MIR 2022 in Sweden, registration opens tomorrow

I think I spotted a Karif and a Shamal? That 650hp Ghibli II looks like a Cup car with a 3200GT V8 stuffed in it. My Open Cup is quite tail happy with it's near 400HP 2.0L V6. I imagine that Ghibli must be a handful. Thanks for the write up and photos. Looks like everyone had a good time.

 

The food was indeed exceptional but I do not recall if we had "Rudolf on a bun".

Ivan

 

Thank you Fredric @FastFreddie for the complementary issue of your Swedish Maserati Club magazine!
Excellent quality and excellent coverage of the Båstad MIR 2022.. I will read it cover to cover this evening... and see you in Barcelona next summer..!

BTW - Gasoline prices varied from 28,- Kr. to 22,- Kr. per liter while I was there.. Roughly US$11.00 per gallon.

Cheers,
- Art

 

Båstad MIR Day 2 - the day dawned bright with sun on the morning dew... A great day for the Rally, the Consourse and the Gala Dinner!

.. I have hundreds of pictures, and even that hardly sums up the epic day.. The Rally was tremendously fun, with a whole lot of Maseratis missing the turns early on.. Ivan, Myrna and I were going to relax and rely on following cars ahead of us, but Ivan & Myrna noticed right away that turns were missed, so we stopped and held council - I opened up my Rally instructions and led us up into the hills.. Hilarious.. but it worked.!


Assembling in front of the hotel for timed send-offs ..
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Early morning dew on Håvard's Mistral
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Early morning in the hotel courtyard..
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Rally instructions and steering with one hand, gears shift with the other..
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Heading up into the hills overlooking the ocean..
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Rally checkpoint ..
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Local scenery ..
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Great driving conditions, very little traffic..
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This was a timed segment with quiz questions.. tricky and fun! .. and a beautiful day for it..
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A short stop with Ivan & Myrna.. !
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Hello Art and FastFreddie...

Thank you for sharing the pictures from MIR-2022.. It is wonderful to see the camaraderie and wonderful fun
everyone was having! Maserati always brings smiles !!!

Mike

 

Art love the reports, thanks for posting but I think you forgot one thing in your "tool and spares kit": your tuxedo/black tie.

 

Thank your for sharing the gallery Fredric, great photos pity there wasn't such a gallery after the 2010 MIR also in Båstad but those were different days.

I like this one, Khamsin AM120-218 at Anderstorp circuit, it looks particularly sleek here. photo by Henrik Hoff.

In May 2014 I enjoyed a dinner in Stockholm with you Fredric as you recall and Fredrik A. and H. U. the owner of this car which was parked right in front of our table; a nice view.

This car was owned in its early days by a friend of HRH King Carl Gustav XVI who is a car enthusiast so he may have driven it back then, who knows.


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More pictures from Rally Day at Båstad MIR 2022 ... !

You couldn't ask for a better image of the fun we had on the Rally.. and the whole weekend..
This is Ivan and Myrna, in Fredric's Mistral.. this ended up in the MIR 2022 issue of the Swedish Maserati Club Magazine..
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Yours truly - it's very seldom I end up in front of the camera..
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Very nice weather to enjoy very nice roads in the very nice landscape of Skåne, Sweden..
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Following the Rally instructions correctly brought us to lunch at Vapnø, an Estate Farm with all locally produced foods ..
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Ivan, Fredric and Myrna..
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Lunch was outstanding.. the company too, as always!
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After lunch.. Back outside to continue the Rally Second Half.. Loud noises from the Dutch Mistral Spyder revealed a cracked exhaust header.. Drivable, but the Dutch couple retired for the day.. Super nice people, those two.
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Classic southern Swedish countryside ..
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.. then we took a longer than expected break when we stopped in at the surprisingly interesting "Svedino's Bil och Flyg Museum Ugglarp" aka "Svedino's Car and Airplane Museum Ugglarp".. !
Myrna relaxed in the shade with some refreshments, while Ivan and I went inside..
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..we were stumped from the very first car we laid our eyes on.. Ivan, do you recall what it was called? Not a Steyer..
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Two SAAB prototypes.. Background is the prototype SAAB Draken, a Cold War twice-supersonic double-deltawing interceptor, the foreground is a far slower two-stroke SAAB icon.
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Swedish SAAB has a long and continuing history of successful aircraft design and manufacture - and intentional national policy to remain militarily as independent and self-sufficient as possible.. This is the Viggen, a canard-winged, multirole platform - intercept, ground attack, maritime attack, reconnaissance - famed for its STOL capabilities.
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It's probably been a long time since you've seen a Puch.. by the time I lived there, I only knew the name for the 50cc mopeds they built and I'd see driven to the local paperpulp factory by middle-aged men in little white helmets with black chin straps.
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A flattering view of a production model SAAB Draken, and it's elegant Mach 2 double-delta wing.. and a German WW2 Junkers Ju-52..
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An eclectic mix for sure..
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Many I'd never heard of.. this is one of a handful of Graf & Stift cars... apparently very high-end, built in Vienna, Austria.. this is the only 1911 model known to still exist, what's left of it. Discovered by some divers, and pulled out of a lake.. Its last days were apparently spent in 1922, at the hands of two Swedish 30-somethings who tried earning a livelihood as taxi-drivers. But it was too expensive to operate such a rare and thirsty beast. It disappeared one day and the guys filed an insurance claim. They were primary suspects of fraud, and even the lake was scrutinized, but there it remained until March 21, 1964. Since it's discovery, others have came forward claiming to know its origin and rumors of aristocratic love triangles and chicanery have emerged..
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Cheers!

 

I have a car just like the maroon Mistral. I see head rests but mine doesn't have them. Are the headrests original to the Mistral at the Swedish gathering?

 

Let's see if FastFreddie chimes in - that Mistral belongs to him..
- Art

 

That is really interesting as I imagine that the adding of head rest must have been a very rare request. I wonder what the factory charged for that option?

 

... the little yellow car is a "Adler" (factory located in Frankfurt / Germany) type "Trumpf Junior Sport" (1934 - 1940) - 995 ccm - 25 PS ...

 

Don't forget these were bespoke cars, special requests were more the norm than the exception.
Some S.R. pages make for fascinating reading.
Successful Gents or ladies who wanted their Maserati just so. All in good taste too.

 

Kindly forgive my absence, I had the First World problem of being distracted by a couple of purchases that took a lot more of my time than I expected...

So, I left off on the afternoon of the second day - Rally Day - of the MIR Båstad Sweden.. The first stage of the Rally took us to a fantastic lunch at a farm-to-table estate farm at Wäpnø, if I recall the spelling correctly..

The second half of Rally day was more driving out in the countryside of Skåne in southern Sweden.. we stopped at the museum, chock full of interesting vehicles of the ground and air.. Enjoyed some ice cream while we were there.. Then we picked up our route book and got back on the road..

Definitely a special kind of camaraderie when you're all driving the same brand cars..
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The Dutch don't have a monopoly on vintage windmills..
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After driving on inland roads, the latter part of the drive was along the shoreline of the Baltic..
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The rearview from my cockpit..
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...

 

We drove back to the hotel for prepping, display and voting at the evening's Concourse d'Elegance .. I enjoyed the variety of models I rarely get to scrutinize in my circles.. The QPs, the various 80's BiTurbo derivatives.. all fascinating to see.. There just aren't many Maseratis in everyday life, or even at shows..

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This QPII had some reportedly unusual interior color.. custom ordered by an oil Sheik?
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A really fun Swiss couple drive this QPII up from the Alps.. of course the color is Cioccolato..
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A gorgeous QPI..
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And even though I characterize these as BiTurbo derivatives, I'm sure that is an insulting oversimplification.. each one was unique.. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

QPIII not QPII

 

After the Concourse, everyone who had them donned tuxes and evening gowns to enjoy cocktails, and conversation.. Another fabulous dinner was served, with some of the delicious wine complimentary of Göran, a member of the Swedish Maserati Club (and owner of a vineyard, not to mention a freshly restored red, early model Bora sourced from a private long term owner on Sicily).. After dinner The Concourse results were announced and prizes handed out by our Swedish hosts....
Then the dancing commenced..!

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My new friends for the Gala dinner were Pedro Cappelle editor 'Alfieri' magazine, a Swedish businessman, and a Norwegian family of which the wife grew up in the same town as my mom - !
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The meals we were served were excellent..
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Presenting awards, very thoughtful, even to the youngest of participants!
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I think this was for Best of Show - a Ghibli Spyder..
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I was awarded a prize... with a unique art piece by a famous Swedish glass artist.. !
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After which a lot of drinking and fun ensued..
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... long into the wee hours...

 

Sadly the last morning of the MIR 2022 Båstad, Sweden arrived.. We enjoyed an ample breakfast and nursed the various effects of the late night before..
The closing event of the morning was speeches of gratitude and gifts of appreciation given by Presidents of the Maserati Clubs who had participated. Representatives from Belgium, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, The UK, etc spoke... I thought this was a really nice piece of camaraderie to see.. the friendship and joy surrounding Maseratis we had shared all weekend..

..for the finale the Spanish Maserati Club were announced as hosts of MIR 2023, Barcelona being the host destination.. and the President of the Spanish Maserati Club gave a presentation of what participants could expect.. The dates are September 14th through the 18th.. so mark your calendars and start preparing for the trip. Based on my experiences at MIR 2022, the whole thing is a fantastic opportunity to combine travel and Maseratis with fun, food and friendship..

My day ended with the drive back to Norway, only about 5 hours.. I linked up with Yngve, Helge and Jens Holger for the trip.. I ran a little fast and got separated from them in a rainsquall.. but soon found myself sharing the road with Håvard and Anna in their Mistral and Levante.. we stopped for lunch just before saying goodbye and crossing into Norway, where I caught up with my family for an afternoon snack..

The morning arrived with brilliant sunshine.. Here is what I called the Finnish 'Mafia', QPI.. super fun guys..
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Robert Torp, wiping down his and Marianne's new MC20..
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Breakfast..
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Our Swedish host, aka FastFreddie...
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Gifts of appreciation from the Norwegian Maserati Club leadership..
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Frederic hands the mic to (Felix) the Spanish Maserati Club president..
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Then it was time to head up E6 back to Norway... The weather was looking ... interesting.. I checked my wipers worked.
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The rain came down pretty hard, but I didn't take any wrong turns.. Just stayed on E6 north towards Oslo..
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Then I found Håvard and Anna, and we drove together to a lunch in Sweden just before the border..
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The drive back to Norway...

Håvard, Anna and I stopped for lunch before crossing into Norway.. "Two of these things are not like the others.."
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The bridge at the Svinesund border-crossing... Norway is on the other side..
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Got off at my exit and stood on the overpass waiting to get a pic of Håvard and Anna in their Maseratis.. I knew they were a few minutes behind me.. I stood for some ten minutes.. and of course I glanced away for a few moments when I heard the exhaust note of a straight six go under the bridge... !&%#%$@~~ ++++!! I missed them! LOL.. Murphy's Law recognizes no national boundaries.
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In Norway, heading to my brother's summer house..
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Fresh coffee, a light lunch.. and family.. My two brothers and their wives, plus my mom..
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The Bora did really well, completely reliable after the initial belt and coolant hose repairs... and I enjoyed many more miles in Norway..
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A huge THANK YOU to @FastFreddie and all his Swedish Maserati Club volunteers who made MIR Båstad Sweden a pleasure and a success!

See you in Barcelona! Here is the link -
https://mir2023spain.com
- Art

 

It was a fantastic event and I would do it again in a heartbeat!!

Ivan