MBCNSW Chrome Bumper day at Linnwood House

Like all car clubs, MBCNSW has a lot of interesting cars that rarely get out to club events.   The goal of the Chrome Bumper day was to try and entice a few of them out.    The thinking was that an informal event that was fairly centrally located may be attractive for somebody who rarely takes out their older car.

The event was held at Linnwood House, a historic house not far from Parramatta.  Linnwood house has four days per year where their open days have cars on display.   I’ve attended a few times as a spectator, mostly for British car shows like Rover and Rolls Royce.

One of the nice things about Linnwood house is the lovely shady grounds around the historic house.   They are quite large and there is a lot of room for the cars to park.    I like the relaxed nature of the day, where people can come and go as they please.  No overzealous security or mashalls here.

You can do tours of the historic house, although I’ve seen it before so didn’t.

As a nice day out, the event was a success.   We had a reasonable turn out of Mercedes-Benz models, and there were a number of interesting cars from the smaller American marques.   However, in meeting the original goal, the event probably wasn’t all that successful.   There were only two Mercedes-Benzs that I wasn’t familiar with on the day.    The first was a lovely 220SE coupe in two tone, with a beautiful red leather interior, factory Behr air conditioner and Becker Grand Prix.    The other one was a 2001 CL67 Brabus.  While I’m not normally interested in modern cars, the modifications and engineering in this car was quite interesting.   At the heart is a 6.7 liter V12.

From the American marques, my favourites were the Cord, which is an amazing art deco design, and the pre-war Packards.   Packards are such elegant cars and quite rare in Australia.