Autumn Get together to celebrate the Launch of the 02S Register
Written on 14 October 2018 by Jerry Pennell
Going on the track record for the Summer of 2018 It was hoped that Sunday October 15th was going to be a nice day for the get together Tanya had arranged for the Launch event of the 02 S Register and had invited members of the Y Register to join in at the Plant Oxford MINI shop and in the afternoon at the British Motor Museum Gaydon.
The day before had started wet but by the afternoon the weather was bright and sunny so my hopes were high that the whole weekend to be fine was going to continue into Sunday, THINK AGAIN, The day dawned wet and miserable, I had arranged to take both my new acquisition RE02VOY an electric Blue Cooper S chassis Number TC 60265 and mate of mine was going to drive my MINI One for me.
We met at work for him to collect the One and we drove up to Oxford in atrocious conditions, the M4 and A34 being particularly hazardous with heavy rain and water spray obscuring vision very badly It was a relief to get to the car park at Oxford to be met by quite an assemblage of both 02S and YReg, very heartening for Tanya and Jason who had arranged the meeting of the register members Familiar faces were seen and greeted.
The 02S Register cars which were able to make this part of the day were:
- RX02MVD Chassis 60212 Tanya & Jason
- RK02UMF Chassis 60217 Lee
- RE02VGX Chassis 60252 Rob
- RE02VOY Chassis 60265 Jerry
- RE02VPF Chassis 60303 Martin
- JM02JOD Chassis 61029 Martin
- RL02WLW Chassis 62612 Mike
- MD02MRY Chassis 63131 Bill and Sue
- A99BJB Chassis 63397 Barry
- LJ52UTB Chassis 63497 Craig
- WP52YFO Chassis 64046 James
As you will see we had assembled some of the very early production Cooper S models, which again like the 2001 OBL cars, the R*02 cars were from the original BMW press fleet or dealer demo cars. Tanya and Jason’s car currently being the earliest we know about. No doubt earlier cars might appear as the notoriety of the register gains momentum .
The cars had come from far and wide with Lee W from Warrington and Martin K from Eastbourne being the furthest 02S cars driven. A very good turn out on a weather poor day Tanya had arranged to use the MINI shop so everybody was under cover and dry, a bonus being able to view the cars on display next to the shop area The rains continued so photos were taken and the 02S register cake cut about 11:00, being under cover everybody was able to enjoy the meeting of old friends and make new friends from both sets of register members.
Tanya had arranged for both sets of cars to make their way to the second venue of the celebratory day, the British Motor Museum at Gaydon and it was hoped to have a convoy of cars making their way from Oxford to Gaydon, The weather intervened and a few of the Cooper S cars headed by Jason snaked their way up the A roads through Kidlington, Deddington and Banbury to arrive at Gaydon, to be met by all the remaining cars who had used the M40.
By the time we got to Gaydon the rains had slightly lessened, but not enough to have a photo call with cars and owners outside, so everybody retired to the museum and enjoyed viewing the exhibits and chatting over lunch in the restaurant. Most people made it to Gaydon from Oxford, a couple of others decided as they had traveled from the south coast and the weather not conducive to further distance, made their way home, It was very nice to meet up at Plant Oxford and socialise.
The rest of the day was enjoyed viewing all the exhibits both in the main building and the Jaguar Annex next to the main building. An early production Silver Mini Cooper was seen in the overflow exhibition along with many interesting concept and prototype cars. The bad weather did show up a water ingress issue on my MINI One 194 which I thought had been fixed, My mates companion got wet from water coming in around the near side B pillar, so 194 is back in the bodyshop to get this fixed, we think a combination of the heavy rains, driving at speed and some poor bodywork repairs before I bought the car, is forcing the water in and around the door seal.
Despite the inclement weather a good day was had by all. The drive home to Wiltshire down the Fossway was dry and clear and trouble free. My new acquisition RE02VOY performed brilliantly over the 600 miles I drove over the weekend, from collecting the car from my mate in Essex who in turn had collected the car for me from the vendor who lived 6 miles from him, and secondly the trip back and forth to Gaydon via Plant Oxford, We were going mad on the whole day so the S was returning about 40 mpg.
Unfortunately Lee in 60217 had an issue on his return to Warrington with the cooling system having the stop at the Keel services M6, finally making it back on a recovery truck. He found a small tee piece had split and dumped the water.
I believe everybody else made it home safely and without incident
Many thanks to all those brave souls who made it to Oxford and Gaydon and very many thanks to Tanya and Jason Field who arranged the day for us.