The last three of our big classic car road trips have headed south towards Victoria. This year it was time for something different. We are heading north to Queensland. Due to extreme temperatures and the propensity to flood, we are going in Winter. I’ve never been that far from the coast in Queensland, so this trip was an opportunity to see a totally different...
I will be taking my 560SEL on a 4,800km road trip to outback Queensland soon. Over the past couple of months I have been slowly sorting out a few things that could impact its reliability. This was beyond routine things like oil and filter changes. I created a list of items I wanted to address, with the first being the critical one. Occasional coolant...
When I first bought my 1981 Mercedes 240D, the A/C did not work. It was apparent that the car had been siting around for a while, so it was not really surprising. What was surprising, was that it worked well when I had it gassed up. When cars are advertised for sale as just needing a re-gas, you know that they need a lot...
I was 25 upon release of the new Mercedes E-Class platform in 1996. At the time I thought the styling was conservative and never paid attention to the model range. My enthusiasm for the Mercedes marque still came from the past, with the fabulous W109 300SEL 3.5/6.3 V8s and the W116 450SEL V8 models (including the 6.9). Fast forwarding to July 2024, I purchased...
Today I attended the 61st annual June Jamboree, held by the Northern New Jersey section of the MBCA. The Northern New Jersey section was the founding section of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America, all the way back in 1956. The June Jamboree is their annual concours event and car show. I am current in New Jersey for work, and when I saw this event...
The Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas is a very special version of the Daimler Double Six. Essentially it is a Daimler Double Six that was sent to the Vanden Plas coachbuilders to be hand trimmed with a unique interior that was to Rolls Royce levels. The cars also had special chrome trim, a vinyl roof and other improvements over the Standard Double Six. The...
Last week I was driving my 300TE in the wet. I was stationary at the lights, when I felt something hit the car. A Honda SUV had crashed into the drivers rear corner. As I was stationary at the lights, I had not been looking out the rear. Consequently, I didn’t see the actual impact. But when I got out of the car to...
Our May 2025 Night drive reprised a route we used back in August 2023. That night, we had one of our very rare breakdowns, which we were keen to avoid this time. We had a great turn out on the night. I think it was largely due to the terrible weather we’ve had in Sydney over the last month. Now it seems to be...
Today I removed one of the final parts I wanted from my parts car – the SLS struts. Its much easier doing it with the proper tools at home as compared to the USA junkyards. You don’t even need the car jacked up that high to get them out. I’ve now got a few used sets on hand, useful for the multiple cars I...
Today I attended the Centennial Park cars and coffee event. Last time I went was almost exactly a year ago – the May 2024 meet. Since the constant rain seems finally over in Sydney it as a good opportunity go get one of the cars out. I was originally going to take my Citroen DS, but I had left the ignition on, so the...
Today was National Motoring Heritage Day. There are always a lot of car related events to choose from. Originally I had planned to go to the big display in Berry with the Mercedes-Benz club. Then a friend told me that the Rolls Royce club were holding a display for the final day of their Federal Rally. I attended their 2022 display in Queanbeyan and...
Today was the monthly St Ives Auto Brunch cars and coffee event. It had rained consistently throughout the week here in Sydney, so the main oval was closed. Thankfully the origanizers did not cancel the event due to wet fields. Instead, around a third of the cars spread around the edge of the oval, and the rest went back to the areas near the...
My last update on our BF MK2 Falcon Wagon, affectionately known as “Lister of Smeg”. was Oct 2023, with 383k on the odometer. Up until this time Lister had provided reliable and fuss free motoring. This all changed when the LPG converter failed, leaving me stranded after dropping my son off to school. Not knowing any better, the car was towed to Knox Ford,...
Thursday was the March night drive for 2025. It had been a rainy day in Sydney the day before and in the morning, so at lunchtime, the prognosis for the drive did not look good. We only had a couple of sign ups and the weather looked iffy. Luckily for us the weather cleared up and we were set for a good drive. Our...
Back in late January, I went to take my 560SEC out for a drive. I immediately noticed that I had a very odd feeling with the power steering – it was cutting in and out. I opened the bonnet to check the belts and fluid level and saw something rather alarming. The engine was running, but the accessories were hardly moving. They would stop...
Editors Note: This is part three in a series by Nick Gruzevskis about owning a 1978 Mercedes 450SE W116. The first part covered the purchase and cosmetic restoration and the second covered some further maintenance. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write, as after work hours my focus had been on organising the MBCV 2025 Mercedes-Benz Concours d’Elegance. As the event...
When I purchased my 450SLC, it had tinted windows. The tint wasn’t new, as there were already a couple of minor areas where it was lifting. In the 20+ years since, it had slowly become worse. Removing it had been on my list for the last 5-10 years, and I finally got around to it recently. The worst of it was on the rear...
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