Wow, after the trauma of blowing the head gasket on the van and only finishing it at 2:30 am on the morning of departure, what an incredible event this turned out to be. Truly one of a kind.
I’m so glad we decided to do this – it was certainly well attended with myself, Len, Dawn, Jerry, Nick V, Rachel & Phil camping over the long weekend and Mike & Dave Bennett travelling up for the Mini 50 show on Sunday.
Travelling up on the Friday was fine if not a tad busy on the M5 – very stressful, but at least the head gasket held up to it, even if the driver was flagging ! Arrival to the site was a shambles but painless. Camp was set up with thanks to Phil & Cath for the loan of their excellent gazebo and to Nick and Len for transporting gear.
Saturday was spent mooching and chilling out – there was just so much to see with a huge range of cars from all over Europe and so many traders it took 2 days to get around them all.
We chose to avoid the evening entertainment on the Saturday but were told it featured Roy Wood of Wizard fame and he was very good. The same couldn’t be said about the quality of the on-site toilet and shower facilities – a cock up on the organisers behalf, but hey, we coped and we didn’t ever run out of water for a brew. I got the message that if you go camping at an IMM you shouldn’t expect to wash for the weekend ! That’s where Face Wipes come in handy – they should be mandatory kit to take on anyone’s list.
I spent most of Sunday in the concourse arena, where I competed the van in Class 8 – ‘Modified and Custom’, along with 8 other heavily modified cars, three of which had a VTEC, a Lotus Twin Cam and a Bike engine as their powerplants. The standard of cars never ceases to amaze me – stunning on both days – with Mini owners going to radical extremes to catch the judges eye such as leaving the original tyre stickers on or penning their cars in behind plastic chain link fencing using mirrors and chequer plated flooring to cover the grass up.
Luckily, I didn’t go to these extremes and was rewarded with a Class win. Not bad for an International event and one in which I had no idea I was going to do until the evening before.
It was a very hot day with bright, clear skies and lots of happy people keeping the traders content.
The remaining few of us (Nick, Dawn and myself) spent Sunday night in the Entertainment Tent listening to a great live band and, of course, sampling the venue’s liquid refreshments on offer – it had been a hard day after all.
True to form, the sunny weather wasn’t repeated the next day as it turned wet and drizzly for packing away the tents and camping gear.
However, rather than dampening our spirits, we just got on with it and then enjoyed a leisurely drive home.
A fantastic long weekend, I’d just like to thank Len, Dawn, Jerry, Nick, Rachel & Phil for some great company and to Phil who took some excellent shots on Ma’s camera whilst I was in the arena on Sunday.
There are lots of interesting photo’s of the event on various websites and forums but also in the October issues of Mini Mag and MiniWorld. I received my copies today (Wed 23rd).
There are a lot of people knocking the organisation of the event by the Birmingham Mini Owners Club on various forums, but apart from the lack of water in the showers and toilets and the piss poor arrival arrangements and a lack of security/official presence, I have every praise for these guys as there were thousands of people at this event, most of which had been there at the start of the week when Birmigham had been hit by torrential weather. In the spirit of adversity, BMOC pulled it off. Maybe not in style, but nonetheless, a great weekend if you came prepared for it which we largely did.
Roll on IMM 2010, 21-24 May, deepest Bavaria in Germany then to Swizerland in 2011.
-Richard Bolwell