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.

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The Jaguar Drivers club ran an event today to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Jaguar E-Type.  The goal was to get at least 60 E-Types for a photo shoot at Mt Panorama.   In the end we got really close with 58 cars on display.   At least one car didn’t make it up to Bathurst, sadly heading back to Sydney on a tow truck with a bad clutch.

It was a beautiful day for a drive up to Bathurst.   A lovely Autumn Sydney day.   We met up at the M4 services and then drove up in a loose convoy to Bathurst.   There was a photographer along the route somewhere, so there will possibly be some good photos of the convoy coming.      The meeting point was a vineyard on the Mt Panorama circuit.    It really was a lovely venue and the cars were all lined up in one of the fields.   There was a separate place to park for the other cars.

As part of the event they had a drone doing photography, a club member interviewing people about their cars and some proper photos taken of the field.

Most of the club were staying up in Bathurst, but I did it as a day trip.    I managed to drive up and back on a single tank of fuel.   My car ran well, although the brake fluid light came on a few times on the way home.  I am not sure why as I checked and there was plenty of fluid in the reservoir.

All in all, it was a great way to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Jaguar E-Type.

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While it was a Mercedes Club event, I took my Jaguar E-Type.   I would have driven my 560SEC, but I am still waiting on new brake hoses for it.   When I last drove the car, the pedal was quite soft and the hoses look quite old.   The E-Type is a great car for these fast B-Roads.     I don’t normally drive the E-Type during the day during summer as it gets quite hot, but I could not pass up this drive.

In a nod to the route, most of the other cars were high performance cars.   In fact, the E-Type may have been the slowest vehicle there.    There was an AMG GT, a C63 AMG, CLA45 AMG, CLA45S AMG, E400 Cabriolet and a C250.   Bit of a theme to those cars.

The starting point was the service station at Pheasants Nest, south of Sydney.   From there, we proceeded in convoy down to Goulburn.   At Goulburn, we turned off the M31 and proceeded up towards Oberon.   The first part of the drive was a bit dull, as we were stuck behind a slow Mitsubishi crossover.   These top heavy vehicles struggle on these sorts of roads and it had to slow down quite a lot for each corner.   The second part of the drive was much better and we were able to open up the taps of the cars a little.

When we got to Oberon, it was only 11:30AM.    It was suggested that instead of returning, we continue on to Bathurst and do a lap of Mt Panorama.   One of the people on the drive knew the roads around this area quite well and found us an excellent set of roads to take us through to Bathurst.   This part of the drive was probably the highlight of the day.   Instead of going directly to Bathurst, we first drove back towards Oberon until Black Springs.   We then turned onto the road for Bathurst.     I’ve been on Google maps trying to work out the road we used so I an visit again, and I think it might be Dog Rocks Road.    Looking at the map, I am assuming we must have gone through Rockly and towards Bathurst.

Once in Bathurst, we then did a (slow) lap around Mt Panorama.  The circuit is just a regular road when there are not races.   It has a low speed limit and and is heavily policed.  I’ve previously taken my 560SEC around the circuit.  Once we finished our lap, we drove back via Lithgow for a fuel stop and then up via Bells Line of Road to Bilpin.

The only part of the drive that wasn’t particularly enjoyable was the drive through Sydney from Richmond.   By afternoon it was a really hot day.   Normally I enjoy the wood steering steering wheel in my E-Type, but it was so hot I found it hard to grip with my sweaty hands.   Despite the reputation of English cars, and E-Types in particular for overheating, the car never went over 90 degrees.    The only thing that did overheat was my iPhone, which shut itself off due to the heat.    I guess British cars are more reliable than Apple products.

All in all, it was a really good day and great to take the E-Type out for a long drive on such good roads.   I’ll be back in Bathurst with the E-Type in April for the 60 years of the E-Type celebration.  I would recommend Bathurst via Goulburn and Oberon as a drive to anyone.   In the end, we covered more than 700km.   Some classics are not driven this much in an entire year!

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This is now the 3rd 560SEC I have owned.   The first two (1989 & 1988) were both owned in the USA when I lived in Michigan from 2007-2011.   This car is a 1987 UK market model.   It is the ECE version which means it does not have a catalytic converter and is tuned for high octane petrol.   This is achieved via a higher compression ratio and different cams.   The result is 220KW instead of 178.

The car is better than I thought it would be.   It is in good driver condition both inside and out.   I’ve had it up on my hoist and for a UK market car I am surprised not to find rust underneath.   The main downside is that I got almost no history with the car.   The car is currently equipped with aftermarket wheels that are too big for the car.   The tyres are 245 wide and these rub going over bumps and on sweeping turns.   The original wheels were included although the tyres are bald.

When I picked it up, it was not shifting well and the transmission fluid was low.   I am getting puffs of white smoke after takeoff and after certain gear changes.   My current theory is that the transmission modulator is failing allowing ATF to burn in the engine.  Once the fluid was topped up the transmission performed well.

Most things on the car seem to work, but not surprisingly for an 80s Mercedes, the air conditioning is not one of them.   The tempomat works, as do the power seats, all four power windows and sunroof, seatbelt presenters and instruments.   The car is equipped with orthopaedic front seats, but I am not sure how how they are supposed to work to test them.

My brother and I drove up to Bathurst in his E63 650i.   The 6er is an interesting contrast to the SEC.    As you would epect as a modern car it is more refined than the SEC.    In some ways they fit into the same market niche, but the BMW is sportier.   The seats and ride are harder and the steering is more precise.    The Mercedes is more about comfort and feels airier with the pillarless design and bigger windows.    Its 4.8l v8 has another 50KW, which is a smaller difference than you would have thought.   The six speed automatic allows it to accelerate to 100km/h a full second faster.

Before we drove back to Sydney, we drove two laps around Mount Panorama.   This is normally a public road with a speed limit of 60km/h.   The track has a near constant Police presence to top people trying to recreate Peter Brock’s glory days.   The altitude changes and tight corners are even more pronounced than can be seen on TV.    The track is actually a two way road, so we drove it in both directions.

On the way back were were able to drive on some great twisty roads and avoid traffic by taking a route through Comleroy road, over the Sackville ferry and Wisemans ferry road.   The two V8 coupes were a good pair for this road trip.

So far I am optimistic about this purchase.   I’ve started to give the car a service to better understand what I have and if this is a car I will keep for a while, or fix some of the more obvious things and sell it.

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