Cooper-o-rama
Ace staff photographer Walt Mancini and I were talking today about reading L.A. Times hilarious genius car critic Dan Neil's take Wednesday in his "Rumble Seat" column on the newest Mini Cooper, the Clubman.
I drive a Cooper -- a red and white '04. Walt drives that rare, Batmobile-style hatchback version of the BMW Z series. We both love our cars. Neil loves the Clubman. I said, "So I was thinking that maybe Phoebe should get a Clubman." Walt said, "Yeah! I was thinking Gloria should get one!"
Then I told Walt about driving by the very cool Pasadena British Motors on Walnut several blocks east of Lake recently, with tons of old, original Coopers outside. He went by and took the above shot. It turns out that very few of the beauties are for sale -- they're in for repair, and that's what those signs on their windscreens are all about: "Sorry, dude: This one is mine!"
Yeah, that's a Ferrari in the background. God knows what it's doing among the street-legal go-karts.