Today was the fourth day of our big road trip to the Bay to Birdwood. However this day is unlike any other in that we didn’t do much driving. Today was meant as a slower today to rest a bit in the middle of the trip. It was also an opportunity to see some other automotive related things and immerse ourselves in the car...
Today we got to sleep in. Going west, the sunrise was later, and so we didn’t leave until 0645. We departed Mildura bound for Renmark, our breakfast stop. Instead of taking the main highway, we took some back roads via Werrimull and Meringur. This was much more pleasant than the main roads with the road trains. We had to pass through Quarantine on the...
Today was the second day of our big road trip to Adelaide for the Bay to Birdwood. As is usual, started just after sunrise at 0630. However, today was going to be different. While most of us were going to stay on the planned route, the owners of the Corvette and Petrol Blue 280CE would go direct to Mildura via Hay to try and...
Today was the first full day of our big road trip to the Bay to Birdwood in Adelaide. We met at 0615 for an 0630 departure to maximize daylight hours. Events later in the day would make that worthwhile. All the cars started right up and were ready to go. After the rain and fog of the drive up from Sydney it was a...
Our trip to Adelaide for the Bay to Birdwood starts tomorrow morning in Bathurst. We learned very quickly the first year that starting out from Sydney is a bad idea. The goal of day zero is for everyone to make their own way to the start point the evening before. The last few years I’ve had to work on the day, so have arrived...
Over the past four years, a group of friends and I have done annual road trips in our classic cars. Most of them have been constructed around an event, taking back roads there and back. This year the event is the Bay to Birdwood. The Bay to Birdwood is probably the largest event for older cars in Australia. Given that insurance and regulations are...
Last night was the September 2026 Night Drive. We revisited a route we last tried in July of 2024. The drive focused on the roads north of Wisemans Ferry. We met up at Hawkins Lookout, as with last time. Unusually, it was quite busy, being used a staging point for a roadworks crew. We left before they started. The route took us north from...
Last night was supposed to be the August 2026 MBCNSW night drive. It was the first at our new time of 8:30PM, and revisited a good route we used a couple of years ago in Southwest Sydney. I decided to take my Daimler on the drive. While not a Mercedes-Benz, these drives are informal and its pretty common for people to bring other cars...
Our July 2026 Night drive was back to go through the Royal National Park and old Princes Highway. We last attempted this route in January 2024, although some road closures meant we didn’t go into the national park so much. After battling bad weather the first half of the year, this month was a lovely winter evening. I took my 1978 450SE and was...
Our June night drive was a bit different to the normal plan. Normally we would do a drive that’s about 90 minutes in Sydney’s outskirts. This time, we did a much shorter drive and went to a Dessert truck instead. The May and July drives were scheduled to be quite long, so the idea was to break that up a bit and provide some...
Back at the Easter weekend, I did my first long drive in the Daimler. Up until recently I had been mostly using the car for shorter drives, until I got it sorted out. After the recent service, a lot of the issues I was concerned about were now sorted out. I wanted to see how the car performed on a much longer day trip....
Last night was our first night drive since January, the February and March night drives both being rained out. After a bit of rain the night before, it turned out to be a lovely evening. This was also the first drive we using a new navigation app the club has purchased called ‘Tourboss’. I was quite keen to try it as at night. I...
Every two years one of the state based Mercedes-Benz clubs organizes the National Rally. I attended the 2022 event in South Australia. 2026 is being jointly held by the NSW and ACT clubs and the location was Bathurst. I think the club made a good choice to hold the rally outside Sydney. Sydney is no place for a car event Terrible traffic, expensive parking...
The old Pacific Highway is an old favorite and was actually the first of these night drives, back in 2021. It had been a couple of years since we did it, so I added it back to the schedule with a slightly adjusted route. Due to the W123 event and the Australia Day long weekend, we had the drive a couple of weeks earlier...
Our final night drive for 2025 was to be a shorter one than the November Bilpin drive. Since everyone is busy around Christmas time, we moved the drive a week earlier and planned something shorter. Instead of a big drive, the focus of this one was to try a late night dessert truck in Homebush. To get at least a reasonable drive in, we...
For the last couple of years, our November night drive has taken us to Bilpin for a late night drive up Bells Line of Road for apple pie. This is a drive best done in warmer weather, so November works well before people get busy for the Christmas break. Our destination is Royal Gardenia, which is in Bilpin not far from the Blue Mountains...
In its five years of running, Youngtimer Sacco Day has emerged as one of the best events in the MBCNSW calendar. Youngtimer Sacco Day 2025 was a bit different to the previous four. The previous events had been organized around an interesting location, with great driving roads to get there and back. Previous locations included HARS and the Museum at Mt Panorama. This year...
Back in 2023, I attended the MBCNSW Amazing Rally with my three kids. They really enjoyed it and had been asking me when it was going to be run again every couple of months. After a false start due to bad weather, event came back for 2025. My kids (11, 8 & 8) were keen to go. This year, the event was held in...
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