LEROYPENNYSAVER&NEWS -AUGUST3, 2014
TheDay TheMini Coopers Come To LeRoy
August 8th
byLynneBelluscio
The notewas onmy chair. “A
man wants to know if the Mini
Cooper Cross Country Road
Rally can stop at the Jell-O
Gallery. He says there will be
350Mini Coopers and wants to
know if there isenoughparking.”
Before I gave it much thought
I called Roger back and said,
“We’ll find the parking. We
certainly want to welcome you
to the Jell-OGallery.”
What I learned was that the
MiniCooperswill bearrivingon
themorningofFriday,August 8.
Theywillonlybe inLeRoyabout
anhour.Theyare leavingBuffalo
about 9 am and will be arriving
in LeRoy about 10 am and they
will check in and then leave for
theFingerLakes, finallyarriving
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for
the night.
The next day, they will leave
Bethlehem for their final stop
in Boston. These cross-country
Mini Cooper Rallys have been
going on for several years. This
year the group will leave San
Francisco on July 26 and will
stop in Reno, Nevada the next
night. Then it’son toWendover,
Utah,Grand Junction,Colorado,
Albuquerque, New Mexico,
Lubbock, Texas andAustin.
OnAugust 2 theMiniCoopers
will arrive in Dallas, the next
night inMemphis,on toSt.Louis
and Chicago. On August 6 they
visit the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame inClevelandand thendrive
toBuffalo.
Roger toldme that they like to
visit interesting sites along the
way, and what could be more
interesting inWesternNewYork
than the Jell-OMuseum? Early
the next morning I called Chris
Heyward,ChiefofPoliceand told
himmystory. Chris toldme“No
problem.Wecando that!”Hewill
makesure that350MiniCoopers
willbeable toget intoLeRoyand
back out again.
Aday later,I told thefolksat the
RotarymeetingaboutAugust the
8thandKimCox,Superintendent
of LeRoy Central School told
me that they could help out with
parking behind the Auditorium
offTrigonPark. We’ll beputting
upsomewelcome tentsonTrigon
Park with some Jell-O exhibits
because it will be impossible for
500 to 750 people to get in and
out of themuseum in an hour.
I have never been in a Mini
Cooper, sowhile Iwashavingmy
brakesworked on at BobAdams’
Automotive I askedhim if he still
had the little silver Mini Cooper
for sale. Sure enough, it’s still
for sale, and for a nano second I
thought it might be fun to have
it for a second
car, but I have to
admit, it’s like
sittingon the road,
and I really like
myTundra truck.
Mini Coopers
were the English
c omp e t i t i on
of the German
Volkswagen. They
were designed by
SirAlec Issengous
andmanufactured
by the British
Motor Company.
The radicaldesign
with a frontwheel
drive made them
roomy on the
insideand in1999,
they were voted
the second most
influential car of
the twentieth century – second to
theModel TFord.
Theywere introduced in1959,
after the 1956 gas shortage of
the Suez Canal Crisis. The
Mini Cooper won the Monte
Carlo Rally four times between
1964 and 1967. I read that one
of the design features was the
sliding glass windows in the
hollow doors, that were sized
to accommodate one bottle of
Gordon’sGin. Eventually, John
Cooper, a friend of the designer
and owner of the Cooper Car
Company, collaborated to create
theMiniCooper.Forawhile they
did not meet the
safety regulations
in the United
States, but that has
changed. Today,
the Mini Cooper
ispartof theBMW
Company.
Of course, since
I learned of the
MiniCooperRally,
the NewYork State Department
of Transportation has announced
that they will be resurfacing
Route5so Iamnot surewhatwill
happen now. And it’s going to
rain for tendays, and theparking
behind theschooloffTrigonPark
mayhave tobe changedbecause
it will be too muddy. So Chief
Haywood has put together “Plan
B”and“PlanC” just incase. But
if you’re not doing anything on
Friday morning, you just might
want to come down to Main
Street and see theMini Coopers.
It should be a sight you’ll never
see again!
