2019 ACT German Car Show

This weekend I traveled to Canberra for 2019 ACT German Car Show.   I’ve been to this show a few times before (2013, 2015, 2017), but this is the first time I have formally entered a car.    In prior years I have driven down on the day and arrived around 11ish to see the show for an hour or so.   This year I decided to do it properly and stay over in Canberra Saturday night.

The NSW Mercedes club were doing a convoy on Saturday, but I had a lot to do before I left so elected to drive down myself later in the day.   The weather on the drive down was fairly miserable, but luckily it cleared up for the actual show.   I was also very happy with my hotel choice.   I stayed at the Woden Hotel, which was only $125 per night and has secure, undercover parking.

Despite the rain the drive down was good.  The new radio made it much more pleasant and the W111 handled the bad weather with aplomb.   The drive did confirm for me that I do need to change the engine mounts on my car.   Transmission mount too, probably.

As usual, it was a good day at the show.   There were about 160 Mercedes-Benz’s on display.   There were also a good number of VW’s, BMWs, Porsches and Audis.   I didn’t see some of the niche German marques this year.   The NSW club had 16 cars travel down for the day which I think was a good turn out.

I entered my car in the ‘Silver’ class for judging.   This is perfect for an older restoration like mine and a great idea they have two levels.    I was lucky enough to win an award in the Silver class, so I have a nice little memento of the day.

The highlight of the day for me would probably be seeing the great lineup of Roundies.   For such rare cars, seeing 5 of them lined up in a row was great, as well as an unrestored car on a truck.  I wouldn’t mind owning a six cylinder model at some point in the future.    It was also good to see the replica Patent Motorwagon.

There was a strong showing of W111 Coupe/Cabriolets, my favorite Mercedes.   And a good selection of models, 220SEs, 250SEs, 280SE and 280SE 3.5 models were all there.   There was also a six cylinder 300SEL W109, another rare and unusual car.

Further along the lineup there were some lovely SLs as you would expect, including W113s, R/C107s and a nice red 190SL.   I was driving with that 190SL for nearly the entire way home, it must be fairly local to me.   The ‘SL’ that stood out to me was the 15,000km 450SLC.   While my 450SLC is nice, it was great to see what a few thing should look like comparing to such an original car.

There was a strong showing of 70s and 80s models too.   This included a nice selection of W114/115 cars, highlighting the differences between the series 1 and series 2 cars.   There were also a good showing of W123’s including the 280CE I used to own, and a 300D that had done 780,000km.   In contrast, there was another 300D that had a M117 5.0 installed in it, but retained the original 300D instrument cluster and speedo!

In the S-Classes both W116 and W126 models were well represented.  There were some particularly nice W126’s on display.  Also a 560SEC in the same colour as mine.   From there the W124’s and W201s were featured and then some of the more modern Mercedes.

The venue chosen for the 2019 ACT German car show was great – the Canberra greyhound racing track.   It was spacious, easy to get to and good facilities.   All in all a great event and I hope to be back next year.