This year I wondered what the event would be like as the organization had appeared a bit haphazard.   Promotion seemed to start quite late, and seemed a little disorganized.  Emblematic of this was the bold text decrying 500+ German cars, with a bullet point just a little further down the page saying the event had been limited to 450 cars only.  I personally think limiting numbers keeps people away.   The whole point of a show like this it get as many cars as possible.  I know some people stayed away because they thought they would not be allowed to pay on the day.   There were also multiple ways to buy tickets which was highly confusing, and the event website was totally broken.

Despite all that, the volunteers on the day were excellent and that was probably why the day went off very well.

The turnout from Mercedes-Benz was decent.  There was a very good display of cars.    Like last year they parked them in general categories which was much better.   The first row was SLs.   The second row was 50s and 60s era cars, such as Roundies, Finnies, W108s, compacts etc.  I took my W111 250SE cabriolet and parked in this row.   There were a number of nice W108s, a lovely Adenauer, and a very nice 300SEL 6.3 I had not seen before.   Last year was probably bigger but not by much.

The third row was W123, W116 and w126 cars.   The W126 always has a strong contingent at these events.   W123s and W116s are far smaller. The fourth row was the W124, W210, W201, W202 etc. There was also a good display of these cars, particularly the W124.  One interesting car was a W202 C36 AMG, in bright yellow with a really period interior.   This car one a show and shine award.

The other marques were not nearly as well represented.  BMW was almost non-existent.   Apparently they had a track day on the same day.   Porsche, BMW and Audi were better, but also seemed down on prior years.

This event is always a good place to catch up with people both in and out of the club.   It was good to see a lot of people I know at the event.

The weather was generally pretty good, although there were a few light showers after 11am.  It was amazing to see all the Porsches vanish when the rain started.

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As with last year, I drove down on Saturday afternoon to attend the pre-concours dinner.  It is a good way to catch up with friends in the ACT Club and is not too formal.   After the dinner I took my car to the 24 hour car wash to try and get it ready for the day.    There was a decent contingent from MBCNSW on the day, but the rest of them drove down Sunday morning.

I took my 1978 450SE this year.   I decided to go into the full concours event this year.   My car is probably more suitable for road class, but I thought there was a reasonable chance I would be the only car in my class.   As it turns out, there was a concours worthy 1977 280SE.  That car was a very worthy winner.

The event was very good as usual.   This year it was back close to Canberra city.    There were probably about 50 Mercedes-Benz there, and around 200 cars overall.   W123s were the biggest contingent, which bodes well for the 50th anniversary event to be held in Canberra in January next year.

Not only were the W123’s the biggest contingent, but a W123 was the outright winner.    The 1981 300TD is probably the best one in Australia and was a very worthy winner.   It is the same car that won its class last year and was even better this time around.

Surprsingly there were more W116s than W126s.  As well as my 450SE and the 280SE, there was also a very nice 1974 450SEL.   The early cars are not that common.    The ACT club normally does well with some models that are not common in the NSW club like compact sedans and older models.   There were fewer of the older models this time, but there were to very nice compacts.

As you would expect there was also a good contingent of W124s, cementing the W124 as an emerging and popular classic.   Among the models was a very rare E300D.   Surprisingly, there were only two R107s, normally a mainstay of these types of events.

The other marques were well represented.   The BMW display was skewed towards newer cars, but there were some nice classics on display.   There were also some interesting Audis and other niche marques, and the VW display was dominated by beetles and Kombis, as would be expected.

The drive there and back in my 1978 450SE was smooth and uneventful.  The W116 is a very good long distance cruiser.

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We’ve had terrible weather the last couple of weeks here in Sydney.   Earlier in the week I expected the place to be a giant mud bowl, but surprisingly it cleared up and we had a lovely sunny winters day.  The sort that Sydney is normally renowned for, but we have missed out on this year.

That was a great opportunity to get out my 250SE Cabriolet for the show.   Due to the weather its been months since I last used it.  I had originally thought to take my Citroen DS this year, but the Citroen club sold out of tickets really quickly, and my car has a leak from one of the rear suspension boots.   Perhaps next year.   In any case the weather turned out so nicely, it was a good day to take out the 250SE.

The Mercedes-Benz club had quite a good display given the limited number of tickets available.   There was a good variety of vehicles and most of them participated the Parade lap around the track.   Doing the parade lap in a convertible makes it fun even at the quite slow speeds allowed.   My kids also enjoy the double decker bus ride around the track too, so we end up with two laps.

Given the event has the massive advantage of the race track and support from organizations like the Sydney Bus Museum, I’m still confused why it seems to have been scaled back since COVID.   The Mercedes-Benz club had 20 tickets available, and it sold out early. I’m sure they could have easily sold another five to ten.  The Citroen club had 15, and they all sold out weeks ago.   The Jaguar club had 25, which also looked to be sold out.   There is a whole section on the other side of the grandstand that is inexplicably no longer used.   In addition, the main parking areas could have easily accommodated more cars.  Section F was only about a third full.

Before COVID this event used to be buzzing and now it feels a little threadbare.  Instead of the niggardly allocation of tickets on offer, if each club received five or ten more, it would have made the event so much better.

Despite that, I still enjoy the event and of all the car shows I go it, its the one my kids enjoy.

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This year there was a big improvement in that the cars were not just randomly parked, and they attempted to park cars in sections.   The had a section for the older 60s cars, one for the 70s and 80s cars and one for moderns.   A few of the 107s and C123s got mixed up with the moderns, but otherwise it was pretty well done.

The event was well organized and there was a good selection of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW and Porsche.   On the downside this year the club elected to have a separate concours event at a dealership.   This meant that the concours level older cars did not show up to SGA.   I think separating the events was a mistake and it would be better to have them together.  An event like this works when you have the largest possible number of cars there.

This year there were a fair few cars I had not seen before.   Probably my favorite was a W108 280SE in anthracite with a cognac interior.  It looked immaculate.   There was also a really nice signal red 300D W124, more than six C123s, which must be a record.   This year there was a very good showing of W116s which is always nice to see.   On display was a silver 1978 450SE that looked in excellent condition and with low miles.  It was for sale and the asking price seemed very reasonable

While W108s, W116s and W126s were well represented, there was only a single W114, no W115s and only a couple of W123 saloons.   There was also no roundies and only a single finnie sedan.   There was a much bigger selection at the Victorian event last year and I would love to see more of these cars at our event in Sydney.

I took my 1965 Mercedes 250SE Cabriolet.   There was only one other W111 Cabriolet this year, and a single coupe.   Pretty poor showing given how many are in the club.    It was a nice day to get the car out.

Going beyond Mercedes-Benz, the Porsche club had a good sized display.   I’ve never really been all that excited by 911s but there was a nice 914, and a couple of very nice 928s and 944s.   If I was to ever own a Porsche it would be a 928 in manual and there was such a car on display.   It was in a great purple colour that is very much like the Mercedes Colour Bornite.

For the BMWs they had a good selection of old and new.   My favourite BMWs are the E9, E24 and E28.   The E24 in particular was well represented and there were some very nice BMWs.    For VW they had a good selection of Beetles, Karmann Ghia’s and the like.   It probably wasn’t as big as in other years but it was still a good display.

The event is held at Gough Whitlam Park in Earlwood, same as last year.   This location is central and generally easy to get to, but I feel the event outgrew it a few years ago.   I suspect the issue is most inner city venues are not car friendly.    The reality of the situation is that for this even to continue to grow, it will probably have to move to a location that is further out.

As well as the cars, this event is always a great place to catch up with other people from the club, and is a pretty enjoyable day.

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Unlike last year, there was a fairly decent size group from MBCNSW going down for the event.   They were driving down early this morning.   In the last couple of years I have been going, I prefer to drive down Saturday afternoon, attend the pre-show dinner and stay over in Canberra.    It makes for a far more relaxed weekend.    I stayed in the Ibis Budget hotel up the road from the event for only $90 per night.  I thought this was well worth it.    That meant I didn’t join the rest of the NSW group, who arrived later in the morning.

As well as attending the dinner, which I always enjoy, I was also able to take the car for a wash the evening before the show.    I entered my car in display only this year.   MBCACT has a great system where they have gold class, which is proper concours, silver class which is basically a road class for cars that are regularly used, and then display.   This is a system I wish we would adopt in NSW.    One of the things that works well about it, is that if you have won road class, you have to compete in gold class the next time.

Most of my cars are suitable for silver or road class. However, my 560SEC is more of a driver and fits better in display only.   I was parked next to a very nice 380SEC with only 104,000km which was naturally being judged.

As well as the system of judging, the other things I like about the ACT event is how they try to park the cars along with other similar models.   For example 123s and 114/115s together, 126s and 116s and so on.   I think this makes for a much better display.   The ACT club also normally do very well with older cars, like the 170D that was on display this year.   In other years they have had good displays of roundies, W110s, 114/115s etc.

This year the event was in a new location.   I understand the council in Queanbeyan no longer allow cars on Queanbeyan park, which is a shame as that was a superb location.   This event was held at the racecourse.  It wasn’t a bad location, but it was a bit cramped compared to the last few years.

As this was the 2024 ACT German car show, the other German car marques were on display.   The BMW and Porsche displays are far more focused on modern performance cars that don’t hold a great deal of interest for me.  However, the BMW display had a few really nice models on display such as a nice E24, nice survivor E3, and plenty of E30s.   Didn’t see to many E28s which is a model I like.    The VW display was tilted towards Beetles, Kombi Vans and Karmann Ghia’s, with some modern VWs for good measure.   The Audi display was quite small, and there was a Borgward and Trabant.

Overall the Mercedes-Benz display was a bit smaller than in other years.   Not sure if this was the location, or perhaps there were competing events in Canberra this year. In addition, it was such a shame to see the 170D have its guard bent by a W126 LWB that misjudged the turn.  The damage is eminently fixable, but that won’t make the owner feel any better.   Despite that, there were still some real highlights in terms of the cars on display.

The biggest one for me was the pristine 1981 300TD Wagon.    It really was immaculate.   It had a little over 200,000km on the clock, but it looked like it had less than half of that.   Most of these cars were used up as family cars, yet this one remained totally original, even down to the radio delete plate.   I would own it in a heartbeat.   There is a big W123 event planned for the Australia day long weekend in 2025, to celebrate 50 years of the W123.  I suspect this wagon is one of the best in the country and it will be interesting to see it against the other wagons at that event.   I’m already starting to get my 240D ready.

Next I really liked the Black 220SE Coupe.  I have a soft spot for the W111 coupe and cabriolet models, and this car was very nice.   Black with a red interior is also a colour combination that suits the model far better than the more ubiquitous white.   Given our climate, not many were delivered in that combo, and I am not sure if that car was originally sold in Australia or not.

I also liked a W115 240D.  I’m not sure of the name of the colour, but it was a sort of burnt orange.  It was a lovely original car from Wagga.   It also had all the things you would expect to see in a country delivered Australian W115, such as the stone guards, AWA speakers, towbar etc.

There was also a nice selection of cars from MBCNSW.   MBCNSW members did quite well with some of the awards on the day too.  My standout pick was the 1985 280SE in Manila Beige.  Like the 300TD wagon, it is a real time warp and such a lovely car to see.

I really enjoyed the day and was glad I made the trip down.

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Displaying a car is worth it if you plan to go.   Entry is free for your passengers and you get to do a parade lap on the track.  In prior years this was a lot of fun, but last year the lap was so painfully slow that I probably could have pushed the car faster.   My kids were in the back and telling me we went faster in the traffic jam to get into the complex.   Not knowing if there would be a repeat of this, I took the most appropriate car for the day, my 1981 Mercedes 240D.  With 71hp, it was the only choice.

The 240D proved to be a good choice.  While speed wasn’t farcical like last time, it was still pretty slow.  On most of the track we could do about 60km/h and on the straight 80.   At least in the 240D, I was actually using the performance of the car and had my foot to the floor coming out of the corners.    So for the future, the best idea is to bring the slowest car you own.

I also took my kids along this year and they enjoyed it more.   Last year the traffic getting into the event was chaotic.   This time, it flowed much faster.   They still funned everyone into one entrance, but it moved a lot faster.   The also enjoyed the ride in the bus from the Sydney Bus Museum.

Like last year, the event was far smaller than in previous years.  I had hoped last year was an aberration, but it seems not.   The clubs have far fewer tickets than in prior years, and I know people who would have loved to come, but could not get them.  There are large areas that used to be used, that are totally closed off.  While this is still a good event, I feel the organizers are starting to strangle it.   The huge number of different cars were one of the principal things that made this event good.

Our club had a decent display given the lack of tickets.   There was a bit of confusion as to where we are actually supposed to park, but given the lower numbers, it didn’t matter all that much.   For once, W116’s actually outnumbered the W126.

It was a good day out in the 240D, although on the way home I had another issue with almost running out of fuel, when there was actually plenty in there.   My current theory is that either the strainer, or the little hole that lets fuel into the swirl pot from the rest of the tank is blocked.   I will have to remove the strainer and see.

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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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The night before the ACT club normally organize a dinner.   This year was a fun informal event, where we all had to guess some rare Mercedes parts, including a C107 glove box torch, fuse pliers, a wooden tool for pre-war radiator caps and more.   The one we couldn’t work out was why some compact (W114/W115) lug wrenches have a tab that means you can’t use it on alloy wheels.     And the same part number as lug wrenches that don’t have that tab.

This year I took my 560SEC and entered it the ‘Silver’ road class.    I figure it would be a good trial run for the road trip to Melbourne I am planning for November, especially after the recent transmission rebuild.    The car went very well and I didn’t notice anything I wasn’t already aware of.    The wheel wobble that I already knew about was quite annoying though.    I didn’t win anything, but I didn’t expect to.  My SEC is very much a driver, and would be lucky to even win Silver class.   As I have covered before, I think the Silver class is great and I wish the NSW event would do something similar.

This year one of the judges had to pull out, so I was asked to help.   I’ve never judged before and it was a good experience to do it for the first time.  I learned quite a lot and it also helped me really look carefully at the Gold class cars I was judging.  My allocation was exterior judging.   I think there were about 15 cars to judge.

The thing that became apparent was the need to separate the cars to make sure the excellent cars are separated from the really nice ones and the really nice ones from the good ones.    It meant that cars that looked quite nice on the surface in a particular category might get a score of 5 or 6, because there were a few grades of nicer cars in that category.     If I ever do again, my experience this year will be very helpful to do it better.

Having been involved in the judging,   I was keen to see the results, and the overall winner and runner up were very well deserved.   The winner was a 250SE coupe in amazing condition, and the runner up a 420SEL.     While these two were the clear winners my personal favourite was a green 220Sb fintail.   The owner had driven it up from Melbourne and it had an interesting and colour combination of a green exterior with a red interior.   It worked really well.    The paint wasn’t perfect, but it had a great patina to it.

The ACT show is always so well organized.   The event team had pre-painted lines on the grass for where all the cars should park.    The gold class cars were arranged in a circle around a circular flower bed.   Different models were parked together with signs explaining some details about the cars.    There were less cars from NSW than normal, as MBCNSW had a different event today.

Being focused on the judging, I didn’t spend as much time looking at the other marques as I usually would.   The BMW and Porsche clubs are more modern focused, but the BMW display had some nice older models.   The VW display is also quite varied, with plenty of beetles, Kombis and also more modern cars.

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This year the show changed quite a lot after many years of using the same formula.   I don’t think these changes were for the better.   For some reason, they decided to discontinue using the display fields on the other side of the track.   It made the show feel smaller.   One of the main things that makes this show good is the size – so making it smaller doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.   I was surprised how few tickets the Mercedes-Benz club had this year.  I don’t know if that is because the show restricted tickets or the club didn’t request them, but such a large part of the display was closed, my assumption is that show restricted them.

Presumably because multiple display areas were now closed, all the clubs moved around for the first time in many years.   For the most part, the larger clubs have not moved out of their regular spots for years.    This year on the other hand they were all over the place.   I think its actually good to move the locations around a bit, to give all the clubs the opportunity to have a ‘good’ spot.    Having said that many of the club displays seemed quite small and underwhelming this year.

This year the also heavily policed the parade lap.   I can only assume this was a requirement from their insurance company.   For a lot of lap we were driving at about 30-40km per hour, and even on the mains straight max speed was 80km/h.   Even my children said we drove to the track faster than we drove around it.

It wasn’t all bad though.   This is still a very good even and well worth the time.   The double decker bus rides around the track are a lot of fun for the family, and there is still a huge selection of interesting cars on display.   Even better, you get to see them driving around the track, not just on display.

The Mercedes club display was off at the second pit area on the other side of the tunnel.    It was quite a good spot, although a bit out of the way.   There would have been room for more cars than the twenty tickets we had.   I was parked next to a very original W116 280SE.  It was an early car, complete with the thin door cards, no rear speakers and front antenna.   These early W116s are now very rare.

One of my favourite cars that I see year after year, the 1930 Cadillac V16 I saw is for sale.  I hope the new owner still brings the car to the show every year.   High end cars like this are not often seen at these big shows with a lot of the general public.     I’m still looking forward to going again next year.

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One of the advantages of entering a car is you get to take it on a parade lap around the race track.   Each club gets a specific slot to do a lap.  I went with the Mercedes-Benz club, but I may have been better to join the Citroen club as they were given two laps for some reason!   While the lap is at slow speed, it is well worth it to take your own car around the track in a parade of cars.     Possibly our club needs to run a course on track etiquette as there was quite a lot of very erratic driving for a slow speed lap.

Apparently there were supposed to be at least 1,900 cars on display.   Given how many sections there were at the show, this doesn’t seem unreasonable.   Having said that, some clubs did have empty areas.   This was probably due to the poor weather the day before and the threat of rain in the morning.   Nevertheless the weather held up even if it was a little windy.

I arrived early with my 250SE, primarily because I was originally to be parked on the pit lane as part of the 50 year anniversary of the club.   That didn’t end up happening as one of the tickets was lost.   Wasn’t a big deal though, I’m glad I took the car in the end as it was fun driving around the track with the top down.   I had previously planned to take my 560SEL.   Given the parade lap is at slow speed, the extra power wouldn’t have helped that much.  The open roof was probably better.

Even with the early start, and the parade lap, I don’t think I saw everything and I left at about 1:30PM.   By 1PM many cars are starting to leave, the core hours of the show seem to be about 9AM to 12PM.   One thing that really stood out since last time I was there was the emergence of the Volvo 2 series as a classic car.   There were a number of really nice examples on display.   I remember during my university years they were everywhere as cheap and safe university student transport.

Due to construction the event was quite spread out.   I almost missed a few sections and had to consult my map quite a bit.   If I hadn’t been specifically trying to find the Citroen display, I think I may have missed it.   A few more signs may have been useful.

The other thing that struck me was how much better the food was.   Last time I ate there, the food was pretty much inedible.   And expensive.   This time there were a few good food trucks with reasonable prices.   Makes a huge difference.    Even better the event still has a good relaxed atmosphere without overzealous marshals and security guards.   After a hiatus, the 2022 Shannons Eastern Creek Car Show was a great event.  I hope to keep attending in future years.

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