Hello to  the MINI5280 members and guests.  We are excited to announce our new website built by Rick Gonzales, webmaster for MINI5280. It was build on WP 3.3 and will be used in conjunction with NAM (North American Motoring), MA (Motoring Alliance) and FB (Facebook) to keep you all informed of upcoming events and fun things to do with your MINI.

Hopefully, you all have seen the newsletter produced by our secretary, Kristan, please contribute pictures and articles to secretary@min5280.org or directly in email.

If you have questions of the club officers, send them via the contacts list:  it will get to the appropriate person, if I cannot answer a question, I will try to find an answer.

We have a monthly club meeting coming up on January 14, Saturday. It will be a Coffee to Coffee Drive with a short run into the mountains. I would suggest you don’t run on summer tires.
Please see the posting on the MIN5280 area on NAM, MA and FB.  Sign up on the NAM Calendar or just show up and enjoy the MINIs.

Rides are being planned along with  monthly meetings and our annual events (MITM, YALLA YALLA), if you want to volunteer, send an email to me or the MINI5280 VP, we would love to have your help.

This my first posting on the new website, so I will have to work on a stock images for fun to post along with my words, should be interesting to see what I can come up with over time.

Don Suiter
President MINI5280.org

MINIs On The Dragon, the 10 annual event, will be held May 2-6, 2012 in Fontana Village, North Carolina. The following description was borrowed from the MOTD website.

What is The Dragon?

The Dragon started out as an 11-mile stretch of road with 318 curves. That in itself is more than enough reason to travel to the breath taking mountains of North Carolina. But in the first weekend of May each year, it has evolved into much more than that. Just like our beloved MINI’s have evolved into more than just a car to us. So you take the 11-mile stretch of road, then you toss in the mountains, country roads and waterfalls. Now add over 600 fellow MINIacs and it takes on a whole new meaning. Wake up each morning and see hundreds of Mini’s each day, attend dinners and events, go on group drives, or just gather and drool over each other’s mods. Get a chance to put a face to a screen name, see some old friends and make some new ones.

MINI USA announced that MINI Takes The States (MTTS) will be back again in 2012. The dates are July 4th to 15th. MINI USA says the cross-country rally will be from east to west, “stopping only to eat, sleep and have a blast along the way.”  See  MINIUSA.com for further details!

Sin City MINI Club announced the dates for their ninth annual AMVIV (A MINI Vacation In Vegas): June 14 — June 17, 2012. See www.AMVIV.com for details.