Centennial Park cars and coffee – October 2021

There is another informal cars and coffee event in Sydney that I have been meaning to go to for the last 18 months.   Its the one held on the last Sunday of the month at Centennial Park.   I finally managed to attend today and I am glad I did.   The event is held in the middle of the park near the statue of Charles Dickens.     It gets a different mix of cars than the one at St Ives I normally go to.

Today was supposed to be the day of the annual Sydney German Car show.   I’m not sure if that event being cancelled had anything to do with it, but there were a lot of German cars on display.     I was one, as I took my 250SE Cabriolet.   Its pretty dirty from a drive in the rain earlier this week, but at least the silver paint hides the dirt somewhat!

Part of the reason I brought the 250SE is that it has been running so poorly since lockdown.  I think it just needs more time behind the wheel as it drove much better after a new tank of 98.    Today’s performance was a bit odd.   On the way over it was running as badly as before I refilled the petrol tank.   On the way back though, it ran almost perfectly.    I am hoping this is a sign of things to come.

Its hard to pick out a few favorites from the display, as there were so many lovely cars.   One that did stand out was the Alpina B7 Turbo.     Based on my favorite BMW, the E24, its a very rare car and I’ve never seen one in Australia.   There was also a black Jensen Interceptor, a very impressive pre-war Rolls Royce, a nice Volvo P1800 and many more.

The strangest part of the whole thing was the behavior of the Centennial Park rangers.   As you would expect, they were there checking on proceedings.   The odd part was all the passive-aggressive muttering about the way the cars were parked.   On two different occasions I witnessed them coming past muttering loudly about various cars.   One of the cars was illegally parked, so I instead of all that muttering why not just issue a ticket and be done with it?

The park isn’t only for the cyclists, so I’m not sure what is to be gained by behavior like this – I didn’t see anyone paying any attention.

Overall it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning and I plan to come again when I can.