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Tassie Trip

Submitted: Friday, Mar 02, 2007 at 10:32

Wayne (NSW)

14 days, 2800km, 11 Mini Cooper S (new models) and a new BMW X5 3lt turbo diesel.

Picked up the X5 from BMW Australia Melbourne with just over 4000km on the clock. From there a short drive to the Spirit of Tasmania and the over night trip to Devonport.

Friday afternoon in Melbourne is not the place to try out a $82000, 150Kw, 480Nm, 6 speed auto, loan vehicle.

Once off the ferry and on the open road to Launceston was a different matter. I was told by the salesman at BMW not to touch a switch which turns off the vehicle stability control and to only put it in drive. The VSC I thought was a good idea, stops wheel spin and does a lot of other stuff.(just like my Troopie), but to change gear on a 6 speed auto box was just too much.

From drive it is very easy to knock the leaver to the left and this put the gear box into 5th gear. From there forward to go down through the gears and back to go up. A eye on the tacho to know when to change as the motor is very quite and smooth, (just like the Troopie). 1800 rpm and it was cruising at 100 kph in 6th gear.

So smooth and quick, into a corner down a gear or two and power out (just like the Troopie). The X5 would do it quick, but not as quick as the 11 Minis that I was back up for. Even though they could easily travel at twice the speed limit, it was the corners that they would take at the road speed and pull away from any other vehicle on the road. The windy roads is what the Mini want and Tasmania has a lot of them.

14 days was only just enough time to have a quick look around the island but with a good itinerary most of the must see places were covered. Tasmania is also in the grip of a drought in some places with fires burning. We went to a Berry farm that had only been going for a couple of years and was hoping to break even this year when a fire came through and wiped out most of his crop. Just like many others that have had set backs because of the fires, he will keep the doors open and battle through.

Every where we went we seemed to draw a few looks. We also came across a few other same model conveys. A Mini Moke club from Victoria were at the Pub in the Paddock when we were there and couple of MG's were following us around.
Three EO stickers were also spotted. A Defender 110, just outside "Do" town, a Prado around St Helens and a Troopie at Port Arthur.

Minis don't carry a spare tyre and that was the reason that I was following them around. BMW make the Mini now and that is why I had the X5, to carry two spare tyres. There were no flats on the trip so my main task for the trip was to make sure nobody got lost. This was made easy as most of the vehicles had on board navigation or a after market unit. The X5 didn't have the navigation built in but it did have a TV, that I did watch only to see New Zealand beat Australia in the cricket.

Speaking of New Zealand, that is where we are hoping to go next year with the Mini club.

The X5 was good and did return a average of 10l/100km but I still like the Troopie better.

Wayne
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AnswerID: 224903   Submitted: Friday, Mar 02, 2007 at 10:54

Gob & Denny replied:

goodday wayne
sounds like an interesting trip yuo didnt happen to call in and fill up at our eo member who has not long returned from up north ???
i had a mini 1100 years ago and it was great on the corners

steve
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FollowupID: 485890   Submitted: Friday, Mar 02, 2007 at 11:47

Des Lexic posted:

Steve, just a quick question to clarify a point.
Did you have a "mini 1100" years ago or a "mini" 1100 years ago? LOL
It's not the years of your life that matters, it's the life in your years that count.
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FollowupID: 485892   Submitted: Friday, Mar 02, 2007 at 11:54

Gob & Denny posted:

goodday des
as in the mini cooper mini cooper s range was a mini 1100

steve
steve with beard & hair???
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currently in broken hill for a week or so
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FollowupID: 485896   Submitted: Friday, Mar 02, 2007 at 12:06

Member - John L G posted:

I think it was called a "Morris 1100"...

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John G
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AnswerID: 224910   Submitted: Friday, Mar 02, 2007 at 12:14

Member - John (Vic) replied:

Hi Wayne
Good to see BMW have started to produce vehicles close to the calibre of the best 4wd ever produced.

I heard they were trying set up a deal with Toyota to get Troopies re badged as BMW's awhile ago seems it fell through so they thought they could try and build there own and call them X5's. :-)

Cheers
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AnswerID: 224941   Submitted: Friday, Mar 02, 2007 at 16:16

Member - Oldplodder (QLD) replied:

Still trying to figure out why 11 minis need a back up car?
Are they that unreliable now? :o0

(Ex mini driver - deluxe and cooper S - never had any problems that were serious.)

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John C - aka Oldplodder
In touring mode, the way it should be.
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AnswerID: 225121   Submitted: Saturday, Mar 03, 2007 at 19:22

Member - Phil G (SA) replied:

Gday Wayne,
WE just got back from Tassie today. Didn't cross paths. We spent our first week on the west coast then some time south of Hobart and Port Arthur.

Yep, it sure was dry over there.
Mt Finke
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