Considering the last minute change, the event went off without a hitch.  The change in venue ended up being to the advantage of one attendee, the Helios yellow 300D with black badging and door surrounds I had affectionately dubbed bumblebee arrived on the back of a tow truck.   Poor old bumblebee wasn’t starting, due to a blown glow plug fuse.

Turns out one of the glow plugs had shorted internally.  We were then treated to an impromptu demonstration of how to troubleshoot a glow plug issue in the older series glowplugs while eating rather excellent bacon and egg rolls. Since we were at MB Spares and Service, a replacement glow plug and fuse was on hand.  About 30 minutes later bumblebee roared into life again.

Bumblebee was the third car that suffered from an issue on the trip, which I think is testament to how W123 owners use their cars.  There was a Queensland car on the first day with a plugged fuel filter and apparently a local car suffered an engine issue, which is a shame.

The other interesting thing I saw was a Turbo wagon under construction.  On all the internet sites, the accepted wisdom is that the 617A does not fit in right hand drive vehicles due to clearance issues with the steering box.   Having seen the turbo being test fitted with an NA engine, its clear that it does fit.  Perhaps not to the standards of Mercedes-Benz, but I think the real reason why there was no right hand drive turbodiesels is that Mercedes-Benz did not see the market for them.  The not fitting thing seems like a convenient excuse.

Its been well documented that Mercedes-Benz did not originally plan to make a right hand drive version of the W123 wagon.  It was only due to the fierce lobbying of the UK importer that they did.  I suspect there could have been right hand drive Turbodiesels had the same sort of case been made.  Even if a little engineering was required.

seeing the wagon under construction, it is easy to see how different the OM617A is to the NA engine.  It is fitted with a much higher capacity oil pump, complete with double row chain.  There is an oil squirter under each piston as well as a tube in the bottom of the piston for the oil squirter to cool the piston.   In addition, on this car, the crankshaft is being balanced for a manual transmission.

After the farewell breakfast, I went and checked out the Australian National Museum with my family before heading back to Sydney around 3PM.   It was a really hot day, but the 240D did very well in the heat. The AC keept me very cool.  The coolant temperature sat around 90c at most times, going up to 100 during long sustained hills.   The uprated condenser I installed seemed to have done wonders.

From leaving home Friday morning to returning Monday evening, I covered 1,022km in the 240D.  Probably because I left later, I didn’t see a single W123 on my drive home.

Reflecting back on the event, I think one of the key things that made it so good was its flexible nature.  There was something for everyone.  Tt was perfectly fine for attendees to pick and choose the parts of the event that suited them.   Some like me wanted to do the whole thing.  Others just the show and shine, or something in the middle of those extremes.

Canberra is a very good central location for such events. It was also great to see how well all the interstate clubs embraced it.

I also think having no registration cost was great.  Its much better for each activity to be user pays, or in the case of the dinner room booking, sponsored.  I was very happy to be part of this event.  I am looking forward to mounting my grille badge on the 240D.  It seems unlikely that 80+ W123s will ever be assembled again in Australia.

The post W123 50th Anniversary – Day 4: Farewell and return appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

On the way I filled up my 240D for the first time on this trip.  I had gone through 627km from 62.7 liters of diesel, which I don’t think is that bad with my foot to the floor the whole time and the A/C on max. I have a 80 liter tank from a 280E in my car, giving it very good range.

We had a pretty good turn out of W123s at the cafe and everyone was able to grab some breakfast before heading over to the Show and Shine at the Spanish Club for the 10am start.

As each car drove in, they were allocated a number for judging.  This also made it easier to see how many cars we had.  The numbers slowly ticked up and up as more cars arrived.   We had the cars arranged by body style, with a couple of rows for Saloons, plus a row each for wagons and coupes.

In the end, we had 83 cars there on the day.  That was an amazing result.   I went around and cataloged all the cars on display.  I must have missed a couple, as my count ended up as 80 cars, which consisted of:

• 300D – 17
• 280CE – 17
• 280E – 16
• 230E – 10
• 300TD – 7
• 240D – 4
• 280TE – 3
• 250 – 2
• 200 – 2
• 230TE – 1
• 230 – 1

Like with the number of cars from yesterday, the models were heavily skewed towards enthusiast models.  It also had at least one example of every model sold new here in Australia, and a couple that were not like the 200.   The 230 and 250 were sold new here, but few now remain and it was good to see a few examples.

The states were also well registered, with the 80 cars I counted registered in the following states.  Some of the NSW registered cars were probably local, from places like Queanbeyan.

• NSW – 34
• Victoria – 23
• ACT – 11
• Queensland – 10
• SA – 2

As would be expected, we didn’t have any cars from Northern Territory or Western Australia.  It would have been a stellar effort to drive one across the Nullabor in the peak of summer.  Regardless, it shows the popularity of the model, with so many people driving so far to attend the event.

It was also striking how many really nice cars there were on display.   Additionally, how well some cars wore their milage.  There were plenty of cars that were totally immaculate with over 300,000km on the clock.

As well as displaying the cars, everyone got to compete for some prizes.   The first two awards were by vote.  The crowd favorite was exactly as it sounds.  I voted for a lovely 300D in 476 Goldbraun.  It had been in long term family ownership and these period seventies colours are so thin on the ground now.  The deserving winner was the 300TD that won best in show at the ACT concours last year.

The next award was the workhorse award, which was for a car that had lived a full life but was still on the road and being used and here at the event.  The fitting winner of that car was a 300D with over 600,000km and plenty of battle scars to show for it.   This car was also piloted by the winner of the youngest owner award, fitting to see the next generation of W123 owners at the event.

We also had an award for the rarest and most unusual options.  Each person had to fill in the options list for their car.  My car, being a 240D, scored a goose egg for the options list.  Its not even sporting a lockable glovebox.  I did pick up some points for still having my Becker radio.

After some confusion with quite a few cars apparently having ABS brakes and column shifters, we worked out that the car that had the rarest options was a 300TD with a five speed manual transmission, cloth interior, sunroof and a few other options.

The next award was for the car with the highest mileage, standing at almost 850,000km.  Quite the contrast to the car that won the lowest mileage award with 28,000km.  There was also an award for the longest distance travelled to the event, a little over 1500km from Queensland.

There were plenty of cars that has been in low term family ownership.  However, the car that won the award had been picked up by the owners father brand new from the factory in 1977.  That car was one of the now rare 250 models on display.

As well as the awards, everyone was able to get a commemorative grille badge for their car.  These were only available on the day, so it will become quite a status symbol of being one of the 83 W123s that were there on the day.

The number of cars really exceeded all expectations, and it really showed the passion of the W123 owners group for their cars.  Not just for owning them, but also for using them.   I think its a bit sad that some models of Mercedes-Benz have become so valuable that they have passed into a different type of owner who rarely use them.  Pagodas are now like that for the most part.

I really enjoyed walking around and seeing so many amazing W123s.  And the range of colours on display was pretty special too. The weather was very hot, but that didn’t seem to deter anyone.  I know a few cars that left after the show and shine to head back to Sydney struggled in the heat a little.

After the show and shine, there were some optional activities.  I did the one at Questacon, which is a favorite of my kids.   Surprisingly they are far more interested in this than W123s.   Given how how it was, it was air conditioned which was good.

The final part of the day was the official dinner at the Belconnen Labour club.   This was where the awards detailed above were handed out, as well as a trivia competition and some other prizes, such as Penrite Oil.   The dinner was fun and low key, much better in my opinion than the ‘gala’ dinners that often go with events of this nature.

The post W123 50th Anniversary – Day 3: Show and Shine appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I have more W126 spares than W123, but I brought a few things that I thought could be useful.  The set of mudflaps I removed from my car, a used grille insert, some HD motor mounts I found too harsh, some suspension bushes and a few other miscellaneous things.  The only thing I sold as a reproduction exhaust Y piece for an early W123 M110 engine.  This is the same as on the W116 280SE, and I had bought this to put on my old 280SE, before realizing the entire exhaust needed replacement.

I ended up taking home more than I arrived with, which is either a big success or a terrible failure, depending on how you look at it.  I’ll go with the former.  I managed to get a brochure set for my W123, some spare hubcaps, a toolkit, a first aid kit, a non-working Becker 1402 and a few other bits and pieces.   I was pretty happy with my haul.   It was good to see many people embracing the swap meet and I think it was a big success.

After the swap meet we did the scenic drive.   The organizing team picked a great route for us.   We came down Black mountain and headed towards Anazc Parade towards the National War Memorial.  We then turned back down Anzac parade so we could see the W123s on both sides of the road.

After Anzac Parade, we crossed over Lake Burley Griffin and drove past Parliament House.   A Parliament house we had a photographer stationed to take photos of the cars driving past.  We probably couldn’t have actually stopped, as the AFP are probably not lovers of W123s.  Their loss.

Photo Credit Kanwal Singh.

From Parliament House, we headed over for a lap through the National Arboretum.   This has quite tight corners with views back over Canberra and is quite scenic.   We then left Canberra city and headed out towards Cotter Dam and onto Paddys River Road and Tidbinbilla Road.  These turned out to be a good driving roads and a good place to exercise the 240D.

Our final destination of Lanyon Homestead.   Despite the organizers sending out detailed route instructions, a google map link with waypoints set and even printed instructions for those who wanted them, it was surprising how many cars went shooting off the route.  I don’t think the organizers could have done any more and I think everyone took it in good spirits and reached the end, even if not quite on the roads planned.

Lanyon Homestead is a restored 1850s homestead which pre-dates Canberra.  It was quite interesting and there was lunch available.   While everyone went to queue for lunch, I was curious about the different models we had on the drive, so I did a quick Inventory:

• 300D: 9
• 280E: 9
• 280CE: 9
• 300TD: 7
• 240D: 4
• 230E: 2
• 200: 2
• 230: 1
• 280TE: 1

I’ll be curious how this changes for the show and shine tomorrow.  I don’t think this spread of models is probably that representative of the surviving W123’s in Australia.   It looks like it skews hard towards ‘enthusiast’ models such as coupe, wagon and diesel models.  The mainstream cars like the 230E are hardly represented at all.   On the other hand, you have to be a big fan of the W123 to dedicate an entire weekend to celebrating it.   And even more so to go roaring around twisty roads in 34c heat.

I found myself parked nose to nose with another 240D from Queensland.  I found out that it is also a 1981 model and was produced a month before mine and is only 209 cars separated in the VIN sequence.  That car was originally a Sydney car with a Yorkstar inventory plate, and my car was sold new in Melbourne by Lanes.   There was another 240D, nearby, that one a manual, which was a few thousand cars earlier than ours.

While I counted cars and obsessed over chassis numbers, most sane people did a tour of the homestead.   After some of those tours, it was possible to get some photos of the cars in front of the historic homestead, three cars at a time.

With that done, it was time to head out and back towards Old Parliament house for the tour of the Museum of Australian Democracy.  The tour was quite interesting.  I shared my 9 year old daughter’s astonishment that the first female toilets were installed in the mid 70s.  Apparently in 1927 it was assumed there would never be female Parliamentarians.  However, in 1943, a female MP and a Senator were elected.  For the next 30+ years, they and every subsequent female MP and Senator had to use this absurd system where they would take off their shoes before entering a male bathroom, with the men knowing not to enter if ladies shoes were outside the door!

The bathroom is still in use today for tourists and a rather bemused lady came out as a whole tour group were all standing and looking at the bathroom door.

With the tour over, last order of the day was to go and wash the 240D, now quite dusty from the dirt driveways of the homestead.

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50 years later, the Australian Mercedes-Benz clubs and the W123 facebook group, led by MBCACT are celebrating the anniversary of this model that appealed to taxi drivers and luxury car buyers alike.

The event is being held in Canberra, as its the most centrally located city for such an event, being very accessible from both Sydney and Melbourne, and reasonable accessible to Adelaide and Brisbane.

The core of the event is over the Australia day long weekend.  Today is mostly about getting to Canberra and attending the welcome BBQ.   The event has been designed to be as accessible to W123 owners as possible.

Instead of a fixed agenda and a cost to register for the event, it has been set up as individual events that people can choose to attend or not-attend as they like.   That means some people may choose just to attend the show and shine only, while others like me will attend the entire thing.   I think this is the best way of doing things.   That includes there being no event hotel.  People can choose to stay where they want in Canberra that fits in with their budget.   On car events, I prefer to choose basic accommodation as I’m only using it to sleep, and don’t spend any time in the room.  It just needs to be clean, have air conditioning, a private bathroom and decent parking.

While a lot of the heavy lifting to set this event up has been done by MBCACT, each of the state clubs had a volunteer to be part of the event committee.   I volunteered to be the MBCNSW representative.   This involved creating a drive down for those who wanted to do the entire event.

We met up with a group from MBCQ at Pheasants Nest to do the main part of the drive down to Canberra together.   In the end we had 12 cars, although we picked up one of them along the way.   Seven from NSW and Five from Queensland.   That included two coupes (both 280CE’s) and a wagon (at 300TD), with the rest sedans.   The sedans were made up of 240D, 300D, 230E and 280E models.     I would have liked a few more cars from NSW, but I know quite a few people are driving down tomorrow.   Mileages in our group ranged from the 300TD with almost half a million kilometers to one of the 300Ds that only had 28,000km.

We drove together from Pheasants Nest to Weereewa Lookout at Lake George.  I found my 240D was able to maintain normal freeway speeds on all the hills except for one.  I think that is pretty good.   This was with my AC on max the whole time.

At Weereewa Lookout we stopped to get some photos of our whole convoy.  From there, we went our separate ways to our various accommodation.

At 6PM, most of us met up at Black Mountain Peninsula for a welcome BBQ.   I was impressed by the number of cars we had at the BBQ, given how many are coming in tomorrow.   The event was kindly catered by one of the MBCACT members, which was incredibly generous.   There were a good number of local cars as well as quite a big contingent from MBCV and at least one car from South Australia.     There was a good variety of cars in various different colours.  Its a great reminder that it used to be possible to buy cars in colour, instead of monochrome like today.  There were a few cars that are now rare like the 230 and 250.

The weather was the total opposite of the original Launch in Stuttgart. It was hot and sunny, and I am very glad I had my A/C regassed for this event.

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