To be honest I didn't plan to come over to Lithuania for the International Mini Meeting (IMM) that took place on a peninsula near Zarasai in the north-eastern part of the country. But when MINI invited me to go it was a chance I had to take, and I am glad I did it! It was a fantastic weekend with several people being brave enough to drive their Mini derivatives over from thousands of miles, too. This is my photographic report about it.
My favourite derivative duo of the event: the Mini Jem Mk2 of Andy Tyndale and
Mini Marcos Mk3 of Guy Humphries. Great seeing you there chaps!
Picture Jeroen Booij
The boys drove London-Brighton just prior to bringing the cars over to Lithuania - a jiffy!
Picture Jeroen Booij
Guy showing his latest feature on the Mini Marcos. Air conditioning! And it had three internal positions too: Cabin (as shown); Feet (inside part turned down); Rain (inside part turned up)
Picture Jeroen Booij
Guy and Andy also took the cars to the Autotest to race against each other
Picture Jeroen Booij
The course was very narrow but the boys were pretty quick. Andy was slightly faster if I recall right
Picture Fabian Kirchenberger
But Guy's performance was least as impressive, flying the flag for England
Picture Fabian Kirchenberger
Speaking about impressive: how about a Freestyle driven over from Somerset?! I understand it was the company's owner Dave Smart who did just that, but unfortunately I didn't catch up with him
Picture Jeroen Booij
Now that's a neat idea. And very cheap too!
Picture Jeroen Booij
Your source for obsolete spares - and knowledge! Nick Rogers and Co. were there, too
Picture Jeroen Booij
Another brave traveller - the Mk2 Scamp of Alan Bland, all the way from Cumbria
Picture Jeroen Booij
Alan also took his Scamp to the auto testing track and certainly knew how to use the handbrake!
Picture Jeroen Booij
I catched up with Jouke Boersen and girlfriend Daphne of The Netherlands who brought over their Mini Marcos - an ongoing project with lots of work carried out yet
Picture Jeroen Booij
It's yellow now, but it's had several colour changes throughout the years, as Jouke shows here.
Thanks for the coffee mate!
Picture Jeroen Booij
Another Mk4 Mini Marcos was bought in Sweden by Jan Pettersson just prior to the event. He lives in France and will now be driving the car back to his French home!
Picture Jeroen Booij
Jan told me he doesn't know much about the car's history but this sticker may suggest it was an original import to Sweden. More info here
Picture Jeroen Booij
It has a full roll bar and there were several indications of attempts to make it lighter. For racing?
Picture Jeroen Booij
Unusual but very nice rear lights, too. Who knows the source of these?
Picture Jeroen Booij
Nice Dutch registered Domino Pimlico on 13 inch wheels
Picture Jeroen Booij
And a neat Midas Gold convertible from Darmstadt, Germany
Picture Jeroen Booij
MINI of Munich brought the Mengers four-door Mini over to Lithuania, previously seen here
Picture Jeroen Booij
And they were so kind to lend me and a colleague this car to tour Lithuania. This local lady liked it
Picture Jeroen Booij
And then she wanted to show us her place and offered us coffee and biscuits. There was, however, a bit of a language barrier - putting things mildly
Picture Jeroen Booij
Fortunately this duo of youngsters walked past and were happy to act as translators. After the coffee we gave them a ride to their home in the Mini, which they loved!
Picture Jeroen Booij
Lithuania is beautiful and the Lituanians are friendly people. The event took place on a peninsula close to Zarasai which turned out to be a fantastic spot for a meeting like this
Picture Fabian Kirchenberger