Saturday had been a busy day for us and Sunday turned out to be more of the same.

We got up at school time and were out of the door at 8.30 in order to be at Reading MINI for a get together with fellow MINI fanatics at an event organised by LUXE MINI.

We have made a lot of new friends in the MINI community as a direct result of being in the Welsh MINI group and we enjoy meeting these people once again as well as old, old friends from the MINI scene such as Andy, who now rides a wicked looking black F56 MINI JCW. Coffee, tea, pastries and burgers were provided by LUXE MINI, which was very kind of them, as they did all they could to ensure it was an enjoyable day for everyone. In truth beautiful sunshine all day ensured this.

We spent much of the day ambling about with Andy, admiring the new cars together as well as the cars of fellow MINI enthusiasts. We had driven down in ThunderBeast our MINI GP, which does look rather stunning having had some body repairs and wheel refurbishments done. Chris loved the drive and really gets tuned into the car with its addictive supercharger whine and instant power that seems to kick you in the back of your seat. When we arrived we were able to park next to Andy on the LUXE stand and ThunderBeast certainly looked the part even next to the very exotic and expensive MINIs on show.

We said hello to our new pals from the Welsh MINI Group, who have some fantastic cars. Sue has a lovely GP2, Morgan has a wicked looking F56 Works automatic, which I really love and Denise has a very individual look that apes Paul Smith with lots of stripes being her theme. Later in the day Denise won a prize for guessing the number of balloons in a MINI. She won a black diamond stitched MINI bag which was a cracking prize.

Inside the dealership was a beautiful Cooper S all4 drive Clubman with a very high spec, coming out at just over £40,000. We both loved it and decided that we would make some enquiries about the New Clubman Works at our home dealership. I suspect the figures won’t add up but we can only ask! This is what happens when you stay in the scene, you get sucked in to spending money!

After lunch we had a short MINI run which was great fun and we drove through some lovely bits of Berkshire. There were a lot of exhausts making a lot of popping noises and ThunderBeast did not disgrace himself by any means. Back at the dealership we had a last piece of carrot cake and a coffee before heading for home. It really was a good fun day, well organised by LUXE MINI and made so much better by the healthy turn out from the Welsh MINI Group members who were prepared to venture a fair way from their home territory. Thanks To LUXE and WMG for bringing so much fun to the day – we loved it!