This morning I attended the monthly St Ives Auto Brunch event. Most of the other cars and coffee events in Sydney are quite one dimensional, but St Ives is all about variety which I like. I last attended in September last year, and it was a lovely summer day today, worth going before it got too hot. I took my 1973 Daimler Double-Six Vanden...
When I first got my Daimler Double-Six, I had been using the drivers side petrol tank only. The one on the passengers side looked a bit gungy when I opened up the filler cap and looked inside. The drivers side tank looked nice and clean. Each tank is 45 liters and is mostly independent. Jaguar went to the dual fuel tank system with the...
In the state of NSW, we have very strict rules around using mobile phones, and and increasing number of cameras to detect their use. As I like to stream music from my phone to the original radios in my cars, I needed a system to be able to skip tracks, change volume and answer calls without touching the phone. Most of my cars use...
Back in October, I purchased a 2012 S212 Mercedes-Benz E350 Wagon as a new family car to replace the 2007 S211 Mercedes-Benz E350 wagon. This is a car that my wife primarily drives, I mostly drive my classics. It wasn’t actually that easy a choice to find something we liked. Specifically we wanted: A car, not an SUV or Ute. Large cargo area that...
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...
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