Mini owners prepare to launch the next leg from Chicago on the Mini Takes the States tour.
Sherrie Savela is ready to go all the way — from coast to coast, that is, and then back again.
It’s a cool and crisp summer morning, the rising sun glinting off Lake Michigan as she grabs a quick breakfast before climbing back into her Mini Clubman. “I’m Going All the Way,” declares her T-shirt, marking her as one of more than 300 Mini owners who plan to travel from San Francisco to New York as part of the maker’s “Mini Takes the States” 15-day tour.
Actually, Savela and her husband will be going all the way twice, having headed out from her home in Connecticut to join in on the winding, 4,800-mile drive which began in the City by the Bay on July 28 and will which wrap up in Boston on August 9th. Along the way, the group has made more than a dozen stops, including this one at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, another planned for the evening at Cleveland’s Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame.
More than 350 Mini owners -- and 100 dogs, 4 cats and one lizard are going coast-to-coast.
An average of 800 local Mini owners have turned out at each of those stops – the number climbing to more than 1,000 in Chicago and Cleveland — some tagging along on the drive for a day or longer.
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Those committed to the full trip include a grandmother and her 17-year-old grandson, husbands and wives, teenagers, two Brits who didn’t bring a car but have been hitching rides with the group along the way.
And then there are the pair of Germans who had already clocked thousands of miles on their own Mini, having started out across Europe, through Russia, down to South Korea, then Japan, before having their car flown to the U.S. From Boston, their well-worn hatchback will be loaded on a ship heading back to Germany.
The coast-to-coast contingent has also included more than 100 dogs, a handful of cats, a lizard and, notes a Mini representative, “at least one stuffed animal.”
The fifth semi-annual Mini Takes the States tour, the event has grown markedly since the first one was held in 2006, not long after the British brand returned to the U.S. market after a long absence. Each time, it has grown substantially. There were just 85 cars that made the cross-country journey in 2012, compared with the 350 along for the run this year.
“I wouldn’t miss this vacation for my life,” proclaims Savela, as she surveys the crowd from the top of the steps at the entrance to Chicago’s sprawling museum. “This is the greatest community there is. You build friends. You build relationships.”
Diane Hopwood and brother Scott Cohoon - "His wife calls us a cult," she says, and she may be right.
“His wife calls us a cult,” laughs Diane Hopwood, a nurse from Grand Blanc, Michigan, who is also in for the full drive. So is her brother, Scott Cohoon, but the two of them are driving separately. “We don’t get a long,” he says with a twinkle. “She’s a Clubman. I’m a Hardtop,” he explains, referring to two of the British maker’s many different models.
Traveling along for a 4,800-mile winding route with a bunch of fellow Mini cultists takes a serious commitment on time, and there is the cost of midday meals, hotels and gas – relatively modest considering the brand’s fuel economy numbers. But for the $45 registration fee, Mini covers most of the rest, including a ticket to a Chicago White Sox game the previous night, and the entrance fee for the Hall of Fame.
It’s more than worth it, says David Duncan, head of marketing and sales for Mini’s U.S. operations. “How many other brands could pull this off?” he asks. If there’s a Mini cult, he’s determined to see it grow, Duncan’s PR team making sure to line up interviews with local reporters and TV crews at every stop along the way – while others, including TheDetroitBureau.com, are invited along for the drive.
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A zombie-fighting Mini arrives at Cleveland's Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.
“To understand this, you have to understand the passion people have about the brand,” says Duncan, as he gets ready to get into his own car in Chicago. Like much of the rest of Mini’s top management team, he’s also going all the way, handling his business duties with cellphone and tablet computer.
The marketing opportunities might be significant, but he also notes that “There are lots of things we learn, too.” The Mini brand team is constantly listening for ideas and suggestions. They’ve even equipped two cars with GoPro video cameras inside, encouraging those on the tour to express their thoughts about the trip – and Mini.
Feedback from earlier Mini Takes the States events helped the maker decide how to completely redesign the flagship Hardtop it launched earlier this year, among other things relocating some key displays and controls.
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Merit badges? One for each of the stops along the way on the 15-day tour.
With just a couple days left, the tour has gone off about as well as possible. Eight cars were involved in a minor fender-bender when they started out from Memphis once morning. Several others were later nabbed in a speed trap, ironically, just moments after being set loose after getting a police escort from the morning’s hotel. The two Germans had their car broken into while just starting out in San Francisco, but they declined Mini’s offer to repair their side window, wearing it like a badge of honor.
After a dozen days of travel, there are few signs of any frayed nerves. If anything, there’s a collective sense that the trip might be ending too soon.
“The only regret I have, says Sherrie Savela, “is that this doesn’t happen every year.”