| Today I joined the MBCNSW for a drive to the Australian Motorlife Museum. The museum is located in Kembla Grange, near Dapto. It primarily focuses on pre war cars, motorbikes and automotive memorabilia and there are over 100 vehicles on display. I had previous visited the museum in 2018. I was looking forward to a return visit as the collection does change, and there is so much to see you’ll always find something new to look at. The treasurer of the MBCNSW is a board member of the Museum, so he organized a guided tour of the museum. That was […] After last month’s inner city night drive, for February we were back to our normal formula of less trafficked roads on the urban fringe. The drive route came from a suggestion from a MBCNSW member to visit Hawkesbury Lookout and Krispy Kreme. Penrith Krispy Kreme would be our starting point, as it closes at 11PM on a Thursday Night. It turned out to be a popular choice, as most members picked up a box of doughnuts before the drive. In a few cases, they were ostensibly for partners, but obviously a number of samples had to be taken. It wouldn’t […] Last night was the first MBCNSW night drive of the year. This month we tried something a little bit different. Previously inner city drives have been a bit of a failure as the group got separated and lost. This time, we tried again with a few changes. Firstly, we kept the route quite simple. Secondly, we had a muster point halfway along the drive. Thirdly, we tried to make sure everyone had a copy of the route. The drive ended up being the seven bridges night drive. Since were were doing an inner city drive, why not make the harbour […] Today was the first Mercedes-Benz club event of the year. It was the first of a couple of drives, organized by past presidents of the club. This drive was organized by our immediate past president and started in Berowra. Next week the previous past president is organizing a drive down south. The route was pretty similar to one we have used before as Night Drive. It started at Berowra station, took the Berowra ferry across to Glenorie, then up the old Northern Road to Wisemans Ferry road, then south to the final destination, Lynwood country club. This is always a […] Last night was the final MBCNSW night drive of the year, and the final MBCNSW event of the year. The drive was a variation of the one we did in December last year. We started in Camden and took some back roads, before joining Picton road towards Wollongong. From there, we took the M1 up to the infamous Engadine McDonalds. The route was curtailed from last year due to all the roadworks on the main roads and the state of the smaller roads. The storms and flooding this year has really taken a toll on the sorts of roads we […] Last night was the now annual night drive to Bilpin. On this drive, we start in Windsor and then up Bells Line of road to the Bilpin Apple Pie Cottage. The owner is a club member with a R107 and he opens up for us and serves apple pies and coffees. The night drives are always more popular as we head into summer, and the night drive to Bilpin in particular is one people find fun, despite the very late night. On the drive, we had all classics this time, plus a Mazda! Surprisingly, W116’s led the charge with three […] The Mercedes club is planning a feature in the magazine for models of the late 60s and early 70s. They have previously done features on the 107 series and 124 series. To accompany the article, the club organised a 60’s models photoshoot for some nice examples of various models this morning. I was asked to attend, as my W111 Cabriolet is one of the few that gets regular use. While I was there, I was able to snap a few photos with my own camera. Of course I had to be very careful not to get in the way of […] Last night I attended the MBCNSW twilight drive to Ettalong. This is a concept that the club used to do in prior years but had dropped off the event calendar. Back then, it used to be called the topless drive, with the assumption that twilight in summer is a great time to drive a cabriolet. I attended that drive in 2014 and 2018. While it is great weather for a cabriolet, and a few members drove them, I took my 450SLC. I chose the 450SLC for a couple of reasons. Firstly, with the bad weather in Sydney, I really haven’t […] Today was supposed to be the annual Sydney German car show. It would have been the first one held since 2019 due to Covid. I missed the 2019 event due to work travel, so I have not attended the show since 2018. Sydney has been very rainy of late, so last week was torrential rain, pretty much the norm for 2022. Based on this, and anticipating wet fields, the council pulled the plug on the event earlier this week. The club scrambled to get an alternative event put on for the day. In retrospect, the council acted too soon, as […] Last night’s drive was a variation of one we did a few months ago. Originally it was to start from the eastern side of Galston Gorge, and then follow the previous route. That took us along Cattai ridge road, Halcrows road, Wisemans Ferry road and the Old Northern Road. I always enjoy this drive, as it’s a nice cruisy route and there are almost no cars on the road. A few weeks ago, we were notified that Galston Gorge was closed for repairs. We moved the start point of the route to the western side of the gorge and changed […] | |