Classic Jalopy Blog

Longreach Trip – Day 3 – South East Queensland 1

Longreach Trip – Day 3 – South East Queensland

Our arrival into the sunshine state brought with it heavy rain overnight.   By the morning, the rain had stopped, but a thick fog was over the region.   Visibility was down to only a car length or two in various sections. I was quite keen to do the Mt Nebo road for our final crossing of the Great Dividing Range before we headed inland. Therefore,...

Longreach Trip – Day 2 – Gwydir Hwy and New England NSW 0

Longreach Trip – Day 2 – Gwydir Hwy and New England NSW

The second day of our classic car road trip to Longreach and back started in Grafton.   As we were able to stick with the planned route, we slept in and met at 6:15AM for a 6:30AM departure. Our first two legs were to take us on the Gwydir Hwy across the great dividing range to Inverell.   Our route up NSW has largely had us...

Longreach Trip – Day 1 – NSW Mid North Coast 1

Longreach Trip – Day 1 – NSW Mid North Coast

The first full day of our 8 day road trip to Longreach and back started in Maitland.  Due to a major landslide on Thunderbolts way, we had a lot more distance to cover than originally planned.  If we were going to make it in a reasonable time, we were going to have to be very disciplined around timekeeping and stops. To try and maximize...

Longreach Trip – Day 0 – Sydney to Maitland 0

Longreach Trip – Day 0 – Sydney to Maitland

Our trip to Longreach in classic cars starts tomorrow morning.  One of the things we learned in the first of these trips is that it is a bad idea to try and start out from Sydney in the morning.  I would be doubly worse on the first day of school holidays.   Therefore, the first leg of the trip starts from Maitland. This means there...

Planning a 4,800km road trip to outback Queensland 2

Planning a 4,800km road trip to outback Queensland

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...

Preparing my 560SEL for a 4,800km road trip 0

Preparing my 560SEL for a 4,800km road trip

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...

W123 air conditioning upgrade 0

W123 air conditioning upgrade

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...

Guest Post: Driving a W210 E240 Elegance Sedan 0

Guest Post: Driving a W210 E240 Elegance Sedan

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...

61st MBCA Northern NJ June Jamboree 2

61st MBCA Northern NJ June Jamboree

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...

Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas car colour guide – October 1972 0

Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas car colour guide – October 1972

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...

300TE rear end crash 0

300TE rear end crash

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...

MBCNSW May 2025 Night Drive – Sackville Ferry 0

MBCNSW May 2025 Night Drive – Sackville Ferry

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...

420SEL parts car update – May 2025 1

420SEL parts car update – May 2025

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...

Centennial Park cars and coffee May 2025 0

Centennial Park cars and coffee May 2025

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...

Rolls Royce Club Federal Rally 2025 display 0

Rolls Royce Club Federal Rally 2025 display

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...

Auto Brunch St Ives May 2025 0

Auto Brunch St Ives May 2025

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...

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