| While I was in Launceston earlier in the week, I visited the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania. This is a nice little museum quite close to the centre of Launceston. I had driven down to Tasmania in my 300TE, and had a few hours to kill before picking up my family from the airport. The National Automobile Museum of Tasmania was a perfect way to do that. The museum seemed to have a dual theme of Australian Motorsport and cars that were significant to Tasmania in some way. It also had a huge collection of Motorbikes. As I understand it, the museum does not own most of the collection – they are on loan. This probably means the collection rotates over time. There were a couple of highlights for me in the collection. The first was the 1974 Citroen DS. This was the winning car from the London – Sahara – Munich World cup rally. Citroen DS’ had a surprising amount of success in long distance endurance rallying. Not only was this car a winner back in 1974, but it was also entered in the 2013 Peking to Paris rally too. The car had 47,000km on the clock from these two events. The London to Sydney rally is probably the more famous, but cars did not win in that event.  Another car I found particularly interesting was the actual car that was rescued from the 1975 Tasman bridge disaster. A ship hit the bridge causing a section of it to collapse. Four cars went into the Derwent River and the occupants lost their lives. This one almost joined them, but the automatic transmission pan caught the edge of the remaining section of bridge. After the miraculous escape, the family never sold the car, and it remains in original condition.
 It was also interesting to see the 1976 BMW 530MLE, a South African built predecessor to the M cars. I hadn’t been aware of this car, and apparently only six survive. Another car it was surprising to see in a Tasmanian car museum was the Rolls Royce Phantom VI which had been the official car for the Governors of NSW.
As well as the exhibits, the museum had quite a good gift shop and I picked up a few interesting magazines to read. The museum is well worth a visit for anyone in Launceston. I’m currently in Tasmania on holiday with my family. Our goal on this trip is to tour around Tasmania so a car was a must. On a trip like this, I had two main options. The first was renting a car – either paying an arm and a leg for a miniature van, or squeezing a family of five into something horrible like an MG ZS. The second was driving my own car down and touring around in that. This could have been my wife’s modern car – an S211 E350 Mercedes, or one of my classics. For me, it was an easy choice and I decided to take my 1990 Mercedes 300TE. To prepare the car for the trip, I did some preventative maintenance over the last couple of weeks. There were a couple of things I didn’t get around to, such as replacing the noisy blower motor and the front arm rest. They can wait until my return. The night before I was still fighting with my bluetooth module working intermittently. I have set it up, so I can see the status LED by removing the shifter surround trim. I could see it was trying unsuccessfully to pair with my phone. After doing a factory reset, I was still not able to reliably collect, so I replaced the module with a new one. I also fuelled up the night before. I wanted to leave early so I had plenty of time for things to go wrong on the trip, so I got up at 5:00AM and left at 5:20AM. In retrospect, I think this was a mistake. In the end I had many hours to kill at the end, and I really could have used that extra hour of sleep. I didn’t sleep all that well, so I was quite tired when I started out. My first leg was fairly uneventful. I stopped for breakfast at Sutton Forest. The weather leaving Sydney was wet and foggy.  I had planned my next leg to be much longer, but I only made it to Goulburn before I started to feel rather drowsy. I stopped to buy a couple of drinks at the service station and stretch my legs. My stretches were observed by the Big Merino, one of the plethora of ‘big things’ that are to be found in regional Australia. The 300TE was running well.
 Neither the Big Merino or caffeinated drinks were enough to combat my drowsiness, and I pulled over again at a rest area just outside Gundagai. I’m not normally able to sleep during the day, but I thought I would attempt a short nap here to recharge my batteries. It actually worked. I didn’t sleep properly, but I dozed off for about 30 minutes. That 30 minutes of half sleep made a huge difference and I felt quite good after. I always thought those government signs advising a power nap were wishful thinking, but it really worked for me in this instance.
 With my power nap on the road to Gundagai, I was able to make it through to Holbrook without incident. This was the furthest I had ever been on the M31. While I’ve driven to Melbourne twice, I’ve taken the scenic route both times. The scenery on the M31 is OK, although not a patch on what is available on more indirect routes.
Holbrook is quite a nice little town and I stopped for a short break. I was curious to see the Oberon class submarine, HMAS Otway, the hull of which is in the middle of the town. I had also planned to stop at the bakery in Holbrook, but there is a huge line and I didn’t stop. By this time, the 300TE needed a fuel up. I had covered 549km at 11l/100km. I think that is pretty good.  It was at this point something rather strange happened. Once I refuelled the car, I moved away from the bowser to a regular parking spot to check the oil. The petrol station was very busy so I didn’t want to hold up a bay. I noticed a loud and strange noise coming from the front of the car. I was a bit perplexed what it could be, as the key was in the office position. Since I was parked on top of where they top up the petrol station’s tanks, in the I assumed it was coming from some kind of pump in the tank, not my car.
Turns out I was wrong. I checked my oil, which was still full, and attempted to re-start the car. The key did nothing. I checked I wasn’t in gear, or anything stupid like that. The car wasn’t. I went back and looed under the bonnet, and I could definitely hear something making a loud noise, but before I could work out what it was, the noise stopped. Once it stopped, I was able to restart the car as normal. I can’t think of many things that can spin with the engine off and the key in the off position. I can only assume that the starter was still spinning, but not engaged with the ring gear. Whatever it was, it was using a lot of power. When I checked my battery monitor log while killing time in Geelong, I could see a huge current draw around that time. It was around 12:20PM. 
From Holbrook, I drove right through into Euroa. The traffic got heavier as I entered Victoria. The speed cameras also got far more prevalent. In Euroa, I stopped for a short dinner stop. After all the fog and rain of earlier in the day, it was now over 30C and quite sunny. After Euroa, the traffic built up and the speed cameras got more frequent as I entered Melbourne. The traffic flowed surprisingly well. I was expecting to see a few classics driving around. The only car I saw on H plates was a Toyota Landcruiser from the 90s. I got to Geelong right on 6PM. I had 3 hours to kill, as I had a text message from the Spirit of Tasmania informing me that I wasn’t able to check in until 9:00PM. By this point, I was pretty tired, so would have liked to check in earlier. This trip really showed off how good the seats are in the W124. I didn’t feel any discomfort at all for driving such a long distance in them. I had dinner in Geelong, had a bit of a walk around and waited in the car until it was time to drive to the port. When I got there, I found a lot of cars had gone much earlier. I think next time I would have gone around an hour earlier. I think I would have gotten onto the ship earlier than I did. They send that message to stagger arrivals as they know some people will come early anyway. 
It took about 45 minutes from arriving to be driving onto the ship. During that time, I didn’t see one other classic. Just acres of SUVs and dual cab utes. The lead up was like being in a 45 minute traffic jam, as you most slowly forward from time to time. It is still better than the horror that is air travel. 
Being a low car, I ended up on deck 6. One of the staff who saw my wagon came up and asked me about it. Turns out he has two Rolls Royce’s back in Tasmania. A Silver Spirit and a Silver Cloud III. They both looked very nice from the photo he showed me on this phone. He also told me that I would probably see quite a lot of classics on the road in Tasmania. Their special interest registration does not require a club, and allows for over 100 days use on a logbook. 
I booked a cabin, which turned out to be on deck 7. My cabin was one of the interior cabins with no windows. I didn’t get the point of windows on a night crossing. The cabin was clean and well equipped with a nice ensuite bathroom and four beds. Since my family were flying down, I only needed the one. My only criticism was that the cabin was too hot for my taste, and the bed was a bit hard. There was a thermostat in the room, and it did actually work, but I still wasn’t able to get the cabin as cool as I like to sleep. At first it was really hot, but it at least became tolerable. I like to have my room really dark when I sleep, which is an advantage of a windowless cabin. The onboard internet does not work in the cabins, and I even had no reception when docked at the port in Geelong.  The cargo areas are locked during the voyage, so brought a little day bag with me with a change of clothes, toiletries etc. I was lucky as the seas were very mild for my crossing, with only 1m swells. I was surprised how fast the ship goes, at 27 knots.
The next morning I woke up around 7AM and was able to to check out the ship and have some breakfast. They have a lot of facilities such as movies, various lounge areas, a bar, restaurant etc. The food was OK, but not great. We docked about 15 minutes late, and then each deck was called. They started with deck 5, then deck 3, then my deck 6. It was a fairly painless process getting off the ship. The only thing I didn’t like was how careless most of the passengers were when waking past the cars with their bags. I had people constantly bumping into mine. It didn’t help that I was in the middle lane in the middle of that deck, so there were a lot of people to get past my car. The paint is not the greatest on my 300TE, but I wouldn’t want to be parked where I was on a show car. 
My family were not arriving to Launceston until 3:30PM, so I had plenty of time to get to Launceston before they arrived. The National Automobile Museum of Tasmania was very close to my hotel, so I planned to visit the museum before I picked them up. I’ll cover the museum separately. I took the scenic route to Launceston and I’m glad I did. The road was excellent, full of great scenery and sweeping turns. Tasmania is very green compared to the rest of Australia. The guy on the boat was right – I already saw a lovely Jaguar Mk2 and a Mercedes 380SEC. I refuelled in Exeter, returning 11.3l/100km. Not bad considering the long process to board the Spirit of Tasmania. On my Sydney to Launceston Road trip, I covered 1070km over two tanks of fuel. Instead of wasting money on a rental, I now get to drive my own car in Tasmania and not suffer the misery of air travel these days. In January, I’m taking my family to Tasmania on holiday. Instead of renting a car down there, I’m driving down and taking the Spirit of Tasmania. I’ll collect my family from Launceston Airport as they will fly down. Due to the cost of the Spirit of Tasmania, its actually cheaper to do it this way. It works out well, as they are not interested in the long drive down. I’m taking my 1990 Mercedes 300TE on this drive. Now I could have taken my wife’s modern car – a Mercedes E350 Wagon. However, I far prefer driving the 300TE. The E350 is not as irritating as most modern cars, but I would still rather drive the 124. I also think any issues are more likely to be dealt with easily. An ECU or Airmatic problem is going to end the trip. In order to reduce the odds of any issues, I had a few jobs to do to the car. None of them were mandatory, but I think good preventative maintenance. I have previously covered some other work I did on the car such as refurbishing the instrument cluster, attempting to change the centre vent and changing the speakers. This trip should take me past 380,000km for the car. Starter motor replacementA few months ago, I noticed that when I started the 300TE, the starter motor did not seem to full disengage, and I could hear a bad noise like it was still just touching the ring gear. It only did this a few times, but I really didn’t want to be stuck with a bad starter by the side of the road. A Bosch remanufactured starter wasn’t all that expensive and seemed like good insurance. I had this done at a workshop. 
Tailgate soft close mechanismThe S124 has a soft close mechanism for the tailgate. All you need to do is gently close it, and the motor will latch the tailgate. Recently, mine has started play up. The motor does not engage when it should, but there is a sound coming from the back like the motor is trying to work at other times. This was mostly when I closed it firmly to bypass the soft close, or when I turned off the ignition. I bought a second hand soft close mechanism, and gave it to the same workshop who did the starter. They swapped the two mechanisms over, but it was still playing up. They also did some troubleshooting. Using a multi-meter the microswitches seemed to register when the mechanism was in a position, but they did not trigger the motor. When the motor was triggered, it was at extremely low voltage, and the noise was coming from something else in the mechanism. 
After troubleshooting for a bit, and getting nowhere, we agreed to simply disable the mechanism for now, so it doesn’t flatten my battery while I am away. The car still works, without the soft close feature. Oil and Filter changeAs part of my trip preparation, I did a routine oil and filter change. My hoist is currently broken, so I pumped the oil out manually. I used Penrite HPR15 – 15W/60 Full Synthetic.  When I do an oil change, I like to remove the fuel pump relay and use the starter until oil pressure registers on the gauge. I don’t think its strictly necessary, but its something I like to do.
Bluetooth Module wiringWhen installed the correct Becker 1402 in the car, I wired in a hidden Bluetooth FM injector. This had mostly stopped working. Occasionally it did work, which made me think the unit was bad. The Bluetooth unit is under the dash wood in front of the shifter. I removed the dash wood to get to it, assuming it would need replacement. When I removed the radio, I immediately saw the problem. In my install, I used a relay to trigger the blue tooth unit to turn on from the antenna trigger wire. One of my crimp connections was loose. When I moved the radio, it came out. To fix the issue, all I had to do was put on a new connector. 
New BatteryWhen I first purchased the car, my battery tester noted that the battery was a bit marginal. From the service history, it had been installed in 2017. It probably had another year or so in it, but in November, Supercheap had a big sale. I got a new battery for 30% off and installed it for the trip. Auxiliary fan cut inI’ve never been happy with the temperature of the car in stop/go traffic with the A/C on. It sits just above 100C. Since I owned the car, I put in an 80C thermostat and replaced the viscous fan coupling. Those made improvements, but I it was still hot in traffic. Given the properties of R134A, I find that it works better if the radiator is not that hot. I’ve planned to make a fan controller box with a variable resistor like I did for the 560SEC. However, I’m terrible at soldering, so I have not had time. For this trip, I just wrapped the resistor around the pins for the fan sensor, and put a new plastic housing around the pins for the wiring. This is not perfect, but should bring the fan engagement point down to the mid 90s.
 Key spare partsOne advantage of driving a very common car, like a Toyota Camry, is that there are parts available wherever you go. This is not the case in a 30 year old Mercedes. I packed a few parts that are probably not necessary, but may be helpful on the road. The first is a new serpentine belt and tensioner. As a rule, I don’t like serpentine belts. If you lose an accessory, you can’t just remove that belt and continue. However, that is what the M103 is equipped with. This is not something I can do by the side of the road, but having the right belt and tensioner means I can be towed to any garage for a belt change. I also brought a voltage regulator, and a distributor rotor and cap. Plus a few standard Mercedes relays, fuses, some wiring, cable ties and basic tools. I take more when I go on the road trips with my friends, but I have a whole boot available, and we are pushing the cars harder. I managed to get all this stuff squeezed into the side storage areas in the cargo area. Our final night drive for 2023 was an old favourite. I ran a poll a few months ago for some of the regulars on the night drives to identify drives that there was interest to revisit. The drive from Galston Gorge to Cattai Ridge Road, Galston Gorge road and Old Northern Road was one of the most popular. I really enjoy this drive myself as it has some sections with tight ocrners as well as some faster parts along the old Northern Road. Generally the roads are in good order, except for the section of Pitt Town Dural road which is quite rough. Most of these roads were all repaired after the floods a year or so ago. On the day of the drive we had eight people registered. It had been a very hot day in Sydney at 39 degrees. The meeting point was KFC Asquith. Since we were meeting there at 9:30PM, and it was fairly close to closing time, I figured it would be fairly quiet. It was actually incredibly busy with a long line for the drive through. Not being a fan of KFC, I was rather surprised. It was before the drive even started that the hot weather claimed its first victim. We had a Lotus 7 on the drive. However, when it arrived at the meeting point it was running very hot and missing. After it was reluctant to start the owner decided to bail out on the drive. Aside from the lotus, we had a good mix of cars. I took my 1965 250SE Cabriolet. It’s finally running very well the 123 ignition. It also has nice cold A/C. In addition to that, my old 280SE made an appearance. The new owner has sorted out the A/C, fitted new shocks and continued to improve the car. Last time we did this route, I was behind the wheel of the 280SE, so it was great to see it make an appearance at the night drive. We also had a 450SLC, a R107 500SL as well as three W124s. 
From KFC Asquith, we set off and regrouped before going through Galston Gorge. Galston gorge has a series of hairpin turns, followed by a faster uphill section. From there, it was some of the tight corners of Cattai Ridge road followed by faster sections. We finished the drive at McDonalds and a few of us went in for something to eat. After the drive, I had about a forty minute drive home. About 10 minutes in, all of a sudden I heard a terrible noise from the engine bay of my car. It sounded like somebody had put a handful of nails in a paint tin and was rattling it up and down vigorously. The steering also had a terrible feel to it, like it was partly assisted and partly not. I figured that I had an issue with my power steering pump. I pulled over to have a look. There was plenty of fluid in the system. The noise seemed to be from the general area of the pump. The pully didn’t seem to be quite on straight either. There wasn’t much I could do by the side of the road, so I called for a tow truck. I didn’t want the pump to completely grenade and fill the steering box with shrapnel. In addition, I didn’t think the car would be all that safe to drive. 
I called the tow truck at about 12:10AM. Originally I was told it was not going to come for four hours. I wasn’t enthusiastic about that timeframe. However, after the operator looked at the address more, because I was stopped on a main road, I qualified for a priority tow, so the time was cut down to two hours. It turned out to be a fairly reasonable estimate. 
By the time I dropped the car off at the storage unit where I keep my cars, it was 3AM before I got home. The 250SE is booked in already for some other work in March, so it is probably off the road until then unfortunately. I’ve actually been pretty lucky. I’ve been driving exclusively classic cars for 20 years and over 200,000km. This is only the third time i’ve needed to be flat bedded. I fitted a set of original AMG Penta wheels to my 450SLC two years ago. At the time, they did not come with lug bolts. Luckily, I had a set from the replica Fuchs wheels that were on the car when I purchased it. The replica Fuchs wheels were the Australian made copies that were so commonly fitted on Mercedes of this era that were not sold originally with alloy wheels. My 280SE had the Italian copies. The set of lug bolts I had were quite scruffy, so I attempted to clean them up by soaking them in a metal cleaner and then using a clear coat on the heads. At first, it seemed like it was working. However, it was apparent within a couple of weeks that my bolt restoration hadn’t worked very well. I now had ugly rusty looking bolt heads. 
I’ve had this on my todo list since that time. This week I finally purchased a new set of bolts for the car. I really should have done this sooner. Not only were the heads rusty, but the coating on the actual bolts had deteriorated to the point where the threads were getting rusty too. Luckily I had used a little copper anti-seize as they came out easily. In the photo below, it is pretty apparent which is the old bolt in the box of new ones. 
Such a simple job has really lifted the car. Not only do the new bolts look much better, but the rusty threads are not going to be a problem in the future. As with before, I put a tiny dab of copper anti-seize and tightened them by hand.  Instead of wasting all that time trying to restore the old bolts, I should have purchased new ones in the first place. I probably spent almost as much on metal cleaner and clear coat, plus my time.
I now finally have 450SLC lug bolts that are in keeping with the car and wheels. I’ll probably keep the old ones as spares just in case I loose one. I don’t plan to put them on a car again except as a stop gap. 
Thursday was the annual MBCNSW Night Drive to Bilpin for Apple pie. This has turned into an annual event and despite being a very late night is always popular. It seems amazing that another year has flown by, as it doesn’t seem all that long ago that we did the last Bilpin night drive. On that drive, I swapped cars with a friend and drove his 450SE up to to Bilpin while he drove my 280SE. This time I was also behind the wheel of a 450, this time my 450SLC. Considering it threatened rain all day, the turn out to the event was very good. It even rained slightly on and off on the way there. We had two 107s (My 450SLC and a 500SL), a 380SEC, and a bunch of 124s – two 300Es, a 300CE, a 300TE and an E220T. Plus two modern Mercedes, an E class convertible and a coupe. 
The drive up to Bilpin from Windsor is always great at night, there is very few traffic and the twisty roads are a lot of fun in these cars. Once we got there, we first had pizza, then fresh apple pies and coffee. Our host is a club member and his banter with our president is always a lot of fun. As well as the usual night drive crew, we also had a potential new member in a signal red 300CE. Signal red is such a striking colour. Reminds me of my old 300SE W126. 
I didn’t get home until almost 2AM, but it was worth it. This is the main reason why we don’t do this event more often. With all the fun we were having, I forgot to take more pictures. Particularly at the start when there is some light. I ended up doing over 200km on the 450SLC for this drive. Last year I did a road trip in classic Mercedes to the National Rally in Adelaide. The friends I went with all agreed that we wanted to do it again this year, and in many ways the road trip was better than the actual event. This year without a National Rally, we picked the MBCV Concours in Melbourne as our anchor event. We dubbed our trip The Concours Run 2023. As with last year, the drive was an integral part of the whole experience. It wasn’t just about getting there, it was about the journey. Great roads, camaraderie with friends, adventures and seeing this beautiful country of ours. None of that would be possible on the motorway. This wasn’t just a drive, it was an an adventure in our classics, so all the cars on the drive had to be a model that was eligible for classic rego. This was not a trip for modern cars. We capped it at 10 cars to make it manageable and planned a route. 
The routeA full summary of our route is available here. Our plan was to take the alpine routes to Melbourne, especially the Great Alpine Road. From there, we would enter Melbourne for the MBCV tech day on Saturday, and Concours on Sunday. Then, we would take the inland route back home, going through towns like Parkes. The Concours Run 2023 would be a little under 3,000km and about 5 days. The carsA full description of all the cars is available here. They were all classic Mercedes ranging from 1971 to 1994. All the cars made it back under their own power, although I lost an alternator on the last day. The great thing about classics is that you can often limp them home. Not the case in a modern. Taking the cars on such a run had them running better and better, and everyone on the drive had a better appreciation of their cars capabilities by the end. These are seriously capable cars and do not need to be babied. To get my car ready for the trip, I had the transmission rebuilt, replaced the drag link and had an alignment done, replaced the front and rear speakers and did a flush of the self leveling rear suspension. In my 560SEC, I did 2932km, using 356l at a cost of $792. I was probably about middle of the pack when it came to fuel usage. 
Getting thereGetting to Melbourne took two days. On the first day, we all met in Mt Victoria, where we took the excellent road down to Goulburn. From there, we called in at MB Spares and Service for a workshop tour and lunch. After lunch we headed for Tumut via Cooma. There were some excellent roads especially in the Mt Victoria to Goulburn section and the Cooma to Tumut section. A full description of day 1 is available here. The second day had some of the best driving roads on the trip. We started in Tumut and headed for Corryong, which had lovely scenery. After a break in Corryong the next stop was Myrtleford, which was one of the best driving roads of the day. After Myrtleford, we had the climb up over Mt Hotham which was an amazing experience. From there we were back on excellent driving roads again, going via Omeo to Bairnsdale. Finally we took a nice back road to our final destination in Traralgon. A full description of day 2 is available here. MBCV Garage DayDay 3 was the MBCV Garage Day. The Garage day was held at the excellent MBCV club rooms. All our members had club room envy. The day was really good, there was a short theory section followed by digging into getting a W124 260E running again. It was a lot of fun to do this and get to know some of the MBCV members. After the Garage day was a dinner with the MBCV crew, and we found time to give our cars a quick wash between those events. A full description of day 3 is available here. 
MBCV ConcoursDay four was the big event. The MBCV Concours was really well run, with over 180 well presented cars. This was not only more cars than we normally see in Sydney, but they were better presented overall. I’ve wanted to attend this event for years, and it didn’t disappoint. The MBCV concours also provided the opportunity to meet a few people I have been corresponding with on the internet for years. A full description of the MBCV concours is available here. I could have stayed for another few hours, but we had to go to meet our schedule. 
Getting BackWe left the MBCV concours at lunchtime. Our first drive was Black Spur drive, which was a great twisty road through a rainforest like ecosystem. We then got further and further into the outback, where we ware able to exercise the cars by passing road trains on the outback roads. Our destination for the evening was the historic hydro hotel in Leeton, which is an incredible old art deco building. A full description of the drive on day 4 is available here. Our final day had a mostly outback drive. We wanted to get some photos of the cars in front of the dish at Parkes, and also do a slow lap of Mt Panorama. Despite my car losing its alternator at the breakfast stop, we managed both those things with frequent battery swaps. A full description of day 5 is available here. As we parted ways in Lithgow, we all agreed what a great adventure The Concours Run had been, with a great bunch of guys seeing parts of our country that are a bit off the beaten track. 
On the Concours Run, we had 9 cars on the trip. While I don’t mention people’s names on this site for privacy reasons, this article goes through the cars that came on the drive, with some background on them and how they went. All the cars made it back under their own power, and there were few mechanical issues to speak of. They are listed in order of oldest to newest. 
1971 280S manual (W108)This 280S was first sold in Western Australia and first registered in 1972. It is equipped with a manual transmission, when most W108s sold in Australia were automatics. Also unusual, it seems to have a custom colour, with 100ME listed as the code on the data plate. It’s hard to describe the colour, its sort of a cream with a slight green tint. It goes very well with the red interior. The 280S did really well. There were no mechanical issues to speak of, and the manual transmission made it easy to overtake trucks. It was also very good on fuel. On day four, the high temperatures impacted the driver more than the car. The 280S is fitted with a dealer installed rear A/C system that is no longer operational. 
1971 280SE 3.5 (W108)This ivory 280SE 3.5 was first sold in New Zealand. It was then brought by the original owner to Australia a few years later. That is probably why it was fitted with the standard headlights rather than the Australian delivered cars that have four round headlights. As with the 280S, there were no issues at all with the 280SE 3.5. 
1972 280SE 3.5 (W108)The other 280SE 3.5 is fitted in a striking deep blue and was sold new in Australia, sold to an Aussie rocker in Melbourne. The current owner has actually been in contact with him and confirmed that it was his car originally. The 280SE 3.5 recently had a lot of work done on the front end, including new kingpins. Having done a short section of driving in this car on the trip, I can confirm how tight the front end is. I had never actually driven a V8 W108, having more background with the sixes. I was immediately impressed with the torque and throttle response. The car went well and didn’t have any major issues, just a couple of minor ones. At high speed the transmission was leaking onto muffler, causing smoke. It looks like it was slightly over-full. It also lost an exhaust hanger. 
1979 450SLC (C107)This 450SLC is a low mileage example that was bought out of rural Victoria a couple of years ago. The current owner has been doing a lot of work to the car recently, including the dash out, parcel shelf out and more. It is a really nice 450SLC. It is an unusual spec for an Australian delivered car in that it was ordered with headlight wipers, but without a passengers side mirror. The owner fitted this as it makes it hard to park otherwise. The 450SLC was fairly trouble free during the trip. I think it only lost an exhaust hanger. 
1983 380SEC (C126)This 380SEC is on full registration and is in daily use. That is an excellent preparation for a trip like this. The car is originally from Melbourne and the owner has done a lot of work to turn the car into a reliable and comfortable daily driver. This is the only car that also did least year’s drive to Adelaide, and on that drive the 380SEC also came through without major incident. The main issue was some leakage from the transmission, like the blue 280SE 3.5. Like that car, it was probably over-full. It also needs valve seals, like a lot of Mercedes V8s of this era. I had to do this job when I first purchased the 87 560SEC. This is more of an annoyance than anything. The 380SEC also helped its wounded younger brother home by offering regular battery swaps. 
1987 560SEC (C126)My 560SEC is well documented on this site. For most of the drive, it was a great road trip car. Fast, quiet and comfortable. Thanks to the uprated condenser, the AC was cold on the hot Sunday drive. Unfortunately, the alternator was not up to the task, and it seized at West Wyalong. I had to limp the car back on batteries, doing frequent changes with the 380SEC. This car is an interesting contrast with the 320CE. The SEC is more powerful, but not as nimble. The 320CE is actually faster than an Australian delivered 560SEC. 
1990 300TE (S124)This 1990 300TE is unusual for an Australian delivered car in that it was fitted with leather seats. That was a hugely expensive option, so most of them came with standard MB-Tex. On our drive into Canberra, we actually ran into the mechanic who rebuilt the engine for the previous owner. Blue/Black is not a common colour on the wagon either. This car came back loaded up most of another wagon in the rear cargo area, a testament to the versatility of Mercedes-Benz wagons. The wagon had no issues on the drive. This wagon is a great testament to the reliability of high mileage classic Mercedes – if looked after. Not many cars would be still as reliable with over 375,000km on the clock. 
1993 320CE (C124)The 320CE was a one year model, before it was replaced by the facelifted E320 Coupe. I prefer the second generation look, so if I was looking for a coupe, I would seriously consider one of these. This 320CE did very well on the drive, with no major issues to report. The 320CE is a fast and nimble car, and a good choice for the mountain roads we took. 
1994 E220T (S124)The newest car on the trip, the E220 wagon made the journey with no fuss. Even though it is equipped with a four cylinder engine, it kept up with its older brothers and was very frugal on fuel. It had no major issues to report. Like the 300TE, the E220 came back laden with many wagon parts. With the distinctive white roof box, it could have been in a period Mercedes brochure. The E220 also had a proper CB radio (see the antenna below). This allowed it to act as a relay point for all the cars on the drive, and to receive transmissions from quite long distances. This was very useful. 
The final day of our road trip came up quickly. After a pleasant evening in the historic Hydro hotel in Leeton, it was time to head back to Sydney. Our first stop for breakfast was a bakery in West Wyalong. The drive was 130km, and went through far more farmland than we had seen yesterday. I guess this all part of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. During a stop to let the convoy regroup, I noticed a grinding noise from my engine bay. Using a hammer as a sound transmitter, it was clear the noise was coming from my alternator. I had noticed a squeaking noise from my car when cold, which I had put down to belt noise when cold. I guess 3,000km of driving has been hard on the bearings in the alternator. The noise didn’t seem too bad, so we kept going and had breakfast in West Wyalong. The home made potato pies were great! When I restarted the car, I heard a horrible belt squeal and smoke from under the bonnet. I quickly shut down the car to see that the alternator had totally locked up. This presented a problem, as we were over 500km from Sydney. We cut the belt off, and drove to a nearby auto electrician. He didn’t have an alternator, nor was there one locally. What he did have was a battery that should fit, so I bought that as an insurance policy. We also stopped by a wrecker, who didn’t have anything. While city wreckers are becoming a thing of the past due to property prices, country wreckers are still very much in business. Not surprisingly they don’t carry many parts for 80s Mercedes. We decided to keep going and see how car I could limp the car without an alternator. I ultimately managed to get the 140km to Parkes before I was down to 11.6 volts. They car was still running fine but had become rather sluggish. I was really happy about two things. Firstly, that I installed the bluetooth battery monitor a couple of days before the Concours Run, and that when I had wired up the amplifier, I triggered it off a relay from the radio. Turning off the radio turned off the amplifier. Instead of using my new battery so early, the owner of the 380SEC kindly agreed to do a battery swap. That way I would use his battery and his car would charge mine. We were not going to let a seized alternator get in the way of the days agenda, so we headed off towards the Parkes Radio Telescope for some photos. It is far further from Parkes than I remember, abut 20km towards Dubbo. 
After taking some photos in Parkes, we headed off towards Orange. The drive was uneventful, as agriculture gave way to rolling hills. Orange was the location of a fuel stop, and another battery change. The 380SEC had become a mobile battery tender. The W126 has such a big battery that the other cars could not help. We also stopped in at other wrecker. While they had a D-jet 350SE with an alternator, it was very crusty and much smaller.  From Orange, our next destination was Mt Panorama. We wanted to do a lap of the track and take some photos with the cars . The track is a normal road with houses on it most of the time. But it is heavily policed and drivers need to stick to the speed limit.
We soon arrived at Mt Panorama, although a short-lived wrong turn into the shooting club was quickly reversed, as there was a live fire event going on. Our first lap was more about finding the photo locations, and the second lap was about enjoying the track. It’s my third time driving around it, and the second time in the 560SEC. 
After yet another battery swap, it was time to head to the final waypoint of the entire journey, Lithgow. We headed there, and did one final battery swap. I now had my original battery, fully charged. I also had the brand new battery in the boot. It was 5pm, and I had about two and half hours of daylight left. If I wanted to avoid a tow truck, I was going to need to get home before headlights would be required. I had found that my car didn’t use much electricity if I just cruised along. But stop and go traffic using the brake lights and indicators was draining my battery. Based on this, I took Bells Line of Road. I drove with one of our group who lives in that area, and when he peeled off at the bottom of Bells Line of Road, I had just dipped below 12 volts on the first battery. I continued taking the back way, through Annangrove road, until finally installing the brand new battery near the intersection of the Old Northern Road and New Line Road. I was down to 11.6 volts and 1% on the battery monitor. At this point, I had about 40 kilometres to go, and was confident by then I would make it. Up until this point it had been quite nerve wracking to see if I would make it so far with no alternator, or If I would be on the back of a tow truck. I guess this is what owners of electric cars go through on a daily basis. After 7:30PM, it was becoming twilight, I turned on my parking lights. I only had 20 minutes to go. I arrived home a little before 8PM, still with some reserve power. Today, I had driven 720km, 588 of it with no alternator. Total for the trip was 2932. For most of the day the instrument cluster had been lit up like a Christmas tree with warning lights. 
Granted an alternator is more likely to fail if it is old. However, I would not have been able to do what I did in a newer car. For starters newer cars draw so much more power, it would not be possible to drive so for long just on the battery. Those cars would also be far more sensitive to low voltage. Secondly, newer cars use a single serpentine belt instead of separate V-Belts. Even my 1990 300TE is like this. I like the separate V-Belts because you can recover from a bad accessory. I can remember cutting off the belt from the A/C compressor on my old W123 230E. Everyone else got home without incident. The trip was a big success and I enjoyed every minute of it. Day 4 was a very busy day for the Concours run group. Not only did we spend the morning at the excellent MBCV concours event, but we planned to drive 520km. Part of this was getting to the MBCV Concours event, but the majority of it was our road trip home. Our stop for the night was Leeton. Our group was reduced by two for the trip home. The owners of the two S124 wagons were staying in Melbourne another day. We left the concours at a little after 12:30PM, and headed for Black Spur drive, which I had read was an excellent driving road around Melbourne. It did not disappoint. Driving in this area was almost like driving through a sub tropical rainforest. There was a thick canopy of plants and trees including ferns and other trees that I would associate with rainforests. The road was windy and quite enjoyable. This part of the drive was still quite cool. One we got out of the forest cover, the weather started to warm up. Our first stop was Shepparton. I had originally thought that we could call in at the North End Bakehouse, which won the 2023 best Vanilla slice in Australia. Of course, I hadn’t factored in that bakeries are shut late on a Sunday afternoon, so we went to McDonalds instead. By the time we got to McDonalds, the outside temperature indicator was showing 33C. It felt it too. I was fairly comfortable with the AC on max, but two of the W108s don’t have working A/C and the occupants baked. Once we left Shepparton and headed for Jerilderie, it was clear we were starting to head into the outback. The lush forests gave way to paddocks filled with hay bales and gentle rolling hills. The vegetation was slowly getting drier. 
Once we crossed the Murray River (and NSW Border) the hay bales changed to very dry sparse grass, and patches of trees a long way from the road. By the time we reached Jerilderie, we were definitely doing outback driving, with flat arid plains as far as the eye could see, long straight roads and plenty of road trains. It was another form of exercise for the cars to pass the road trains. The 380SEC and one of the 280SE 3.5s were having some transmission issues overtaking the road trains. When accelerating hard around the road trains, both cars would eject transmission fluid onto the hot muffler causing smoke. The 380SEC looked like a crop duster at one point after passing two road trains. Checking the fluid, I think both cars may have too much, and its being pushed out of any crevice it can find when the cars are being pushed. In the end both cars performed admirably. During this part of the drive, I got to drive the 280SE 3.5. It was a very different experience to driving a six cylinder car from that era, which I am used too. There is a lot of torque. I also think the front end in that cars is ‘tighter’ than in my 250SE. I need to look into this. When we got to Jerilderie, I head the Steel Wings giant windmill was an interesting attraction to visit. Given it was late on a Sunday evening, not much was going to be open, so it seemed like a good option. In the end, it was quite an anti-climax as it really isn’t all that big. 
After Jerilderie, we headed for Leeton, and our final destination of the Hydro Hotel. This is a lovely old art deco building that was constructed in 1919. it was originally constructed to house senior staff for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. It has been very nicely renovated with clean and comfortable rooms, yet still showing off the fabric of the old building. I would definitely recommend coming here for anyone passing through. We got there later than expected at 8:10PM. 
The lady on the desk was very friendly, and immediately suggested we go and find dinner as most places shut their kitchen at 8:30PM. In the end we found a local Chinese restaurant that closed at 9PM, and had a succulent Chinese meal. Today was very different driving to days 1 and 2, but equally fun. Tomorrow is the last day of the trip. It has gone fast. | |
