After a very strong fall, winter, spring and now summer, I realized that our old server had been taking a lot of abuse and was barely keeping up with the traffic that we have been getting over the last few months. So last night at Midnight we went to a fresh, brand new super mega server on a clean T1 line that will make for much faster surfing of our site. Enjoy! This should put an end to some of the sluggishness that even I saw at certain times throughout the day when our site load is especially high….plus I get to host the other 10 or so personal and other experimental sites that I have cooking. Some day I will put together a list of all of them with their intended purpose and domain names, etc….some are just URL’s, while others are sort of designed and populated with various content….

Okay, so every once in a while I get the hankering for some late night music when my kids are asleep and listening to my setup at less than moderate listening levels is just good enough…so, I got my first set of REALLY sweet headphones. In fact, they may be one of the best set of headphones on the planet and boy do they look the business. The AKG 701’s were recommended to me by my neighbor and parter in crime (co-owner of www.ParkAudioLabs.com) and I can’t say enough about them. What do they have to do with MINI’s? Absolutely nothing, aside from the beautiful retro modern design aesthetic and phenomenal performance. Listening to headphones has never been so good.

For those audiophiles out there I happen to be addict and have a constant flow of equipment coming and going in my house and currently have some Martin Logan Vantages powered by Nuforce Ref 9 V2 amps and a Cambridge 740C cd player that I use as a DAC which goes to a Parasound preamp….all the cables are Kimber Hero and Monacle X. The Vantages are on the way out in favor of the new Spire from Martin Logan…..

With our new heat press and sweet ‘neighbor’ connections come a slew of new shirts that are due out in a few days…actually they are done, I just need to do a photo shoot. You see, 2 doors down from Out Motoring world HQ is a company that supports Limited, Victorias Secret, Abercrombie and Fitch, Under Armour, Hollister, etc with nearly all of their hang tags, tshirt transfers, packaging and just about any other printed thing that helps these local companies….did I mention the Subway across the street may as well be a fashion show at lunch? A lot of young hipsters that work for A&F (which is about 3 blocks away) come out to eat and hang out. Even though I am pretty young myself I sometimes feel a bit dopey. So anyways, the owner of this company is a good friend of mine and so I have access to their large format printers that print tshirt transfers by the 10,000. Guess who got 200 sheets (35×28) of custom full color transfers at a very good price? Just wait.

Coming soon are these shirts:

-AlphaMINI which is the alphabet in all caps but when it comes to the “M” and the “N” I snuck in a few “I’s”….pretty cool…AND it will have a childs version as well.

-3 MINI’s is a side view of the sedan, clubman and the convertible in black with a grey outline all stacked up on a nice dark bluish grey shirt

-Full Throttle is a new checkered flag Wings logo with “Outmotoring” in the middle and on the back in red letters with black outline is “Full Throttle. All the Time” on a white t

- Fastest Fun on 4 Wheels is a large Red S with 2 black S shadows behind it and the words “fastest fun on four wheels” below it on a black t. It looks sweet.

-R5? is a white T with a variation of the R5- (enter R50, R52, R56, etc.) grille badge on the left chest with an Out Motoring logo on the right sleeve.

Also there is “enjoy your ride’ shirt  with a simple small checkered flag pattern with the “enjoy your ride” tagline below it along with a Out Motoring logo on the back neck.

Almost all of the shirts have a small tasteful Out Motoring logo on the back neck…don’t worry they are very good looking. That’s the only way I do things.  Keep checking back in the next few days for pics.

A few months back when I started selling the Griots Garage line of car care products I wanted to make a portable kit to keep in the car at all times and while Griots had a few decent bags that were supplied with a few of their cleaning products I decided to make my own. I typically carry some window cleaner, speed shine, microfiber towels, some tire dressing and some vinyl and rubber dressing in a nice Craftsman bag that fits nicely behind the seat. It seems to be perfect for me.

Just a few weeks ago Griots introduced what I think is their best ‘portable’ bare bones car care bag that has a nice list of products included so I decided to add it. I ordered a few to check out and was very impressed by the quality and design of the bag. There are two removable dividers that have tons of little loops to hold smaller items and the outside is lined with a few pouches to keep other stuff while the inside has a nice amount of room to add to what they supply with the kit so you can tweak it to fit your needs. Overall, I am really impressed with this little bag and think it would ideal for just about anyone who wants to keep their MINI looking its best. I usually bust my kit out if I drive to a MINI meet or car show and just need to get some of the travel dust off the car. It’s also great if I find myself waiting to pick up one of the kids or whateve and there’s nothing to do…it’s amazing what you do in about 5 minutes in the school parking lot.