The ultimate car company lovefest wrapped up Sunday, when the 2022 Mini Takes The States ended its bi-annual rally in Greenville-Spartanburg, at BMW’s U.S. plant and museum. The eighth version of the rally started July 9 in Burlington, Vermont, attracting more than 600 Minis.
But the 2022 route was shorter than in years past, when the rally took owners from coast-to-coast over 14 days, a trek that Mini owners found to be too much.
“You’re talking about 14 days on the road, and some of those days are like nine hours or more. People were saying like that’s just too much,” said Patrick McKenna, head of Marketing, Product, Events and Strategy for Mini USA. “The other thing we heard, we want to stay in a city a little bit longer. We want to hang out, we want to see each other, we want to socialize.”
Among the stops this year was the Bristol Raceway in Tennessee, which featured a morning breakfast rally with a Christmas in July. Think Burl Ives “Holly Jolly Christmas,” with 90-plus degree temperatures and 600-plus Minis parked around the track. It’s almost surreal.
Oddly enough, the idea for doing a Christmas in July theme came from a Jewish member of the Mini marketing team. Another morning saw event organizers putting on a canine parade, with each dog getting its 15 seconds of fame.
But it’s all a sidelight to the main event, and the reason so many Mini owners show up to motor alongside fellow Mini owners on some of the most fun roads in America.
How it began
Started in 2006, Mini Takes The States happens on even-numbered years, traveling a different route each time, with the first traveling from the Laguna Seca racetrack in California to the Lime Rock racetrack in Connecticut.
“It was an instant sensation,” said McKenna. “This is a focus group with a high percentage of your most enthusiastic customers. And it’s not just two hours in a in a mirrored conference room. It’s like you get to spend time with people,” McKenna said.
Indeed. Mini owners’ backgrounds vary, and they can be wildly divergent, but they’re united by their love of all things Mini.
Labrador Retrievers in a Mini?!
Consider Shelly Lall and her Labrador Retrievers, Duck and Duff. You wouldn’t think such large dogs would fit in a Mini, but they do in her 2012 Mini Countryman, named Rojas, Spanish for red.
“They’ll both fit in the back seat, but they also sometimes do a double decker,” Lall said. “So one up top and the back seat and one in the foot well.”
It’s Lall’s third Mini Takes The States, having also done 2016 and 2018. This year, she did the entire rally.
“The Skyline Drive was beautiful,” she said, adding the 2018’s stop at a rodeo was among her favorite events. And yes, it was her first rodeo.
A Brit’s true love
Of course, you don’t have to go far to find a Brit in the bunch. Ian Hardy and his wife, Jackie, of Hollywood, Florida, enjoying their fourth Mini Takes The States. They named their 2015 Mini Cooper S coupe “Mr. Bridger,” after the character in “The Italian Job,” which prominently feature Mini Coopers in both the original version and the remake.
“We’ve had seven new ones and three original MInis,” Ian Hardy said. “I had a Mini van when I wasn’t even legal to drive.”
Now living in South Florida, the Hardys don’t miss British weather.
“Or British people,” he adds. “Americans are okay. I’ve lived here for 40 years, so I have to like them somewhat.”
Living the Mini life
For other owners, living with a Mini means literally living with a Mini. That means their vehicle tows a trailer, albeit a mini one.
Jack Abel of Charlotte, North Carolina, tows his 900-pound trailer — 1,200 pounds fully loaded — with his 2015 Mini John Cooper Works named Amy.
“This is my fourth Mini; I’ve had one since 2005,” Abel said, who didn’t always camp with his Mini. “I met a few other people on one of the earlier Mini Takes The States that were doing it and I started asking them questions. One thing led to another and I was like, okay, I’m doing this. I’m buying a camper.”
Abel’s teardrop camper was one of six on this year’s event. Abel’s camper has a queen size bed, air conditioning, a small cabinet for storage in the front and a dinette that folds into a bed.
“It definitely does not have a problem pulling the camper,” he added, saying that the experience has him considering moving into a tiny house.
“I’m actually considering selling my house in Charlotte and moving,” he said.
Mini, the sales tool
Then there are Leann Weisbruch and Karen Spalding from Dallas, Texas, who dub themselves the Miniskirts. “We’re an all-girls motoring network,” Weisbruch said. “Everywhere we go. We raise money for local charities. This time we’re selling patches pins, all this stuff and all our money will go to Best Friends, the charity for the event. when we go to North Carolina to the Tail of the Dragon, we raise money for the Graham County Breast and Cervical Cancer Center.”
Last May, the Miniskirts raised nearly $9,000 for Graham County, the poorest county in North Carolina by selling merchandise out of the back of their Mini Cooper, not unlike peddlers once did with their Conestoga wagons.
But the Miniskirts don’t just raise money for charity, the motorheads.
“We have some mechanics and we get together and have an all-girls DIY day, learn to change your oil, learn to change your tire; that kind of stuff,” Weisbruch said.
“I could teach you how to open the bonnet,” added Spalding, noting that she made her living as a jet engine mechanic. She owns two Minis, the 2004 Mini named Botox being used for this year’s rally, and a 2003 named Timex with 335,000 miles on it from new. Weisbruch owns a 2009 Clubman named Annie and a 2016 Hardtop named Berna Jean.
Clearly, these women love their cars, with one sticker on their vehicle reading, “Some girls chase boys; I pass them.”
“I’ve been trying to indoctrinate all these little girls,” Weisbruch said. “Don’t ever pretend you don’t know what to do. Have fun, know what your car will do.”