This year I had a vested interest in Aston Martin & Rolls Royce Concours d’Elegance, as the event was being at held Cruden Farm, Langwarrin. This is the same venue as the 2025 Mercedes-Benz Victoria Concours d’Elegance, in which I’m the Concours Director.

The Aston Martin & Rolls Royce Concours d’Elegance event was a fantastic opportunity to view how these two Clubs utilised the venue. The Aston Martin Owners Club utilised the grass area sandwiched between the lake and the Picking Garden, while the Rolls Royce Club utilised the five ways paddock. The weather outlook didn’t look great this morning, and shortly after arrival the weather threw a curve ball, with a short downpour. I bumped into the Rolls Royce Chief Judge, Neil Matthews, he had hoped the weather could have held up at least until midday, allowing judging to complete.

After reviewing both areas, figuring out how many cars we could park comfortably in Concours and Members Display section & defining our parking layouts, it was time to have a
look at some of the cars. The weather allowed a short 20min window, as the wind gusts spiked up and light faded, even though it was the middle of the day.

For anyone reading this article, the 2025 Mercedes-Benz Club Victoria, Concours d’Elegance is being held in conjunction with a Cruden Farm open day, 16th March and will be listed on Cruden Farm website.  If you’re a motoring enthusiast, or just want to check out Cruden Farm, public entry is $10 per person. For Mercedes-Benz Club Members, you can find out more about the event at https://vic.mercedes-benz-clubs.com/?page_id=33

Author:  Nick Gruzevskis is a contributor to classicjalopy.com, and the custodian of a great collection of classic and modern cars.  Links to some his other articles can be found here

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The event was held at Wandin East Reserve.   Wandin East is a semi-rural area on Melbourne’s eastern outskirts.   The reserve is a good place to have the event as there is plenty of room to park all the cars, and set up the various stalls.     The weather started a bit overcast and foggy, but it soon cleared up and it turned out to be a lovely day.

Our hotel was about 45 minutes from the event.   Our drive there was rather scenic, and we grabbed some breakfast close the MBCV Concours event,  before arranging our cars in order of age (oldest first) and driving in.   MBCV had provided a row for the NSW visitors (us), so we wanted to have our cars properly arranged.

We arrived at 8:30AM, and the event was already about one third full.   The cars kept coming, there we still even new arrivals after 11:30AM.   There must have been at least 180 cars, all Mercedes-Benz and mostly classics.

We all agreed the show was excellent.   There was more variety than we see in NSW, and overall the standard of presentation was higher.   There are less rare and unusual cars in NSW, but more concentration of specific models.     At the MBCV concours, they had a Gullwing, more pontons, a 170 and various other interesting cars.

It was good to see three W111 cabriolets on display.   It almost made me wish I had brought mine.     The two 280SE 3.5 cabriolets were very nice.

As well as seeing the cars, It was also great to meet a few MBCV members I knew from the various facebook groups and forums.   it’s nice to put faces to names after so many years.

The MBCV Concours was extremely well organized, and I really enjoyed it.   We stayed until 12:30 and could have stayed a few hours more if we didn’t have to get on the road to head back to Sydney.

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I attended that first show, unfortunately I did not take any photos.   What a contrast to the 2018 show.   This was the biggest one yet.   The show has now outgrown Gough Whitlam park, so a new venue would not surprise me next year.

Probably the biggest contrast was that the other marques took the show very seriously this year.  In prior years, there were quite small displays from BMW, Audi, VW, Porsche and the Micro-cars.   This year all those clubs had big displays of their models.   On the BMW side, they had a nice selection of 2002s, 3.0 CS and other early cars.   They also had many of the current ‘M’ cars that are so popular.    The Porsche club had a number of race cars, and there were a number of performance Audis.   For the first time in years I even saw an Audi Fox.

For Mercedes, attendance was the biggest yet.   There was only one pre-war car, but most of the post war models were represented.  Building on last year, there was a nice selection of W111/W112 Coupe/Cabriolet.   My Cabriolet was joined by two 300s, a black RHD recently imported from the USA, and a blue one recently restored.   Interestingly on the black car, it had Safari seats in the front and a regular rear seat.  I can only assume that some time ago, when these cars were not worth very much, a previous owner threw away the safari seats because he/she needed to carry three passengers in the back.   If only they knew how valuable they would become.   For the Coupe’s, there were a few 280SE 3.5s, a prize winning 250SE, a 220SE and a 300SE.

As usual, there was a good display of Pagodas, 190SLs and so on.   I even saw my old 280CE, with a new steering wheel center.   I’m glad an enthusiast owns this car.   There was also a good display of 600s, including a Pullman.

Overall this was a great event and you can see how hard the organizers worked to put it on.   The only negative for me is that the new concours judging classes make little sense.   The old ones were much more logically laid out.   You now have things like W100s in with 190SLs and other strange combinations.   I also find the registration fee of $50 rather expensive.    It was $35 only a couple of years ago.

After I got home, I took the time to give the 250SE a good leather treatment.  Since the car had been sitting out in the sun all day, the leather was nice and warm to allow the conditioner to get into the leather and keep it soft.   I also did the 450SLC, which still has original leather.   The drivers seat on that car has a few cracks in it, so I am keen to try and preserve it as best that I can.

Unfortunately, I discovered that there was a smudge on the lens of the camera which impacted the quality of the photos.   Therefore they are not up to the standard I would like.

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This year was notable for the strong turnout of W111/W112 Coupe and Cabriolet models.   From the lows of the last couple of years, there were seven entered for judging and five on regular display.  Last year’s show winner was not present which would have been one more.  There was also a special section for AMG models.   For one reason or another the 300SL Gullwing was parked there despite not being an AMG.   Gullwings can park where they like if it will get one to the show!

I entered my 250SE same as last year.   I don’t ever expect to win anything as I don’t take the concours as seriously as most.   A quick wash and vacuum and I’m ready to go.   It’s always fun to participate and since I like to keep my car fairly original, it doesn’t look out of place.    I prefer to drive the car than do the work necessary to score really well.

The BMW display was quite nice, with many of their sporting coupes such as the 2002’s, E9s, 6 Series, and 8 series.

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Some of the highlights for me included:

• The matching pair of Bugatti Type 57S Atalante and other French luxury cars such as the Voisin.
• A striking Rolls Royce Phantom III.
• A number of Duesenbergs.
• The Tucker.
• Various American luxury cars including Packards, Pierce Arrrows etc.
• Mercedes 500K special roadster.

I would return in a heartbeat.    These are cars that are rarely seen at shows in America, let alone in Australia.     It was one of those shows where four hours was gone at the blink of an eyelid and there was still more to see.

I was actually hoping to drive my E-Type there (and park it in the parking lot).   It hadn’t quite arrived from Oregon, so I took the black 560SEC.

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The winner in the class was the Orange/Red 220SE Cabriolet which is in exceptional condition.

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The star of the show without a doubt was the 1938 230 Cabriolet ‘A’.   Not only an incredibly rare car but an excellent restoration.   This car was the standout despite a Gullwing less than 10 meters away.

The other noticeable thing was the renaissance of the W116.   Previously hardly sighted at events apart from the 6.9, well maintained examples were particularly well represented, outnumbering most other models entered for judging.  Even more surprising was the dearth of W123’s – none entered for judging and only a couple at the event.  Considering globally the W123 has a lot of interest as a modern classic and the W116 is mostly overlooked, this was quite a surprise.

I entered my car for judging, not because I expect to win (I don’t), but mainly to park it with the really nice cars, and always with the possibility that the real show cars might not turn up on the day!  While my 250SE is in excellent condition, it is not a show car and I don’t have much interest in making it one.

The day started and ended with a fair amount of rain, which given the soft top was wet on arrival back at the warehouse, it gave me a good opportunity to shampoo it.   My neighbour was rather amused to see me hosing off the excess shampoo in the rain afterwards!

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I took the 250SE, and and entered it in show and shine.   Highlight of the show was the 1950s 300S, a lovely 220SE Cabriolet with Safari seats, a beautiful blue Adenauer plus many more.

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