Considering the last minute change, the event went off without a hitch.  The change in venue ended up being to the advantage of one attendee, the Helios yellow 300D with black badging and door surrounds I had affectionately dubbed bumblebee arrived on the back of a tow truck.   Poor old bumblebee wasn’t starting, due to a blown glow plug fuse.

Turns out one of the glow plugs had shorted internally.  We were then treated to an impromptu demonstration of how to troubleshoot a glow plug issue in the older series glowplugs while eating rather excellent bacon and egg rolls. Since we were at MB Spares and Service, a replacement glow plug and fuse was on hand.  About 30 minutes later bumblebee roared into life again.

Bumblebee was the third car that suffered from an issue on the trip, which I think is testament to how W123 owners use their cars.  There was a Queensland car on the first day with a plugged fuel filter and apparently a local car suffered an engine issue, which is a shame.

The other interesting thing I saw was a Turbo wagon under construction.  On all the internet sites, the accepted wisdom is that the 617A does not fit in right hand drive vehicles due to clearance issues with the steering box.   Having seen the turbo being test fitted with an NA engine, its clear that it does fit.  Perhaps not to the standards of Mercedes-Benz, but I think the real reason why there was no right hand drive turbodiesels is that Mercedes-Benz did not see the market for them.  The not fitting thing seems like a convenient excuse.

Its been well documented that Mercedes-Benz did not originally plan to make a right hand drive version of the W123 wagon.  It was only due to the fierce lobbying of the UK importer that they did.  I suspect there could have been right hand drive Turbodiesels had the same sort of case been made.  Even if a little engineering was required.

seeing the wagon under construction, it is easy to see how different the OM617A is to the NA engine.  It is fitted with a much higher capacity oil pump, complete with double row chain.  There is an oil squirter under each piston as well as a tube in the bottom of the piston for the oil squirter to cool the piston.   In addition, on this car, the crankshaft is being balanced for a manual transmission.

After the farewell breakfast, I went and checked out the Australian National Museum with my family before heading back to Sydney around 3PM.   It was a really hot day, but the 240D did very well in the heat. The AC keept me very cool.  The coolant temperature sat around 90c at most times, going up to 100 during long sustained hills.   The uprated condenser I installed seemed to have done wonders.

From leaving home Friday morning to returning Monday evening, I covered 1,022km in the 240D.  Probably because I left later, I didn’t see a single W123 on my drive home.

Reflecting back on the event, I think one of the key things that made it so good was its flexible nature.  There was something for everyone.  Tt was perfectly fine for attendees to pick and choose the parts of the event that suited them.   Some like me wanted to do the whole thing.  Others just the show and shine, or something in the middle of those extremes.

Canberra is a very good central location for such events. It was also great to see how well all the interstate clubs embraced it.

I also think having no registration cost was great.  Its much better for each activity to be user pays, or in the case of the dinner room booking, sponsored.  I was very happy to be part of this event.  I am looking forward to mounting my grille badge on the 240D.  It seems unlikely that 80+ W123s will ever be assembled again in Australia.

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Before we even started, we lost one of the cars.   One of our group had purchased a lovely ‘new’ W108 280SE 3.5 earlier this year.  It’s a really nice car, but it had not seen a whole lot of use in recent years.   Unfortunately all the work required to get the car ready for a trip like this was not complete.    Its the usual thing with classic cars.   The more they are used, the more reliable they are.

Our route started in Mt Victoria (Sydney’s Blue Mountains) at 6:30AM.     Therefore, five of us elected to stay up there the night before on an unofficial ‘day 0’.   I was one of them.   This meant for a much easier start.   Two more of our group lived somewhat locally and elected to meet us at the starting point ,and two more skipped the first leg and planned to meet us at Goulburn.

The seven cars doing the first leg met without major incident in Mt Victoria.   The only minor issue was that one of the W108’s had a snapped a handbrake cable that morning.    For our first leg, we had seven cars – three W108s (Two 280SE 3.5s and a 280S, two C126s (my 560SEC and a 380SEC), a 450SLC and a 320CE.

Our first leg would take us from Mt Victoria to Goulburn where we had planned to meet the other two people at the Big Merino.    The road from Mt Victoria to Goulburn is one of my favourites in NSW and it didn’t disappoint today.   There was very little traffic at all, and the road is a delightful combination of twisty sections, long sweeping corners, elevation changes and amazing scenery.   It is one of those roads you can have fun driving at the speed limit.

We stopped for Petrol at the Big Merino, were the two W124 Wagons joined us, namely an E220 and a 300TE.    At our fuel up, it was interesting to note how good on fuel the two 280SE 3.5s are.   This is especially impressive, given the W108 has all the aerodynamics of a brick.    The W108s did better than both W126s for eample.

From there we took the back roads towards Fyshwick to our lunch stop at MB Spares & Service.   It was great to catch up at MB Spares and see some of the projects they have going.   Of particular interest was some very interesting factory literature, some very rare cars in the workshop, the rebuild of a factory 617 turbo diesel and see a wrecked 560SEL that was an amazing demonstration of the rigidity of the W126 passenger safety cell.   It was very good of John, the owner of MB Spares, to host us for lunch.

After lunch, the next stop for our convoy was Cooma.   The scenery gets progressively better along this route, but it probably the least interesting that we did today.   What was apparent was how well all the cars were responding to a good run.

After we had a short break at Cooma, the final leg of the day was to Tumut via the Alpine Way.   However, before we left Cooma, we called in breifly at Flynn’s wrecking yard, which is the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, and can be seen from space.   Given there was a $10 entry fee, and it wasn’t clear how many Mercedes-Benz they had, we didn’t go into the actual yard and kept going.

The Alpine way was the only part of todays drive I had not done before and I really enjoyed it.     It was a really fun road through some amazing scenery.     One of our group suggested a stop off at Yarrangobily Caves Thermal Pool.    This didn’t turn out to be quite as good as we had hoped.    The road to the pool was one way, and quickly became unsealed.   The owners of the W108s were not enthusiastic about taking their cars down that road.   We did get there in the end, and take a few photos of the cars, but there wasn’t really time to do much more, as we wanted to get to Tumut before it started getting dark.    Driving on the back roads in Australia at dawn and dusk means a high chance of encounters with the local wildlife, especially Kangaroos.   I know this all too well.

Our group rolled into Tumut about 7;30PM.   According to my odometer, we covered 634km today.    Given the core route was 585, this made sense for the various small detours we did.  We checked into our hotel  in Tumut and went to a local pub for dinner.    Our first day was really good, especially how we all arrived without incident.

I’ve been very happy with how the 560SEC has performed on this trip.    Its been fast, powerful and comfortable, and the A/C has kept me cool.

The post The Concours Run 2023 – Day 1: Mt Victoria to Tumut appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

MB Spares and Service closed down the spares side of their business a couple of years back to focus on the service and restoration.    The spares business catered for both new and used parts.    So they can consolidate down into one building, excess used stock was on sale today.   Having a stock of good used parts is quite useful for a restoration and service business.  The point of the sale was not to liquidate the entire stock of used parts, but bring it down to a level that made sense.

I didn’t have urgent needs, but keeping these classic cars on the road can be quite expensive.  I’ve found its generally a good idea to buy commonly used parts cheaply when they are available.     It is difficult to predict what you might need in the future, so easy to get quite silly during these sales.   I focused on things that would not make sense from insurance.   For example, even though they had some good rust free C107 doors, if my car is hit and needs a new door, I will get this from insurance.    If on the other hand I crack a front headlight, having a spare one is better than $800 excess.

Considering the effort to dismantle the cars and store the parts, the prices were very reasonable.   I am surprised more people from Sydney didn’t make the trio down given the wide range of inventory.     There was so much there it was even tempting to look at parts for models I would be interested to own in the future!  In the end pragmatism ruled and I ended up with some things that I should be able to use easily, and are not too difficult to store.

Some of what can be seen in the boot of my 300SE includes a W126 front grille, a W126 alloy wheel, a 300SE radiator, a W126 front headlight, set of W111/W108 headlights, a window regulator for the 300SE and a mirror motor for the 560SEC.

The most pressing repair is the front left window regulator on my 300SE.   The good used unit I picked up should be great here.

This was also the first time I have taken a road trip in the 300SE.    Generally I am either displaying the 250SE in a show, or find the 450SLC or 560SEC beter road trip cars.   The 300SE was a better choice for this trip, as the MB tex interior is less likely to be damaged if I was carrying something inside the car (wrapped up of course).   Also, the 450SLC does not have rear brake calipers at the moment, and the 560SEC is still running lean.

The 300SE performed well on the trip.   I discovered that it has a minor vibration from the front suspension at freeway speeds.   The cruise control does not work either.   I’m not too concerned about cruise control as I don’t really use it much.  I will need to inspect the suspension.

While I was at MB Spares and service, I saw two barn find cars they are working on.   The first is a beautiful W108 250SE.   I understand it was taken off the road in the 1980s and it really is a time warp.   Normally I am not a fan of white cars, but it looked very smart in white with red MB-Tex interior.   They also had a unicorn in the shop, an Australian delivered 300TD W123 with a factory manual transmission.    My preference is the 250SE, but the 300TD is a really interesting car as well.

All in all it was good day – a road trip, some bargains and a poke around an Aladdin’s cave of Mercedes parts!

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My ideal would be to get a copy of the 15″ Fuchs wheels for the 450SLC and then use the 16″ wheels that are currently on the SLC on the new SEC.    These wheels were bought originally for the 1988 560SEC I used to own.    They rub slightly on the SLC when on full lock.    The fuchs wheels are prohibitively expensive so not a real option at this point.

As it happens, MB Spares had a 420SEL in for wrecking that had hit a Kangaroo.    The wheels had good tyres on them and had been refinished in the near recent past.   This included the spare that has an unused tyre.

These wheels look really good and I am very happy with them.   They also came with the original lug bolts that are NLA from Mercedes.   These have an extension that allow them to be flush with the wheel face.   These wheels are the same as would have been fitted new on the 560SEC, other than the 560 has slightly wider tyres.   They are also the same wheels that were optional on my 300SE, although that car was not originally ordered with alloys.

Even though the wheels are standard for the 560, my plan is to fit them to the 450SLC, as they will fit better and fit the 450SLC wheels to the 560.   The 16″ wheels have 225mm tyres and work better on the W126.

The W126 has a very big boot. It is actually possible to fit all five wheels in the boot if the spare tyre is removed.    This was a slight risk driving down to Canberra with no spare tyre, but at least on the way back I had 5 spares!

While I was at MB Spares I saw two lovely cars parked out front.   Firstly a 450SLC in a very similar colour to my SEC.   It is in very nice condition indeed.

That car is fitted with the ‘Centra’ after-market wheels that are now desirable and hard to find.    It also had a very nice interior.    The other was a W112 300SE Coupe.   The car was a cream colour with an immaculate interior complete with Safari Seats.     I’ve not seen this colour before in the flesh – it’s much darker than the normal Ivory colour that was popular at the time.

The 560SEC performed well on the road trip to Canberra.   It has plenty of power on the open road and is a comfortable cruising car.   The only negatives were the wheel wobble that will hopefully be cured when I remove the Simmons wheels, and the lack of A/C.   The fuel consumption with the 450SLC is also interesting.   The SLC can get to Canberra and 1/4 of the way back before it needs refueling.   The SEC can get down to Canberra and 3/4 of the way back before it needs refueling.   Both cars have 90L fuel tanks.   On the freeway portion, I got 12.5l/100km for the 560SEC, not bad for a 30 year old car with a 5.5l v8.

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This Saturday, John Green, proprietor of MB Spares & Service and one of the original instigators of these websites arranged a national meetup in Canberra.  I was quite keen to go after participating in the forums for so long.  The event coincided with the ACT Mercedes Concours on the Sunday, which I was unable to attend.        The plan was to attend the lunch and cruise Saturday afternoon, then head over to MB Spares for the dinner event before driving back to Sydney that evening.

I was able to join up in a convoy from MBCNSW, which was a nice way of heading down.    I took the 250SE as it was a while I had taken it on an extended road-trip.    It was a lovely day and I was able to drive all the way down with the top down.

We were accompanied by a W108 280SE 3.5, a W123 230E, and W126 420SEL and 560SECs.      We also saw a W111 230S going down at the same time but that driver did not seem to be interested in convoying with us and was really flying.  This was a nice selection of cars for the drive.   My favorite was probably the 280SE 3.5.

The drive down was uneventful and the 250SE performed well.  One thing I did notice is that it is probably getting time for a steering box rebuild as the steering wanders at freeway speeds.   After an estimated 450,000km  it is probably due.   We took our time on the drive and made a couple of stops which made the drive more enjoyable, bit it did cause us to miss the start of the OzBenz cruise!    The upside was that it gave us time to have a break before the BBQ at MB Spares.

I had never visited the workshop, even though the 250SE carries its share of parts from the recently closed parts side of the business.   The workshop was a lot bigger than I imagined and it was good to see some of the major restoration projects under way.  Amongst them was a brake booster change for John’s 280SE Coupe.   I saw this car a couple of years ago at the 2015 ACT Show.   This car was likely the motor show car of that year and would look great next to my 250SE Cabriolet.   Sadly (for me) the owner is rather attached to it and is not going to send it up to my home for wayward Benz’s.

I parked next to an immaculate 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet and it was good to compare the two cars.    The 280 was white with red leather and had some great period accessories.

At the workshop we were also able to see some other great cars including a few being prepped for historic rally duty – a W123 with a v8 and a 250/8.    It was also interesting to compare two almost identical W123 230Es, one from Victoria and one from NSW.  They had both travelled for the OzBenz meetup.  As well as the W123’s there was a 250SL from Queensland, a 250SE Coupe, a nice 450SLC and more.   

It was then time to return back to Sydney, and the 250SE performed well on the return journey as well.   It did manage to pick up its own fair share of the insect life on the way back.   I was lucky the 250SE has a loud horn as I was almost forced off the road by white van man!

Overall it was a great trip and I would do it again if I could.   It also proves what great cruising cars these 60’s Mercedes are and what a shame it is that more of them don’t get as much use.   I know there are a reasonable number of W111 Coupe/Cabriolet in Australia but it always seems like comparatively few get active use.

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The show was worth the visit with a large Mercedes-Benz section, BMWs, Borgwards, NSUs, Goggomobile and VWs.   I didnt’ get time to go through the VW section, but was able to see some of the other brands as well as Mercedes.

The pick of the show for me was the ‘show within a show’ from MB Spares, a well known Mercedes restorer and parts supplier in the ACT.    They had a few of their own cars, including a lovely 280SE coupe with pretty much all options available, a 300, and some of the cars they have worked with their customers on, including the 280CE with the 5.0 engine, and the 280E rally car that will be competing in the London to Sydney rally – which was won by the 280E back in the late 70s.

There were three other W111 Coupe/Cabriolet.   The 280SE mentioned above, a 220SE Cabriolet and a 280SE 3.5 coupe.   In addition, there is a nice  his and hers Ponton/Roundie display with a custom ute and a lovely sedan both in the same colour.

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