2026 Shannons Eastern Creek Car show

The big annual car show was on again at Eastern Creek raceway on Sunday.  I always try to make a point of going if I can.   Not only do you get to see some interesting cars, but my kids enjoy the double decker bus rides around the track as well as the parade lap in the car.

Unfortunately this year, while the week leading up to the event had good weather, the day before was pretty rainy.  This didn’t bode well for the actual day.   The next morning was still rainy and overcast and so I decided to take my 560SEL. The W126 being very good in the rain.

We headed to McDonalds first, as I find the food at the actual event seriously overpriced for what you get.   Normally I would see a lot of cars obviously going to the show, but due to the rain we only saw a couple. For example we driving along with a Mini Cooper S for a while.

The club only had 20 tickets, and even with the rain I think they were all used.  However numbers were seriously down, so some clubs were perhaps more rain impacted than others.   It was still worth going.  I was quite impressed with old Police Vehicles display, and I saw three Jaguar 420s, a model that is often quite niche and forgotten about.

The rain stayed away apart from moderate showers, so while attendance was down a lot, it didn’t impact the show in a major way.  The Parade lap was ok.  It wasn’t as bad as a few years ago when they limited it to 40. While the speed limit signs say 80, the ‘safety’ car kept speeds to about 50-60km/h other than the straight.   Last year was more reasonable. My kids were confused as to why there were all these speed limit signs but we were kept so far below it.   I’ve worked out its better to take a really slow car if you can, like my 240D.

Even with reduced numbers its still great to see so many interesting older cars on the road.  This show seems to attract more pre-war models than any other I go to.  It is great to see the pre-war cars doing their parade lap.