I drove up to the blue mountains via Bells Line of Road and then took the road from Oberon to Goulburn before heading back home on the motorway.

Overall the car did really well, and I found it to be very comfortable on a much longer drive.   The drive was a good mix of suburban streets, back roads and motorways.  This drive took me over 1,000km with the car, which is probably the most its has driven in less than a year since going from Melbourne to Adelaide back in 2005 as a new purchase by a previous owner.

The driving experience really is very good.  The power is effortless and I think the 3.31 rear end ratio really suits the nature of the car.   I’ve never driven one of the later HE V12s, but they had much taller ratios for fuel consumption.   The ride quality is excellent and it handles both back roads and the motorway equally well.   It started to rain, so I took it very easy around corners.

When driving the car, its easy to forget it’s well over 50 years old.  Comfort and ride are superior to a newer car.  Handling isn’t, but that’s not what this sort of car is about.  There are only a few areas that showcase the age of the car.   The first is wind noise.  The drag coefficient of the series 1 XJ isn’t all that good and there is a lot of wind noise a freeway speeds.  This doesn’t bother me a great deal, but its quite noticeable against an 80s car, and especially something modern.   I am curious if a series 3 is much different.

The next is the windscreen wipers, which are a bit average.  Glass coverage is a bit mediocre, and there are only two speeds.   The final one is the presence of quarterlight windows.  Since the A/C isn’t working, I see this as a big positive.  On a rainy day, I was able to have the quarterlight open, and get plenty of airflow with minimal water ingress.  Its a shame they died out.

The drive also identified a few things I need to sort out on the car over time:

• There is a really annoying rattle from behind the dash somewhere.  I fixed one of the a/c vents being lose, so its something else.
• I lost my gauges (volt meter, fuel, temperature, oil pressure).
• My Tachometer sometimes stops working
• I can’t get my newly installed rear view mirrors to aim correctly.
• The 2000’s era CD player is terrible and seems to work only through one speaker.
• There is no way to charge a phone on a longer trip.  I used a power bank.
• At the last fuel stop close to home, The car ejected some coolant after sitting for about 3-5 minutes.
• My wiper blades won’t wipe all that well, and while the fast speed works well, the slower speed is a bit hit and miss.  Sometimes I have to got fast speed first before going to slow.   They also don’t park perfectly.
• The kickdown doesn’t seem to work.
• I had a slightly soft brake pedal down a long steep section.

The above seems like a long list, but only a couple of them are urgent.  I filled up three times to be safe, and the consumption wasn’t too bad.   The first tank was probably a bit off from having the fuel tank replaced.  I got 16l/100km out of the second and 14.5l/100km out of the third.  Not bad given the reputation of these cars for thirst.

Ultimately I want to keep any of my cars in the condition that I could get in them and drive to Melbourne and back with no issue.  I am getting much closer to that with the Daimler, but still have work to do.

The post First long drive in the Daimler appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

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 can really only see two cars behind me, so its not always clear if the group is still together or not.   The tourboss app shows me the locations of all the cars on the drive.

We had a pretty good turn out, probably a combination of the good weather and not having had one for a couple of months.  I took my 1978 450SE.   As well as my car was a C123 280CE, R107 280SL, C107 450SLC, C126 380SEC, W124 300E x2 & E320 and S124 300TE.

We had originally planned to meet on the eastern side of Galston Gorge and include that in the route.  The Gorge had been closed earlier in the year for roadworks. There was a lot of conflicting data about if it was open at night or not.   Since it wasn’t that clear, I decided not to include it.   I left a bit early to get to the drive, and found it was in fact open.

Our new starting location was outside Galston shops. From there we headed out to Cattai Ridge Road, before taking Wisemans Ferry Road up to the Old Northern Road and then the Old Northern Road back down to Dural Maccas.   This is a route we’ve done a few times before and I always really enjoy it.   There is generally not a lot of traffic at night and there is a nice mix of tight corners and faster sections.

Overall I thought the tourboss app worked reasonably well.   I used it to Navigate to the start point.  That experience was so-so as the route it took wasn’t the one I would have chosen. More importantly it lacks speed camera location information, and Sydney is bristling with them.   So in future I would probably use Waze to get to the location.

The experience for the users on our drive was pretty decent.  I set the route up in the admin portal which includes all the waypoints.  Tourboss the generates a six digit code.   That code was in our event booking system, along with details of how to get the app.   Everyone turned up with the app installed and with the code entered, so they were ready to go.

When the event is started, it then shows the location of all the other cars.  It also pre-downloads the maps, which is quite good if going through areas with poor mobile coverage.   As the ‘tour leader’ I had a few different views I could use. One as a normal navigation system and then one where it was more about showing me the location of the other cars.   Without reading glasses, I couldn’t see the actual names of the people, but that probably wasn’t important as I could see the spread of the icons.   For example, for a while two cars fell behind for a bit and then later caught up. Something I was able to see in real time.

One of the best things was that you don’t need to hit ‘continue’ when you get to a waypoint like with google.  For a pre-planned route it was pretty seamless.  On the downside, the lack of speed camera, roadworks and hazard warnings that waze gives you is a negative, as is the lack of dark mode at night.   We also had one member who has a phone with a square screen and the app couldn’t handle that.

There was also one situation where it went a bit haywire.  All of a sudden it thought a roundabout that was 7km away was actually 250 meters in front.  Then it got confused and started slowly increasing the distance to where it was.   I knew that section of road pretty well, so it was obviously nonsense, but it would have been confusing if I hadn’t.  It wasn’t just me that experienced that, and it happened on a bit of the drive where the route crossed over itself, which may have been the cause.

Overall my verdict is that the app is pretty useful for running a group driving event. In an ideal situation I would probably want two phones running, one for this and one for waze.   It will be a useful addition to our night drives.

The drive itself was great and all the cars performed well.

The post MBCNSW April 2026 Night Drive – Old Northern Road appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

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 etc.   A regional centre is a much better choice.

I didn’t do the whole rally but when the club announced they would offer day passes, I decided to go up for the Saturday.   The events on that day were much more in line with my interests than some of the other days.   The programme was to a convoy lap around Mt Panorama, led by former racing driver Colin Bond.   Then a show and shine at pit lane, followed by a tour of the Bathurst racing museum.

I decided it would be a perfect day to take my 250SE Cabriolet and two of my kids wanted to join me.   We left early, departing home at twenty to six, as the start of the guided lap was 9:30.  It was absolutely perfect weather for a convertible after weeks of hot and muggy weather in Sydney.

Complicating things were the surge in petrol prices due to yet another pointless middle east war, plus the structural failure of the convict built Victoria Pass, the main road over the blue mountains from Sydney.   I would have normally taken bells line of road anyway, as I detest the great western highway.  However the media were predicting it to be a parking lot.   Turns out it was totally overblown and the traffic was even less than normal.   We used the extra 20 minutes for a pitstop at McDonalds Lithgow.

Coming out of Lithgow, all of sudden i heard something, like there was something on the road that had hit the underside of the car.   I figured perhaps a stone or something like that.  Nothing else seemed to be amiss.  However, going around the next corner i realized I no longer had power steering.  Water temperature and the charge light were both fine, so it looked like I had lost my power steering belt.

Since there wasn’t much I could do by the side of the road, I proceeded to Bathurst.  The car was perfectly drivable, but with increased steering effort.   Lower speed and tighter turns were obviously a lot more effort.

We arrived at the Rally at 9:35AM, perfect timing as the convoy was just assembling for the lap of the track.  We joined up the rear behind a 420SE.   It was quite a cool sight driving behind over 100 Mercedes-Benz around the track.  We ended up doing four laps as it took quite a while for the cars earlier in the convoy to get into pit lane and parked.   The extra laps certainly gave my arms a good workout.

I was surprised how many of the cars were moderns, I had assumed more classics would attend.   I’m not sure if it was due to the fuel prices, or that is what people planned all along.  Certainly I am sure that some people dropped out altogether and I’m sure more would have come up from Sydney from the day too.  Having said that, while the prices are very high, they are not substantially higher than they have been over the last couple of years.  I filled the 250SE up at 2.539 per liter, and looking at my fuel log, it was only 10c less than this at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As well as all the moderns, there were some nice classics on display from interstate.  My favorite was a Horizon Blue 280SE W116 from Queensland.  Apparently it had been in long term family ownership and it’s a real credit to the family for keeping it in such nice original condition.     Not too many older cars, although a couple of roundies had come in from interstate which was awesome.

There were some new MBs on display.  Chief among them was a massive Maybach SUV.   I don’t see the appeal at all.  To my eyes, it was tacky and overdone and more of a conveyance for footballers and rappers to be seen in than anything else.  I would have the blue 280SE any day of the week.

It was also good to catch up with a few interstate members that I know at this event.

Lunch was at a food truck near the event which was overpriced and had a massive wait. The quality wasn’t worth the wait either. I would have thought the day pass should have included lunch, as it wasn’t cheap.

After lunch we went to the museum which is quite good.  I covered this more extensively for Youngtimer Sacco day 2024.  The tour back then was more comprehensive, at the Rally it was more of an introduction to the museum.   There are some very interesting cars there and its well worth a visit.

We left at roughly 3:30PM.   As with our arrival, the traffic from Lithgow to Darling Causeway was less than normal, so we made good time, finding more traffic through Dural and Pennant Hills than the area with road closures.  Taking the W111 through these roads sans power steering certainly gave my arms a good workout.   We arrived home at around 7PM after covering 472km for the day.

The post MB Clubs National Rally Bathurst 2026 – Day Trip appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Due to the W123 event and the Australia Day long weekend, we had the drive a couple of weeks earlier than normal.  January can be quite hit and miss when it comes to attendance.  Some people are still away but on the other hand people who are around are generally less busy.

However, it had rained quite heavily the day before and it was a very overcast day, which kept numbers down.   In the end the rain mostly held off, and we experienced only occasional light showers.  It was possible to see the big storms in the distance over the ocean, it looked like the scene out of Lord of the Rings where the huge storms over Mordor can be seen from Minas Tirith.

We had three cars on the day, a pair of SECs, my Nautical Blue 560SEC and a Lapis Blue 380SEC.   We also had a late model VW golf, primarily so the owners son could build up his hours on his L plates, not ideal for his pristine W124.

Due to the time of the year and the threat of rain, there was almost no traffic.  It turned out to be quite a cruisy drive.  The route took us up the Old Pacific Highway from our meeting point at McDonalds Mount Colah.   Instead of turning into the section that goes down into Gosford, we turned up along Peats Ridge Road, and did the loop with its long sweeping turns, back towards Gosford that way.  We had originally meant to take all back roads, but I got a turn wrong so we did one exit on the motorway.

Meeting point was McDonalds Gosford West.  Unlike some McDonalds which advertise being open 24 hours, but actually only have the drive through open, this one was properly open.  That meant we could get a snack before the drive home.  Even with the smaller numbers it was a good drive.  I was home by almost exactly midnight.

The post MBCNSW January 2026 Night Drive – Old Pacific Highway and Peats Ridge Road appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

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 met at McDonalds in Thornleigh.  This allowed a very simple route into Homebush.  One turn out of McDonalds onto the Comenarra Parkway, and then straight down the A3 to Homebush.   I try to avoid city night drives as its so hard to keep a group together, but this simple route meant that it didn’t matter so much.

We had a good turn out at McDonalds.  It was a very hot day, still over 30C when I left home around 8PM.   I took my 560SEC, primarily because it has excellent air conditioning.   We had a pretty good turn out at Thornleigh, dominated as usual by the 124 and 126 models.

For the 124s, we managed to get all the main body styles.  Two 300E saloons, a 300E coupe, a 300TE wagon and a 320CE cabriolet.  We didn’t have the six door airport taxi, but they were never sold in Australia.

On the 126s, we had a pair of coupes, a 380SEC and my 560SEC, as well as a lovely original 280SE.   And as well as the 124s and 126s, we had a very original 300GD with the OM617 engine.

The drive down to the Comenarra Parkway was pretty uneventful, as was our route down the A3.  The dessert truck was pretty good, although on the expensive side – the main problem was parking.  We were only able to get three of the cars into the parking lot for the truck and parking in the area was difficult.   When we have visited the Chubby buns burger trucks in the past, they are located at closed service stations.  That means we can park in the service station if the parking next to the food truck is busy. Homebush being busier, didn’t have that option.

Overall it was a good drive and a good way to finish my last club event for 2025.

The post MBCNSW December 2025 Night Drive – Dusty and Delights Food Truck appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Our destination is Royal Gardenia, which is in Bilpin not far from the Blue Mountains Botanic gardens.  Royal Gardenia is owned by a club member who opens up late for us and serves us apple pie and pizza.

We usually get a pretty good turn out for this drive and 2025 was no different.  I decided to take my 250SE Cabriolet – a good evening to drive with the roof down.   It was good weather down in Sydney, but actually got quite cold up towards Bilpin.

Late on a Thursday night there is minimal traffic, so its a good time to cruise up and Bells Line of road is quite an enjoyable road to drive in that state.

On the drive we had a usual good variety of cars.  My 250SE was by far the oldest car there, but we also had a lovely R107 500SL, three 126s in a 300SEL, 380SEC and 420EL, a 123 280CE, a good selection of 124s – two 300E, 300CE, 300TE, a modern E400 convertible and also a Toyota Cressida.

As well as our usual drive and chat over Pizza and apple pie, we also had some club awards, of which I was lucky enough to get one, alone with one for a 500,000km award for an E220 wagon.

Its always a good evening, but a late one.  It was good to take the 250SE out for a drive, and I had to push it pretty hard to keep up with the 500SL, although I was generally able to.

The post MBCNSW November 2025 Night Drive – Bilpin Apple Pie appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

This year was more about the drive. The other parts of the formula of getting as many Sacco cars together as possible, and finding a great driving road remained.   The route chosen was the Putty road, which is probably the best driving road in Sydney’s outskirts.

I took my 560SEC.  Of my Sacco era cars, it is the best suited to the Putty Road.   In any case the W124 is being repaired after the hit from the p-plater and the 560SEL has a coolant leak.

Our meeting point was a hotel in Windsor.  We left home at 7am, so I would have time to grab the kids breakfast at McDonalds nearby.   They were less than impressed when a power outage meant that McDonalds Vineyard was closed, and so was the Hungry Jacks over the road.   We had been running a bit late too.  We took Galston Gorge to the meeting point instead of the main road.  The road down the gorge was fine, but on the way up, we drove at 5km/h, as a group of selfish cyclists were blocking the road and preventing anyone from passing.   There were ample places where they could have paused to let the huge line of cars through, including an ambulance, but they didn’t.

We arrived at the meeting point about 30 minutes before the departure time.  The meeting point was serving coffees, but not much in the way of food.  Luckily the kids had brought a few snacks which they ate instead.

The weather was amazing and turnout was really good.  As would be expected, The W124 and W126 dominated. There were also a few W201s and a few R129s, plus on or two other Sacco era cars.

At around 9am, the group took off for the Putty Road. We had a waypoint of the Greygum Cafe, around half way along the Putty Road.  The route was quite simple so it was almost impossible to get lost.  In addition, this year we didn’t try and keep everyone in a tight convoy.  This worked far better.

When we arrived at the Cafe, the Aston Martin Owners club was already there.  There were some lovely classic Aston Martin’s there, including a DB5.  I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures as they left soon after we arrived.

We stopped at the cafe for around 40 minutes.  This gave me time to get the kids something to eat.  Pies and sausage rolls is the breakfast of champions and one of my daughters aid the beef pie was the best she had ever had.

After our break, we completed the second part of the Putty Road.   The Putty road is great as it has long sweeping sections, tight corners and interesting scenery.   Traffic wasn’t too bad, so we were able to get along reasonably well.   The 560SEC does pretty well on roads like this.  It is fast and comfortable.

Our destination was the BenEan winery.   We had a parking area in a back paddock where we could line up our cars.   The only thing I would have changed about the day is that it would have been good to have the non-sacco cars lined up separate to the Sacco cars.

We had an excellent lunch at the winery.   There was an outdoor area with was quite shaded – important given it was in the mid 30s.   Next to it was a pizza oven and the staff were making very good pizzas.

Prizes were awarded after lunch.   There were prizes for the best original Sacco car, best modified Sacco car, presidents choice, highest mileage and lowest mileage.   The best original car was a lovely green E320 C124, the best modified was a red R129 500SL and the the presidents choice was a lovely Bornite 420SEL.   All were very deserving winners.

Looking around the cars parked at the event, there were some really nice ones on display.   Youngtimer Sacco Day 2025 manages to bring out a lot of cars that are rarely seen at club events.  It shows how well a theme for events works.   A regular drive and lunch event wouldn’t get nearly as many cars.  But focusing on a particular era of cars and making it a bit special makes the day work really well.

My kids and I really enjoyed the day and hope to go again in 2026.

The post Youngtimer Sacco Day 2025 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

This year, the event was held in the southwest of Sydney, in the area between Mulgoa and Lakesland.  As with last year,  each team was given a sheet with a series of clues and directions to follow.   It was an observation rally, so the idea was to spot various things and then answer the questions on the sheet.   We also got a goodie bag at the start.

This year I took my 1981 240D.  With a team of four, a four door car is a must.   The 240D did well on the day and I didn’t have to worry about fuel at all.   We started the day with about half a tank.  After doing almost 350 kilometers, we still had between half and a quarter of a tank left.

As well as each of the clues, there were four to five lolly stops along the way which my kids really enjoyed.  As far as I could tell, we came around middle of the pack which I was pretty happy with – we even won a prize for being the team that had travelled the longest to get to the event.

Compared to the last time we did this event in 2023, my kids were able to do more of the navigation, being that little bit older.

The Mercedes Club has always been quite family friendly.  I think events like these are a great way to get children and different type of members involved.  I know my kids are keen to do it again next year if we are able.  To me an event like this represents some of the best aspects of classic car ownership.  Its not about just owning the car but the experiences you have with it.

The post MBCNSW Amazing Rally 2025 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I took my 450SLC.  This was the first car club drive I’ve taken the car on this year.  I’ve been using it quite a lot generally, but hadn’t had a chance to bring it to any club events yet.   As well as my 107, we had a lovely blue 280SE 3.5 W108, a 300E and a pair of 420SELs – one Astral Silver and one Smoke Silver.

The planned route took as through Ku-ring-gai chase national park, via Bobbin Head.  From there we would turn onto Mona Vale road until we reached the end, drive down pittwater road for a while and then take Wakehurst Parkway from Narrabeen to Seaforth, finally finishing at Brookvale McDonalds.

The first part of the drive through the national park is probably the best part and it went smoothly.   However, when we reached the part of Mona Vale where it goes through bushland, there had been what appeared to be a car rolled over, and the place was swarming with highway patrol.   They diverted us away.   Google indicated that we could divert around the closure, but it was incorrect.

In the end we cut the second part of the drive short.  We doubled back on Mona Vale Road, took eastern Arterial road and then the Roseville Bridge into Brookvale.  As we parked up at McDonalds, one of the 420SEL’s hit a low retaining wall at the rear.   However, this retaining wall was no match for the power and might of a W126.  There was no visible damage at all to the car.

Next month is the annual drive to Bilpin.

The post MBCNSW October 2025 Night Drive – Bobbin Head Road appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

It sounded like a great idea, so I tested the route in my 450SLC a few weeks ago.  I’ve found its important to test these routes at night, as things that work during the day don’t always work at night.  In addition, the state parks service closes a lot of roads that go through the national parks.

On the day of the drive, we had quite a good turn out, even with a few people having to pull out.   I find it odd that the club would schedule an executive meeting over the top of a registered club event, as we lost a few people to that.

As well as many of our usual suspects, we also had a new member in a very nice CL500, plus our normal W124 crew in a couple of 300Es and a 300TE, a 380SEC and another modern Benz.  I took my 450SE.    To everyone’s great interest we also had a C4 Corvette on the drive.  Its a 1986 model with a 5.7 SBC.  Its great when members bring non Mercedes cars to these drives as it adds variety.   The C4 had been imported to Australia in 2011, but stored until earlier this year.  The owner has dealt with a few fuel delivery related issues, changed the tyres and so on.   This is its first major drive.

We met up at Camden McDonalds, which was closed even at this early hour.   More and more of this McDonalds advertise opening hours based on the drive through, but close the actual restaurant.  Since I’m not a savage and don’t eat in my car, this is particularly useless.

After everyone admired the Corvette, we set off.   We started down the old Hume highway.   The roads were quite good and had fairly limited traffic.   After having to slow down for a truck and a roundabout, I noticed the Corvette have to abruptly pull over.  Its lucky I was able to see.  Normally I can really only see what is happening with one or maybe two cars behind me at night.   But we were going down a hill and the corvette has very distinctive headlights.

The Corvette had conked out.   It was able to restart and idled well, but died with any revs.   After looking for a while, turns out the brand new mass airflow sensor had died.  Disconnecting it had the engine running well again.

We continued on our way and the drive was really good.   It was a nice fast route with little traffic and pretty good roads.   My 450SE did well on its first night drive, and so did the Corvette once the MAF was disconnected.     The only downside was a 15 minute roadwork delay.   The roadwork wasn’t there two weeks ago.

We finished our drive at Chubby Buns Hoxton Park.   The Campbelltown location is temporarily closed.   It was quite busy and had expanded since our list visit.

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