While this site focuses on the older cars I own and drive daily, none of these cars are the primary family car. Since August of 2016, my wife has been driving a 2007 Mercedes-Benz E350 S211 wagon. This has been the primary family car until October of this year. During that time, the car covered around 88,500km over 9.3 years. It has now been...
Our final night drive for 2025 was to be a shorter one than the November Bilpin drive. Since everyone is busy around Christmas time, we moved the drive a week earlier and planned something shorter. Instead of a big drive, the focus of this one was to try a late night dessert truck in Homebush. To get at least a reasonable drive in, we...
For the last couple of years, our November night drive has taken us to Bilpin for a late night drive up Bells Line of Road for apple pie. This is a drive best done in warmer weather, so November works well before people get busy for the Christmas break. Our destination is Royal Gardenia, which is in Bilpin not far from the Blue Mountains...
I’ve noticed the oil pressure light would come on at odd times in my Citroen DS. Mostly when I would rev the engine, for example going up a hill. It would go out if I would back off. The way the light would come on at odd times made me think that the fault was probably more with the sender unit than actually low...
By October 1972, the Daimler Saloons were all based on the Jaguar XJ. The old 420 based Sovereign had finished production in 1969, and the DS420 limo had a separate price list. That car had a broad appeal, finding buyers from Royalty to funeral homes. This price list is for the UK market. The Jaguar Price list of the same period also offered the...
With the arrival of the new Daimler, I have focused on smaller jobs to generally improve the car before I tackle anything big. Ultimately my goal is to get it to a point where I would feel confident getting in and driving to Melbourne and back. That is generally how I like to keep all my cars. 1 – Drive the Car First step...
I like cars that were special or ahead of their time in their day. That could be in technology, styling, performance or they way they were built. One of the cars that fits this category for me is the Series 1 XJ with the V12 engine. Both the car and the engine are masterpieces. The V12 Series 1 XJ was the culmination of Jaguar...
In its five years of running, Youngtimer Sacco Day has emerged as one of the best events in the MBCNSW calendar. Youngtimer Sacco Day 2025 was a bit different to the previous four. The previous events had been organized around an interesting location, with great driving roads to get there and back. Previous locations included HARS and the Museum at Mt Panorama. This year...
Last year MBCNSW held an event at Linwood House for the first time. Linnwood house is a historic homestead in Guildford that has four open days per year. Each of them has various car clubs and attractions attend. The goal of the event was to try and entice out some of the interesting older cars in the club that rarely come to events. Last...
Back in 2023, I attended the MBCNSW Amazing Rally with my three kids. They really enjoyed it and had been asking me when it was going to be run again every couple of months. After a false start due to bad weather, event came back for 2025. My kids (11, 8 & 8) were keen to go. This year, the event was held in...
After last month’s long drive, October’s night drive was planned to be a shorter one. Our meeting point was McDonalds Mt Colah. Despite having a few people withdraw on the day, we still had a pretty good turn out. I took my 450SLC. This was the first car club drive I’ve taken the car on this year. I’ve been using it quite a lot...
Back in late 2023 the soft close mechanism on my 300TE became erratic. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes it would randomly come on when driving. At the time, I assume it was to do with the mechanism, so purchased a second hand soft close and had it fitted. It didn’t fix the issue. Since I was about to go on...
Today was the annual German car show held in Sydney. It’s generally a pretty good event and worth a visit. It is no longer the concours event for the club, that is now held at a dealership earlier in the year. This year I wondered what the event would be like as the organization had appeared a bit haphazard. Promotion seemed to start quite...
Update 22/12/25: This car is now sold. My wife’s 2007 E350 S211 Wagon is for sale. This has been our family car for the last 8 years and it has always been reliable and comfortable. if you want a car that can occasionally seat seven and is not an SUV, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon really is the only choice. Not only do you get...
Back in January when I was on my road trip to Brisbane, I noticed the glow plus relay on my 240D would randomly come on while driving. I didn’t think that was a great situation. At best it’s going to drain the battery and at worst possibly burn out the glow plugs. I also noticed that the plugs would stay on for a...
This week my 560SEC was in having the front suspension rebuilt. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while, and knew it was time during my last oil change when I saw the condition of the ball joints on the front suspension. I also had a vibration through the steering wheel when parking that I thought may have been related. Unlike when I...
My 450SE is still equipped with its original Becker Mexico Cassette 485. The Becker works beautify including the wunderbar. For Australian delivered cars, the Mexico Cassette 485 was only for 1978 model cars. The main visual difference between the 485 and the other pinstripe Beckers is the model script, which is all caps BECKER MEXICO. Naturally I wanted to keep the radio in the...
Today was the annual ACT German Car show. I try to head down to Canberra each year, as I always enjoy going. It is a show that punches above its weight, has a nice variety of cars and is usually very well organized. As with last year, I drove down on Saturday afternoon to attend the pre-concours dinner. It is a good way to...
Our September night dive route was a new one. None of the roads were new, but one of our regulars suggested it would make for a good drive to combine Picton and Appin roads into a single night drive. It sounded like a great idea, so I tested the route in my 450SLC a few weeks ago. I’ve found its important to test these...
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