2025 – Longreach
The fourth annual classic car road trip took us to Longreach in Queensland. Over 8 days we will cover over 4,800km. Our route up hugs the great diving range and the return route is inland.
Preparing my 560SEL for a 4,800km road trip
I will be taking my 560SEL on a 4,800km road trip to outback Queensland soon. Over the past couple of months I have been slowly sorting out a few things that could impact its reliability. ...
Planning a 4,800km road trip to outback Queensland
The last three of our big classic car road trips have headed south towards Victoria. This year it was time for something different. We are heading north to Queensland. Due to extreme temperatures and the ...
Longreach Trip – Day 0 – Sydney to Maitland
Our trip to Longreach in classic cars starts tomorrow morning. One of the things we learned in the first of these trips is that it is a bad idea to try and start out from ...
Longreach Trip – Day 1 – NSW Mid North Coast
The first full day of our 8 day road trip to Longreach and back started in Maitland. Due to a major landslide on Thunderbolts way, we had a lot more distance to cover than originally ...
Longreach Trip – Day 2 – Gwydir Hwy and New England NSW
The second day of our classic car road trip to Longreach and back started in Grafton. As we were able to stick with the planned route, we slept in and met at 6:15AM for a ...
Longreach Trip – Day 3 – South East Queensland
Our arrival into the sunshine state brought with it heavy rain overnight. By the morning, the rain had stopped, but a thick fog was over the region. Visibility was down to only a car length ...
Longreach Trip – Day 4 – Central Queensland
After travelling mostly northwards for the last few days, today would be heading west. We started out In Monto at 6:30AM. Due to the clear skies it was quite cold and frosty, 3.5C according to ...
Longreach Trip – Day 5 – Longreach
The fifth day of our trip would be the day we finally arrive in Longreach. This trip has been much more about the journey than any one destination, but Longreach is the furthest point from ...
Longreach Trip – Day 6 – Southwest Queensland
Day six was a shorter drive than usual. This was largely because we are travelling through Southwest Queensland, a very sparsely populated part of the country. There are only so many towns that have good ...
Longreach Trip – Qantas Founders Museum
During my road trip to Longreach, I attended the Qantas founders Museum. Qantas is the second oldest continually operating airline in the world, after KLM. It was founded in Winton, Qld in 1920 as Queensland ...
Longreach Trip – Day 7 – Inland Northern NSW and Warrumbungle NP
The penultimate day of our trip had us starting in Queensland not far from the NSW border. Yesterday we had finished up in St George. The morning was yet again quite cold and we rolled ...
Longreach Trip – Day 8 – Bylong Valley and Putty Road
Our final day of the trip started much the same as the others. We set out from Coonabarabran at 6:30AM as we headed towards Sydney. It was quite cold and overcast, so we had to ...
Longreach Trip – The Cars
Our almost 5,000km road trip to Longreach had seven cars participate. All seven completed the trip successfully. Of the four such road trips we've done, this one probably pushed the cars hardest. Yet we had ...
Longreach Trip – National Transport Museum Inverell
One of the stops on our big road trip to Longreach was the National Transport Museum at Inverell. It was only a minor detour for our group to go and check it out. The museum ...
Longreach Trip – Summary
Our fourth annual road trip in classic cars was the most ambitious yet. There is nothing better than using these cars as they were designed, while seeing parts of Australia I would otherwise never otherwise ...
2025 – Brisbane Weekend Trip
In January 2025, I took a quick trip up to Brisbane. I took my 1981 Mercedes 240D and covered 1923km over three days. I took the inland route the way up, visited the Brisbane Car museum and returned home via the motorway. While the 240D is a better city car, it did extremely well on the road trip and proved to be very frugal.
The Brisbane Car Museum is quite a new Museum, only opening last year. I'm currently in Brisbane for the weekend, so went to check it out with some friends from the Mercedes Club. It is ...
This weekend I took a road trip to Brisbane in my 240D. It was my first ever road trip in the car and I wasn't sure what to expect. While I think the 240D is ...
2024 – The Long Way Euround
The Long way Euround was a six day road trip with a group of 10 Classic Mercedes-Benz. We drove 3,900km across NSW and Victoria, visiting Murray towns, Silo Art, The Grampians National Park, a Mercedes wrecking yard, The Australian National Show and Shine in Euroa, twisty roads into Melbourne, Gippsland Including the Gippsland Vehicle collection then back home via the Monaro region and southern tablelands of NSW.
Each of the last two years, I have done an extended road trip in Classic Mercedes. I have found them so enjoyable that it has become an annual event. There is such a sense of ...
Today was the first day of my annual Classic Mercedes road trip - The Long Way Euround. While the major event that anchors the trip is the Australian National Show and Shine in Euroa, it ...
Today was the second day of our big Classic Mercedes road trip through NSW and Victoria. Yesterday, we finished up in Cobram, Vic, after a day driving the windy roads of the Upper Murray Region. ...
Today was the third day of our Classic Mercedes road trip. Yesterday we finished in Horsham after driving the Silo Art Trail. Horsham is a great starting point for The Grampians National park, which was ...
Today I attended the Australian National Show and Shine, at Euroa. This is part of a multi-day Classic Mercedes road trip I am doing with a group of friends. The Euroa Show and Shine was ...
Today was day four of The Long Way Euround, the Classic Mercedes road trip I am doing through NSW and Victoria. Day four was one of our busiest, and so far probably best days on ...
Day five of the Long Way Euround takes us back towards Sydney via Gippsland and the Monaro region of southern NSW. After an action packed day on Day 4, today was a little more relaxed, ...
As part of my big Classic Mercedes road trip, I visited the Gippsland Vehicle Collection. This was a stop on our drive from Melbourne to Bombala via Gippsland and the Monaro Highway. The museum is ...
Today was the final day of our big Classic Mercedes Road trip. We started at 6:15AM in Bombala where it was 2 degrees outside. We were down to 9 cars, as one of our ...
On our 3,900km road trip, we had 10 cars participate. None of the 10 required a lorry to return home. However, pushing these cars hard over such a distance is going to result in a ...
The Long Way Euround 2024 is now the third of these big road trips in Classic cars I've organized. To me an adventure like this is the best part of classic car ownership. Its not ...
2023/4 – Family Trip to Tasmania
Over the 2023/4 new year period, I took a trip to Tasmania with my family. I drove my 300TE down to Geelong and sailed on the Sprit of Tasmania, meeting the rest of my family at Launceston Airport.
Over our trip I covered 4344km in the 300TE. Mostly with a family of five and luggage. The roads were great and the car went really well. In fact, it averaged 11l/100km, only one liter more than my wife’s modern car would have, but far more enjoyable to drive.
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 ...
I've been touring Tasmania in my 1990 Mercedes 300TE this last week and a half. While there are regular classic events here like Targa Tasmania I've been quite surprised how few classics I've seen touring ...
2023 – The Concours Run
The Concours run was a five day, 3000km road trip with a group of 9 Classic Mercedes-Benz. We took the Alpine routes to Melbourne, primarily the Great Alpine Road. From there, drove to Melbourne for the MBCV tech day on Saturday, and Concours on Sunday. Then, we took the inland route back home, going through towns like Parkes.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Today was the MBCV Concours event. This was the show that we built this whole trip around. I had wanted to attend this event for years, as I had always heard the standard of ...
The third day of our classic Mercedes road trip was focused on a MBCV Garage Day. The subject was electrical troubleshooting. However, before we could have the MBCV Garage day, we had to get there. ...
The second day of our classic Mercedes road trip between Sydney and Melbourne focused mostly on driving the Great Alpine Road (B500). On Day 1, we started in Mt Victoria and ended up in ...
Today was the first day of our epic road trip to Melbourne in 9 classic Mercedes Benz. Our goal was to head down for the annual MBCV concours event and a tech day they were ...
Last year, I went on a 4,000km road trip with some friends from the Mercedes-Benz club to the National Rally in Adelaide. We all took classics, and we took the scenic route there and back. ...
2022 – National Rally Glenelg
A group of four of us attended the 2022 National Rally in Glenelg, Travelling the coast road there, including the Great Ocean Road, then returning via Broken Hill, White Cliffs, Wilcannia and more.
On this trip we had to rebuild the entire cooling and charging system of one of the 280CEs, which added to the adventure.
This year I plan to attend the Mercedes-Benz clubs of Australia national rally. The event is being held in Adelaide in April this year. I've done plenty of road trips while living in the USA, ...
In Australia, each state (and territory) has their own Mercedes-Benz Club. Most countries have a central club with regional chapters. This isn't really all that surprising given the states could not even agree on basic ...
Today was the first day of our epic drive to the Mercedes-Benz clubs national rally in Glenelg, South Australia. I am going with a group of friends on a road trip to and from ...
Day two dawned on our trip to the Mercedes Clubs national rally with the situation that while the 280CE now had a full battery thanks to the trickle charger, it had no way of charging ...
One of the attractions of this trip was to be able to tick off a few bucket list items. A big part of this was doing the Great Ocean Road in our own cars. Part ...
The National Rally included a Show and Shine in the morning to display the participating cars. The show and shine was held at Wigley park, a very nice spot near the Marina in Glenelg. The ...
Day four was a bit of a change of pace for our group. We didn't have many KM to cover as were are now part of the rally proper. The agenda for today was the ...
Today was the second and final day of the actual Rally. The two official events were a scenic drive down the coast to Lady Bay, and a dinner and farewell event. Start time for ...
With the rally now over, it was time to start our drive home to Sydney. Like our journey to Adelaide, we had planned a scenic route back. Our route takes us home via Broken Hill, ...
We started the day in White Cliffs, after staying at the Underground Motel. I wasn't looking forward to the shower in the shared bathroom, but they were actually a lot better than I thought they ...
I recently attended the Mercedes Clubs National Rally 2022 in Glenelg, SA. Not only did I attend the actual event, but I joined a group of friends in the MBCNSW to create a Classic Mercedes ...
2008 – Driving an eBay 560SEC across the USA
Back in 2008, I purchased a 1988 560SEC sight unseen in Los Angeles and drove it back to Michigan over a weekend.
I lived in Michigan between 2007-2011. When I first moved there, I bought a cheap but somewhat rusty 1989 560SEC to be my daily driver. It was already rusty so I was not worried about ...
This is part 2 of a description of a road trip I took back in March 2009. I was living in Michigan and purchased a 1988 560SEC in the LA area. I had to be ...
This is the third and final part of a series on my mad cross country dash in an eBay 560SEC. Part 1 covers the purchase and initial impressions of the car. Part 2 covers the ...
