CELEBRATIONS surround this week’s road test car – the MINI JCW. The Mini is 50 in ’09…

So, via Flickr, here’s my images of what it’s like!

(Turbo)charge on over there, to see what you think.

And feel free to leave any comments you wish!

Audi A6 3.0T photostream on Flickr

BMW Z4 photostream on Flickr

Bentley Continental GTC Speed photostream on Flickr

THIS has come a bit too soon for me: on 18 and 19 April, the Dunlop Great & British Motor Festival arrives at Rockingham…

… and the circuit is appealing for owners of the country’s best original Minis to get in touch!

It’s looking for pristine examples of the Mini to showcase in a special display area. To be up for consideration,  owners need to email in pictures of their cars, plus reasons why they should be there.

Six chosen ones will be invited to display their cars on the weekend of the event. They’ll be rewarded with two special fully-inclusive weekend circuit passes for doing so.

Ah, if only I had a Mini! But, unless two miracles happen – I both find a car, and find one good enough to be worthy of display – I’ll have to go along, like thousands of others, as a fan.

No worries there, though: Rockingham is opening the huge Champ Car bowl during the weekend, for a special Mini convoy. Indeed, circuit owners reckon they’re going to give the World Record for biggest Mini convoy EVER a go…

Also set to draw punters is a weekend’s Mini racing, including the always-dramatic Mini Se7en Championship and MINI Cooper Challenge.

If you do own a Mini, and want it considered for the special display, email mini@rockingham.co.uk.

Otherwise be sure to join me on the weekend, and ogle at thousands of icons on display.

Hey – even better – if you’ve got one for sale, you could even ping me before the weekend, and arrange to meet up…

Have I (again) solved the great Mini search?

Can you help me buy a Mini in 2009?

Mini fixes easy to come by

We motoring journos are a lucky lot. We drive a heck of a lot of cars – this week alone, I’ve had an Audi A5, a Merc A 150, plus the current steed, a Toyota Avensis estate.

The trick, Chris ‘Drivers Republic’ Harris told me, during work experience at Autocar back in the day, is to approach it thus.

Whenever you’re driving, you’re working.

Good motoring journos don’t drive and switch off, he said. They’re thinking, comparing, contrasting, questioning. And this, curiously, makes even the dullest cars interesting. WHY are the brakes on a Citroen C3 so tiresome? WHAT is it about the ride quality of an Avensis on 18”s that’s so contradictory? And so on.

This creates problems for the cars we drive in our spare time. Here, we’re looking for drug cars – a quick-hit fix of insanity, that we can get into and be wired straight into. Ones with immediacy. Long-distance seat lumbar support and high-speed wind noise suppression is less vital.

It’s why most motoring journos’ stables are so nutty. Lord knows, when some of us do meet up for a tea in deepest Wales on Saturday mornings, the sort of stuff you see is crazy: stripped 205 GTIs, Clio Cups, Caterhams, scratch-built 1950s MGs, Minis with Honda engines, really dodgy old bikes, even dodgier old BMW 6 Series with no interior trim, etc and so forth.

Me? Golf GTI MkII. It was. Until this week.

Now I need an original Mini.

I drove a single-seater at Silverstone, you see. Bit random, but there is a connection: I Loved it. Had forgotten just how special they are. Remembered what a buzz ‘pure’ motoring is. And the logical way of recreating this is with a noisy, uncomfortable, hard-riding old Mini.

With, of course, impeccable FWD handling, plus feel, intensity and spirit by the bucketload. I can tinker with it, get involved in the scene, maybe even bang a VTEC in it at some point. All for well under a grand for my favoured route of 1980s Mayfair (for the uber discreet look – and velour – no?).

How wrong could I be.

Minis. Not cheap, are they? As in, thousands. Grands. Many of. Oh, my.

So now, I’m a journo on a mission. To find a good 1980s Mayfair, for decent money. Does such a thing exist? For obvious reasons, I think I need one by this August, which gives us plenty of time. Are they out there?

And in the meantime, if anyone can offer me a quick-fire education course on buying and running all things Issigonis masterpiece (that’s not dissin’ the 9X and ADO17, of course), do please take the opp. I think I’ll be needing it…