We’ve had terrible weather the last couple of weeks here in Sydney.   Earlier in the week I expected the place to be a giant mud bowl, but surprisingly it cleared up and we had a lovely sunny winters day.  The sort that Sydney is normally renowned for, but we have missed out on this year.

That was a great opportunity to get out my 250SE Cabriolet for the show.   Due to the weather its been months since I last used it.  I had originally thought to take my Citroen DS this year, but the Citroen club sold out of tickets really quickly, and my car has a leak from one of the rear suspension boots.   Perhaps next year.   In any case the weather turned out so nicely, it was a good day to take out the 250SE.

The Mercedes-Benz club had quite a good display given the limited number of tickets available.   There was a good variety of vehicles and most of them participated the Parade lap around the track.   Doing the parade lap in a convertible makes it fun even at the quite slow speeds allowed.   My kids also enjoy the double decker bus ride around the track too, so we end up with two laps.

Given the event has the massive advantage of the race track and support from organizations like the Sydney Bus Museum, I’m still confused why it seems to have been scaled back since COVID.   The Mercedes-Benz club had 20 tickets available, and it sold out early. I’m sure they could have easily sold another five to ten.  The Citroen club had 15, and they all sold out weeks ago.   The Jaguar club had 25, which also looked to be sold out.   There is a whole section on the other side of the grandstand that is inexplicably no longer used.   In addition, the main parking areas could have easily accommodated more cars.  Section F was only about a third full.

Before COVID this event used to be buzzing and now it feels a little threadbare.  Instead of the niggardly allocation of tickets on offer, if each club received five or ten more, it would have made the event so much better.

Despite that, I still enjoy the event and of all the car shows I go it, its the one my kids enjoy.

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Displaying a car is worth it if you plan to go.   Entry is free for your passengers and you get to do a parade lap on the track.  In prior years this was a lot of fun, but last year the lap was so painfully slow that I probably could have pushed the car faster.   My kids were in the back and telling me we went faster in the traffic jam to get into the complex.   Not knowing if there would be a repeat of this, I took the most appropriate car for the day, my 1981 Mercedes 240D.  With 71hp, it was the only choice.

The 240D proved to be a good choice.  While speed wasn’t farcical like last time, it was still pretty slow.  On most of the track we could do about 60km/h and on the straight 80.   At least in the 240D, I was actually using the performance of the car and had my foot to the floor coming out of the corners.    So for the future, the best idea is to bring the slowest car you own.

I also took my kids along this year and they enjoyed it more.   Last year the traffic getting into the event was chaotic.   This time, it flowed much faster.   They still funned everyone into one entrance, but it moved a lot faster.   The also enjoyed the ride in the bus from the Sydney Bus Museum.

Like last year, the event was far smaller than in previous years.  I had hoped last year was an aberration, but it seems not.   The clubs have far fewer tickets than in prior years, and I know people who would have loved to come, but could not get them.  There are large areas that used to be used, that are totally closed off.  While this is still a good event, I feel the organizers are starting to strangle it.   The huge number of different cars were one of the principal things that made this event good.

Our club had a decent display given the lack of tickets.   There was a bit of confusion as to where we are actually supposed to park, but given the lower numbers, it didn’t matter all that much.   For once, W116’s actually outnumbered the W126.

It was a good day out in the 240D, although on the way home I had another issue with almost running out of fuel, when there was actually plenty in there.   My current theory is that either the strainer, or the little hole that lets fuel into the swirl pot from the rest of the tank is blocked.   I will have to remove the strainer and see.

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This year the show changed quite a lot after many years of using the same formula.   I don’t think these changes were for the better.   For some reason, they decided to discontinue using the display fields on the other side of the track.   It made the show feel smaller.   One of the main things that makes this show good is the size – so making it smaller doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.   I was surprised how few tickets the Mercedes-Benz club had this year.  I don’t know if that is because the show restricted tickets or the club didn’t request them, but such a large part of the display was closed, my assumption is that show restricted them.

Presumably because multiple display areas were now closed, all the clubs moved around for the first time in many years.   For the most part, the larger clubs have not moved out of their regular spots for years.    This year on the other hand they were all over the place.   I think its actually good to move the locations around a bit, to give all the clubs the opportunity to have a ‘good’ spot.    Having said that many of the club displays seemed quite small and underwhelming this year.

This year the also heavily policed the parade lap.   I can only assume this was a requirement from their insurance company.   For a lot of lap we were driving at about 30-40km per hour, and even on the mains straight max speed was 80km/h.   Even my children said we drove to the track faster than we drove around it.

It wasn’t all bad though.   This is still a very good even and well worth the time.   The double decker bus rides around the track are a lot of fun for the family, and there is still a huge selection of interesting cars on display.   Even better, you get to see them driving around the track, not just on display.

The Mercedes club display was off at the second pit area on the other side of the tunnel.    It was quite a good spot, although a bit out of the way.   There would have been room for more cars than the twenty tickets we had.   I was parked next to a very original W116 280SE.  It was an early car, complete with the thin door cards, no rear speakers and front antenna.   These early W116s are now very rare.

One of my favourite cars that I see year after year, the 1930 Cadillac V16 I saw is for sale.  I hope the new owner still brings the car to the show every year.   High end cars like this are not often seen at these big shows with a lot of the general public.     I’m still looking forward to going again next year.

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Originally I started by trying to sell my 280SE privately.   However, I had the issue that I have a fair amount of work travel in the first part of the year, and a fairly busy work and family schedule at other times.    I missed out on a couple of buyers because they purchased something else before I could even show them the car.

As I was just about to embark on a 3 week work trip, I enquired about various auction options.  As the car was in good shape and fairly original, plus a desirable colour I thought it would probably do reasonably well.

Potential buyers could go and look at the car at the auction house and then make a decision to bid or not.

Based on that, I considered a number of different auction providers:

• Shannons
• Lloyds
• Grays
• Collecting Cars

At the time, I didn’t really think about Trading Garage or Burns and Co.  I probably should have.

I quickly ruled out Grays and Collecting Cars.   The impression I have of Grays is that it is the place that people dump cars they can’t otherwise sell.   I’ve also had stories from friends about the quality of the cars they had purchased from Grays.   Given my car was a very nice original car, I didn’t think it was a good fit.

I also didn’t think the commercial model worked well with Collecting Cars.   The minimum buyers premium is $1,000.   This is an exorbitant amount of money for a car I expected to sell for around $10,000.  I wouldn’t bid on a car unless I was getting it cheap as chips as I would feel I’m being ripped off.  It might work well for cars at the $40-$50,000 range, but at that point I think the high value stuff goes through other auction houses anyway.   Plus each auction runs in its own time so you don’t get the marketing impact of a regular auction date at a well publicized auction house.

That left Lloyds and Shannons.   I went with Shannons because I felt they have the reputation as the auction house where the nice cars go through.   They generally do good descriptions and take high resolution photos plus the mechanical report.   The Lloyds descriptions are often one sentence and the photos are quite low resolution.     I can’t remember the exact numbers but the fees were fairly comparable.

I also chose to go with a no reserve auction.   I felt the exposure I would get through Shannons would give me enough exposure I would get a good market price.   While I was hoping for $10,000, I felt I would easily get $8,000 if things went badly.    I think reserve auctions put off buyers at the cheaper end of the market.   The fees are much higher.

The sign up process was pretty easy and the Shannons employee I worked with was really helpful and was genuinely interested in the car and appreciated it.    The showroom is in St Leonards which is reasonably simple for me to get to.  I was able to drop off the car on the way to the city one day.

Once the car was there, Shannons took some very good high resolution photos of the car.   The only criticism is that their watermark covers the middle of the photos, meaning it can he hard to zoom in and look at the details.   They also do a mechanical report, which I think is a useful thing for bidders.  I thought their report was reasonably fair, although like a 280SEL they had a previous auction, they noted the car as down on performance.  I don’t think it actually was and they were comparing it to a non ADR27A car.   ADR27A had a big impact on the performance of the M110.

Shannons don’t do an in person Auction anymore.   The lots go live and bidding is open for a week.   Like most Auctions, most of the bidding happens in the last 10 minutes or so that the lot is live.    I normally find a general rule of thumb on these type of auctions is that the bid level will double in the last day of the auction.

The collector car market has really softened in the last 6 months or so.   I went into the last day at $4100.   This was below where I wanted to be, but not fatal.   While my overall goal was to get a figure that would net me $10,000, I felt $8,000 while disappointing would at least be a tolerable result.

Some of the early auctions were doing quite well – then something happened that would change everything.    The Shannons main website went down.   This was a little after 6pm.    It would remain down for the rest of the evening.

During this whole time, the Auction site was unaffected.   The issue is that many people get to the auction site via the main website.    I don’t know how many people this impacted, but certainly the lots that were scheduled for later in the evening had pretty poor results – worse than the ones scheduled earlier.    In the end, I managed to scrape a result of $6,400.   I hardly had any bidding right at the end.

I wasn’t alone.   There were other cars going to equally low numbers around the time of mine.   A great example was a rough R107 that went for $6,800.   The car was rough, but that is a particularly low result.   Neither of the Pagoda SLs got good numbers, and they are normally very popular cars.   The W126 280SE couldn’t get any bids at all.

Shannons had one job to do that night.  Keep their IT infrastructure up.   A short outage of 10-15 minutes would have been inconsequential.   But the hours long outage had a major impact.    While the market is down, and I didn’t expect to get a number in the mid to high end of the guiding range, I felt my personal guiding range of $8-$11,000 was reasonable.

A great contrast was another 280SE sold by grays a couple of weeks earlier.   This is a good comparison as both cars are sold under the same market conditions.    The grays car actually got a slightly higher hammer price than mine, but there was a big gulf between the two cars.   For example, compared to my car, the grays car was:

• In materially worse condition, with various dents and scratches on the body work
• A 1974 D-Jet car vs a 1979 K-Jet car.
• Poorly optioned (no sunroof, crank windows)
• Sold on grays vs Shannons

I pointed this out to Shannons and they agreed to waive the 7% commission.   This puts me at an equivalent hammer price of around $6,850.   Better, but I don’t think a realistic representation.

I think this outage cost me $1,000-$3,000.   Based on my experience here, I won’t be sending another car to a Shannons auction.   The front end process may be good, but if they can’t do the basics of keeping the IT infrastructure up on the night of the Auction, what is the point?

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One of the advantages of entering a car is you get to take it on a parade lap around the race track.   Each club gets a specific slot to do a lap.  I went with the Mercedes-Benz club, but I may have been better to join the Citroen club as they were given two laps for some reason!   While the lap is at slow speed, it is well worth it to take your own car around the track in a parade of cars.     Possibly our club needs to run a course on track etiquette as there was quite a lot of very erratic driving for a slow speed lap.

Apparently there were supposed to be at least 1,900 cars on display.   Given how many sections there were at the show, this doesn’t seem unreasonable.   Having said that, some clubs did have empty areas.   This was probably due to the poor weather the day before and the threat of rain in the morning.   Nevertheless the weather held up even if it was a little windy.

I arrived early with my 250SE, primarily because I was originally to be parked on the pit lane as part of the 50 year anniversary of the club.   That didn’t end up happening as one of the tickets was lost.   Wasn’t a big deal though, I’m glad I took the car in the end as it was fun driving around the track with the top down.   I had previously planned to take my 560SEL.   Given the parade lap is at slow speed, the extra power wouldn’t have helped that much.  The open roof was probably better.

Even with the early start, and the parade lap, I don’t think I saw everything and I left at about 1:30PM.   By 1PM many cars are starting to leave, the core hours of the show seem to be about 9AM to 12PM.   One thing that really stood out since last time I was there was the emergence of the Volvo 2 series as a classic car.   There were a number of really nice examples on display.   I remember during my university years they were everywhere as cheap and safe university student transport.

Due to construction the event was quite spread out.   I almost missed a few sections and had to consult my map quite a bit.   If I hadn’t been specifically trying to find the Citroen display, I think I may have missed it.   A few more signs may have been useful.

The other thing that struck me was how much better the food was.   Last time I ate there, the food was pretty much inedible.   And expensive.   This time there were a few good food trucks with reasonable prices.   Makes a huge difference.    Even better the event still has a good relaxed atmosphere without overzealous marshals and security guards.   After a hiatus, the 2022 Shannons Eastern Creek Car Show was a great event.  I hope to keep attending in future years.

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Instead of separate Sydney and Melbourne auctions, they now run a combined online auction.   The cars are still available for viewing in both their Sydney and Melbourne auction rooms.   The Sydney location is much better than before – bigger, brighter and easier to see the cars.   I’m told this location will also be available for car club events too.

There are also some very interesting lots in Melbourne but I have not seen them, so I will only be covering the Sydney based cars here.

Lot 157:  1969 Mercedes-Benz 280SE Coupe

Regular readers of this site will know I am a huge fan of the two door W111 Mercedes-Benz rage.  This lot was an honest looking coupe, which seemed in very nice original condition.   I think white is not the best colour for these cars, but if you’re going to have one in white, the dark red interior is the best.   It is quite similar to the car I used to own, except this one is in much nicer shape.   The guiding price of $75-100k seems reasonable based on recent prices.   Certainly these cars have shot up a lot in the last 2-3 years as it wasn’t all that long ago that this was a $40k car.

The 280 benefits from a more powerful engine than the earlier cars, but looses out on some of the nicer interior touches such as the wooden instrument cluster binnacle.   This car does have the Behr air conditioning system vs the aftermarket unit that many have.

Lot 170: 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300d ‘Adenauer’

Another classic Mercedes-Benz – this time the fabled Adenauer.   In this case the 300d, which was improved from the previous 300 models.  These cars really do have beautiful lines and the pillarless construction makes the interior really airy.

This car looked in nice original shape, similar to the 280SE Coupe.   Black with a red interior is the best colour combination for these cars in my view.   My only real criticism is the modern radio in the dash.   Its great that the original radio has been preserved, but the modern one should have been hidden.

The guiding range is $70-90k

Lot 172 – 1966 Mercedes Benz 300SE Coupe (with M100 transplant)

Lot 172 is not an original Mercedes-Benz model.  Rather, it is a tribute to a model that might have been.     The M100 engine was original created for the 600, however Mercedes-Benz did create the W109 300SEL 6.3 ‘hotrod’.   They never expected this car to be a big seller, so I imagine it wasn’t seen as viable to also create a saloon version.   Interestingly, the test mule for the car was a rejected 250SE Coupe body shell so there is precedent.

In doing the conversion, they obviously used an early 6.3 engine as the transmission has the park position at the bottom.   The condition of the car is really nice.  The colour stands out and the quality of the work in doing this car is evident.   Having said that, I have heard its not all that great to drive by somebody who has.   That was some years ago, so its possible any faults have been corrected.

I find it interesting they didn’t use the normal bumpers for a 1966 300SE.   Rather they have used later bumpers with rubber inserts.   Personally, I would have used the earlier ones had I been building the car.    Overall I really like the car.   I’m not normally one for modified cars, but this car looks like it has been done right.

The guiding price is $200-$240,000 which is about double what it sold for some years back.   Having said that, you couldn’t build one for less in this condition.    Not sure I would want to spend that sort of money for a non-original car.   You could have an original 300SE and an original 300SEL 6.3 for that money.

As well as these Mercedes-Benz models, there were also a number of classic Alfa-Romeos that caught my eye.  I really don’t know much about these cars, but they are very impressive and I would love to own an Alfa one day.    There was also a white 3.8 MK2 Jaguar that can be seen in the picture next to the 300SE.    Its the right spec, manual with overdrive but I find it hard to get excited about a white one.

The lot I really wanted to see was 166, but this car was in Melbourne.  It is the 4 1/4 Derby Bentley with coachwork by Barker.   That car has a guiding price of $90-$110k.   These cars do not come up often and this one looked quite nice.

The lot estimates on the W111 cars got me talking with the auction staff about insurance values for my cars.    Based on these, I will bring it back in for the Auction staff can take a look and suggest a proper insurance value.    I also asked them about what the prices were doing with some of the other cars I own.   Classic Mercedes are up, hence the values of the W111 coupes.   Even some cars in relatively poor shape have seen strong bidding.   This has extended to the 107, but not to later models.

I specifically asked about the W126, especially the SEC as I have seen the high asking prices of these cars.   According to the Shannons auction staff these prices do not reflect reality.    Things are also fairly stable with the E-Type (So many to choose from) and the Citroen DS.

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This auction also had a large number of the numeric numbers plates at massive prices.   I’ve never seen the appeal of these.

Any fans of big German coupes, with a budget of $15-$20,000 will have three good choices at the auction.   Lot 33, a 1983 Mercedes-Benz 280CE looked like a really nice example.   I’ve seen 280CE’s that were far worse being advertised (but not selling) for significantly more.   The 280CE is an underrated car and doesn’t command much of a premium on the sedan for some strange reason.   I doubt that will last.

Next is Lot 34, A 1973 Mercedes-Benz 350SLC.    This SLC is finished in a lovely period colour, with some of the nice early touches like a small mirror on the drivers side only and front radio antenna.   The wheels are particularly ugly, but a set of original wheels or even Pentas would have the car looking a lot better for a reasonable outlay.    I would also remove the aftermarket chrome wheel arches.    I did on my 450SLC.

Finally for the more sporting driver is Lot 35 – a 1986 BMW 635CSi.   This car is equipped with the preferable manual transmission and provides a good alternative to the Mercedes-Benz models.    This E24 6 Series is one of the best looking models they ever made.

Another car that stood out to me is Lot 53 – The 1926 Frazer-Nash.   This was one of the more expensive cars on display with a range of $130-$150,000.   It has the chain drive that these early Frazer-Nash cars are well known for.

I also admired Lot 59, The 1941 Packard 120.   While the 120 is a ‘Junior’ Packard, it is still superior to most other cars from that time with its straight eight motor, high build quality and period interior.   This car has not been over-restored like many and things like a leather interior added.    Many Packards have big limo bodies on them befitting their high purchase price, but this 120 has a smaller coupe body that would be much nicer to drive.

At the Auction was a Maserati Kyalami (lot 69), which looks like the one I had stored in my garage a couple of years ago.   As there were so few right hand drive cars, I suspect it is.   The Maserati sounded amazing as it drove in to storage.

Finally some interesting cars included a Jaguar MKII 2.4 with great patina and a reasonable $15-$20,000 range; A Rolls Royce Silver Spirit III, imported from Japan, a beautifully restored Riley RMB and a 1936 Jaguar SS project car.    I think of all of the cars at the 2020 Shannons Sydney Summer auction , I would have the Packard.

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There were a few cars that caught my eye:

Gold Medal: Lot 59: 1953 Jaguar XK120 Drophead

This was the standout for me at the Auction.   The XK120 was one of Sir William Lyons best creations and the combination of black paint and red interior really shows it off.   The Drophead is the most desirable model and this car looked in excellent condition.   Guiding range is $120-$150k and I expect the car to do this or more.

Silver Medal: Lot 36: 1961 Mercedes-Benz 220SE Coupe

Regular readers will know how much I admire the W111 Coupe and Cabriolet models.   This 220se is one of the nicest early 220SE’s around.   The car was a common attendee at Mercedes car shows at one time and I got to talk to the long time owner a few times.   He had owned the car since the 70s and the condition was a credit to him.   The paint colour really sets off the lines of the car and it has a rare sunroof.    Guiding price is $60-$70k.   This seems a lot for a 220, but probably not for one in this condition.

Bronze Medal: Lot 33: BMW M635CSI

If I had a BMW in my garage, it would be one of these.   In exactly this spec.   The M6 might get the attention, but it is not 3x the car of the M635CSI.   This car is equipped with a manual transmission, black leather interior, low miles and only a few owners.  Guiding range is $32-$38k

Honorable mentions:

The Fiat 500 and the Mini cooper both looked like great fun cars and in great shape.   I would be happy to own both of them.   I am not normally a ute fan, but the Holden FX ute was in great condition and was a standout.    The Buick is a nice looking car, but it is disappointing the straight 8 was replaced by a V8.   I’m also normally a fan of Rolls Royce Silver clouds, but this one was the long wheelbase with division.   These are rare, but more set up for the owner and driver to be different people.   This particular car was bought for the Premier of Victoria, before it was electoral suicide to be driven around in such a car.

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The lots that I will be keeping an eye on during the auction are:

Lot 34:  Jaguar S-Type 3.8

The S-Type is the somewhat overlooked compact jaguar.   In 3.8 spec, in some ways it is the ideal compact Jaguar for touring, rather than the MK2 which is better for classic racing.   This car was an older restoration and looked very nice.   It was close to the ideal spec for me, being an unmolested 3.8 liter model.   Too many of these cars have suffered from dubious restomods.   The no reserve $15-20,000 guiding price is also attractive for this car.   What lets it down for me is the colour (I can’t stand white cars) and the fact it is automatic.   In my mind, a sports saloon like the S-Type should be Manual+Overdrive.

Lot 66: Rolls Royce 20/25 Open Tourer

The guiding price of $70-$90k seems reasonable for a pre-war Rolls Royce tourer.   I suspect the price is kept low due to the fact that it is a re-body rather than an original tourer body.  From reading the description, the original body was a long sedan.   The auctioneer refers to the car as a great example of a ‘Goshawk’ but I don’t think that is actually true.   My understanding was that the Goshawk was a particular 20hp, and not a general term for the entire small horsepower range.

Lot 67: Bentley 4¼ Litre Open Tourer

This car was the standout for me of the entire auction catalogue.   Owning a Derby Bentley is a bucket list item for me and this one looked like an ideal candidate for a car that is used vs a trailer queen.   As it is not an original tourer body, the price is lower than an original.    I will be very interested in seeing the result, although this car is well outside my price range.   The Guiding price is $120-$150k.

Notable Mentions

There were also some other lots that caught my eye.  First and foremost was the 190SL in red.  Obviously a striking car, and a much better colour than the white which most of them seem to be.   Values of the 190SL are up a lot primarily because they look a lot like the 300SL.   I still contend that the E-Type is the much better car.     There was also a set of nice looking Alfa Romeos, but the price for these is also above what I think they are worth when you compare to other cars you can buy for similar money.

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It is also a family oriented event with double decker bus rides around the track, face painting, clowns etc.    Those who enter a car in the event get to do a parade lap around the track.  These events are also probably going to be increasingly important for politicians to see the extent of the old car hobby.   Certainly there has been pressure in Europe to do more to ‘ban’ older cars.   There will also be pressure once self-driving cars come about to restrict where humans can drive.

I went to this show in 2016, 2015 and 2013.    It is always a good event and hasn’t been ruined by the fun police like some events.   This year I was surprised to see quite a few triumph 2500 models in great condition.   Sadly this model is largely forgotten and is often seen in a rather dilapidated state.   I also saw a few nice Jaguar S-Type models.   This Jaguar is overshadowed by the MK2, mostly because of the MK2’s racing success.   Many prefer its styling too.   The S is the better car to cruise around in.

There was also a nice example of the original Saab Turbo.  I would regard this as a the pinnacle of the Saab company and it was good to see such a nice one.     It is also great to see the Micro car display!  The Goggomobil Dart is Australia’s own micro car and there were a couple of nice ones there.

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