No, I’m not crazy. I’m heading to Monterey Car Week in the all-new 2025 MINI Cooper S. I was given the opportunity, and since I’ve driven to Monterey a dozen times over the years, I figured why not?
I’m sure this will be the most relaxing road trip to Monterey, as every car I drive to the event is at least 25 years old. This includes a 1973 Ferrari Daytona, a 1966 Volvo 1800S, a 1968 Fiat 124 Spider, a 1986 Alfa Romeo GTV6, a Bentley Turbo, an Aston Martin DB7, and most recently, a 1984 Porsche 944. With this list of cars, you can understand why I’m not nervous about driving this year. What I’m really looking forward to is good air conditioning, comfortable seats, incredible fuel efficiency, and most importantly, no worries of getting stranded in the middle of Nevada if the car breaks down.
The new 2025 MINI Cooper S was the first car I saw on closed display at the 2023 BMW Test Festival, and I was immediately drawn to the new design. In many ways, it reminded me of the first R53 MINI I bought in 2003. It brought that sense of whimsy again, and the styling looked interesting.
The interior is very new with a large circular display in the center of the dashboard. It also comes with a very useful and interesting head-up display. All the materials used in the interior are sustainable, and my only complaint at the moment is that I don’t like the cloth covering the inner door panels.
Today at 1pm I will be heading to Scranton, Pennsylvania, for the first leg of my journey, with my car packed with all the luggage I sent from Monterey, cookies my wife Ann gave me, and two boxes of books I’m taking to the auto show. Yes, as you can see, the car is packed. It’s unlikely that the cookies will make it to Monterey.
Wish me luck. If you see a Sunny Side Yellow 2025 MINI Cooper S on Interstate 80 that looks a lot like a Minion on wheels, you can bet that’s probably me.
The plan for the second day is to go to South Bend, Indiana. The third day is to go to Lincoln, Nebraska. The longest day is the fourth day, when I will go from Lincoln to Park City, Utah. After that, I will drive to Reno and then Monterey, where I should arrive on Saturday afternoon.
I’ll be documenting each leg of my journey, so stay tuned for my driving impressions.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.