2022 Shannons Eastern Creek Car Show

Today was the 2022 Shannons Eastern Creek Car Show.   This is the biggest car show that I know of in Sydney, and is held at Eastern Creek Raceway.   I’ve been going for years, but have never entered a car.   All those previous times I have been a spectator, most recently in 2018.    The 2021 and 2020 events were cancelled due to coronavirus and I was away for the 2019 event.

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.