The Return of the Yellow Beast, a Famous Scott, and Fourteen Minutes After Eleven

Day two of the adventure of the Yellow Beast.

As you might recall, yesterday we left our hero in the clutches of Flow Mini, the closest authorized Mini Cooper service center. The poor beast’s check engine light was on, the driver side door had a nasty habit of randomly closing on humans entering the car, and a faint scent of anti-freeze wafted into the cockpit whenever the air conditioning blew. Closest Flow Mini might be, but for a family that lives on Tiger Mountain it’s still a ninety-minute drive. On the up side, there’s a Waffle House on the way.

Well, the jury filed into the courtroom mid afternoon with their verdict. The engine is running lean because there’s a slight split on the header (exhaust pipe to you non-gear heads), the door just needed a new door break brake, and a small crack in the anti-freeze reservoir caused the sickly-sweet wafting through the cockpit. Of course--of-flipping-course (because this is a Mini dealer) they found more stuff to bring to my attention, stuff that is probably caused by a driver with Jim Clark delusions (i.e. me). 

Unfortunately, I have a country road problem. Put me on four lanes, and I’m a model citizen. Slap me onto the twisty roads that populate the hills surrounding my house, and I’m a demented bat out of hell.

Anyway, to make a lengthy story less so, once again we need to make the four hour round trip. I’ll let you know how it goes.

And here’s something completely different. Those of you who came here today wishing to read about more than my love affair with a 2004 Mini S, watch the trailer below. 11:14 is great, twisty, quirky, mystery thriller. It’s on Netflix. You can stream it.