My 250SE Cabriolet had a feature I was not aware of. Underneath the injection pump is an oil/coolant heat exchanger. This was also an option on late 230SLs. Instead of a separate cooler that the M130 engined cars have, the heat exchanger helps warm up the oil when the engine is cool and cool it down when the engine is hot. There...
On my trip to Victoria last last year, the alternator on my 560SEC packed in. I was able to limp the car home by swapping batteries with a friend in another W126. I also purchased another battery on the road. When I arrived back in Sydney, it was this new battery that was still in the car. I was just going to leave that...
Today I went to a cars and coffee event at Gough Whitlam Park. It was organized by Enthusiast Insurance. I had been invited by a friend, and assumed it was a regular cars and coffee event that they were sponsoring. I think it was more an event for their customers. I’m not an Enthusiast customer, but it didn’t seem to matter a...
I recently drove down to Canberra in my 1965 250SE. This was the first time I had taken the car on a longish trip in a couple of years. The main reason for that was the running issue had been experiencing with the car over the last few years. I finally solved this issue last year by fitting a new electronic distributor. On the...
I’ve known that the blower motor needed replacement on my 300TE since purchase. It didn’t like to work on low settings and would make pretty bad squeaking noises. The second to last owner had even planned on replacing it, but ran out of time before he sold the car. I had it on my list to do and ideally planned to do...
This months night drive fell on a leap day, September 29. The next time a leap day falls on a Thursday will be 2054, so it was a night not to be missed. The main part of the drive was to drive the back roads of southwest Sydney, starting with Mulgoa Road. Last year we had a drive that started from Krispy Kreme Penrith. ...
Today was the annual Wheels car show in Queanbeyan. This is one of the biggest multiple marque car show in the Canberra area and is akin to the Eastern Creek show in Sydney. I joined the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT as part of their display. MBCACT always puts on a special display for this show and Wheels 2024 was no different. The goal...
We started our 2024 night drive schedule with a drive south. This month’s drive was held a week earlier due to the holiday long weekend and the absurd double demerits regime in NSW. In the days before the drive, there had been torrential rain, but luckily the weather fined up on the day and it was just a bit overcast. The recent rain...
I’ve been touring Tasmania in my 1990 Mercedes 300TE this last week and a half. While there are regular classic events here like Targa Tasmania I’ve been quite surprised how few classics I’ve seen touring around during my time here. It’s a great place to go touring in an older car. Not only is there great scenery, but there is little traffic, the temperatures...
With 2023 at a close, time for another fleet update. Like last year, I will cover the highlights and lowlights for each car, major worked performed, how much I used them and plans for the future. In 2023 I managed to drive my classics almost 18,000km. Classics need regular use or they deteriorate badly, so I’m glad I was able to drive them so...
While I was in Launceston earlier in the week, I visited the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania. This is a nice little museum quite close to the centre of Launceston. I had driven down to Tasmania in my 300TE, and had a few hours to kill before picking up my family from the airport. The National Automobile Museum of Tasmania was a perfect way...
I’m currently in Tasmania on holiday with my family. Our goal on this trip is to tour around Tasmania so a car was a must. On a trip like this, I had two main options. The first was renting a car – either paying an arm and a leg for a miniature van, or squeezing a family of five into something horrible...
In January, I’m taking my family to Tasmania on holiday. Instead of renting a car down there, I’m driving down and taking the Spirit of Tasmania. I’ll collect my family from Launceston Airport as they will fly down. Due to the cost of the Spirit of Tasmania, its actually cheaper to do it this way. It works out well, as they are not interested...
Our final night drive for 2023 was an old favourite. I ran a poll a few months ago for some of the regulars on the night drives to identify drives that there was interest to revisit. The drive from Galston Gorge to Cattai Ridge Road, Galston Gorge road and Old Northern Road was one of the most popular. I really enjoy this drive...
I fitted a set of original AMG Penta wheels to my 450SLC two years ago. At the time, they did not come with lug bolts. Luckily, I had a set from the replica Fuchs wheels that were on the car when I purchased it. The replica Fuchs wheels were the Australian made copies that were so commonly fitted on Mercedes of this era...
Thursday was the annual MBCNSW Night Drive to Bilpin for Apple pie. This has turned into an annual event and despite being a very late night is always popular. It seems amazing that another year has flown by, as it doesn’t seem all that long ago that we did the last Bilpin night drive. On that drive, I swapped cars with a...
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