2019 Mid Florida Auto Show

A couple of weeks ago, while I was in the USA I attended the Mid Florida Auto Show and Lake Mirror Concours.     This posting is a few weeks old, as I didn’t have the cable for my camera to transfer the photos.   I was in Orlando for work, and Lakeland is about an hour or two away.    The Mid Florida Auto show is normally a picturesque event set on the shores of Lake Mirror.   This year, Tropical Storm Nestor hit North Florida.  While Nestor was a fair way away, it was close enough to cause torrential rain in the Central Florida area.     The rain meant the show was moved to a set of multi-story parking lots.   It also drastically reduced turn out.

While I at the show I met Pierre Hedary, who runs a YouTube channel on Classic Mercedes.    If you have not seen his channel, I suggest you check it out.   Pierre runs an independent Mercedes-Benz workshop in the Central Florida area.   He focuses on Classic Mercedes such as the Adenauer,  Fintail Era (110, 111, 112, 113, 108, 109), Compacts (W114/W115), and the cars of the 70s and 80s.  (116, 107, 126, 123, 124 etc).   He is especially known for his expertise on the more esoteric Mercedes designs such as the M189 engine.

Pierre invited me for a tour of his workshop and collection of interesting Mercedes-Benz models.   He also gave me some tips to tune my lean running 560SEC.    At his workshop was a plethora of 111s, 108s, 109s and 113 SLs.  He also had some really interesting models in his own collection such as a W108 280SE 4.5, a W109 300SEL M189 etc.   In some ways his workshop reminded me a bit of MB Spares and Service in Canberra.    Both specialize in similar models and have the same sort of cars at their workshops at any given time.

The highlights of the Mid Florida Auto show was seeing the 300S, which belonged to a local Attorney and Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Rolls Royce Phantom V.   The Phantom and its competitor, the Mercedes-Benz 600 seemed to all too regularly end up as the conveyance of bloodthirsty dictators.     It was also fun to see some Amphicars frolicking in Lake Mirror, as the weather had cleared up by the afternoon.

Despite the weather it was an enjoyable day.   I would like to visit again to see the show as intended.