Thanks to MINI and the guys at Pistonheads, I found myself doing an epic road trip to film a promo for MINI with fellow JCW owners,
Chris in his R53 and Ian in his F56, our presenter/host for the week Dan, and Ben and Sam from PH who shared two of the brand
new 306bhp JCW Clubmans. Completing our team were film crew Shona, Robbie and Adam.
This is a little summary of our trip, and will hopefully make some sense alongside the film: https://youtu.be/cW2yshD6BNk
Day 1: starting early on the Tuesday in Fort William, quick breakfast and we headed up somewhere around Ben Nevis for some photos
and to get kitted out with go-pros, walkie talkies and sound gear. I say somewhere around, because I'm not exactly sure where,
but that's where the intro shots were taken.
From here we did the first of many tracking runs in close formation behind the camera car. Having done a run over the twisty bits, Robbie
would come over the airwaves 'perfect guys... now let's do it again, two more times'. The campers started to take notice, and even the local
sheep stopped munching for a brief second, wondering what was going on. I think they were all hoping to sneak into shot from the drone
which Robbie had taken up into the air. First of many pitstops where we took the opportunity to fill up.
Down into Glencoe for more of the above, and we'd use the drone again for the arial shots. The lay-by we'd use to set up was
empty when we arrived, but on return 2 buses had arrived, with tourists everywhere. As curiosity grew, they would take photos of us being
filmed while we took photos of the hills.... strange.
Onwards via the Ballachulish bridge, several passes there for the drone, and along the edge of Loch Lomond, stopping for some photos
and to allow Chris to have a paddle, before the drive to our overnight stop in the lake district.
Realising we'd missed our dinner booking at the hotel, we had a curry in the local village before hitting the hotel for a cheeky nightcap.
This was a long day.
Day 2: a bit more time for breakfast, then out to get the cars clean again, before heading to Scaffel Pike. My first time here, and as impressed
with the scenery here in England as I had been in my native Scotland. Sadly the low cloud meant we couldn't see the very top.
After another morning of tracking, and posing for the cameras, we'd head to Morecambe for the seaside ice creams. That didn't quite go
according to plan for me, the combination of twisty roads, close driving trying to keep up with the others, and the weather saw me with a
spot of travel sickness, so no ice cream for me.
But after a wee nap, I soldiered on, and we found ourselves in the hills in North Wales. Still plenty of daylight, we were able to get some
more tracking in on some fantastic roads, sheep and cattle mostly kept out of our way too.
Day 3: lovely cooked breakfast, and today we had hot water on the hosepipe, but not much room for washing 4 cars. Now our 3rd and
final peak, Snowdon. Again we had low cloud, but only the very top was hidden. I had a lot of fun filming on the pass up the side, just as
well the number of runs we did, shame it was too windy for the drone but Robbie and Adam were quickly up the rocks for better angles.
Looking like something from the Alps, and possibly the favourite little stretch of road for me, all that was missing was Matt Munro playing in
the background.
Lunchtime around the Evo triangle area, at a waterports centre. From here we'd all get a chance to drive the new cars, with Dan alongside,
and solo when the other car was spare. Trying launch control for the first time, I sat with my mouth open for an age, then started to giggle
like a little kid.
And that was us. Well, not quite, we had an overnight stop in Bangor, great chance for us to have a lovely steak and discuss pretty much
anything car related. The Friday, well that's going to have to wait for pt2.
It was a great experience, interesting to see what's involved in making something like this, and our 3 days for the 4:16 of film. Every stop
during the day saw us cleaning the cars to maintain appearances, sprays and microfibres were just a blur. I'm sure I even saw Chris clean
his wheels at a set of lights.
If you compare us to those 3 mates who we've all watched doing road trips over the years, you know, the big shouty one, the slow old grumpy
one, and the small crashy one, well it turns out I'm the slow one.
The new JCWs are brilliant, fast, comfy, sure-footed, I'd have one in Emerald Grey with a white roof. I enjoyed the trip in my 9yr old Clubby,
drove it faster than I'd done up until this point. But the one we'd probably all like, even if just for the weekends was the R53... yeeha!
Thanks again to all involved, for your company, expertise, organisation, super unleaded, and patience.
Mike
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Originally Posted by Alasdair JCW
