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The weekend of the 17th/18th May was the London to Brighton Mini run and the first time the completed mini/phonebox combo was to be revealed to the world. Tension was high. Tension wasn't helped by the breakdown that happened on the first official road test after passing the MOT which took place on the Friday night. But we don't talk about that. So on Saturday morning, all fixed, loaded up and ready to go the Mini and Phonebox took off on the inital part of the journey from Hastings to London. After a brief stop to show the car to the other Ralliers assembled in Brick Lane we headed to Crystal Palace, that night's destination. Travelling through London in a Mr. Bean coloured mini, covered in signage gets some looks and some smiles. But travelling through London in a Mr. Bean coloured mini, covered in signage with a full size red telephone box strapped to the roof receives every kind of facial expression imaginable! It felt like we were being hounded by the paparazzi as we crossed London Bridge but it was great to receive such a warm response everywhere we went. And that warm response continued throughout the weekend.
As we arrived at Crystal Palace we were instantly surrounded by friendly mini enthusiasts wanting to know why we had a phonebox on the roof and what we were doing! After an apparent minor communication breakdown between the AVBA team it emerged we hadn't brought a tent so camping at crystal palace was going to be interesting. We decided to sleep in the car as it would be good practise for the rally! (Would've slept in the phonebox but it was raining and its not very waterproof when lying on its back!)
Apparently sleep isn't necessary at these Mini meets and everyone was up around 4am, performing last minute checks to the cars and registering at the main tent prior to the start. We had our place on the Mini World stand down in Brighton so luckily this meant we could cut straight to the front of the queue and prepare for the start.
We left London at 8am and had a easy trip down to Brighton. We are very pleased to say that we didn't join any of the numerous broken down minis we passed on the trip to the coast!! Once we arrived, we set up the car at the Mini World stand and spent a great day talking to people and advertising the trip from a great location.
A thoroughly good weekend was had by all and I hope it spells the success of things to come!
Thanks must go to Monty Watkins and his team at Mini World for providing us with a place on their stand.
For more pictures of us taking part in the London to Brighton mini run, see the pictures page.
