con sordino

For those of you who think I'm taking the whole MINI process a little too seriously, bear in mind two things:

1) This is the first time ever that I'm buying precisely the car I want.

2) They encourage this sort of thing themselves, with their marketing and even with the cheeky online tracking pages. Note the goofy birth metaphor in today's page from order tracking:

Your MINI has been scheduled for production and will begin to move through the "birth canal" at our Oxford plant, one of the most modern and advanced production facilities in all of Europe. With our extremely rigorous quality control standards in place, you should rest well knowing that your baby is in the best of hands.

Yes, as of Friday, the MINI was scheduled for production, and as of today it's IN production with a scheduled completion (birth) date of February 26.

One thing I've learned thus far, and I mention this for any of you who may consider a future MINI purchase: the automated phone hotline is much more detailed and up-to-date than the webpage. The webpage didn't reflect the change to Scheduled status until today, and it makes no further distinction between Scheduled For and In Production. Trust the phone line, that's my advice.

Now, I could be really obsessive and get even more detail by pestering a live phone representative - other bloggers have done so, but I'm not going to go there. So this should be the last MINI update for a while until the 26th. Then things will get really geeky as I bust out the satellite tracking of my MINI on its seaborne journey.

You have to love the Internets for stuff like this.

As of today, my new car is officially in the MINI ordering system and on its way to being built. I'll try not to bore you with all of the day-to-day minutiae, but thanks to the magic of the online tracking system there may be a few updates along the way.

Anyway, here's a look at my soon-to-be-born MINI as I configured it. Eugenics at work, baby!

It's a Cooper S (the faster 168hp supercharged version) Convertible, with lots of bells & whistles and chrome. It also has a Limited Slip Differential for extra auto-geek coolness and better handling in swervy situations.

People compare the handling to a go-kart, but my goal is to fly the thing as if it's a WWI airplane that just happens to be stuck to the ground. Go-go 7G turns!

The dealership was initially anticipating I might get it as soon as late February, but now it's looking close to mid-March.

The line forms here for top-down roadtrips. Warning: You must be taller than 32 inches to board this ride.