Cost to register for the national event is $30 per person**.  This includes access to all official events. 

Current plan for the MINIacs is to meet at noon on Friday, July 06th  at Roadshow MINI for our Kick Off event, which anyone is welcome to attend.   Those heading to Nashville will depart as a group at 1:30 pm.

We will take a scenic route to Nashville to join up with the national event for “MINIs take Nashville’s own Wild Horse Saloon for a night of Country Music and fun.”   The following morning we will join the Rise & Shine Rally at the Titan Stadium for the MINIcross and other fun.  Then head north to Louisville, Kentucky for another evening with the MINIs.  Sunday morning the MTTS will continue to Chicago, Illinois.  For those of us that have to be back at work on Monday, another scenic drive through Kentucky and northern Tennessee will be planned with us returning to Memphis Sunday afternoon.

Any MINIacs who are planning to attend the event, please let us know as soon as possible.  I will locate hotels in each location, and depending on the size of the group going try to negotiate a discounted group rate.

http://www.tpgevents.com/registration/minitakesthestates2012/home.cfm

Pls RSVP on fb event or contact us at : midsouthminiacs@gmail.com

When:          Sunday, June 10 – 9:00 am – all day – or join in whenever you want that day

Where:        Shelby Forest, 910 Riddick Millington, TN  38053,  Shelter #5  (901-876-5215)

What:          -> Deep swamp float tours :  9am & 1pm (tour lasts 1-1/2 hour on Eagle Lake, 11 people per tour – free ride with a guide)

                      -> Pontoon boat tours :  10am & 2pm (tour lasts 45 mns on Poplar Tree Lake, 15 people per tour – $1 per person).  Both boat tours depart from the Nature Center, please arrive 10-15 early. The club has reserved all canoes (6) and all seats on the Pontoon boat.

                     -> Two 1 hour Mini drives, 11am and 3pm

                     -> Picnic lunch 11am til 1pm (Main course & drinks provided by your Mid South MINIacs club; please bring a side dish or dessert to share).

This picnic also marks the renewal of club membership, so those of you that have not joined the Mid-South MINIacs formally, we encourage you to join and help us make the club better.

It is also time to turn the Steering Committee over to new volunteers.  To those of you with the great ideas for improving our club and keeping it going, we encourage you to sign on for a year – it’s fun and has the added benefit of helping you get to know all the other MINIacs better! We’ll need volunteers for Committee Chair / Treasurer, Marketing, Event Planning, and Communications.  Between now and June 10, be thinking of which task you would enjoy doing!

Come have fun with us.. Pls RSVP on facebook even or email us at :Midsouthminiacs@gmail.com.

MINI Snoopy and his owner Jody want to lead us through the windy roads of Tipton County. Not a fast drive, but an enjoyable cruise, highlighting the beautiful country roads and best features of Covington, a quaint little town with lots of cute shops and antiques stores.

Let’s meet at the Lakeland factory outlet mall, pottery barn parking lot at 11am, 3536 CanadaRd/Hwy40 Lakeland TN.

We will drive those hidden and curvy roads, meet up for lunch at Marlo’s and enjoy the town square in Covington. 

A gift basket with surprises will be given to each car, so Please RSVP at Midsouthminiacs@gmail.com or FB event.

Cost is $30 per driver, and all Mini’s are welcome.  See  auto cross details.

Registration begins at 9:00am on April 14th at the Jetport.  Be sure to wear comfortable shoes, bring chairs, snacks, water and lots of sunscreen.This will be a fun-filled day for drivers & spectators alike.  

Please RSVP to  Midsouthminiacs@gmail.com if you plan to be there, or you can RSVP on Facebook.

Since this is the 150 year anniversary, the reenactment will be big. Plan to gather at the Collierville town square at 8am, so we can get there in time for the reenactment that begins at Noon.Folks that live out East can meet up with the group before 9am in Lagrange if they choose to.          Here is the link to Shilol’s web site for more information

 MINIacs should bring snacks and picnic food because we won’t eat until late in the day at the Catfish Hotel. http://www.catfishhotel.com/history.htm

FIRST EVER! 

“Rational Memories”  Double Rational Races, Memphis International Raceway Memphis, TN

March 31 & April 1, 2012

Free Admission Both Days

Information at www.midsouthscca.org

Drive your Minis to the event, park together in the paddock, and cheer on your favorite cars.  A street car track tour is scheduled at noon each day, time permitting.  Line up the Minis, see the track from the competitors view, and have some fun.  Please contact Bud Brazelton, Race Chair, at racerbud@gmail.com or reply to Michael West ( miata25@xipline.com)  if you have questions.  Also, if any of the MINIacs would like to get up close and personal with racing, just let one us know and we can explain how to go racing and/or volunteer at the event.

It needn’t cost a lot to transform shabby into chic. As with most other do-it-yourself projects, the more elbow grease you are willing to invest, the less you’ll need to pay someone else. Here are some tips to help you go about it.

Outside appearances

The first step to getting the body looking good is to give it a thorough cleaning with car-wash soap and water. Once it’s completely dry, look over the paint surface and assess any damage you see. Note any scratches, stone chips, dings, and dents in the sheet metal.

You can touch up small scratches and chips with touch-up paint, available for a few dollars at your car dealership and at some auto-parts stores. Make sure you get an exact color match. Touch-up paint usually comes in a small bottle with an applicator brush in the lid. Otherwise, use a small, pointed artist’s brush and cover the scratch by going over it in tiny dabs. Let this paint dry for at least a day or two before polishing the car.

To remove or minimize the many fine surface scratches most cars accumulate, you can have the car professionally buffed at a body shop or car wash. This buffing will take out minor scratches and greatly improve the car’s overall appearance. But for a buff and touch-up, you can expect to spend about $200.

If you want to do the job yourself, consider polishing the car by hand if you don’t have experience using an electric buffer. Old T-shirts make good polishing cloths. If you still want to use an electric buffer, you can borrow, rent, or even buy one. Good ones start at about $40. If you don’t know what you’re doing, though, it’s easy to mark or even burn through the paint with a buffer.

Most cars made in the past 10 to 15 years have a “clearcoat” paint finish. That means a thin color layer is coated with a thicker layer of a clear, lacquerlike coating. Whether you are polishing with a buffer or by hand, make sure the polish you use is safe for clearcoat finishes if that’s what’s on the car. You shouldn’t use the old-fashioned, abrasive polishing compounds on them.

Dent removal

Minor dents and dings in body panels can be very unsightly, but getting them fixed at a body shop can be costly. One viable alternative is so-called paintless dent removal. This type of service, which is sometimes franchised under names such as Dent Doctor and DentPro, uses special tools to massage out small dents from the inside. You can usually find a dent fixer by talking to a local mechanic or body shop, or using the Yellow Pages. Figure on paying about $50 to make a golf-ball-sized dent disappear.

The quality of these repairs is very much dependent on the skill of the operator. Before engaging the dent-removal artist, get a recommendation from a satisfied customer or other experienced person.

Fixing window glass

It’s very common for a windshield to pick up “star” or “bull’s-eye” damage from a flying stone. Sometimes those chips are merely cosmetic annoyances, but in other cases, if left unaddressed, such damage may grow worse. As with paintless dent repair, there is a cottage industry in auto-glass repair.

A glass repairer uses a suction-cup device, tiny drills, and special sealers to fill and fix a damaged area. This can shrink the blemish from pea size to pinhead size and stop the damage from spreading. Again, figure $50 to treat a small glass ding. Of course, if the damage is more than minor, this sort of repair won’t work and you’ll need a new windshield or side window.

Before springing for a new windshield, consult your auto-insurance policy. If you have glass coverage, the replacement is free, and usually there’s no deductible.

The inside dirt

Even neat people can live in squalor when it comes to the family car. Carpets get loaded with ingrained mud, sand, and debris. Upholstery can gather unrivaled stains from food, children, and the warehouse grit of shopping trips and general travel.

You can buy special car-interior cleaners, but for plastic surfaces you can use any hard-surface cleaner such as Fantastic or Formula 409. Once you’ve wiped, swiped, and vacuumed the inside of the car, you may still have to deal with upholstery stains.

If you tackle this job yourself, try using carpet-cleaning spray or pet-spot remover on the seats (about $6 for an aerosol can).

You may find carpeted floor mats very tough to clean. If the nap on them is still in good shape, take them to a carpet-cleaning service. Figure on paying roughly $15 per pair. If they’re badly worn, think about getting new ones.

Ridding a car of odors can be another challenge. Various forms of dirt, such as tobacco smoke and mold and spilled food products, can sully the atmosphere in the cabin. The first step is to get all the interior fabrics clean with pet-spot cleaner or another odor-fighting cleaning product. Don’t forget to wipe down the headliner, the cloth covering inside the roof. (Make sure the fabrics are colorfast first.)

Some commercial deodorizers claim they eliminate rather than merely mask odors from mold, smoke, and other causes. Large auto-parts stores carry such products. Or you can use a familiar product like aerosol Lysol and its relatives. Clean inside the trunk and spare-tire well, too.

You can also try cleaning odors from the climate-system ducts by spritzing odor eliminator into the system’s air intake. That’s usually located beneath the hood cowl, near where the windshield wipers park. Then run the air conditioner full blast for at least 10 minutes.

Under the hood

Cleaning the outside of the engine and other under-hood components can be a knuckle-scraping, tedious chore. But it’s good to have a sparkling clean engine bay if you are about to sell the car, and your mechanic will appreciate it in any case. Consider this a nicety rather than a necessity.

If the battery terminals are growing a fuzz of white encrustation, you should clean the battery with a damp rag soaked with a solution of water and baking soda. Use a stiff toothbrush dipped in the baking-soda solution for the tough parts. (Wear eye protection and gloves when working around the battery.) You can then coat the terminals with a dialectric (non conducting) protective grease, and spray the outside of the battery with a clear sealer. Both these products are available at auto-parts stores.

You can clean engine parts with plain soap and water or with a commercial degreasing product like Gunk. Be careful, though, not to get electrical connections wet. Be particularly careful to keep water away from the fuse box, cable junctions, and the large electrical connectors near the firewall.

Steam cleaning is another way to get an engine clean. You can find steam-cleaning services at some garages and car washes. But steam cleaning can short out the car’s computer or other electrical gadgets if it’s not done with great care. The risk of damaging electronic parts has made this cleaning method a less attractive option than it used to be.

When  : Sunday Feb 26^th at 10am

Where : Meet at Walgreen, 2960 Canada Rd, Lakeland TN (Hwy64 & Houston Levee)

What   : Will depart at 10.15am to discover and hug curvy backroads for 1h30.

              Lunch at Rizzi’s Bistro : http://www.rizziparadiso.com

              Drive another 1hr and farewell at Cracker Barrel in Lakeland, off Hwy40 

FUN guaranteed!  The roads are great!

We have 2 leads, NO worry about being lost nor trying to catch up with the group. Directions and map will be handed over to you, 1 moderate speed drive and 1 a little faster.

Let’s get back on the road with your MINIacs Friends! 

 Please RSVP on FB event : https://www.facebook.com/events/181409598632706/ OR email us at Midsouthminiacs@gmail.com.

The Mid-South MINIacs support the Memphis Child Advocacy Center and want to thank them for the wonderful job they do to help children be children again. Let’s get together on May 12th, a day full of activities and games are waiting for you!

Where : Memphis Motorwerks, 9063 Macon Rd in Cordova

When : Saturday, May 12th at 02.00pm

What : Gimmick rally/Poker run. You will be given a map and clues to follow.  There will be 5 stops, each stop you draw a card. The best hand with best time is the Winner. This fun rally will be followed by a dinner at Johnny Brusco’s in Cordova and will continue with a Trivia Contest.

This is a fun-filled day for the entire family. We have lots of great prizes for you to take home !

A minimum of $20 entry fee will be donated to the Memphis Child Advocacy Center.

Your donations are tax deductible. If you can, also bring a soft teddy bear or anything from their Wish list.

Please RSVP at Midsouthminiacs@gmail.com or on facebook event.

Let’s Motor in Numbers and support the Memphis Child Advocacy Center !

With new exhibits & improvements to your favorites, you won’t want to miss this year’s show, featuring 1.5 million environmentally friendly LED lights.

It’s time to bring out the car antlers, wreathes, bows and creativity! Let’s decorate our MINI’s and participate in the Theme Night.  All participants get $5 off ticket entry (reg price is $20)

When : Dec 01st at 0700pm                                                      
Where : Target parking lot, 475 N Germantown Pkwy, Cordova  

We will line up at Target, decorate our cars and caravan to the Park for a bright drive.

Along the journey, we will stop at the Mistletoe Village for Coffee and Marshmallows.

Then dinner at Rafferty’s on Germantown Pkwy.

Please RSVP at Midsouthminiacs@gmail or FB event