“WE know it isn’t a Mini. It’s a Mini Metro.”
I don’t know how many times I said that line last weekend, mainly to middle-aged men with hi-vis jackets and hi-vis frowns. The Metro has Mini subframes and Mini switches; BMW’s MINI isn’t even a Mini in name only, if you’re being geeky and case sensitive. Yet taking a Metro on a Mini-only run to North Wales is a cardinal sin.
Not that my friend and I – both Mini owners – cared, because we were still part of a 90 mile, 150-strong convoy that celebrates Britain’s bestselling car on a yearly basis. If you own an original Mini, you need to do this drive.
The Wirral to Llandudno Mini Run does exactly what it says on the tin; arrive under a steely grey sky at a car park on the Wirral at some unpleasantly early time in the morning, park next to every size and shape of Mini you can think of, and then follow them onto the A55. Even if you’re driving something which the organisers argue is emphatically not a Mini.
Who cares? Our contingent on the event, the Southport and Ormskirk District of seemingly millions of Mini clubs, didn’t, and once we’d decided to ignore pretty much all of the organisers’ rules we had a great time.
I’ll never forget watching a duo of the plucky machines drifting on the ice on the Great Orme’s car park – it was open to the public but off-limits to the Minis for “safety” reasons, but we went anyway. I’ll never forget lining up four of the tiny machines outside Britain’s smallest house, in Conwy, for a photo and a giggle. And I won’t forget putting a fiver’s worth of petrol into the Metro, but that’s because it runs on diesel.
Owning a classic car and not taking it on a run is like having a passport without going abroad. You’ve got to go, even if it’s just once, because you’ll never forget it.
Why didn’t I take the Life On Cars Mini? Simple – it’s in hibernation during the big freeze, and I’ve got a second set of wheels to join it.
What is it? Tune in next week and find out…
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