MBCNSW August 2025 Night Drive – 50th Drive to Palm Beach

The August 2025 Night drive was the 50th official MBCNSW Night drive since we started them back in 2020.   The night drives originally came about during the COVID era, where there were restrictions on what was allowed.  As the first lockdowns eased, the night drives were a good way of getting out and using our cars, while complying with the rules at the time.

Since then, they have built up their own niche in the club.   They will never be large mainstream events, but they provide a way for members who are very busy with work, children etc to get out and use their cars on a regular basis.  For that reason, while any car is welcome, they are most popular with owners of the older cars.

The very first one was July of 2020.  However, the first three were unofficial drives, and they didn’t make the club schedule until October of that year.

As with the first one, we met at Shelly Beach parking lot.   We had 11 registrations for the drive, which is quite good for a winter route.   Surprisingly the weather has been quite good this week, so I suspect people were very keen to get their cars out.

I took my W111.  It was a clear but cold night so I left the roof closed.  We had a good variety of cars there on the night.   There was a white 280SE 3.5 W108, a pair of 126s in a 280SE and a 380SEC, a 123 280CE, a 107 380SLC, and four 124s (300E x2, 300TE, E320).   The E320 was a new acquisition for its owner and it looked nice.   In addition, there was also a modern convertible.

Our route took us along the coast as much as possible.  It was a fairly cruisy night and most of the group made it to the finishing point at Palm Beach.   On arrival, we seem to have lost the 380SLC and the modern convertible.  Not sure if they got lost or their homes were along the way.

At palm beach, there isn’t anything open at that time of the night.  However, one of our group is a member of the Palm Beach surf club and we were able to go into the clubouse for a chat and a coffee.  He even brought some tim tams along!  It was a better ending spot than McDonalds and a fitting way to celebrate our 50th night drive.