Newsletter No.111
Newsletter Number 111
5th November 2007
Hello everyone, .
Firstly I would like to thank all of you who sent in e-mails wishing me a speedy and full recovery. Things are improving and I have been spending some time back at M.B Spares just pottering around behind the scenes.
In this Newsletter we have great news about a large purchase for the Australian Defense Forces, pictures of our latest barn find 300d, the results from the MBCACT Concours and a two very special cars in our for sale section. You are also all invited to the upcoming MBCACT garage night that we will be hosting.
Hope you enjoy it. Thanks John and Sandra Green.
Website overhaul.
As mentioned last newsletter we have had some major changes to both the look and organisation of the website. And yes we are still having a few little issues. Most of you will have received a rather strange looking e-mail notifying you on the last Newsletter and hopefully this time we got it right. In time we will get a few other issues sorted like being able to insert pictures back into the newsletter.
One tricky issue we have found is that some members of our defence forces are having trouble signing up to the Newsletter. The explanation why is a little tricky but here goes:
If your connection goes through a proxy cluster which would mean that your apparent IP address is constantly changing and will therefore fail to validate on our system. You will get a message saying that your e-mail address will not validate. If you try to sign up and get this message (or you just want to do it for fun) go to http://whatismyuseragent.com and reload the url a few times Look to see if the I.P address keeps changing or just shuffling back and forth between a few different address's. If so, your have this problem. We have added all the I.p address's that we know are Ok to the list, but there is always the chance we have missed one so please let us know if you have any hassles.
Workshop open night.
Each November we invite the Mercedes-Benz club of the ACT members to our workshop for a sausages and spanners night and this year it is on the 13th of November. Proceedings will commence at 6.00pm with a BBQ and drinks session followed by an informative talk on Rotary Engines and their relationship to the Mercedes-Benz concept car the C111. The talk will be given by none other than our own Spareparts manager and resident Rotary Guru, Murray!! We will also do a general questions and answer session.
Even if you are not a club member you are still invited to attend this
meeting.
MBCACT Concours results.
Well, the results are in for another year. As usual the standard was very
high with four cars very close at the top of the list. In the end the top
award went to a CLK320 very closely followed by a beautiful 230SL pagoda.
As many of you will know I have been the chief Judge of this Concours for
18 years, but this year for health reasons had to stand down, so it was
relaxing to see the Concours from a spectators point of view for a change.
One aspect that I did particularly enjoy was the wonderful setting of
holding this event on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin with both Old and
New Parliament houses as a back drop. I have been so head down b*m up in
previous years to notice. So for those of you who have not attended the ACT
Concours before have a think about next years event, the date will be
advised in a few months. For some pictures of the day
click here and have a look below for a full
copy of the results. You will see that there are quite a few Geländewagens
in the pictures, they were all there as part of the 100 year anniversary of
the first four wheel drive vehicle made by Mercedes-Benz. Also in
attendance were some current model 4X4's. These were a GL500 and an R350,
both on loan from Capital Star Motors who is the new authorised
Mercedes-Benz dealer in Canberra.
Club Class
A Ken and Alida Edwards. 170S
B Sonia Goodwin. 220SE cabriolet
C No Entries
D Robert Waddell 230SL
E Ken and Alida Edwards. 220SEb cabriolet
F Lynn Harrison. 220 SEb
G No Entries
H William Binks 230/8
I Karen and Paul Fayle 280SE
J Peter Grasinger. 380SL
K No Entries
L Susheela Mulquiney. 420SE
M Brian and Pauline Doyle. 190E 2.3
N Daryl Roberts. SL500
O Jenny and Mike Fleming. CLK 320
P No Entries
Road Class
1 Mathew Sitchly 280SE
2 No Entries
3 No Entries
4 Ingrid Hagstrum 380SEC
5 George and May Millynn C220
Presidents Award Alida Edwards 220SE
Life Members award Dean Broadbridge C200K
Long Distance Award. Ken Gillies 280SE
Best Engine Simple Sam Belaris 280SL
Best Engine Complex. Ben DeBoer 280SE 3.5 Coupe
Best Paint Sam Belaris 280SL
Best Interior Rob and Sonia Goodwin 220SE cabriolet
Best Interior ACT Club Member. Rob and Sonia Goodwin 220SE cabriolet
Champion of Champions Sam Belaris 280SL
Outright runner up Sam Belaris 280SL
Outright winner Mike Fleming CLK320
A Gullwing story (with picture).
OK, OK, yes I stuffed up and didn't add the picture correctly last newsletter. As I mentioned above there are a few teething issues, but in the long run we will be fine and have a much better product. So here is the article again this time with picture here..... Just click on the black and white picture. The other two shots are of Patrick Devine's car taken during the 2006 National Rally. And yes I am still looking for the article about the conversion..... Stay tuned.
A friend of mine sent me this picture of a Gullwing arriving home at his
father in-laws house for the first time in the mid 50's. It has an
interesting story that goes a bit like this. Laurie ordered a brand new
Gullwing and was in Germany when it was being built. He was taken on the
production line to see it being built and commented he wants to make it
right hand drive. They wouldn't sell him the car so he was not happy. From
Germany he heard of Gullwing for sale in New York being sold by the Boss of
General Motors. He flew to New York and bought the car and drove it across
America. The car had a factory performance camshaft, Rudge wheels and later
he discovered a Limited slip diff..
He had it shipped to Australia and delivered to his home in Strathfield
(photo) . There has been a article going around that explains he gave it
Col Rizzo when he went overseas and told him to see if he can work out how
to make it right hand drive which wasn't that easy with the tubular chassis
etc. In the end he worked out a plan and Laurie got him to go ahead and do
the job.. It was during testing that the vehicle was found to have a
limited slip diff which was a very rare thing. Believe it or not Laurie
changed the colour to white after one year (probably too hot in the Aussie
sun) and sold it a year or so later - he has never heard of the car since -
is it still in Australia? Whoever owns it now would know it was Laurie
O'Neil's car .
Laurie has owned I would say well over 100 Mercedes Benz's and driven them all over the world. He still says that the most stable and impressive Mercedes he has driven at high speed was his 190E 2.3 Cosworth that he bought new in 1986. When new he followed the Paris Dakar race from Paris and travelled at 150mph for long distances at great ease.
There are plenty of great stories out there on the cars that we love, if
you know of one please send it in to
me. I am working on getting a copy of the story about how it was
converted.
Continental Tyres to support club.
The following article is from the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT Inc newsletter and details a deal to help sponsor the club from the Australian importer of Continental tyres. We are one of the approved ACT dealers. You can also find more details on tyres here.
Tyres 4Uare the exclusive Australian importer of Continental tyres and have proposed an arrangement with the Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT whereby for every Continental tyre purchased by a Club member they will pay the Club $12.50.
The conditions for this offer are that tyres must be purchased from a Continental approved dealer that in turn has purchased them from Tyres 4U. The approved Continental dealers in the ACT are:
- MB Spares & Service, Lyell St. Fyshwick
- Fyshwick Tyre Service, Yallourn St. Fyshwick
- Tyre Zone, Kemble Court Mitchell
- JAX Quickfit tyres, Egan Court Belconnen
- JAX Quickfit Tyres, Gladstone St. Fyshwick
If you wish to partake in this arrangement and bring some revenue to your club please send a copy of your Continental tyre purchase invoice to the Treasurer at PO Box 1093 Woden ACT 2606. He will arrange for a claim to be made on Tyres 4U.
Barn find 300d Limousine with pictures.....
Last newsletter we mentioned the 300d pillarless limousine that we had purchased. This is one of the many 1/2 done projects that have been effected by my health. I had purchased it with the intentions of doing it up and selling it, but it will now be for sale as is. I have posted a series of pictures and a brief description of the car here and will be listing it on ebay in the next few days. If you are interested please let me know.
Upcoming events.
Here is the current list of upcoming events. If you know of an event that would be of interest to our Newsletter readers please e-mail me with the details as you will see below it does not necessarily have to be an exclusively Mercedes-Benz related event.. The plan is not to put each clubs entire calendar on here, just the major events. Here are a few that I know are coming up:
10th November 2007. The Cooma Monaro Historic Automobile Club Inc hold a Motorfest every second year. It is a huge event with over 400 cars expected to attend. Now I know this is not really a Mercedes-Benz orientated event, but I thought it was worth mentioning to show just how many differant quality Car Club events there are on around Australia at any one given time. As it is just down the road for me I will be attending in the 280SE 3.5 coupe so if you are interested see you there. Click here for more info and entry form. If you live too far away, get on the net and find your local version of this event. Many of the magazines like "Unique Cars" and "Just Cars" also list these sort of events on a by location basis.
23rd - 25th November 2007. The Australian Geländewagen Owners Association (AGOA) is celebrating 25 years of the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen in Australia. November 2007 marks the 25th Anniversary of the press release that marked the introduction of the Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen in Australia. To mark this event AGOA is holding it's first National Treffen (German word for meeting) in the Victorian High Country. The original press release was held at Mt Terrible in Victoria and AGOA is keen to revisit this historically (in terms of G-Wagens) significant area. Details can be found here or If you would like more information or would like to pre-book a space, then call John Kenny on 0417 544828 or email agoa1@hotmail.com M.B Spares & service will be helping to sponsor this event and all being well I will be attending it.
18th - 22nd April 2008. As reported in the last Newsletter
the next Biannual rally for the Mercedes-Benz clubs of Australia is being
hosted by the Victorian club. Maybe you will have attended or seen our
reports from the ACT Rally held in 2006 which was a great success. This
rally also is shaping up to be an excellent time. Please have a
look here for a general overview as supplied by the Victorian club. If
you are interested in attending the rally application forms will be
available from your local Mercedes-Benz club. A listing of their contact
details can be found here.
16th March 2008. Shannons Wheels Expo is one of two major
annual events hosted by the Council of ACT Motor Clubs. Each March since
1982, hundreds of vehicle enthusiasts have participated in this trip down
memory lane which is an official part of the Canberra Festival supported by
Australian Capital Tourism It is held on the lawns of Old Parliament House,
Canberra and this year is being hosted by EJ-EH Holden Club ACT. This event
has traditionally been very well supported by the Mercedes-Benz club of the
ACT with over 50 cars on display.
Joke of the month.
Two stories this month about the stupid things that we do.........
Now This IS Drunk .....
A man goes to a party and has too much to drink. His friends plead with
him to let them take him home. He says NO -- he only lives a mile away.
About five blocks from party, the police pull him over. They check his
license and ask him to get out of the car and walk the line. Just as he
starts, the police radio blares out a notice of a robbery taking place in a
house around the block. The police tell the party animal to stay put,
they'll be right back and they run around the corner to the robbery.
The guy waits and waits and finally decides to drive home. When he gets
there, he tells his wife he is going to bed, and to tell anyone who might
come looking for him that he has the flu and has been in bed all day.
A few hours later the police knock on the door. The police ask if Mr.
Smith is there and the wife says yes. The police ask to see him and the
wife replies that he is in bed with the flu and has been so all day.
The police still have his driver's license. The police ask to see his car
and the wife asks why. The police insist on seeing his car, so the wife
takes the police to the garage.
The wife opens the garage door; and there, sitting in the garage,
is the police car, with all its lights still flashing.
True story, told by the driver at his first AA meeting
Fishing.
Saturday morning I got up early, put on my long-johns, dressed quietly,
made my lunch, grabbed the dog, slipped quietly into the garage to hook the
boat up to the truck, and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour.
There was snow mixed with the rain, and the wind was blowing 80 kph .
I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that
the weather would be bad throughout the day.
I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed.
There I cuddled up to my wife's back, now with a different anticipation,
and whispered, "The weather out there is terrible."
She sleepily replied, "Can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in
that shit!!"
Links of the month.
Don't forget that if you find something interesting on the net to send me a link to it.
- Can't afford a 1928 SSK?? Well why not make your own? One of our readers from WA has sent in this link with some shots of a car a local car restorer has made from scratch.
- Many of you will know that Murray our Spares guy is into Rotary engines mainly of the NSU style. He sent me this link the other day of a very rare car.
- Still got the yellow fire extinguisher in your late 70's or early 80's Mercedes?? Click here for an interesting topic on the OZBENZ forum.
Army buys Geländewagens.
On the 5th of October the Australian Government announced that the ADT will be purchasing approximately 1000 W461 G280 Geländewagens as part of Project Overland. Below is an article from www.defensenews.com what is interesting is that they are to be imported fully assembled unlike the current Unimogs which were assembled here in Australia. Best part of this for us is that 15-20 years from now there will be some really cool army surplus!!!
You can see an topic with a picture on this on the Australian Geländewagen Owners Association forum here.
Cars for Sale.
We are still selling cars even though I don't spend much time at work. Both Chris and Murray have done well in the last month. Sold cars include the low mileage E280 sedan and the E320 sedan on which we traded a 1991 420SEL. We have two very special cars just coming into stock.
280SE 3.5 coupe, rare Australian delivered V8 version of the W111 coupe, this car is from a deceased estate and over the last 20 years has had a considerable amount of money spent on it including new paint, new rubbers and chrome and a beautiful new leather interior in the correct style. You can check it out here.
E220 cabriolet, what a stunning car, you can check it out here.
Finally I have decided to sell the W114 factory stretch that I have been working on for the last five years. It in a unfinished project, factory stretched W114 sedan. 2.8lt twin cam engine with 4 speed auto. Over $10000.00 spent on bodywork and full rubber seal kit. Black interior with perfect dash and timber work. many other new parts. Would make a great club car or wedding car.
You can check out all our Mercedes-Benz's for sale here. Or you can check out all the other cars we have for sale here:
New cars into stock:
420SEL rare 1991 spec car
E320 sedan 1998 model
Cars sold:
E320 Elegance Sedan 1996
SL280 Roadster 1996 model only 71000kms
E280 1994 model
Also in stock we have:
So that's it for another newsletter. Hope you liked what you saw. If you
have any ideas or want to contribute any articles, pictures or other
material please
e-mail me
here. Also, don't forget that you can check out the
old newsletters here
Thanks, John Green.
