This was also the first drive we using a new navigation app the club has purchased called ‘Tourboss’.   I was quite keen to try it as at night. I can really only see two cars behind me, so its not always clear if the group is still together or not.   The tourboss app shows me the locations of all the cars on the drive.

We had a pretty good turn out, probably a combination of the good weather and not having had one for a couple of months.  I took my 1978 450SE.   As well as my car was a C123 280CE, R107 280SL, C107 450SLC, C126 380SEC, W124 300E x2 & E320 and S124 300TE.

We had originally planned to meet on the eastern side of Galston Gorge and include that in the route.  The Gorge had been closed earlier in the year for roadworks. There was a lot of conflicting data about if it was open at night or not.   Since it wasn’t that clear, I decided not to include it.   I left a bit early to get to the drive, and found it was in fact open.

Our new starting location was outside Galston shops. From there we headed out to Cattai Ridge Road, before taking Wisemans Ferry Road up to the Old Northern Road and then the Old Northern Road back down to Dural Maccas.   This is a route we’ve done a few times before and I always really enjoy it.   There is generally not a lot of traffic at night and there is a nice mix of tight corners and faster sections.

Overall I thought the tourboss app worked reasonably well.   I used it to Navigate to the start point.  That experience was so-so as the route it took wasn’t the one I would have chosen. More importantly it lacks speed camera location information, and Sydney is bristling with them.   So in future I would probably use Waze to get to the location.

The experience for the users on our drive was pretty decent.  I set the route up in the admin portal which includes all the waypoints.  Tourboss the generates a six digit code.   That code was in our event booking system, along with details of how to get the app.   Everyone turned up with the app installed and with the code entered, so they were ready to go.

When the event is started, it then shows the location of all the other cars.  It also pre-downloads the maps, which is quite good if going through areas with poor mobile coverage.   As the ‘tour leader’ I had a few different views I could use. One as a normal navigation system and then one where it was more about showing me the location of the other cars.   Without reading glasses, I couldn’t see the actual names of the people, but that probably wasn’t important as I could see the spread of the icons.   For example, for a while two cars fell behind for a bit and then later caught up. Something I was able to see in real time.

One of the best things was that you don’t need to hit ‘continue’ when you get to a waypoint like with google.  For a pre-planned route it was pretty seamless.  On the downside, the lack of speed camera, roadworks and hazard warnings that waze gives you is a negative, as is the lack of dark mode at night.   We also had one member who has a phone with a square screen and the app couldn’t handle that.

There was also one situation where it went a bit haywire.  All of a sudden it thought a roundabout that was 7km away was actually 250 meters in front.  Then it got confused and started slowly increasing the distance to where it was.   I knew that section of road pretty well, so it was obviously nonsense, but it would have been confusing if I hadn’t.  It wasn’t just me that experienced that, and it happened on a bit of the drive where the route crossed over itself, which may have been the cause.

Overall my verdict is that the app is pretty useful for running a group driving event. In an ideal situation I would probably want two phones running, one for this and one for waze.   It will be a useful addition to our night drives.

The drive itself was great and all the cars performed well.

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Due to the W123 event and the Australia Day long weekend, we had the drive a couple of weeks earlier than normal.  January can be quite hit and miss when it comes to attendance.  Some people are still away but on the other hand people who are around are generally less busy.

However, it had rained quite heavily the day before and it was a very overcast day, which kept numbers down.   In the end the rain mostly held off, and we experienced only occasional light showers.  It was possible to see the big storms in the distance over the ocean, it looked like the scene out of Lord of the Rings where the huge storms over Mordor can be seen from Minas Tirith.

We had three cars on the day, a pair of SECs, my Nautical Blue 560SEC and a Lapis Blue 380SEC.   We also had a late model VW golf, primarily so the owners son could build up his hours on his L plates, not ideal for his pristine W124.

Due to the time of the year and the threat of rain, there was almost no traffic.  It turned out to be quite a cruisy drive.  The route took us up the Old Pacific Highway from our meeting point at McDonalds Mount Colah.   Instead of turning into the section that goes down into Gosford, we turned up along Peats Ridge Road, and did the loop with its long sweeping turns, back towards Gosford that way.  We had originally meant to take all back roads, but I got a turn wrong so we did one exit on the motorway.

Meeting point was McDonalds Gosford West.  Unlike some McDonalds which advertise being open 24 hours, but actually only have the drive through open, this one was properly open.  That meant we could get a snack before the drive home.  Even with the smaller numbers it was a good drive.  I was home by almost exactly midnight.

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Instead of a big drive, the focus of this one was to try a late night dessert truck in Homebush.  To get at least a reasonable drive in, we met at McDonalds in Thornleigh.  This allowed a very simple route into Homebush.  One turn out of McDonalds onto the Comenarra Parkway, and then straight down the A3 to Homebush.   I try to avoid city night drives as its so hard to keep a group together, but this simple route meant that it didn’t matter so much.

We had a good turn out at McDonalds.  It was a very hot day, still over 30C when I left home around 8PM.   I took my 560SEC, primarily because it has excellent air conditioning.   We had a pretty good turn out at Thornleigh, dominated as usual by the 124 and 126 models.

For the 124s, we managed to get all the main body styles.  Two 300E saloons, a 300E coupe, a 300TE wagon and a 320CE cabriolet.  We didn’t have the six door airport taxi, but they were never sold in Australia.

On the 126s, we had a pair of coupes, a 380SEC and my 560SEC, as well as a lovely original 280SE.   And as well as the 124s and 126s, we had a very original 300GD with the OM617 engine.

The drive down to the Comenarra Parkway was pretty uneventful, as was our route down the A3.  The dessert truck was pretty good, although on the expensive side – the main problem was parking.  We were only able to get three of the cars into the parking lot for the truck and parking in the area was difficult.   When we have visited the Chubby buns burger trucks in the past, they are located at closed service stations.  That means we can park in the service station if the parking next to the food truck is busy. Homebush being busier, didn’t have that option.

Overall it was a good drive and a good way to finish my last club event for 2025.

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Our destination is Royal Gardenia, which is in Bilpin not far from the Blue Mountains Botanic gardens.  Royal Gardenia is owned by a club member who opens up late for us and serves us apple pie and pizza.

We usually get a pretty good turn out for this drive and 2025 was no different.  I decided to take my 250SE Cabriolet – a good evening to drive with the roof down.   It was good weather down in Sydney, but actually got quite cold up towards Bilpin.

Late on a Thursday night there is minimal traffic, so its a good time to cruise up and Bells Line of road is quite an enjoyable road to drive in that state.

On the drive we had a usual good variety of cars.  My 250SE was by far the oldest car there, but we also had a lovely R107 500SL, three 126s in a 300SEL, 380SEC and 420EL, a 123 280CE, a good selection of 124s – two 300E, 300CE, 300TE, a modern E400 convertible and also a Toyota Cressida.

As well as our usual drive and chat over Pizza and apple pie, we also had some club awards, of which I was lucky enough to get one, alone with one for a 500,000km award for an E220 wagon.

Its always a good evening, but a late one.  It was good to take the 250SE out for a drive, and I had to push it pretty hard to keep up with the 500SL, although I was generally able to.

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I took my 450SLC.  This was the first car club drive I’ve taken the car on this year.  I’ve been using it quite a lot generally, but hadn’t had a chance to bring it to any club events yet.   As well as my 107, we had a lovely blue 280SE 3.5 W108, a 300E and a pair of 420SELs – one Astral Silver and one Smoke Silver.

The planned route took as through Ku-ring-gai chase national park, via Bobbin Head.  From there we would turn onto Mona Vale road until we reached the end, drive down pittwater road for a while and then take Wakehurst Parkway from Narrabeen to Seaforth, finally finishing at Brookvale McDonalds.

The first part of the drive through the national park is probably the best part and it went smoothly.   However, when we reached the part of Mona Vale where it goes through bushland, there had been what appeared to be a car rolled over, and the place was swarming with highway patrol.   They diverted us away.   Google indicated that we could divert around the closure, but it was incorrect.

In the end we cut the second part of the drive short.  We doubled back on Mona Vale Road, took eastern Arterial road and then the Roseville Bridge into Brookvale.  As we parked up at McDonalds, one of the 420SEL’s hit a low retaining wall at the rear.   However, this retaining wall was no match for the power and might of a W126.  There was no visible damage at all to the car.

Next month is the annual drive to Bilpin.

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It sounded like a great idea, so I tested the route in my 450SLC a few weeks ago.  I’ve found its important to test these routes at night, as things that work during the day don’t always work at night.  In addition, the state parks service closes a lot of roads that go through the national parks.

On the day of the drive, we had quite a good turn out, even with a few people having to pull out.   I find it odd that the club would schedule an executive meeting over the top of a registered club event, as we lost a few people to that.

As well as many of our usual suspects, we also had a new member in a very nice CL500, plus our normal W124 crew in a couple of 300Es and a 300TE, a 380SEC and another modern Benz.  I took my 450SE.    To everyone’s great interest we also had a C4 Corvette on the drive.  Its a 1986 model with a 5.7 SBC.  Its great when members bring non Mercedes cars to these drives as it adds variety.   The C4 had been imported to Australia in 2011, but stored until earlier this year.  The owner has dealt with a few fuel delivery related issues, changed the tyres and so on.   This is its first major drive.

We met up at Camden McDonalds, which was closed even at this early hour.   More and more of this McDonalds advertise opening hours based on the drive through, but close the actual restaurant.  Since I’m not a savage and don’t eat in my car, this is particularly useless.

After everyone admired the Corvette, we set off.   We started down the old Hume highway.   The roads were quite good and had fairly limited traffic.   After having to slow down for a truck and a roundabout, I noticed the Corvette have to abruptly pull over.  Its lucky I was able to see.  Normally I can really only see what is happening with one or maybe two cars behind me at night.   But we were going down a hill and the corvette has very distinctive headlights.

The Corvette had conked out.   It was able to restart and idled well, but died with any revs.   After looking for a while, turns out the brand new mass airflow sensor had died.  Disconnecting it had the engine running well again.

We continued on our way and the drive was really good.   It was a nice fast route with little traffic and pretty good roads.   My 450SE did well on its first night drive, and so did the Corvette once the MAF was disconnected.     The only downside was a 15 minute roadwork delay.   The roadwork wasn’t there two weeks ago.

We finished our drive at Chubby Buns Hoxton Park.   The Campbelltown location is temporarily closed.   It was quite busy and had expanded since our list visit.

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Since then, they have built up their own niche in the club.   They will never be large mainstream events, but they provide a way for members who are very busy with work, children etc to get out and use their cars on a regular basis.  For that reason, while any car is welcome, they are most popular with owners of the older cars.

The very first one was July of 2020.  However, the first three were unofficial drives, and they didn’t make the club schedule until October of that year.

As with the first one, we met at Shelly Beach parking lot.   We had 11 registrations for the drive, which is quite good for a winter route.   Surprisingly the weather has been quite good this week, so I suspect people were very keen to get their cars out.

I took my W111.  It was a clear but cold night so I left the roof closed.  We had a good variety of cars there on the night.   There was a white 280SE 3.5 W108, a pair of 126s in a 280SE and a 380SEC, a 123 280CE, a 107 380SLC, and four 124s (300E x2, 300TE, E320).   The E320 was a new acquisition for its owner and it looked nice.   In addition, there was also a modern convertible.

Our route took us along the coast as much as possible.  It was a fairly cruisy night and most of the group made it to the finishing point at Palm Beach.   On arrival, we seem to have lost the 380SLC and the modern convertible.  Not sure if they got lost or their homes were along the way.

At palm beach, there isn’t anything open at that time of the night.  However, one of our group is a member of the Palm Beach surf club and we were able to go into the clubouse for a chat and a coffee.  He even brought some tim tams along!  It was a better ending spot than McDonalds and a fitting way to celebrate our 50th night drive.

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The Seven bridges route was not a new one, we did it back in January 2023.  It had worked fairly well last time.

We started at McDonalds Drummoyne.  Even with a group of 8 cars only, there was not enough parking so if we did the route again, I would change the start point.  The turnout of 8 cars was quite good given the rain.   I had originally planned to take my 450SLC, but with the rain, I chose the 300TE.

On the drive we had a good variety of cars.   Oldest was a 1972 280SE 3.5, followed by a 1977 450SLC and a 1983 380SEC.   Then we had the strong W124 contingent with two 300Es, a 300CE and my 300TE.   We also had a modern GLA35 AMG.

The point of the route is to make Sydney harbour the centrepice of the drive.   The drive was a big loop, starting out north and heading clockwise.  We headed North and crossed the Gladesville bridge, followed by the Tarban Creek Bridge.    Even getting out of the Maccas parking not was not easy and our group was already split up by the time we hit Gladesville Bridge.

The next part of the route took us up towards Roseville Bridge.   Once we crossed Roseville Bridge, we had planned a stop at the start of Wakehurst Parkway, but I had sent an older version of the directions so we missed it.

That didn’t matter as the group was largely together by this point.   However, once we passed Spit Bridge, Google Maps had a bit of a panic attack, and decided that the waypoint for Spit Bridge was actually the parking lot underneath the bridge.  It then sent a few of our group off on tangent.

It got worse when we arrived at the approach to the Sydney Harbour bridge.   Road works crews were just closing the entrance to the Harbour bridge.   There was a diversion through North Sydney via Berry St.   This was a traffic nightmare, and google had another panic attack and decided it wasn’t possible to get onto the Harbour bridge via Berry St.

These issues with google and the roadworks completely split up our group.  A few people decided to head home at that point vs continue over the Anzac bridge.  I kept going and eventually headed back to Maccas.  For a while I was the only car there, and I was wondering if this would be a drive when only one car managed to complete!  In the end three more arrived and we completed the route.

I think while the drive was enjoyable, this drive was a good example of why we generally avoid inner city routes.   It was still good to get out for a drive though.  I had been quite busy with work this week, and it was good to get out and cruise around in the 300TE.

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We had a great turn out on the night.  I think it was largely due to the terrible weather we’ve had in Sydney over the last month.  Now it seems to be past us, everyone was quite keen to get their classics out for a drive.   In winter, numbers are generally lower, but not this time.  On the drive we had:

• 108:  280SE 3.5
• 107: 450SLC, 380SLC, 500SL
• 116: 280SE
• 126: 380SEC
• 124: 300E, 300CE, 300TE
• Modern: E400

It was an impressive line up, and was probably only missing a W123 to complete some of the most popular classics in the club.    I took my 1990 300TE.  I don’t use the 124 on that many club events because it gets a lot of use via the logbook as a family car.  However, the car was hit in the rear last week by a careless P-plater, so I had it out to do the insurance assessment earlier in the day.

It seems it is the season for destroying W124 rear bumper bars, as the owner of the E400 suffered a similar fate earlier this week on his 300E.  A Harley Davidson in his case.  The 450SLC was a new acquisition for one of our regulars and what a nice car it is.  It is in Icon Gold – one of the best colours from the 70s, and the interior is immaculate.  The 380SLC also made its debut on one of these drives, quite a rare car in Australia.

Our route started at Windsor McDonalds.  From there, we drove North along the first section of the Putty Road, before turning onto Bull Ridge Road.  This took us down to the Sackville Ferry.  We manage to fill the Ferry, along with a single Range Rover.

After the Sackville Ferry, we headed up towards Wisemans Ferry Road and then down the Old Northern Road to Dural McDonalds.  These roads are all great to drive on, and being night time were deserted.

At Dural McDonalds, most of us were keen to get a snack or a Sundae, but McDonalds have changed their police and their so called open 24 hour locations seem to be drive through only.  Since none of our party were savages that eat in the car, McDonalds lost out on around $100 worth of sales.

It was a good drive and great to get out after all the bad weather.   The owner of the 280SE 3.5 had recently had his drivers seat re-done and fitted a new compensating spring to his rear axle.  He remarked how much better the handling was and more comfortable his car was to drive.  That sounds like a win.

We also tried some new more powerful walkie talkies.  A few of us plan to use these for an upcoming road trip.  While our last set gave us an effective range of 1km on flat ground, we seem to be able to get 2km out of the new ones, which is great.  It means the person at the back can communicate with the person at the front without a relay.

Next month is old Pacific Highway.

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Luckily for us the weather cleared up and we were set for a good drive.   Our meeting point was Krispy Kreme in Penrith, where people could get a donut (or two) if they wanted.    We had seven cars come for the drive, which is a good number.   I took my 560SEC, fresh from the repair to the crank pully.   We also had another W126 – a 380SE.  The owner of this car was attending his first club event and the car had been in the family for over 30 years.

We also had a good showing from the W124 contingent.   The M103 was represented well with a coupe, wagon and a couple of sedans.   We also had a more modern W203 in the group.

Our route took us up the steep and winding old Bathurst Road through Blaxland, before joining the great western highway for a while.   At Springwood, we turned off and headed along Hawkesbury road.   We stopped at the lookout to admire the view.   This time there were no other shenannigans from the locals.   We encountered a few slow P platers but otherwise the roads were pretty empty.

After trying to identify all the sights from the lookout, we continued along Hawkesbury road until finally arriving at Windsor McDonalds.     It turned out to be quite a good drive and the weather held off.

I had no issues with my 560SC other than a flat battery when I set off.  This is not surprising, as I hadn’t taken the car on a longer drive since December.  A consequence of the crank pully being damaged meant that even when started briefly, there was no charging from the alternator.

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