Yesterday saw one of the biggest regular event on the MINI calendar; the MINI Cooper Day at Beaulieu.  Organised by the MINI Cooper Register, this amazing event has taken place every year for twenty-four years. Having attended for the last six years I can testify to the fact that the amount of Classic and New MINI’s on display continues to increase year-on-year.  The show is now twice the size it was when I first visited Beaulieu in 2005; a healthy sign for a car entering it’s fifty-first year of production.

One of the best aspects of this show is the sheer amount of space available at Beaulieu.  The motor museum is surrounded by acres of lush countryside and every time you think this event will run out of space they just open another field!

Along with several other members of South Coast New MINI, I headed down early to help erect our stand.  The benefit of having so much space available meant you could have parked all 25 of our cars on our stand and still had space to stage a small football tournament.  Two other excellent New MINI clubs, with whom SCNM share many members, helped to expand the inaugural New MINI area of the show.  TotalMINI and Surry New MINI are both stuffed full of dedicated and fun members old and new and if you’re new to the MINI scene there is no better way of beginning your journey than to check out all three clubs.  Join a club and you realise there are thousands just as crazy as you are!

Of course, MINI Cooper Day began as a Classic MINI event.  As such, the amount of classics on display is amazing.  When you stand and look across the sea of happy little cars it seems as if every Classic MINI in the country is assembled in one place.  As always, there is also a small collection of MINI celebrities on hand reminiscing about the history of the biggest little car in the world.  As well as rally legend Paddy Hopkirk and BMC team manager Stuart Turner, we were also joined by TV chef James Martin.

You can enjoy a gallery of photos here.