IMM 2015 Lithuania in pictures

To be honest I didn't plan to come over to Lithuania for the International Mini Meeting (IMM) that took place on a peninsula near Zarasai in the north-eastern part of the country. But when MINI invited me to go it was a chance I had to take, and I am glad I did it! It was a fantastic weekend with several people being brave enough to drive their Mini derivatives over from thousands of miles, too. This is my photographic report about it. 

My favourite derivative duo of the event: the Mini Jem Mk2 of Andy Tyndale and 

Mini Marcos Mk3 of Guy Humphries. Great seeing you there chaps!

Picture Jeroen Booij

The boys drove London-Brighton just prior to bringing the cars over to Lithuania - a jiffy!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Guy showing his latest feature on the Mini Marcos. Air conditioning! And it had three internal positions too: Cabin (as shown); Feet (inside part turned down); Rain (inside part turned up)

Picture Jeroen Booij

Guy and Andy also took the cars to the Autotest to race against each other

Picture Jeroen Booij

The course was very narrow but the boys were pretty quick. Andy was slightly faster if I recall right

Picture Fabian Kirchenberger

But Guy's performance was least as impressive, flying the flag for England

Picture Fabian Kirchenberger

Speaking about impressive: how about a Freestyle driven over from Somerset?! I understand it was the company's owner Dave Smart who did just that, but unfortunately I didn't catch up with him

Picture Jeroen Booij

Now that's a neat idea. And very cheap too!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Your source for obsolete spares - and knowledge! Nick Rogers and Co. were there, too

Picture Jeroen Booij

Another brave traveller - the Mk2 Scamp of Alan Bland, all the way from Cumbria

Picture Jeroen Booij

Alan also took his Scamp to the auto testing track and certainly knew how to use the handbrake!

Picture Jeroen Booij

I catched up with Jouke Boersen and girlfriend Daphne of The Netherlands who brought over their Mini Marcos - an ongoing project with lots of work carried out yet

Picture Jeroen Booij

It's yellow now, but it's had several colour changes throughout the years, as Jouke shows here. 

Thanks for the coffee mate!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Another Mk4 Mini Marcos was bought in Sweden by Jan Pettersson just prior to the event. He lives in France and will now be driving the car back to his French home!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Jan told me he doesn't know much about the car's history but this sticker may suggest it was an original import to Sweden. More info here

Picture Jeroen Booij 

It has a full roll bar and there were several indications of attempts to make it lighter. For racing?

Picture Jeroen Booij

Unusual but very nice rear lights, too. Who knows the source of these?

Picture Jeroen Booij

Nice Dutch registered Domino Pimlico on 13 inch wheels

Picture Jeroen Booij

And a neat Midas Gold convertible from Darmstadt, Germany

Picture Jeroen Booij

MINI of Munich brought the Mengers four-door Mini over to Lithuania, previously seen here

Picture Jeroen Booij

And they were so kind to lend me and a colleague this car to tour Lithuania. This local lady liked it

Picture Jeroen Booij

And then she wanted to show us her place and offered us coffee and biscuits. There was, however, a bit of a language barrier - putting things mildly

Picture Jeroen Booij

Fortunately this duo of youngsters walked past and were happy to act as translators. After the coffee we gave them a ride to their home in the Mini, which they loved!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Lithuania is beautiful and the Lituanians are friendly people. The event took place on a peninsula close to Zarasai which turned out to be a fantastic spot for a meeting like this

Picture Fabian Kirchenberger