ACT German car show 2025

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 catch up with friends in the ACT Club and is not too formal.   After the dinner I took my car to the 24 hour car wash to try and get it ready for the day.    There was a decent contingent from MBCNSW on the day, but the rest of them drove down Sunday morning.

I took my 1978 450SE this year.   I decided to go into the full concours event this year.   My car is probably more suitable for road class, but I thought there was a reasonable chance I would be the only car in my class.   As it turns out, there was a concours worthy 1977 280SE.  That car was a very worthy winner.

The event was very good as usual.   This year it was back close to Canberra city.    There were probably about 50 Mercedes-Benz there, and around 200 cars overall.   W123s were the biggest contingent, which bodes well for the 50th anniversary event to be held in Canberra in January next year.

Not only were the W123’s the biggest contingent, but a W123 was the outright winner.    The 1981 300TD is probably the best one in Australia and was a very worthy winner.   It is the same car that won its class last year and was even better this time around.

Surprsingly there were more W116s than W126s.  As well as my 450SE and the 280SE, there was also a very nice 1974 450SEL.   The early cars are not that common.    The ACT club normally does well with some models that are not common in the NSW club like compact sedans and older models.   There were fewer of the older models this time, but there were to very nice compacts.

As you would expect there was also a good contingent of W124s, cementing the W124 as an emerging and popular classic.   Among the models was a very rare E300D.   Surprisingly, there were only two R107s, normally a mainstay of these types of events.

The other marques were well represented.   The BMW display was skewed towards newer cars, but there were some nice classics on display.   There were also some interesting Audis and other niche marques, and the VW display was dominated by beetles and Kombis, as would be expected.

The drive there and back in my 1978 450SE was smooth and uneventful.  The W116 is a very good long distance cruiser.