I understand why people move old cars on, as there’s a sense of frustration when you can’t get the car to perform as it should. I found a local LPG specialist (who still looks after a small LPG taxi fleet), they had a good look but couldn’t find anything wrong. Just over a year went passed and it was now Dec 2024, with 404k on odometer. I kept putting up with the loveable Lister, but thought it was now too hard to fix, given the LPG fleet is in steep decline, hence it’s hard to find an LPG specialist.

Finally, Naomi said, let’s just get this fixed, as she had been given a recommendation, AG Automotive in Lilydale. To put it in perspective, a trip to Lilydale was the same distance as driving to the CBD. As we had nothing to lose, we drove to Lilydale and dropped Lister off. After recounting our story, the words came back, “You didn’t take it to Ford, as they have no idea how to fix LPG vehicles”. Two days later AG Automotive called, communicating he was all fixed after replacing the stepper motor. The stepper motor accurately adjusts the flow of gas via the o2 sensor. Apparently, it’s common practice to replace the stepper motor when replacing the LPG converter.

From this point on Lister started to behave like he should have from new, now idling well, performance felt stronger, whilst fuel economy improved. I started to regain confidence in him again, but moving forward to Jan 2025, my confidence was again shattered, as he developed a rough idle, worse than before and started to stall at idle. The only mechanic I could get to, was the local specialist, who looked at the car previously and said everything was ok. This time he took it for a drive, and on return said there was something wrong, likely the stepper motor needed to be calibrated. He had the stepper motor out, calibrated and back in within 20 minutes and then disappeared around the block. To my surprise Lister was again back to normal, but I kept on thinking when is he going to break again.

It’s now April and surely a trip to Canberra will confirm if Lister is fixed. My confidence wasn’t great, but to my surprise he went like clockwork. One of the things I did notice on this trip was the removal of more LPG bowsers, at Tallarook & Holbrook and while in Canberra, the service station we normally go to, was out of LPG. The e-gas BF wagon has 116 litre capacity, and according to Ford provides for up to 900km of range, enough to get from Melbourne to Canberra. I topped up in Wodonga, given the price and availability of LPG prior to driving into NSW. While stopped at the APCO Service Station in Wodonga, we spotted a rare Hillman 16 on the back of flatbed truck.

Stopping at Holbrook for lunch, can highly recommend “The Ten Mile Café”. It has large indoor and outdoor sections. They provided excellent service, combined with quality produce and great coffee. What else can you ask, especially in a town the size of Holbrook.

On the way back, we stopped in Gundagai, as we love the Coffee Peddler Café. Opposite you can see the impressive Gundagai Theatre.

I’ve always loved the main street in Gundagai, this time we stretched our legs and went for a walk, and found a shop called Junque & Disorderly. I couldn’t help myself from purchasing a 1973 Mercedes W115 220D Ute, 1:43 scale for $12.

We did approx. 1424km within three days, averaging 13.7L/100 on the way up and 13.4L/100 on the way back. Since Oct 2023, Lister has averaged 15 cents per kilometre. Comparing to our i30N which requires 98, averages 19.4 cents per kilometre over a similar period.

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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We started our road trip in Bathurst.  Trying to get out of Sydney on the first morning would have wasted hours.  The idea was everyone was to make their own way to Bathurst the night before as an unofficial Day 0.   I was the last to arrive and it was quite foggy and wet getting out of Sydney, which made the drive rather slow.

This morning, the weather was much better and our convoy of 10 Classic Mercedes rolled out of Bathurst at 6:30AM.  Our first destination was Young via the Olympic Highway, where we had a rather nice breakfast at a local Bakery.   On the way to Young, we passed through the towns of Blayney and Cowra.   The Terrain was mostly gentle rolling hills.   It has been quite a wet year this year, so the countryside was very green, and there was quite nice varieties of colour as we drove along.  All the cars were running well, and it was cool but not super cold.

From Young, we continued along the Olympic Highway to Cootamundra, where the terrain was similar.   At Cootamundra, we turned off the Olympic Highway and turned south towards Gundagai   The normal way to travel to Gundagai from here would be to head down to the M31 Hume Motorway and then head into Gundagai.   On this trip, we’re trying to avoid motorways, so we took a back road through Burra Creek.

The road through Burra creek was very narrow and windy, but it was a really good driving road with minimal traffic.   The weather was warming up and I think everyone enjoyed taking their cars on this back road.    From there, we arrived in Gundagai and lined the 10 cars up in front of the old Railway station.

From Gundagai, we headed south towards the outskirts of Tumut.   This road was also very good and had some great changes of elevation and some nice bends.   At Tumut, headed towards Tumbarumba.  This section overlapped with Day 2 of the Concours run from last year.   We filled up at Tumbarumba, and I had used around 55 liters in my 450SLC to cover 390km.  I thought this would be among the worst of the convoy – but I was wrong.   The 500SL managed to use 58l, the 380SEC was similar and the 280S and 280SE 3.5 W108s were closer to 60.   Meanwhile the W124s were the milage superstars with the 300CE only using 35 liters for the same distance.

From Tumbarumba, we left the road we used last year and headed west towards Jingellic.  The road here was similar to what we experienced from Gundagai to Tumut and it was an enjoyable drive.    From Jingellic, we crossed into Victoria and drove along the south side of the Murray River.   The Murray River road was a revelation.  We followed it for quite a long time, past Granya, along lake Hume until crossing back into NSW at Bethanga Bridge.

Driving this road was the highlight of the day, and I suspect will end up being one of the highlights of the trip.   The road follows the river, but is elevated, and the views are amazing.   The road is also great to drive on, twisting and turning with the river, some corners tight, some sweeping and huge fun at legal speeds.

I got rather enthusiastic with these corners in my 450SLC and managed to break both of my rear exhaust hangers.   Luckily, one of the other guys had some spare hose clamps which have become makeshift metal exhaust hangers.   So far they are working very well.    Along this road we also stopped at a couple of lookouts which had amazing views.

After we crossed the bridge, we had to pick our way through Albury.  We lost a couple of the cars in the convoy, which were funneled onto the M31.

The rest of of kept going towards Howlong, before heading back into Victoria for the final push to Cobram where we are staying.   This road was fairly flat and straight.  While it was interesting to see things like the olive groves along the way, there was no comparison to the Murray River Road.

We arrived in Cobram about 6:30PM, where we were reunited with two of our lost vehicles, the final one not arriving until about 7:45PM.   We refueled at the end of the day and I had used 15L per 100km, similar to my previous tank.   After checking into our hotel we had nice meal at a local pub.

We covered around 675 km today.   Losing three cars was not ideal, but we managed to find them in the end.   The roads were excellent, the cars all ran well and we all enjoyed our day.

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