Star garages - The Good, the Rusty, and the Delayed - (yet another) FTP for the Mini

[IronStar]

Since the last outing, Mini started acting, working on 3 cylinders, and belching white smoke, all of which cleared up after 30s or so of running. 

Strike number 1

Two days ago, the alternator stopped alternating properly. It was rebuilt 3000km ago, with everything brand new inside. I went to spray the screen and turned on the wipers to have the radio turn off, and was greeted with:

Strike number 2.

Today was Serbia's biggest, fanciest car meet. Sign-up process, invite only, all the jazz. Mini was selected to come join. I got it washed it yesterday in preparation, made it all nice. Started this morning, worked like shit, cleared up, drove there. It was already booked with the specialist to see what the actual fuck is it THIS TIME. Spent a day with a bunch of friends, spoke to tons of people. Mini garnered a lot of attention, even though there was so much more to see there. Case in point:

Random selection of cars from today, before it all went to shit:

        

Went for a lunch. I was one of the last cars left in the lot, as we finished with lunch after the meet ended. Went to start it. It spluttered, but didn't start. Tried again. And again. And 50 more times. I was physically restrained by a friend not to jump on the roof, cave it in, and set the fucking car on fire. It acted like it didn't have enough fuel, so despite leaving it parked with a bit under 1/4 we went to get a bottle of fuel, mostly to give me time to calm the fuck down and not destroy the car.

Came back an hour later with 6L. Still didn't start. Tried bump starting it. Still didn't start. There's fuel. There's air. There's power. I didn't have a wrench to check spark plugs. Called several people for ideas, with the most reasonable one being "it probably hydrolocked, stop molesting it and put it on a tow truck". So I threw in the towel, and I did. The sole car out of some 200 in attendance that didn't leave the show under its own steam. FML.

Strike fucking 3.

Looking pretty, waiting for the big yellow bus.

The guy who is working on it seems more depressed by the fact that it disgraced itself than me. I calmed down after the initial desire to set it on fire, and am now just shrugging it off. He says that this is the sole car in his 30-odd works off working on Minis in various states of (dis)repair that came back on a tow truck, let alone multiple times, and is completely at a loss as to why it is dead AGAIN. He'll give it another thorough onceover, and something tells me that no bolt will be left unturned, no component unchecked 3x, and compared against various, known good, new, and NOS bits he has, and anything remotely suspicious replaced with the best part he has. 

This car really has been a little whiny cunt since I first got it, and has left me stranded more times than all my other cars in 14 years of driving, combined. I really hope it finally decides to work for a while and leave me be. I just got home in Bravo, reminded why having AC is a good thing, as it was completely misted up, with no AC to hurry the demisting, but happy it's dry, warm, runs, and sounds magnificent. As a memorabilia, I have one unused C&C license plate cover, Top Gear magazine, two stickers, and a cut finger.

In case you wanna see more cars from the show, it's well worth checking out https://www.instagram.com/carsandcoffeeserbia/, as there were some absolutely marvelous cars. Proper coverage will probably be on the website in a week or so.

To be continued....