The drives in the dead of winter are less popular, so we had a smaller crowd than last time.   One advantage of that is that it’s easier to keep the group together.    We had my W111 250SE Cabriolet, two W124’s (A 230E and a 300E) and a Porsche 911.   The owner of the Porsche is a club member who also has a W123, W140 and W113 amongst other cars.

As with last time, the starting point was Loftus oval parking.   I don’t think I would use this as the starting point again.   There are some Petrol stations further along that are far better lit and easier to find.   We’re also less likely to interrupt a drug deal, as we likely did last night.

The route we took was the same as last time, in that we entered the Royal National Park at waterfall, and continued down until we past Bald Hill lookout.   From there we took the winding road up towards the Princes highway, which we continued along until Bulli Pass.   Our plan was to take Bulli pass down to the finish, but it was closed for roadworks, so we had to take the main highway.   Neither Google maps nor Waze had the closure, which is unusual.

For most of the drive, we hardly saw a car on the road which was nice, so we could just cruise along.    I drove with the roof down on the 250SE, which was pleasant on the way down (with gloves, a hat and the heater on full), but got a little bit chilly on the motorway drive home.     I’ve been having some running issues of late with the 250SE, and while I had a little of that on the way to the meeting point, it ran beautifully on the actual drive, and the way back home.

Given the location of the drive, it was a late night getting home, but worth it.   Cruising around at night with the roof down and little traffic on the road is always a good opportunity.

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As usual there was a good mix of cars  – the expected bad weather did skew it more towards moderns than normal.   I took my 300SE along for this drive.   It was the first lone drive in the car since the new oil pump was fitted.   The car performed well – the drive required extended high RPM running and the engine seemed to be running very sweetly.

The route we took was a bit different from the usual Royal National Park run.   Instead of entering the park at Farnell avenue, we drove down the main highway until Waterfall.   We then took the tight windy sections of Lady Wakehurst drive before exiting the park and taking the old highway past the Sublime point lookout.   This was a nice change, and done partly because there had been recent reports of hoons running through the park at crazy speeds and the subsequent police crack downs.   We didn’t want to get involved in either of those things.

We finished up at a McDonalds.   They are always good finishing spots for the night drives as many of them are open 24×7.   It is one of the few places to consistently do that.    The also generally have good, well lit parking lots.   The route worked well and those who attended enjoyed the drive from Waterfall to Bulli.

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The meeting point for the drive was an oval near the start of the Royal National Park.  While the fastest way to get to the Motorlife Musem is down the M1 freeway, the best way is via the Grand Pacific Drive.   This takes you through the Royal National park and across the sea cliff bridge.

The Royal National park drive is picturesque and features winding roads and no traffic lights.   On nice days it can get very crowded, but on an overcast day like Sunday it was pretty good.   Speed limits are very low (mostly 60kph) and heavily enforced.   This meant the best car for the drive was my Traction Avant.   The Traction thrives at 60-90km/h and is fun on twisty roads at these speeds.   Driving a more powerful car like the 450SLC or E-Type on this road is far less interesting.    I had not taken the Traction on a long drive for a while, it it always responds well, seeming to perform better once really warmed up.

The Motorlife Museum is well worth the drive down and very different from the Gosford Museum.   It contains mostly pre-war cars and also has a large collection of memorabilia.   It is also nice to see that many of the cars are registered and are used from time to time.   In addition to the cars, there is also a large collection of motorcycles.   Being focused on Australian Motorlife, the museum catalogs some of the cars that were on the road in Australia 80-100 years ago.

Probably the highlights for me were the two Minveras and the Vincent Black Shadow.   The museum also had used automotive books for sale at very good prices and a few people in our group grabbed some nice titles.

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There was one 450SL that had just had its interior re-done from a kit bought in the United States.  It looked great, even to the carpet in the boot.   My SLC performed well, and on the hot day the open sided but closed roof pillarless coupe kept me cool, especially as the air-conditioning has become tepid over the last week or so.

The drive took us down through the Grand Pacific Drive, the sea cliff bridge and then up to Bulli Tops (Sublime Point).      As usual most cyclists showed courtesy and rode in single file, but there were the usual selfish packs that hold everyone up too.

I was also able to pick up the award for the 250SE for winning the display section of the Concours in 2014.

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The video below is a sped up version of the JDCA drive to Bulli.   It shows the route through the Grand Pacific Drive, sea-cliff bridge and in to Bulli.

The two fixes to the car I did the other day didn’t hold up – plugging the GPS in disabled the cigarette lighter and radio again and the speedometer bezel and glass fell off.    The speedo is a bit loose, so might be able to tighten it once I had the radio out again.

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I did see a Jaguar E-Type S1 FHC during the drive, and a couple of US Muscle cars, so there were at least a few interesting cars out and about.

Of course once I returned with the car, the Transmission linkage came off again, but I have now fixed it properly.   The problem was the idiot who installed it (me) who put it on backwards.

During the drive, I took a short video clip mostly to learn how to use the video editing software I have…

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