1ST QTR 2013 – MINI5280 ramblings and club status!
Hello MINI5280 Club members, new and old. It has been awhile since the last update. We had a great end of the year and the start of 2013 is promising. MINI5280 is prospering, we have money in the bank and great plans for 2013.
It is great having excellent MINI driving weather and places in Colorado to go have fun in our MINIs, lots of club and dealer functions, drives and opportunity to show off our MINIs.
MINI5280 membership is growing, we have many new members joining the club and we have a great core of older members.
Each month our club Secretary (Kristan Y) publishes our MINI5280 newsletter, it is supported by you the members with articles and pictures. If you have a story or pictures to share send them to secretary@mini5280.org.
Our dealers are selling every MINI they can get in the door plus handling all your special orders on 2012/2013 MINIs. The Countryman is proving to be popular and the new Coupe and Roadster have been showing up in great numbers at our MINI5280 functions.
The Colorado dealers along with MINIUSA rolled out the new MINI Paceman at the dealerships in February, it was a couple of very nice events, Ralph Schomp MINI had a Friday night rollout with food, beer&wine for everyone who attended. The Paceman looked sharp, I cannot wait to see the JCW Paceman and all of it’s standard features.
MINI of Loveland had a nice Saturday rollout, it was well attended throughout the day and calmer, giving you more opportunity to sit the Paceman and see if you liked it. It would be great if the BMW M3 leather interior of the preview Paceman made it to production, but we will have to settle for our MINI lounge leather which is pretty fine too.
The club has had two dinner meetings this quarter with another on scheduled for March, then we are going back to our Sonic evening gatherings or Saturday coffee meetups. These will be short (10-15 minute) club status meetings and general MINI enjoyment events. It is up to you to make them fun for everyone and yourself, just driving a MINI is fun.
MITM (Minis in the Mountains) is August 7-11, 2013 in Avon, Colorado. This is going to be our Eighth Annual event and it will be fun. Saturday night dinner looks to be a fun-fest, live music after 10PM, bar closed at 2AM. You will want to sign up at registration for this dinner, no door passes, you can walk back to the host lodge (Christie Lodge in Avon).
We can always use a few more MITM volunteers to help plan and during the event, so please contact Jeremy N. Chair of MITM 2013 @ info@minisinthemountains.com, if you have time and desire to help.
We will be having nightly social functions, the !NUF car show and some special fun along with all the great rides that the Vail Valley, Avon and those great mountain roads in the area. We will get to visit some of our older drives as well as new ones, think bits of the Grand Mesa!
It is going to be a good year, come take a run with us and enjoy your MINI.
Don Suiter
President MINI5280 (El Prez)
December 2012 – EOY – Merry Christmas – Happy New Year – Best of Holidays
It is the end of the year, MINI5280 and our members have had a very good one. We have had a few members with some rough times, we all prevail, I do hope the bad times are behind for them.
Each month MINI5280 has tried to have a club function, a fun drive, a Sonic gathering, food at one of the good places in and around the area or sometimes it is a drive with food involved. We are always looking for good drive ideas, so post it up on NAM, M/A, or the MINI5280 FB page or send an email to one of officers via this website.
For many of us, it is all about the drive and fun of gathering with good MINI friends, let’s do many more in 2013!
We missed our opportunity to do a club track day, perhaps in 2013, unless a few folks take advantage of the High Plains Raceway free day between Christmas and New Years. I will be traveling that week, so I will miss out on this year.
Our two major events this year were MITM Winter Park in August and the Yalla Yalla Run in October, both events well attended and lots of fun for everyone. We are leaving Winter Park for AVON, CO for 2013, this will fun and new for all of our MINI friends. We had great sponsor support from Ralph Schomp MINI, Peak Eurosport, Prima Products (Nick and Heather), Show Car Detailing (Richard and Gillian) and the resort staff at WP. We thank them all! Yalla Yalla was a great club event and it was well supported by the officers of MINI5280 giving back to the membership, Schomp MINI gave us a good launch point for the Yalla, space to gather our MINIs and provided some very good food.
We have a great team of leaders this year and going into 2013, our Newsletter is top notch, our planners, Chair and leads for MITM Avon are building a super event, give them your support and help out where you can and have the time.
Welcome to all the new members of 2012, old members renewing and coming back to MINI5280 and it is great to see all of great MINIs. It is truly the only car I know that comes with friends!
I do sincerely hope you have enjoyed the MINI5280 Club and will continue to do so over the next year and beyond.
Don Suiter - President (El Prez!)
Fall – 2012 Club Update
It is great to be a MINI COOPER owner and enthusiast, at least I think so. We have a diverse group of members within MNI5280, new and long term members, we have young folks, older folks, and folks the age of your Prez. 
What we all have in common is the desire to drive our MINI, enjoy the marque and have fun. We have been doing that every month this year. Minis in the Mountains (MITM) just wrapped up in August, we have a new place to play in 2013.
All of June and July were busy with MINI events, Automotive events in and around the Front Range – Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs. MINI USA and our local dealers put on a great Mini Takes the States 2012 (MTTS) going from the east to the west coasts. We had the pleasure of joining the fun in Boulder, CO with a few folks rallying to Albuquerque, NM and on to Los Angeles, California.
August brought us MITM our MINI National Event in Winter Park, it was well attended and the weather was perfect. Next year we will be changing up the event and moving to our new location.
If you get our newsletter by being an active member, you have already heard we are moving our event to Avon, Colorado with our host hotel being the Christie Lodge, more information as the planning progresses.
In September we had the monthly Cars & Coffee events on the first Saturday, the Colorado Grand ending in Vail, CO and the British Motoring Conclave in Oak Park in Arvada, CO. We had a fun and colorful drive on Saturday, September 22 organized by Jamie S (Fall is in the Air) with a nice lunch and many picture opportunities.
October brings Yalla Yalla, on October 13, the rest of the year will be ad-hoc as we slow down for winter, perhaps a few inside activities or a snow day at Sonic?
If time and club budget allows, we may have a club activity in December, we shall see watch Facebook, NAM and M/A for an announcement, if it happens.
Planning is starting for MITM 2013 in Avon, we are looking for a few fine folks to volunteer, if interested, contact using the menu above: Contact Us >> MITM (or click here).
Some links of interest: MINI5280.org MinisInTheMountains FaceBook Yalla Yalla FaceBook MINI5280
El Prez – Don S
MidYear 2012 Commentary-Update
As we all know MINI5280 is a growing and healthy MINI club serving all of the Front Range here in Colorado, we have members from other States as well.
Summer is here, if you have not noticed our bright blue sky and weather that smolders into the 90 degree range a few times each month, we can say in Colorado the weather is interesting, just wait a bit.
In May and June we have had a few great rides and gatherings, our newsletter has gone out like clockwork. In the next month or two our mailing list will be trimmed down to active/paid/guest memberships. We have 203 email addresses in our members email list, but in actuality we only have 153 with current paid dues, we do allow some guest emails, so the numbers are ball-park. If all of sudden you stop receiving the MINI5280 newsletter, send me and email or activate your membership via paypal on this website.
In June we have some major fun coming your way, Castle to Castle is in planning and the route is being mapped, the MINI5280 club is going to provide food and soda/water at the last Castle, enjoy the drive, food and fun. In July we have the PIKES PEAK HILL CLIMB event, a few hardy folks are going up to watch the races, later in the month MINI5280 is organizing a nice ride up Pikes Peak.
MINI of Loveland is having the 2nd Annual JB’s Drive-in Ice Cream and Run on Sunday, June 24, 2012, go have some fun with some nice MINI folks.
Please see NAM (NorthAmericanMotoring) and our NAM MINI5280 forum and event calendar for details and to sign-up. You will see some cross-posting on Facebook and Motoring Alliance (M/A) as time permits.
Our MITM event is rapidly coming in August, we hope your planning to join us on August 2-5 in Winter Park, Colorado. Our MITM team is working hard on rides and activities, go visit the MITM website for updates. As in years past we are getting registrations from all over the country, a lot of repeat visitors and many new ones.
MTTS in coming again through Colorado, join the MINI5280 folks in Boulder (July 11, 2012) to enjoy the MINI USA National Event and Rally.
Remember you have two great MINI dealers in Colorado, it is your choice to chose the one you want to visit, enjoy and use for all your MINI needs. Please remember that Schomp MINI is our major sponsor for MITM WP 2012 and they have a great service department.
If your looking for a good independent repair center, try PEAK Eurosport in Wheat Ridge, who is sponsoring the MITM AutoX and NUF Car Show in WP.
Best to all, drive safe, motor fast and have fun, Don Suiter – President MINI5280
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