Even though the total amount of driving was less than over days, we had a lot to cover.   We made out way out of Bendigo at 6AM.  Due to daylight savings kicking in, it was dark and we were all tired since our body clocks assumed it was 5AM.  We had a two hour drive to Euroa for the Australian National Show and Shine.

At this point we had intermittent rain driving through the mostly flat farming country between Bendigo and Euroa.   The drive was fairly relaxing as there was not much traffic and the roads were all pretty easy.    Along the way we noticed another grain Silo with artwork.   However, this one was more folksy vs the more artistic ones around Horsham.  It was quite a good contrast.

Generally al the cars were still performing well, with some minor exceptions.   The 380SEC was still playing up with hot starts and occasional stalling when idling.   We just kept it running during short breaks.   The 500SL had a power steering leak which seemed better after tightening up the clamp on the return hose.   And my A/C was no longer working in the 450SLC.  I guess there was a leak.   Given it was a cool day, I was only going to use the A/C to defrost the front window, so it wasn’t essential.

We refueled at Euroa before the show and then had our cars in place around 9AM.    Details about the show are covered separately.   We planned to leave the show at 11:30AM.   The MBCV had kindly offered to host us for a BBQ dinner at their very impressive Club rooms.   Given all the trouble they were going to, we didn’t want to be late, and I was keen to drive some roads that looked really promising on the way to Melbourne.

Leaving around this time worked pretty well, as we were able to see what we needed to see of the show.

Fitting the name of our trip, the route to Melbourne was not the direct one.  The map is below, but the goal was to find as many great driving roads as we could between here and Ferntree Gully.   The roads exceeded my expectations.

We headed out towards the serenity of Bonnie Doon.  The roads so far were fine, but not all that special.   it was when we got through Mansfield that they started to become really good.   The road I specifically wanted to do was the Eildon-Jaimeson Road.   This road is paved, but a lot of the roads around it are not.   I think I can safely saw it was one of the best roads I have driven on.   It was lots of windy roads up and down the mountains that goes on for 63km.   You can still drive well within the speed limit and have amazing fun on this road.

I kept my 450SLC back in 2nd gear most of the time and I was able to accelerate out of the bends and then slow down for each.   The car handled really well, it generally stayed flat and I never lost any grip.   I was more likely to slide out of the seat when cornering that lose control of the car.

In addition, the scenery was amazing and it was like driving through a temperate rain forest.   The sportier cars like the 107s and 124s were really able to make the most of this road.  It was probably harder work for the W108s.

As we drove we found a couple of scenic places to stop and allow us to all re-group.

After we finished this road, we still had more great driving roads.   We went through the Yarra Ranges National Park and went through Towns like Reefton and Gembrook.   These roads were equally good and probably more varied than the Eildon-Jaimeson Road.   There was still lots of bends, but also sweeping corners as well as the tight stuff.   In addition, there were also more significant uphill and downhill sections.

There was one section that we did up towards Nichol lookout that was like a Hill Climb.   And the view at the top was amazing.   There was also a section that went through what was presumably an old growth forest with massive trees on either side of the road.

Both roads were great and I would do them again in a heartbeat. Since my A/C wasn’t working, I had my windows and sunroof open. I could hear a noise from the rear right when turning left. I think I may have a wheel bearing starting to get noisy. If I hadn’t had the window open, I probably wouldn’t have heard it, so I am hoping it will be fine until I get to Sydney.

After we finished the twisty drive, we headed into the MBCV club rooms for the BBQ.   The MBCV had 30-40 members who had attended to come and meet with us and their hospitality was very much appreciated.   It was great to meet up with some friends in the club again, and see some of their cars and chat.   It was great to see cars like the W143 230, and the dinner was great too. The W143 is currently for sale and will be on display in the Sandersons showroom in Sydney soon.

By the time we got to our hotel which was about 20 minutes away, we were all pretty tired from such an action packed day. We covered around 510km today.

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 4: Euroa show, great driving roads and MBCV BBQ appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

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.

The post The Concours Run 2023 – Day 4: MBCV Concours appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

However, before we could have the MBCV Garage day, we had to get there.   We started in Traralgon, and drove to Ferntree Gully (A suburb of Melbourne) to the MBCV club rooms for the garage day.     For the once and only time on this trip, we took the motorway.   I guess in keeping with this trip, while it carries the ‘M’ designation, it wasn’t really a proper motorway as it didn’t bypass many towns.

The drive in was uneventful, and after a quick breakfast stop, we arrived at the MBCV Club room.   We were all blown away by how great a setup MBCV have.    The club has purchased a strata industrial unit, and kitted it out as an ideal club room.    On entry, there is a small lobby with various trophies and club memorabilia.   To the left is a meeting room, and upstairs is a mezzanine with a few other rooms, for example to store technical literature and brochures.    The main part of the warehouse is open plan and has a hoist and a well set up set of tools.

The main space is highly versatile, as it can be kitted out with folding chairs for club meetings or workshops, or used for a garage day.    The club also run a tool loan program from the club room, and store their club trailer and other equipment.

Being in an industrial estate is perfect for the club room, as most of the time all the parking is free when club events are running (weekends and evenings).    Having the club rooms was integral to the the relaxed nature of the MBCV garage day.   I understand MBCV runs these events regularly at the club rooms.   Its something that the MBCNSW really should consider.   I understand MBCV had a couple of hundred thousand dollars in the bank, and borrowed a couple of hundred thousand more to purchase the rooms and kit them out.   In addition, they had volunteer help and working bees to really set up the club room well.     The location of the club rooms was chosen in a place central to most members.

Todays MBCV Garage day had all the NSW visitors as well as 10-15 MBCV members.   It was a good amount.   The day started out as an informal catch up and an opportunity to check out the other members cars.   Most MBCV members had arrived in W124s, but there were a few others like a W123 and a W220.

From there, there was a short section on electrical troubleshooting theory, followed by some examples to practice on.    Those examples had issues that could be found using a multimeter.

After lunch, there was the core focus of the day.  One of the MBCV members had recently purchased a 1989 260E W124.   The car was fitted with an aftermarket car alarm and immobilizer.   The problem is that the car is permanently immobilized.   The previous owner went to drive it, found the car immobilized, and then parked it up for at least a year.    The current owner purchased it, and it became our electrical troubleshooting guinea pig.

Our working theory was that the aftermarket immobilizer had failed,  permanently immobilizing the car.   We started by removing what we could of this system.   Our theory was that the system worked by cutting some of the factory wires, and sending them to the immobilizer control unit to only let current pass when the system allows.     We were able to sort out the starter motor this way, but not the fuel pumps.

After pouring over the wiring diagram, we worked out the factory wire should be red, white and black.    Starting a the pumps, we started to work backwards to find where the system had power.    The system did not have power at the pumps, or the plug connection under the rear seat.   However in the passengers foot well, it did.

I really enjoyed the tech day – it was nice to have an informal focus on fixing a members car and discussing the common problems everyone had.    After the tech day, I also purchased some W124 spares from an MBCV member.  I managed to fill up the back seat of the 560SEC with various trim pieces for a beige wagon interior.   Some of them quite large.

After picking up the parts, I went to a self service car wash to clean my car up for the concours tomorrow.   It was quite a good setup.   By this time I was running late to get back to the hotel to meet the rest of the group.   I selected the eight minute wash, and it did a good job.  After seeing the car dry, I realize I missed some of the caked on dirt on the Sacco panels.  I was too focused on getting the bugs off the front.

After the wash, it was time to check int our hotel, the Parkroyal Monash Melbourne.   The two main factors in choosing this hotel was the secure undercover parking, and proximity to the dinner event.    It was great to have the undercover parking, although getting into the parking was the most frustrating experience I’ve ever had parking.     We had to park on level B2, but couldn’t find it.   We were told to follow the red line.   The red line or ramp to B2 was nowhere to be found.

The shopping centre had installed some kind of number plate recognition software, and it didn’t work.   It took at least two minutes to recognise number plates, and some cars took far longer.   Not sure if they were paying or speaking to an operator.    To simply get our cars to B2, it took about 40 minutes.

From there, we went to a local Golf club to have dinner with some of the MBCV members before the show.

I had a great day.   I got to meet some MBCV members I have spoken to on many occasions, but not actually met.   Not only that, but I also got to attend a very enjoyable MBCV garage day.     In the course of the day, I covered 198km.     Tomorrow is the show.

The post The Concours Run 2023 – Day 3: MBCV Garage Day appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

For 2023, while there was no National Rally, we were keen to do another.    We picked the Mercedes-Benz Club of Victoria’s annual concours event.   I’ve wanted to go to this for years, as I had heard the standard of the cars at this show is very good.    In addition, at a S124 tech day earlier this year, another group was thinking of going down to Melbourne to do another tech day.   We decided to join the two groups and attend both events.

To make it manageable, we put a cap of 10 on our group, and started planning.    The distance to Melbourne is shorter than Adelaide, so it will mean that we need to do less driving per day.

I’m taking my 1987 560SEC.   I’ve been doing work to get it ready for the drive including having the transmission rebuilt, replacing the drag link and upgrading the front and rear speakers.  This time I will not be the oldest car on the trip.   There are four W108’s coming along – three 280SE 3.5s and a 280S manual.   I had considered bringing my 250SE, but it still has a few things that require sorting out before I would take it on such a long trip.

As with last year, we have a trip logo and will have magnets for the side of our cars.   One of our group made this really cool image of our route for the logo.    Also based on our experience last year, we will have more powerful walkie talkies.   We purchased the Quansheng UV K5 from Ali Express for our group.

We’re going to have a great convoy of cars for our group.    We’ll have the four W108s already listed above, plus two C126s, a C107, a C124 and then either one or two S124s.

Our route was selected to avoid motorways wherever possible.   Motorway travel is very boring and the whole point of this trip is to enjoy some good roads and see the country in classic cars.

Day 0 – Sydney to Mt Victoria

Our official route starts at 6:30AM the next morning at Mt Victoria.   Since most of our group live a fair distance from Mt Victoria, most of us will stay at a pub overnight.    We will each make our own way up to the pub.

Day 1 – Mt Victoria to Tumut

Our morning will take the excellent road between Oberon and Goulburn.   I’ve done this road a couple of times now and its one of the best driving roads in NSW.   There is very little traffic and its a great mix of twisty sections, sweeping bends and straights.

After a short break in Goulburn, we’ll head to Fyshwick via Tarago and a stop at MB Spares and lunch nearby.    After lunch we’ll drive south to Cooma, before heading up towards Tumut via the Alpine way.   Tumut will be our stop for the night.    Total driving for Day 1 will be 585km.

Day 2 – Tumut to Traralgon

Day two will take us through the high country roads from Tumut to Bairnsdale.   For much of the day we are on the scenic B500 Great Alpine road.   This is supposed to be a great driving road with some nice places to stop along the way.

Our final leg will take is into Traralgon, our stop for the night.    We will have covered 524km.

Day 3 – MBCV Tech Day

The main purpose of Day 3 is the tech day with MBCV members.   We’ll drive into Melbourne from Traralgon, and head to the MBCV club rooms at Ferntree Gully.   The focus of the day is electrical troubleshooting.   We’ll start with a theoretical section on using a multimeter for voltage, amperage and resistance settings.

After that, our host will have prepared a couple of cars with specific faults for us to use our new skills to troubleshoot.    There should be most of our group and 10-15 MBCV members.

Dinner is being hosted by MBCV.   We’ll have a private room in a local club.

Day 4 – MBCV Concours and drive to Leeton

The MBCV concours will be held at Wandin East reserve.    We’ll spend the morning at the concours, and the MBCV have prepared a section for our cars to park.

Early in the afternoon, we’ll head off and start our journey home.   We’ll take Black Spur drive out of Melbourne, which is apparently one of the best driving roads in the area.   We’ll head north to Leeton via Shepparton and Jerilderie.

Our stop for the night is the historic Hydro Hotel in Leeton.   Day 4 takes us 447km.

Day 5 – Leeton to Lithgow and home.

Our final day takes us inland towards home.   We’ll head to Parkes via West Wyalong.   It should be possible to get a few photos of the cars with the dish behind them.

From there, we’ll head to Mt Panorama via Orange.  We’ll be able to do a slow speed lap around the track at Mt Panorama.    This is a normal road when there is no racing, although speed limits are very low and very aggressively enforced.

We’ll head to Lithgow before the convoy breaks up and we go our separate ways.    Day 5 takes us 633km.

The post Planning a 2023 Classic Mercedes Road trip – The Concours Run appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Last weekend the 2023 event was held at Calder Thunderdome. For those that don’t live in Melbourne, Bob Jane developed the tri-bank oval at a cost of $54 million and it was officially opened in 1987. Nascar, Auscar and Touring Car racing all used the circuit, but all stopped in 2001 and it effectively became abandoned.

August is one of the wettest months in Melbourne, with a 33% chance of rain. Given this fact the choice of venue was appropriate, as most cars could be parked on asphalt.

We decided take Claudia, our 1979 450SE. It was going to be an early morning, as the Mercedes-Benz bump time was scheduled for 8:15am – 8:45am. After a short, misguided detour down Calder Park Drive (wonder how many other entrants did the same thing), we rolled in at 8:25am, queuing up with a number of other Mercedes-Benz attendees.

Within 15 minutes we were waved through and weaved our way to the oval and then into the Mercedes-Benz display. The angle of the banked curve seems a lot higher when driving on it.

The Mercedes-Benz display was quite well attended, approx. 60 cars were in attendance. Most were Club members, but it wasn’t mandatory to be a member to attend. There was a fantastic range of models on display, covering the full gambit, from preserved, modified, to recent models.

At times the event didn’t seem quite full, but as it was so large attendees were very spaced out. I managed to bump into my cousin Ben, he had entered his 330i M-Sport wagon, a rarity in Australia as it wasn’t sold here, but he had just brought it back from the UK after living there. You always manage to bump into people you know, including David Morley, who told us he was in the process of writing another book.

I always seem to hunt out for the unusual and rare, again this time the event didn’t disappoint.

All the marque displays were fantastic, but being a previous BMW owner, I couldn’t help but notice the E34 M5 wagon and Z1.

I’m not sure how many vehicles attended, but over $20,000 was raised and donated to Beyond Blue. The organising Clubs, BMW Drivers Club Melbourne and Volkswagen Club of Victoria put on a magnificent event, while every year managing to top the previous years event. Special mention to Jo Mawson (Vice-President BMW Drivers Club Melbourne) as I didn’t see her stop all day. Also, I must make mention of all the Club members that volunteered to help at bump-in and assist in parking up of vehicles.

Author:  Nick Gruzevskis is a member of the Mercedes-Benz Club (Victoria) and the owner of this 1979 450SE, a 2005 CLK320 and a SLK230

The post Guest Post: Victorian German Auto Show 2023 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Oskar the 300SE ready for auction

Moving forward a year, I had an itch to buy another classic. I attempted to justify the purchase, but in all honesty, I couldn’t really, apart from knowing that our cars had contributed to my mental wellbeing during COVID. I also knew Naomi wouldn’t say no, as she has two lovely classics, a Jensen Interceptor and Triumph Stag and can’t resist another exciting addition to the family.

We have always subscribed to the philosophy of owning cars that suit different purposes. Looking at the garage we have enough four door vehicles and no longer need to worry about carting kids around on Club events, so the focus turned to a two door Mercedes. In the last five years I’d seen values escalate for the Mercedes models I grew up with, so I started to think about the more recent Mercedes models, CLK (A/C208, A/C209), SLK (R170/R171). Initially I did look at the CLK, but as I own half a C209 CLK320 with our daughter, I didn’t want another 209 even if it was a convertible. I also thought about the R129 (for less than a minute), but values were way outside my budget.

Eventually I started to look at the SLK R170 as I’ve always been a huge fan of Bruno Sacco and loved the design queues of its elder brother, the SL, with its power domes on the bonnet and optional two-tone interior options. The two-part vario-roof was also a large plus for me (even though it does consume a large amount of boot capacity when down). Within 25 seconds you can enjoy the fresh air of top-down motoring or close it and enjoy the warmness of what could be described as a coupe. Our Stag is much more usable when we have the hard top on too, but we have to use a winch, so just flicking a button is a huge leap forward. The other bonuses are that the SLK will be club plate eligible in 2023 and it’s an approved vehicle for P probationary drivers (excluding the SLK32 AMG).

The SLK range initially consisted of the SLK230 Kompressor released Feb 1997, then followed by the SLK200 in Oct 1997. The series II was released in Jul 2000 with revised safety equipment (electronic stability control) and suspension. The SLK200 Kompressor replaced the SLK200 and the SLK320 was released, while Sep 2001 marked the introduction of the SLK32 AMG. The R170 sold until 2004, with Mercedes releasing Special Editions to mark the end of the line for the R170. It came with exclusive features including pleated seats in fine Nappa leather, special aluminium trim on the dash and console, stepped 5 twin-spoke 16-inch alloy wheels and a special grille finished in the body colour.

The good news I found was there were plenty to choose from in terms of colour and engine combinations, but on the downside, there are plenty of bad ones which appear to be dragging down the values of good ones. Initially I wanted to buy locally, but it quickly became apparent that I couldn’t find one in the condition and colour combination I wanted. The search turned to interstate where I identified a listing for a 1998 SLK230 in silver with the two tone, red & black interior. It’s always fantastic to connect with a lovely seller and in this case, he was more than happy to supply 11 years of receipts, listing all the work done and dollar amount spent. We are delighted to welcome Sally the SLK as the latest member of our family and a lovely way to keep my Mum’s memory alive.

Sally on her way to a new home

Author:  Nick Gruzevskis is a member of the Mercedes-Benz Club (Victoria) and the owner of 1979 450SE, 2005 CLK320 and now an SLK230

The post Guest Article: In search of another Benz – Part 1 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.