61st MBCA Northern NJ June Jamboree
Today I attended the 61st annual June Jamboree, held by the Northern New Jersey section of the MBCA. The Northern New Jersey section was the founding section of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America, all the way back in 1956. The June Jamboree is their annual concours event and car show.
I am current in New Jersey for work, and when I saw this event was on, and an old friend was helping organize it, it seemed like a great opportunity go along. The event was held at The Hermitage, a historic house in Ho-Ho-Kus NJ. It is basically an older and grander version of Linnwood house, a venue we use in Sydney.
Considering the steady rain the morning of the event, the attendance was quite good. There was a nice range of cars in both the show and shine and concours areas. I focused on the older cars, but there was a good selection of the moderns too. Included in the moderns was a couple of first generation A classes. these were never sold in the USA so quite unusual to see.
This was my first time attending a MBCA event. I lived in the USA for around 6 years in my 20s and early 30s but never thought to join up. It was good to be able to view all the cars on display, particularly models we never got in Australia. It is also interesting how different they are under the hood. Emissions controls started in the USA in around 1967, and so there is a lot of differences even on the older cars. Plus, US spec cars had options never found on Australian delivered example such as climate control on W123 and 107 models.
It was also interesting to see that the US importer was much more daring with colour choices and options. There was a W109 300SEL 6.3 in dark blue with a red interior and it looked amazing. The same went for newer cars such as a W126 with a smoke silver exterior and a red interior. Additionally, it is far more usual to see a W108 with leather in the USA – highly unusual in Australia. The leather being a different pattern to the W109 leather.
As well as the 300SEL 6.3, there were a few other cars that really stood out for me. There was a lovely 450SLC 5.0 that had spent time in the middle east, parked very close to a green E500 W124. While there are a few examples of both models in Australia, they are never seen at club events. Further down the concours line up, there was a lovely restored 280SL first sold in Italy.
Like in Australia, the W126 was the most plentiful car. The most interesting of them was a 300SDL that had recently been used in a Canonball run, averaging over 80mph. It had two additional 20 gallon auxiliary tanks in the boot. There was also a 300CD C123, a model we never had in Australia.
I enjoyed the day – the MBCA members were welcoming and I was able to have a nice lunch and meet some of them and admire their cars. I’m glad that the June Jamboree event managed to overlap with my trip to the USA. I bought a hat as a souvenir which I will be able to keep in one of the my cars.
