W123 50th Anniversary – Day 3: Show and Shine

January 25, 2026

Day 1 was about getting to Canberra. Day 2 was all about using and enjoying the cars. And Day 3 was about getting as many together as possible. We started out with a cars and coffee event in Fyshwick. This was somewhat of a warm up for the main event, and allowed cars within a few hours drive of Canberra to come in for the later show and shine.

On the way I filled up my 240D for the first time on this trip. I had gone through 627km from 62.7 liters of diesel, which I don’t think is that bad with my foot to the floor the whole time and the A/C on max. I have a 80 liter tank from a 280E in my car, giving it very good range.

We had a pretty good turn out of W123s at the cafe and everyone was able to grab some breakfast before heading over to the Show and Shine at the Spanish Club for the 10am start.

As each car drove in, they were allocated a number for judging. This also made it easier to see how many cars we had. The numbers slowly ticked up and up as more cars arrived. We had the cars arranged by body style, with a couple of rows for Saloons, plus a row each for wagons and coupes.

In the end, we had 83 cars there on the day. That was an amazing result. I went around and cataloged all the cars on display. I must have missed a couple, as my count ended up as 80 cars, which consisted of:

300D – 17
280CE – 17
280E – 16
230E – 10
300TD – 7
240D – 4
280TE – 3
250 – 2
200 – 2
230TE – 1
230 – 1

Like with the number of cars from yesterday, the models were heavily skewed towards enthusiast models. It also had at least one example of every model sold new here in Australia, and a couple that were not like the 200. The 230 and 250 were sold new here, but few now remain and it was good to see a few examples.

The states were also well registered, with the 80 cars I counted registered in the following states. Some of the NSW registered cars were probably local, from places like Queanbeyan.

NSW – 34
Victoria – 23
ACT – 11
Queensland – 10
SA – 2

As would be expected, we didn’t have any cars from Northern Territory or Western Australia. It would have been a stellar effort to drive one across the Nullabor in the peak of summer. Regardless, it shows the popularity of the model, with so many people driving so far to attend the event.

It was also striking how many really nice cars there were on display. Additionally, how well some cars wore their milage. There were plenty of cars that were totally immaculate with over 300,000km on the clock.

As well as displaying the cars, everyone got to compete for some prizes. The first two awards were by vote. The crowd favorite was exactly as it sounds. I voted for a lovely 300D in 476 Goldbraun. It had been in long term family ownership and these period seventies colours are so thin on the ground now. The deserving winner was the 300TD that won best in show at the ACT concours last year.

The next award was the workhorse award, which was for a car that had lived a full life but was still on the road and being used and here at the event. The fitting winner of that car was a 300D with over 600,000km and plenty of battle scars to show for it. This car was also piloted by the winner of the youngest owner award, fitting to see the next generation of W123 owners at the event.

We also had an award for the rarest and most unusual options. Each person had to fill in the options list for their car. My car, being a 240D, scored a goose egg for the options list. Its not even sporting a lockable glovebox. I did pick up some points for still having my Becker radio.

After some confusion with quite a few cars apparently having ABS brakes and column shifters, we worked out that the car that had the rarest options was a 300TD with a five speed manual transmission, cloth interior, sunroof and a few other options.

The next award was for the car with the highest mileage, standing at almost 850,000km. Quite the contrast to the car that won the lowest mileage award with 28,000km. There was also an award for the longest distance travelled to the event, a little over 1500km from Queensland.

There were plenty of cars that has been in low term family ownership. However, the car that won the award had been picked up by the owners father brand new from the factory in 1977. That car was one of the now rare 250 models on display.

As well as the awards, everyone was able to get a commemorative grille badge for their car. These were only available on the day, so it will become quite a status symbol of being one of the 83 W123s that were there on the day.

The number of cars really exceeded all expectations, and it really showed the passion of the W123 owners group for their cars. Not just for owning them, but also for using them. I think its a bit sad that some models of Mercedes-Benz have become so valuable that they have passed into a different type of owner who rarely use them. Pagodas are now like that for the most part.

I really enjoyed walking around and seeing so many amazing W123s. And the range of colours on display was pretty special too. The weather was very hot, but that didn’t seem to deter anyone. I know a few cars that left after the show and shine to head back to Sydney struggled in the heat a little.

After the show and shine, there were some optional activities. I did the one at Questacon, which is a favorite of my kids. Surprisingly they are far more interested in this than W123s. Given how how it was, it was air conditioned which was good.

The final part of the day was the official dinner at the Belconnen Labour club. This was where the awards detailed above were handed out, as well as a trivia competition and some other prizes, such as Penrite Oil. The dinner was fun and low key, much better in my opinion than the ‘gala’ dinners that often go with events of this nature.