W123 50th Anniversary – Day 4: Farewell and return
Today was the final day of the 50th anniversary of the W123 event and what a great event it was. Originally the plan was to have a farewell breakfast at the Girl Guide hall of Queanbeyan. However, they suffered a plumbing disaster, so instead of going to the hall, they made breakfast at MB Spares and Service, in Fyshwick.
Considering the last minute change, the event went off without a hitch. The change in venue ended up being to the advantage of one attendee, the Helios yellow 300D with black badging and door surrounds I had affectionately dubbed bumblebee arrived on the back of a tow truck. Poor old bumblebee wasn’t starting, due to a blown glow plug fuse.
Turns out one of the glow plugs had shorted internally. We were then treated to an impromptu demonstration of how to troubleshoot a glow plug issue in the older series glowplugs while eating rather excellent bacon and egg rolls. Since we were at MB Spares and Service, a replacement glow plug and fuse was on hand. About 30 minutes later bumblebee roared into life again.
Bumblebee was the third car that suffered from an issue on the trip, which I think is testament to how W123 owners use their cars. There was a Queensland car on the first day with a plugged fuel filter and apparently a local car suffered an engine issue, which is a shame.
The other interesting thing I saw was a Turbo wagon under construction. On all the internet sites, the accepted wisdom is that the 617A does not fit in right hand drive vehicles due to clearance issues with the steering box. Having seen the turbo being test fitted with an NA engine, its clear that it does fit. Perhaps not to the standards of Mercedes-Benz, but I think the real reason why there was no right hand drive turbodiesels is that Mercedes-Benz did not see the market for them. The not fitting thing seems like a convenient excuse.
Its been well documented that Mercedes-Benz did not originally plan to make a right hand drive version of the W123 wagon. It was only due to the fierce lobbying of the UK importer that they did. I suspect there could have been right hand drive Turbodiesels had the same sort of case been made. Even if a little engineering was required.
seeing the wagon under construction, it is easy to see how different the OM617A is to the NA engine. It is fitted with a much higher capacity oil pump, complete with double row chain. There is an oil squirter under each piston as well as a tube in the bottom of the piston for the oil squirter to cool the piston. In addition, on this car, the crankshaft is being balanced for a manual transmission.
After the farewell breakfast, I went and checked out the Australian National Museum with my family before heading back to Sydney around 3PM. It was a really hot day, but the 240D did very well in the heat. The AC keept me very cool. The coolant temperature sat around 90c at most times, going up to 100 during long sustained hills. The uprated condenser I installed seemed to have done wonders.
From leaving home Friday morning to returning Monday evening, I covered 1,022km in the 240D. Probably because I left later, I didn’t see a single W123 on my drive home.
Reflecting back on the event, I think one of the key things that made it so good was its flexible nature. There was something for everyone. Tt was perfectly fine for attendees to pick and choose the parts of the event that suited them. Some like me wanted to do the whole thing. Others just the show and shine, or something in the middle of those extremes.
Canberra is a very good central location for such events. It was also great to see how well all the interstate clubs embraced it.
I also think having no registration cost was great. Its much better for each activity to be user pays, or in the case of the dinner room booking, sponsored. I was very happy to be part of this event. I am looking forward to mounting my grille badge on the 240D. It seems unlikely that 80+ W123s will ever be assembled again in Australia.
