I arrived at about 7:50AM and the lines to get in were already quite long.  Quite a few people got sick of them and parked in the spectator parking which I think is a shame to save $5.  Probably next time I’ll try to get there a bit earlier.

I took my 1977 Mercedes 450SLC.  I have been driving it this week and my son and I gave it a quick wash the day before.  A friend of mine had his almost identical car there on the day which was unplanned.

The best part of going to St Ives is seeing what interesting and unusual cars will be on display.  Today it was all about Saabs.   I don’t know if it was a event by the Saab Club or just a group of Saab enthusiasts but there were a few really nice cars.   For my mind, the best car of the whole show was the 1979 Saab 99 Turbo.

The car had been restored and it showed, even down to all the decals in the engine bay.   The car must have been such a revelation in the last 70s.  I think the original 99 design is more interesting than the later 900, down to some of the subtle curves in the bodywork and the design of the interior.  The wheels and turbo badges are also a nice touch.   The 900 is still a cool car, but it’s a bit more homogenized.

There were some other nice Saabs there including a black 900 turbo and a pale blue 900.   I prefer the Saabs from then the company was independent, but the later cars still have some interesting touches.

As well as the Saabs, there were some other cars that caught my eye including a Milan Brown 450SEL 6.9 with a cream velour interior.  Milan brown is one of those colours that has incredible depth when the paint is nice, but looks terrible when its a bit faded.  This car has great paint and it goes so well with the velour.  As well as the 6.9 there was a nice Derby Bentley, a very nice blue BMW E24 with a manual transmission.   The Volvo Bertone coupe was striking too.   These are not pretty cars, but so interesting and unusual that I was happy to see it.

In addition to the cars, its always good to run into a few friends along the way and its a great Sunday morning.

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I’m glad they didn’t cancel, as it was still a really good event.  St Ives is always about variety and this month’s smaller showing delivered.

I took my 1990 300TE along to the event.  It was the first time I have taken the 300TE to St Ives.  There was one other W124 (a coupe) and a couple of W123 coupes.   I was quite impressed with the citrus green car, which was for sale.

As well as that they were a few nice Lotus, a couple of 80s Ferraris, a Citroen XM and DS and a couple of 80’s Honda Hatchbacks.  You never see those anymore.   Even with a smaller show, it was still very much worth the visit.   As would be expected due to the weather, there were more modern cars than usual.  There were still some really nice classics though.

Cars and Coffee events are probably going to be impacted least due to high fuel prices.  Most people attend a cars and coffee event near where they live, so distances are much shorter.  This is certainly the case for me.

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In 2022 they had a car representing every year from 1950 to 2022.  In 2024 they did generations of the S-Class. They also did an AMG display one year, but I wasn’t able to make it.  This year the theme was 50 years of the W123.  Given the theme, I took my 1981 240D.   This is the second trip my 240D has made to Canberra this year, as I also attended the 50 years of the W123 event in January.

I’ve always enjoyed this event, there are normally a good variety of cars.  The last few times i’ve been it was held at Queanbeyan showground.  However, from what I hear, Queanbeyan council are not as friendly to car clubs as they once were, so its was moved to Canberra.   The new location is Thoroughbred Park, which is a horseracing track in Lyneham.

I had refuelled my 240D at $1.879 on the days the pointless war in the middle east started.  My goal was to get there and back on one tank and have fuel to spare since diesel is almost at $3 per litre.   I left Saturday afternoon and ending up driving through quite a big hail storm near Marulan.  There was so much hail on the grass beside the highway it looked like it had been snowing.   The W123 is made of thick steel, so I didn’t encounter any damage.

The Wheels event was held in the customer parking area and some parks nearby, not on the actual track.  Lyneham is a central location, and easier than Queanbeyan showground, but there is far less room.   In previous events the ACT club has been able to spread out and make a really good display.   This year the space allocated was quite small and the cars were all jammed in.

Nevertheless the club attempted to show off the W123s by having a ‘fan out’ display in the middle of the allocated area.  It worked reasonably well, but would have ben better with more space.  There were quite a few cars that had to park outside the main area.  The issue seemed more allocation than lack of space in general, as there was a big paddock behind the military vehicles that was mostly empty.

As with the W123 event, I was parked next to the 300D in 476 Goldbraun.  Such a great colour and a car that has been in the owners family since 1981.   There was a good selection of nine W123s including a coupe, a wagon, and all the popular models (280E, 230E, 300D etc).

In addition to the W123s the ACT club also had a nice selection of other cars, starting with a pair of nice roundies, a lovely red finnie, a beautiful W111 3.5 coupe, a W109 a couple of W116s, W126s W124s etc.  It was a pretty good selection of all the major models of Mercedes-Benz.

As for the other marques, space seemed to be a bit of a challenge for the too.  The BMW display only had a couple of classics.  The new ones are all nostrils and a bit hard on the eye.  Getting past those, there were some really nice and interesting cars on display.  This included a huge American convertible with a folding metal roof.  the rear of the car was very long to allow it to be stowed away.  There were interesting curiosities like a Stanley steamer, a couple of Bristols and a pair of landcrab utes.   The Jaguar section was quite good.  There was a lovely Series 1 XJ6 with a manual transmission and a red interior.  While white isn’t my favorite colour, a red interior and a manual transmission makes it very tempting.  The red XJC was also very nice.

They didn’t just have regular cars, there were also military vehicles and micro cars.   The Microcars were quite good.

The ACT club had a catered lunch which was a nice touch.  The food at these sort of events is normally pretty bad and overpriced.  Sandwiches and fruit from the club was a far better option.

The drive back was pretty uneventful.  I arrived back late afternoon after covering 610km with abut a quarter of a tank left.  I’m still undecided if I should refuel the 240D now, or park it for a few weeks to see what happens.  Most of my other cars are full and I don’t really fancy $3 diesel.

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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.

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I last attended in September last year, and it was a lovely summer day today, worth going before it got too hot.   I took my 1973 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas on its first car show outing, at least under my ownership.

The MG club had obviously decided to go in a group and they had a great line up of MGs at the front of the oval.  It was quite impressive.

Some of the cars I liked the most were:

• A really nice turquoise series 2 XJ6
• A couple of great early rotary Mazdas
• A time warp early W123 230 Carby
• Totally original red Saab 900
• Mercedes 220S Roundie

Getting out of the event was far easier this time.  They had big signs and marshal to stop people trying to turn right as they exit the venue.  There is a U-turn bay just up the road, so turning right is not necessary and needs to turn across four lanes of traffic.

While some cars arrive very early and end up parking in the unpaid areas, before the organizers are there to collect the nominal $5 entry fee, I thought it was quite interesting that a group of Ferraris seemed to go around the fenced off areas bypass the entry fee.

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The goal of the event was to try and entice out some of the interesting older cars in the club that rarely come to events.   Last year seemed like a good start so we decided to run the event again this year.  I personally really like the Linwood house open days.  There are normally other really interesting cars, and its a very easy and relaxed day where you can come and go as you want.   I used to go as a spectator when the Rolls Royce club would display there.

This year there were excellent displays from the Rover club, the Holden FB-EK & FE-FC Holden Car Clubs, Wolseley Car Club, MG Restorers Car club and Ducati owners clubs.  The Ducati club and Rover club were having their concours event.   I’m a big fan of Rovers, in particular the P5 and P6 models.  It was nice to see their display.   I don’t really know much about motorcycles, but the Ducati display was large and impressive.

Coinciding with the event was the 60th anniversary of the introduction of the W108 and W109 models at the Frankfurt Auto show on the 16th of September 1965.   It was an opportunity to celebrate the W108 and W109, as well as the 250SE coupe and cabriolet models that made their debut at the same show.  In fitting with this, I took my 1965 250SE Cabriolet which was made in October 1965.

Our display was a bit up and down.  We had pretty good sign ups for the event but actual attendance was pretty limited.  That was a surprise given how nice a day it was.    On the positive side, there was a rare early 300GD which was a real time warp.   We also had a C114 280CE in amazing condition, plus an excellent original 220SE Coupe and 280SE 3.5 coupe.   In addition, a new member brought his W108 280S manual along.   The car has been in his family since new.  It was purchased new by his father in Singapore and then brought to Australia when the family moved here.  The car had been laid up for a couple of years and has recently been put back on the road.

Being a car sold new in Singapore it was a CKD car, probably made in Malaysia.   And of course given the Singaporean Heritage, it has an elaborate Nippondenso boot mounted air conditioning system installed.  It would have been far more powerful than the factor air, and even has a small refrigerator in the boot for drinks.  The system is not currently working, but can hopefully be repaired.

I think for next year if the club attends one of the Linnwood House open days, we should re-think the type of event.  There doesn’t seem like there is a lot of interest in its current form. It seems like it would be better to combine it with some other event to broaden appeal and also have others to help with promotion.

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This year I wondered what the event would be like as the organization had appeared a bit haphazard.   Promotion seemed to start quite late, and seemed a little disorganized.  Emblematic of this was the bold text decrying 500+ German cars, with a bullet point just a little further down the page saying the event had been limited to 450 cars only.  I personally think limiting numbers keeps people away.   The whole point of a show like this it get as many cars as possible.  I know some people stayed away because they thought they would not be allowed to pay on the day.   There were also multiple ways to buy tickets which was highly confusing, and the event website was totally broken.

Despite all that, the volunteers on the day were excellent and that was probably why the day went off very well.

The turnout from Mercedes-Benz was decent.  There was a very good display of cars.    Like last year they parked them in general categories which was much better.   The first row was SLs.   The second row was 50s and 60s era cars, such as Roundies, Finnies, W108s, compacts etc.  I took my W111 250SE cabriolet and parked in this row.   There were a number of nice W108s, a lovely Adenauer, and a very nice 300SEL 6.3 I had not seen before.   Last year was probably bigger but not by much.

The third row was W123, W116 and w126 cars.   The W126 always has a strong contingent at these events.   W123s and W116s are far smaller. The fourth row was the W124, W210, W201, W202 etc. There was also a good display of these cars, particularly the W124.  One interesting car was a W202 C36 AMG, in bright yellow with a really period interior.   This car one a show and shine award.

The other marques were not nearly as well represented.  BMW was almost non-existent.   Apparently they had a track day on the same day.   Porsche, BMW and Audi were better, but also seemed down on prior years.

This event is always a good place to catch up with people both in and out of the club.   It was good to see a lot of people I know at the event.

The weather was generally pretty good, although there were a few light showers after 11am.  It was amazing to see all the Porsches vanish when the rain started.

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As with last year, I drove down on Saturday afternoon to attend the pre-concours dinner.  It is a good way to catch up with friends in the ACT Club and is not too formal.   After the dinner I took my car to the 24 hour car wash to try and get it ready for the day.    There was a decent contingent from MBCNSW on the day, but the rest of them drove down Sunday morning.

I took my 1978 450SE this year.   I decided to go into the full concours event this year.   My car is probably more suitable for road class, but I thought there was a reasonable chance I would be the only car in my class.   As it turns out, there was a concours worthy 1977 280SE.  That car was a very worthy winner.

The event was very good as usual.   This year it was back close to Canberra city.    There were probably about 50 Mercedes-Benz there, and around 200 cars overall.   W123s were the biggest contingent, which bodes well for the 50th anniversary event to be held in Canberra in January next year.

Not only were the W123’s the biggest contingent, but a W123 was the outright winner.    The 1981 300TD is probably the best one in Australia and was a very worthy winner.   It is the same car that won its class last year and was even better this time around.

Surprsingly there were more W116s than W126s.  As well as my 450SE and the 280SE, there was also a very nice 1974 450SEL.   The early cars are not that common.    The ACT club normally does well with some models that are not common in the NSW club like compact sedans and older models.   There were fewer of the older models this time, but there were to very nice compacts.

As you would expect there was also a good contingent of W124s, cementing the W124 as an emerging and popular classic.   Among the models was a very rare E300D.   Surprisingly, there were only two R107s, normally a mainstay of these types of events.

The other marques were well represented.   The BMW display was skewed towards newer cars, but there were some nice classics on display.   There were also some interesting Audis and other niche marques, and the VW display was dominated by beetles and Kombis, as would be expected.

The drive there and back in my 1978 450SE was smooth and uneventful.  The W116 is a very good long distance cruiser.

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Last year numbers seemed a bit down from prior years.   Probably the move put people off.   However, it felt bigger and busier this year.   While the new location looks further away on the map, in terms of time taken to get there, there is very little difference.

I took my E-Type and joined the rather impressive line up in the JDCA section.   It was a good showing this year.   The strongest displays were the E-Types, XK120/140/50, XJS, XJs and Modern XKs.   Surprisingly there were almost none of the big saloons like the MK VIII, and numbers for the compact saloons seemed down too.

Looking around at the other clubs, there was a great display as usual from the Rolls Royce club, who always have a range of lovely cars.  I enjoy seeing how the pre-war cars get plenty of use.   The Daimler club also had a nice display as well.

Being a British car show, there were of course large displays from popular models like the MGB, original mini and so on.   It is always nice to see those cars, but what makes this show so good is the sheer variety of cars.  I’ve been going for years and I always see something new and interesting and rare.

The show was held on the same day as the French car show.  Normally I would attend that event with my Citroen DS.  However, by the time I properly looked at the British cars, it was a bit late to go over.   I hope next year the dates are not combined.

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I took my 560SEC and headed over there.   I think many people had the same idea as it was probably the biggest one I’ve been to.   Probably half of the entire oval was full, and there were hundreds of cars in the areas outside the oval.

St Ives continues to be by far the best cars and coffee in Sydney.   Most of the other events are far more one dimensional – dominated by a particular class of car.   The thing that St Ives has is the insane amount of variety.   You still get the Porsches and Mustangs that are the mainstay of other cars and coffee events, but you’ll also get Singers, Lancias, De Sotos, De Tomasos and more.    I normally run into quite a few other people I know on the day.

Getting in was easier than other times I’ve attended as they have the cars do almost an entire lap around the oval before entering on the far side.  This means the cars are not banking up right out to the road.   Despite that, about a quarter of the cars don’t pay the $5 entry fee and park where the event used to be held, or in the public parking lots.

The morning was great and I got to see a lot of really nice cars.  There was a surprising number of Jaguar XK sportscars from the 50s on display for example.

Getting out was the hard part.  It probably took me about 45 minutes to exit the venue.   It didn’t look like they had the second exit operating like they often do, so that reduced throughput.   There was also only one way out of the oval.   Its also amazing how entitled some people are.   When it was clear that most attendees were lining up around the edges of the oval to leave, it was amazing how many people tried to jump the queue and push their way through the middle.   I won’t let these people in on principle but I guess because most of the attendees really value their cars, they mostly got away with it.   It certainly made the exit slower than it needed to be as it became a free-for-all.

Despite the traffic snarls, it was still a nice morning and I look forward to next time I am able to attend.

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