk
). The MINI I put off looking at until last -- sensibility being a demanding mistress.
The other vehicles fell by the wayside as I considered my requirements and expectations. But eventually, it came time to drive the MINI. Hmmm, turbocharged now. I know turbochargers. It was a long time in coming, but I finally got to put a MINI into gear and turn her loose. Well, it was just as my *sensibility* mistress feared
; thoughts of other cars evaporated like so much water on the melting bonnet scoop.
I had found my MINI at last. She was perfect: Chili Red (a good traditional rally color), with leather (sooo nice
), she was a stick shift (is that Freudian?), and when I floored the accelerator, her little turbocharged engine played a nice little tune as she introduced herself as "Piper".