So, every once in a while I login and check to see if there are pending comments that need to be moderated before becoming active and after nearly 6 months I have yet to have any comments on this silly blog other than link requests and porn spam, junk spam and other bogus garbage. Does anyone read this that is actually interested in MINI’s and OutMotoring.com? If maybe you could post a reply and I can see an actual real post and make it active!!!! Not that it will change my life or anything, but it would be nice to know that I am not ‘typing in the dark’.

For all you Facebookers out there feel free to add your MINI Cooper Club or personal Facebook account to our’s and keep the web love going. Check out the new OutMotoring.com Facebook account here.

So, I decided to clean out the third bay in the Garage as it had become filled with random objects of life and I finally had enough room to get my MINI back in after a 2 month period of sitting outside all by herself. The day I was ready to pull it in we got hit with a small snowstorm, 10 degree weather and all that fun stuff. No biggie. A day or so later we got about 3/4″ of ICE that hit and made a ICE cocoon out of my beloved yellow MINI. Then we got about 5 inches of snow on top of that. I just can’t win. Luckily today, nearly 10 days later we got a warm day that melted all the ice so I can finally get my car back in shelter. Silly story, not much to it but bad timing, lots of ice and nasty weather. Why do I live in Ohio?

IT’s been a pretty crazy Holiday season and the dust is just starting the settle around here…along with the snow and ice and cold air (which is NOT welcome by the way). The year in sales ended in about a  40% increase over last year and in this economy that is frankly shocking. Absolutely shocking.

But, whats new? Well MINI just released the new Convertible at the Detroit Auto Show and it looks pretty much like it should. No surprises. The cool news is that the USA is now the largest market for MINI sales which is pretty cool considering the facts.

http://www.motoringfile.com/2009/01/12/mini-press-conference-official-release/

Lets see, I need to do my taxes and such so Jan will most likely be a bit quiet as far as adding new products although I did squeak in a few brake kits from Stoptech:

And I think I will be adding more of the Clubman accessories like the rear Union Jack boot edge protector and a few other little things….stay tuned.

Most of my MINI Cooper pics are up on the Picasa Google image database if anyone is interested:

It’s a very simple concept yet is so often overlooked. Using one of these tire pressure gauges will help with fuel mileage AND increase tire life. It’s simple. Get one.

or these two cool daddys:

Well, this last weekend we had quite a good time with visiting Detailing Master Ted Hersey of Ted Hersey Auto Care. Ted took our local MINI group through the basic steps of professional care washing using techniques to keep scratches at a minimum and how to get the best results. With a steady flow of questions Ted was able to cover a lot of topics including the wheel arches, the two bucket system, washing tools and tons of other stuff. The second half of the presentation focused on polishing using the Griots Garage Random Orbital Polisher and the range of polishes and Best of Show Wax to get nearly any scratch or surface imperfection out of you paint. Based on the feedback we received after the clinic, this was one of the best events of the year. As it is now in its second year, we think it will become an annual event. Check out the pics here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/OutMotoring.com/DetailingDemo2008

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate seeing and using products that are designed for not only perfect function but flawless design. To contrast that, nothing pisses me off more than something that was made, packaged, marketed, sold (and purchased) that flat out sucks. Theres nothing quite like the rediculousness of someone making something that does not even function in doing it’s core purpose. Nothing comes to mind immediately but there are numerous things that I have used that simply don’t do what they were meant to do. Whomever produces such garbage should be stuck in a room for the rest of their life living with the useless things they create…….okay so that’s a bit mean. They can have some food occasionally…and a bathroom and a window.

The 2008 Business Week design awards were just posted. It’s one of my favorite things to browse through the designs and see who designed them and of course check out the textures, forms and such. While I may someday get back into designing products for non MINI related markets, I still keep tabs on the industry as it inspires me to do stuff closer to my world. I have a few things I have been wanting to design for the MINI market that I have yet to execute but someday I will have time. In the meantime check these cool things out.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/07/0717_idea_winners/121.htm

I finally got around to shooting some of the new shirts that were released last week. Check them out:

“Enjoy Your Ride” Long Sleeve:

Logo Hoodie

AlphaMINI Shirt : Adult

AlphaMINI : Kids

“Fastest Fun”

“R-Series” Shirt

“Logo Polo”

“Full Throttle” Shirt:

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….