NEWTON, MA, July 9-11 — And what do I mean by hot-hot? Well, the first “hot” means it was an amazing event, as always, with microcars (under 500cc) and minicars (all above) zipping around the streets outside of Boston. (The Citroëns and Mini Coopers so relish being the largest cars at this event!) The second “hot” refers to temperature, as it climbed closer and closer to three digits and the humidity did the same. This fun-loving group has a reputation for enjoying a lot of adult beverages during the weekend, but we understand that water was the most consumed liquid this year!

Friday evening at the home of Nancy and Charles Gould in Newton, we all feasted on a splendid repast fixed by NEMO member Marsha Judson. The assortment of finger foods was perfect for a sultry evening. Bruce and I worked at registration, getting people their packets and name badges with the wonderful, whimsical event logo designed by artist Wendy Costa.

Saturday morning found us back at the Goulds’ for some last-minute registrations and then the parade over to the Larz Anderson Auto Museum for the car show. This show is a favorite with the spectators as rides are given in the microcars. Unfortunately, the skies opened shortly after we arrived and rain teemed down, preventing any rides this year. We all hustled inside the Museum, where Charles thanked the folks who had helped with the event.

Back at the Goulds’ after the show the rain finally stopped and we enjoyed the (in)famous Eclectic Barbeque. Charles then gave out awards for the show. Winners in the Austin Mini Class were: 1st, Ken Lemoine, 1965 Morris Traveller 2nd, Ken Lemoine, 1980 Domino Mini 3rd, Carmen Mauricio, 1974 Innocenti Mini Cooper.

Before we knew it, it was time to head out for ice cream and an impromptu show (it happens wherever you go with these cars!) in Newton Center. Then, back to the Goulds’ for tubs of frozen margaritas. (Ice cream and margaritas — a great way to cool off on a hot summer night!)

On Sunday we caravanned out to Mt. Wachusett. The mountain road was being repaired, so no trek up to the top this year, and off we went to a local restaurant for lunch. Then some went to Matchbox Motors in Hudson, MA, which contains the rest of the Gould microcar collection. Others went back to the house to relax before dinner. The group, now smaller, but still going strong, motored over to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner and then back to Goulds’ for more frozen margaritas.

So, despite the heat, all had a great time — and we again want to thank Charles and Nancy Gould for including NEMO in on the fun!

On Sunday 25th July 2010 (the British way of stating the date), Miniaddicts organized a run to The Tramway Museum Village in Derbyshire, set in a disused stone quarry. The run of almost 100 miles took in some tortuous twisting bends on the U.K.’s most notoriously dangerous road across the Derbyshire peaks (a very big favourite route for motorcyclists, I might add!). We passed the famous highest inn in the U.K. called The Cat and Fiddle. On our arrival at the Museum, they had to take the day’s trams out of the depot so the Minis could park in the marshalling yard! We had a memorial day with several runs down the main street to the museum visitors’ delight. Readers may like to read further on the Museum’s website, www.tramway.co.uk/, and see more photos on NEMO’s, www.nemomini.org.

[Miniaddicts is NEMO’s sister club across the pond. See all the photos under "Gallery."]

DAYTON, OH — This year’s Mini Meet East was put on by the Ohio Mini Owners group and, simply put, it was one of the best Mini Meets that we have attended — smoothly and professionally run, with an excellent host hotel in Fairborn, excellent event locations, bright, sunny weather for a week straight, one of the most professional programs ever, and friendly people all over!

Compared to past Mini Meets, this year attendance was a bit down, most likely due to this thing called the recession. I estimated the Minis and MINIs there to be about 120, which made for a very nice meet as, for example, it gave the attendees more runs in the Funkhana and Autocross. NEMO members who attended were down slightly from other events similar distances away, with more NEMO members who brought classic Minis trailering instead of driving.

Two NEMO couples drove their classics to the event, with one classic actually making it. How’s that again? Faith Lamprey and Bruce Vild planned to drive their Mk1 Mini to the home of Lorine and Derick Karabec in eastern New York, and then caravan out to Dayton. Just before they arrived at the Karabecs’, their Mini quit on them. Derick hauled them into his home garage and worked all night on the car to no avail. Then Lorine offered up her personal MINI for Faith and Bruce to drive and off to the Meet they went, with the Karabecs in their Wolseley Hornet.

[After spending more time after the Meet taking things apart on our car, Derick discovered that an aftermarket timing belt installed during an engine rebuild more than 15 years ago had failed, resulting in stalling and an inability to restart. A new timing belt solved the problem. —Exec. Ed.]

But wait, there’s more! As Derick turned off the motorway junction to the hotel and descended the steep hill, the brakes failed on the Hornet. Repairs followed, and they completed the Meet and made it safely home, too.

Barbara and I took the lazy route, trailering our Mini the 890 miles to the Meet from eastern Mass. It was an enjoyable and uneventful trip. The Mini performed well at the Meet except for one exciting glitch. On the way to the panoramic photo at the nearby USAF Museum at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the gas pedal stuck under the fancy English mats and caused the engine to race at full throttle for an instant until it was kicked out. When we arrived at the photo, the offending mat was relegated to the boot where it still sits, rejected and lonely until we can trim it back. Seems like mats made for RHD British models do not do well in LHD Continental-spec cars. We never thought of that until it caused a problem.

Dave Black exercised his new long trailer and drove non-stop from Connecticut. Lisa and John Mastrandrea and crew also trailered their green Moke from Rhode Island. Dan Viola and family trailered his blue Moke from upstate New York. “Big Guy” Hrach Chekijian, our humble NEMO President, flew in on his private jet on the middle of the first day, just missing the panoramic photo. (Okay, so I lied about it being a “private” jet, but it was a jet nonetheless…)

The event was spread over three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Most arrived on Wednesday evening and picked up their registration packets. Thursday found us up bright and early for the Concours, then the afternoon was spent at the USAF Museum for the panoramic photo and a Museum visit, where admission is free. (Expect to spend at least four to eight hours to study each aircraft and display.) Some members took a drive to the open house at the British Transportation Museum and spent a few hours looking over the collection. Later, after everyone returned to the hotel, there was a cruise over some very nice and scenic Ohio country roads to Young’s Jersey Dairy for dinner and their famous ice cream.

While Dave Black was off to the Dairy car park for some technical Mini talk with other owners, it was time for mini golf for Lorine, Derick, Faith, Bruce, Barbara and myself. Bruce and Barbara had very low scores, in the 40s if I remember correctly. The others were in the middle and I scored a 72, having hit a pickup truck and a fiberglass cow and just missing a stray cat with various putts. So you could say I had the highest score. (Not good I presume, in golf?) We literally closed the place down as they were shutting off the lights when we left at 11 p.m., motoring back to the hotel in the cool night air.

Friday found us all up early for the Rally. First car out was at 9 a.m. Hrach was navigator for Dave Black. Faith and Bruce missed only two questions on the trivia and tied for 2nd place in the event. Lorine and Derick are still married after their first MME rally and so are Barbara and I, after missing the second turn and ending up in the middle of nowhere and giving up and returning to the hotel early. (We learned after the one in Magog to be very laid back on these events in order to keep marital bliss.)

After the Rally was a picnic behind the hotel under a big tent. Then at about 2 p.m. the Funkhana started. NEMO members participating were Derick and Lorine, who won their class, Dan Viola and Keith Degauque, who won their class, and John, Julia and Jessica in their Moke. Dan also ran the course with his son. The rest of us lazy members cheered on while sitting in the shaded sidelines. (Are we getting old, folks?) Friday night found some of us out to the local East Indian restaurant for a curry or two. This was enjoyed by all.

Saturday was autocross and banquet day. As far as NEMO members go, Dan Viola in his Moke took 1st place in Class F with a 50.346 time. No other NEMO members I know took part. A lot of us watched for a while in the blazing sun, then took a ride to an old fashioned five-and-dime store and then onward to the USAF Museum again.

At 6 p.m. the Banquet began, and when the awards were given out, other than previously mentioned, NEMO members took home quite a few! In Class 9, Mk5 Mini, Barbara took a 2nd place. In Class 11, Wolseley Hornet/Riley Elf, Derick and Lorine took 1st. In Class 18, Mini Moke Dan Viola took 2nd. In the “judged” Concours, Derick and Lorine took 3rd. After the Banquet, the cool night weather gave everyone a reason to hang around and talk with other Mini owners in the hotel lot.

All in all it was a very enjoyable Mini Meet for everyone involved. If you could not make this one, you certainly missed one of the smoothest-running and best-weather events ever. Our congratulations and thanks to the Ohio Mini Owners!

LUDLOW, VT — There will be an untimed fun rally sponsored by NEMO on Saturday, September 11th, through Vermont’s beautiful Okemo Valley. Entrants will be looking for answers to clues. There’s a scavenger hunt component, too. The rally will be mostly on paved roads with a few good dirt roads included.

Registration is $30. Rally enthusiasts will assemble at Fletcher Farm on Rt. 103 in Ludlow for a continental breakfast. The rally cars will leave the Farm at 10 a.m.

The rally will finish at the Echo Lake Inn, covering about 80 miles. A banquet/gourmet buffet will follow. You need not buy the buffet to attend the banquet (the buffet is $33 per person including tax and gratuities). Dash plaques, plaques and many other prizes will be awarded in many categories.

On Sunday, September 12th, we will host a back seat driver competition at Fletcher Farm. This will start at 10 a.m.

Call (802) 228-8770 and ask Laurie for details Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or reach her at info@fletcherfarm.org. A packet will be mailed out with registration information.

The plan was to write about MME, but there have been several other happenings that you’ll no doubt want to read about as well.

The month started with planning the trip to Dayton. Several NEMOites were actually going to drive Minis all the way to Ohio and that was the reason for listing all the “recommended spares” in the June issue. The group had planned to take two days and I would follow on the second day with trailer to pick up any stragglers. On arrival, I discovered that only one classic Mini had made the trip — and had no mechanical issues at all! (Save for a small oil leak...)

I won’t go into details about the Meet itself, as my view is if you’re interested, you should have been there! Outside of Minis, the Air Force Museum was a must-see. Imagine a B-52, B-1, B-2, and the B-29 that dropped one of the atom bombs all under one roof!

On to the mechanical side. While preparing for MME, Julia and Franchesco called asking if I’d have time to look at their Inno. Thinking that this would be a quick fix (from their description it sounded like carburetor problems), I said sure. Sunday before MME, we discovered that the head gasket was compromised. Not such a quick fix, and here it was 90° plus and I had a deadline — had to get the head off Sunday evening, disassemble and clean it, get it to the machine shop 7 a.m. Monday, pick it up at 8:30 (and you wonder why I use this shop!), and reassemble everything Monday afternoon. “How I spent my first day of vacation”!

Next comes Greg and his “Mazza-saga.” (Isn’t that a town in Ontario?) Remember when I announced that Greg had finally gotten to the bottom of his electrical issues? Well, he started having problems again — car would start and run fine, but wouldn’t restart when warm. This column has chronicled the various symptoms and fixes applied, and Greg realized he’d changed almost everything electrical (and some mechanical bits) in an attempt to stop the gremlin that inhabited his Mini. So this time he decided to put in new spark plugs, cap and rotor. When he removed the plugs, the gap seemed a little larger than normal — .025” is normal, and his measured .060”! With a new set of plugs, his car seems to be behaving much better, though this writer is not going to announce that the problem is completely solved just yet…

Greg Gethins is having problems with his Turbo Mini. Poor compression in two cylinders usually points to a gasket problem (especially in a turbo). Upon removal, the head gasket was found to be in perfect shape, but his valves looked a bit suspect, so we cleaned and re-cut valves and seats, re-ground same and Greg is reassembling the head on the engine.

Upcoming attractions: Tom Judson and his “front-end growl,” and Robert Manocchio with a clutch issue.

All for now…

WOODSTOCK, CT, May 29 — For the past six years our British Open Classic Mini has been losing a bit of brake fluid each time we drove it. Since it was so little and since we knew it was the rear cylinders, it didn’t bother us too much. More than 80% of the stopping power of a classic Mini is in the front disc brakes anyhow.

(For those of you with all-wheel drum brakes, it’s about the same percentage, but since drums in front only hint of stopping it’s a different situation. Our 1978 Mini with all-wheel drums really makes you think about places to swerve into if there is going to be a panic stop. Issigonis would have said to slow down!)

We really noticed the leak problem when loading the Mini onto the trailer to travel to Mini Meet East in Maine in 2008. Nothing like putting the Mini on a lift, even if it’s the back end of a trailer, to see things. So of course we waited almost two years to fix it. You could say we lacked a “sense of urgency.” So, off to The Barn at Dave Black’s home as he has the expert know-how and all the proper tools. He also has the ability to form a brake line if I had broken one, so that made more sense than doing it at my home garage and then having to order parts or drag it to Dave afterwards. Also, it is always pleasant to work with Dave Black and we hadn’t seen him in a while, so Barbara and I went for a drive.

I won’t go into great detail on how to change the cylinders and shoes on your Mini, but perhaps tell a short story on what we did that day. Dave Black did all the professional work, and I did parts washing, bearing packing, oil pouring and wheel nut twirling. Barbara took a bunch of pictures.

Before starting, Dave loosened the lug nuts and opened the bonnet, then jacked up the front of the car under the sump with jack and padding of a two-by-four. Opening the bonnet eliminates finding that the engine mounts have broken and the engine is now imprinted into the bottom of the bonnet, which can be nasty. Dave then placed two jack stands under the front of the car just behind the wheels. After that, it was around to the rear, jacking up the rear and placing another two jack stands under the rear subframe. A quick wiggle of the car before the jack removal showed that now the car was about 14 inches off the floor and stable to work on.

While Dave removed the oil filter, I removed all the wheels. Our car has the grille riveted in place, making changing the oil filter a pain and a knuckle scraper. After the new filter was installed, five quarts of Castrol were installed. This is not the oil Dave Black recommends, but since I’ve been using it for 40 years in our Minis, I stuck with it. It’s very important to change your classic Mini’s oil at least once each year, even if you only drive a few thousand miles in the show season. I prefer the spring. More frequent changes are better. But never let sludge build up in any engine by thinking all that oil leaking out on your garage floor results in a pro bono change.

After taking off the wheels and then the screws holding on the drum, Dave slackened the brake adjusters and we gently tapped the drums and they came right off. This is not usual. But if your cylinders are leaking, everything is a bit wet inside with fluid and they come off easier. Then off came the springs and the old shoes.

I was sent to the parts washer to clean the springs and drums to be squeaky clean. After that, they were sprayed with brake cleaner solution and let dry. The drums were not scored or out of round and amazingly the adjusters on both sides worked easily. We pulled the bearings and these too were cleaned and greased. They looked almost new. Why keep old grease when you have everything apart?

Dave then fitted the new cylinders. No brake lines broke and they went on easily. Now the tricky part — fitting the new shoes and getting those springs onto the shoes. Having done that, Dave re-assembled the drums and worked the adjusters.

It was time to bleed the brakes. I had brought two huge bottles of DOT 3 from Auto Zone. Starting at the rear, Dave worked the bleeders and looked for bubbles in the jar and I pumped and filled the reservoir. The backs done, we did the fronts, finding a bit of air in the left front, which explained the tendency to pull right on panic stops.

After a check of the front steering and suspension, the road wheels were refitted and the car lowered. Another great day in The Barn with Dave Black.

Reserve this date: Saturday, August 14th. Bring yourself and your classic Mini or modern MINI to our Top Gear-themed barbeque and day of games!

The location is Barbara and Dave Newman’s home garage, 7 Chestnut St., Kingston, MA. The festivities will be held from 12 noon to 5 p.m. This event is especially for NEMO members who love the BBC show Top Gear. We will have a barbeque, so please bring something for the barby or desserts or beverages to share, along with a folding chair to sit on. This event will be held inside the garage, so come rain or shine.

It’s optional, but feel free to dress like your favorite Top Gear presenter or Star in the Reasonably Priced Car. We’ve invited the Stig, so no dressing like him. If the Stig does appear, don’t confuse him with questions.

Activities will consist of a DVD-based team game based on car knowledge presented on screen by Richard Hammond, and a slot car track based on the actual Top Gear track, where you will attempt to set a lap time like the guests — only since this track is small, it will be based on a 10-lap time. There will be a Cool Wall participation game, a Top Gear trivia game, and plenty of time to talk with other NEMO members, enjoy the barbeque and a beverage, and admire all the cool Minis and MINIs attending. (Lots of parking on the flat lawn area.)

If you love NEMO and Top Gear, then this is the event to attend! If you have no idea what Top Gear is, then come with an open mind and be prepared for some fun. Questions? E-mail Dave Newman at Dave@airportworld.com.

Rain or shine, it’s a Top Gear time! BTW: some say the Stig knows two things about ducks. And both of them are wrong.