I am currently in Thailand on holiday, and have been driving a 2020 Suzuki Swift as my rental car. During the last week, I’ve been doing a mix of inner city and cross country driving in the car, so have a pretty good sense of what it is like to own. The 2020 Suzuki Swift is quite refreshing as it is a very simple,...
Editors Note: This is part three in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about owning a W210 430. The first part can be found here. Finding parts for my 1998 W210 E430 has been hit and miss. Some parts have been very easy to find, like the climate sensor motor, found at Pelican Parts, while the fan regulator was found on Amazon. There have been...
Back in September, when I started to deal with the algae problem in my 240D, I noticed the car was quite hard to push. At that time I tested to see if the brakes were grabbing and it was clearly the fronts that were to blame. The rear wheels spun freely ever after a hard push on the brake pedal. Since I had the...
Another year has passed, so time for an update on what is going on with each of the cars I own. Like last year, I will cover the highlights and lowlights for each car, major work performed, how much I drove them and any plans for the future. As with 2023, I drove my fleet of classics around 18,000km and suffered no breakdowns. Classics...
In the last update, I ruined my W123 fuel tank. Luckily, a friend in the Mercedes Club was able to find me a very good tank as a replacement. The new tank is much better than what I had, and probably far better than a home resealed tank. It was from a 280E, which means it is an 80 litre tank. I will have...
Editors Note: This is part five in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about owning a Modern Mercedes convertible – in this case his R170 SLK230. The previous entries can be found here. After two years of ownership, I now feel I’ve just about sorted my SLK230. Many will know the challenges of sorting a car. Yes, the major issues are sorted quickly, but...
One of the cars I have always admired is the Series 1 Jaguar XJ. It was an amazing piece of design, and well ahead of its time. I think the series 1 XJ was culmination of Jaguar in their heyday before they were absorbed into the mess that was British Leyland. In particular, the car I have always admired the most was the Series...
Today was the monthly Auto Brunch event in St Ives. I’ve always regarded it as the best cars and coffee event in Sydney, and when a friend contacted me the day before saying he would have his D Special on display, I decided to go along. I last went in September. The car has been a project for the last year or so and...
In the last part, I used a fuel tank sealing product to seal my W123 fuel tank. This seemed to go quite well, but it turns out I had made a fatal mistake. Once I had coated the inside of the tank, I very carefully cleaned the openings for the sender unit and strainer. I made sure the threads were clear of any sealant. ...
Yesterday was the final night drive of 2024. As has become traditional, we headed to Bilpin for a late night feast of Apple pie. The week had been very hot and humid in Sydney, and Thursday afternoon greeted us with a typical Sydney summer storm. We’ve been a bit unlucky on some of these drives, having good weather during the week and then storms...
In the last update, I cleaned out all the junk from my W123 fuel tank. At the time I was undecided if I should do anything about the surface rust in the bottom of the tank. In the end I decided to. The rust was just surface rust, but it covered quite a lot of the bottom of the tank. My general preference for...
Earlier this week, I removed the fuel tank from my 1981 Mercedes 240D. This was because I was unable to get the fuel strainer out from the bottom. It turned out to be not such a bad thing, as once I had the strainer out, I could see that the tank was still quite contaminated. On my last article I had some good...
This Sunday in November presents some what of a feast for classic car enthusiast, with many car clubs holding their annual Concours event. The AOMC website notes ten events for Sunday 17th, including Jaguar Concours & Display Day, Day of the Volkswagen, Maserati Days, 32nd Rob Roy Historic & Classic Hillclimb and Aston Martin & Rolls Royce Concours d’Elegance. This year I had a...
Over the last few months, I have been dealing with the algae problem in my 240D. I’ve been quite busy with my trip to Victoria and work, so the 240D has been on the backburner. However, I am keen to get the 240D back on the road, so started work again in the last two weeks. Previously, I had determined that the fuel strainer...
Editors Note: This is part four in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about owning a Modern Mercedes convertible – in this case his R170 SLK230. The previous entries can be found here. Two cars of the same chassis/model often drive differently after 20-30 years, depending on mileage, maintenance & number of owners. I got the opportunity this weekend to drive a 2003 SLK230...
Today was one of the premier events in the MBCNSW Calendar – Youngtimer Sacco Day. The purpose of the event is to celebrate the cars of the late Bruno Sacco, previously head of design at Mercedes-Benz. This is the fourth time the club has run Sacco Day, having held previous events in 2020, 2021 and 2023. The thing that makes this event great is...
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