| The September 2023 night drive was a bit closer to the city than the last one. We started at Mt Colah and finished in Brookvale. Due to some rain earlier in the week, and it being school holidays, we only had three cars on the drive, but that made it very easy to keep the group together. I took my 560SEL, and on the drive we had two W124’s – a 230E and a 300E. Both are regulars for these drives. There were some quite twisty roads going down towards bobbin head so it was kind of fun throwing a […] A couple of weeks ago, I posted an update about my W111 running issues. A reader who is an expert in these cars suggested I fit a 123 ignition distributor. His feedback was that even if it doesn’t solve my current running problem, it is a very worthwhile upgrade. My mechanic also thought the issues were probably ignition related. Based on that, I decided fit one. I spoke to the local agent for 123 ignition, and based on that discussion, I checked the distributor in the car. My car being an early 250SE (10/65) has ‘0 231 116 047’. This […] Today was the annual ACT German Car show. I always enjoy this show and this year was no different. The show is held at Queanbeyan Park, which is a great spot with plenty of shade. As with the last couple of years, I went down to Canberra for the weekend. Its a much better way to enjoy the show than getting up early and doing a day trip. The night before the ACT club normally organize a dinner. This year was a fun informal event, where we all had to guess some rare Mercedes parts, including a C107 glove box […] The 2023 British car show was finally on in Sydney, the first since 2019. The 2020 and 2021 shows were lost to Covid and the 2022 show to wet fields. The 2023 show was still at the Kings School in Parramatta, but not on the same day as the school fete like normal. It felt like a summer day today, with temperatures of around 33C. Probably quite hot for many of the old British cars, and a few of the spectators as well. It was a lovely day though, without a cloud in the sky. I decided to display […] I’ve known the automatic transmission in my 560SEC was weak for a few years now. It was exhibiting a lot of the symptoms of wear that these 722.3 transmissions do when they are wearing. When it was cold, there was a lot of resistance in reverse. It would also occasionally bang into a lower gear or shift erratically. Once it warmed up, it was a lot better, the feel of the transmission was not close to the 722.3 in my 560SEL or the one in my 300TE. While it didn’t leak normally, if I didn’t use the car for about […] Editors Note: This is part three in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about living with a Ford BF MK2 Falcon Futura Wagon. Part 1 introduces the car and part 2 is a six month update. One of the things I’ve noticed about using an LPG equipped car as a daily driver, is how rare it is to see other LPG vehicles filling up at the bowser. I’ve already written about our dedicated e-gas Futura wagon, but let’s just replay some of the key facts. Ford Australia replaced the petrol tank with a 116 litre LPG tank for the wagon. […] My 250SE has been suffering from poor running issues for almost two years now. It started not long after I got the car back from being repaired from the impact with the Kangaroo. Despite a lot of work to try and rectify these issues, they are still plaguing the car. The challenge is that these are intermittent problems, and so hard to diagnose. I started by checking the basics – the fuel filter, tank and so on. I also changed the plugs. This had no impact. My mechanic thought it was ignition related, so we’ve changed most of the wear […] Today was the Monthly St Ives Auto Brunch cars and coffee event. The event is held in St Ives showground. Since I last attended, they have moved from being spread over some of the side roads and fields to the main showground. This is a huge improvement. The main showground is plenty big enough for all the cars that want to attend, without the parking chaos of previous events. Of course, the organizers can improve the event, but they can’t think for the attendees. Despite having an entire oval to park on, it was hilarious to see people trying to […] For August, the monthly MBNSW night drive was back up north. The route started in Windsor, taking the putty road up to Bull Ridge road, across to the Sackville Ferry, up to the top of Wisemans Ferry road, then to Dural McDonalds down the Old Northern Road. These are all really nice driving roads, with little traffic at night. While the night before had been a big downpour, the weather was great on the day of the drive. We had nine cars on the drive in the end. This is a really good number to keep the group together. We […] | |
