Newsletter No.081 Concours results, crossword
Newsletter Number 81
11th October 2004
Welcome. This newsletter we have a report on the ACT Club Concours, an interesting Crossword from South Africa, some great links to check out and all the usual stuff.
Thanks John Green.
Mercedes-Benz Club Concours's.
Well, the NSW and ACT Mercedes-Benz Clubs Concours's have been run and one once more. If you click here you will see a list of pictures from the ACT club Concours. There are also some pictures from the German Rare marques club as well. The German Autofest that is held each year in Canberra gives the owners of these some what unusual models a chance to show their cars as a group. The DKW van has a two cylinder two stoke engine and a top speed to suit! No wonder they were not very popular!
The winners from the ACT Club Concours are listed below. The list also shows the Club they represented:
Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT
29th Annual Concours results.
Road Class:
1 Shahram Shajarat 280SE 3.5 Coupe ACT
2 No entries
3 Robert Leticq 380SL ACT
4 Ken Gillies 420SEL VIC
5 Bob Cumberlidge E320 VIC
Club Class:
A Murray Mules 220 ACT
B Wain Fenton 220a ACT
C John Green 300d ACT
D Noel Harding 190SL VIC
E Lindsay Miller 250SE Coupe ACT
F No entries
G David Byrne 300SEL 6.3 NSW
H Richard Binks 230 ACT
I No entries
J Steve Morris 450SLC NSW
K Ray Hennessy 280CE NSW
L Jim Shipton 560SEC NSW
M Robert Gregory E220 ACT
N George Matherson S500 Coupe NSW
O No entries
P Sonia Goodwin 220SEb Ute NSW
Best ACT interior Lindsay Miller ACT
Engine bay award simple Lindsay Miller ACT
Engine bay award complex Steve Morris NSW
Presidents award Mark de Jager ACT
Distance award Wolfgang Minge VIC
Best interior Ray Hennessy NSW
Best paint Wayne Fitzgerald VIC
Life members encouragement award Frank Farino ACT
Champion of Champions Wayne Fitzgerald VIC
Runner up outright Lindsay Miller ACT
Outright winner Wayne Fitzgerald VIC
I didn't attend the NSW Concours as it clashed with my 40th Birthday so if anybody out there has a pile of pictures I can put them on the website for you and our other newsletter readers to enjoy if you like.
Cars for dismantling.
Once again here is a list of recent cars that have come in to be dismantled:
W123 280E 1977 model, a stolen and recovered car, has a broken window and little damage to the interior. Belonged to one of our customers and had $2700.00 spent on the engine only 6 months ago! Poor guy had brought another car by the time this one was recovered .
W123 300TD wagon 1981 model, this car is ugly! It is the rare metallic teal colour and the paint would best be described as "original". It has a yucky cream M.B tex interior but with very good mechanicals, it drives great. No rust in the rear doors or tailgate.
So if you need any bits for your 280E or 300TD give us a ring on 1300 787 300 or e-mail the spares department.
Crossword anybody?
I received an e-mail from Grant Viljoen who is a member of the local Mercedes-Benz Club in South Africa. It contained a crossword puzzle based on Mercedes-Benz trivia in the form of an Excel document. If you click here you can down load it.
Joke of the week.
I get a lot of stories, jokes and pictures e-mailed to me. This one however took my fancy and I thought it was worth repeating.
BLACK ROBBERS (True Story)
For anyone who didn't see the episode of David Letterman on which this
story was told, read this: (And remember it's a true story...)
On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, a woman won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots for dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she wanted to stash the quarters in her room. "I'll be right back and we'll go to eat" she told her husband and carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator.
As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already
aboard. Both were black. One of them was very tall and had an intimidating
figure. The woman froze. Her first thought was: 'These two are going to rob
me.' Her next thought was: 'Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice
gentlemen.' But racial stereotypes are powerful, and fear immobilized her.
She stood and stared at the two men. She felt anxious, flustered and
ashamed. She hoped they didn't read her mind but Gosh, they had to know
what she was thinkin! Her hesitation about joining them in the elevator was
all too obvious now. Her face was flushed. She couldn't just stand there,
so with a mighty effort of will she picked up one foot and stepped forward
and followed with the other foot and was on the elevator.
Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator
doors as they closed. A second passed, and the another second, and then
another. Her fear increased! The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her.
'My God' she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed! Her heart
plummeted. Perspiration poured from every pore.
Then one of the men said, "Hit the floor." Instinct told her to do what
they told her. The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her
arms and collapsed on the elevator floor. A shower of coins rained down on
her.
'Take my money and spare me', she prayed. More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely, "Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button." The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. The woman lifted her head and looked up at the two men. They reached down to help her! up. Confused, she struggled to her feet. "When I told my friend here to hit the floor," said the average sized one, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am." He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing.
The woman thought: 'My God, what a spectacle I've made of myself.' She
was too humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but words
failed her. How do you apologize to two perfectly respectable gentlemen for
behaving as though they were going to rob you? She didn't know what to say.
The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket.
When the elevator arrived at her floor they then insisted on walking her
to her room. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were
afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door they bid her a
good evening As she slipped into her room she could hear them roaring with
laughter as they walked back to the elevator.
The woman brushed herself off. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for dinner with her husband. The next morning flowers were delivered to her room - a dozen roses. Attached to EACH rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. The card said: "Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years."
It was signed; Eddie Murphy & Michael Jordan
Links of the week.
Jeroen van Diedenhoven, who is the Secretary of the Mercedes W114-W115 Club in the Netherlands sent me an interesting e-mail that had amongst other things a link to a Classic AMG site. You can find the site here. It is in German but is reasonably easily negotiated by non German speaking Mercedes-Benz lovers. I was very interested to see the page with the W107's that shows SLC's like mine with the same wheels and spoiler package as what I have fitted to mine.
Here is a challenge for someone!
The website address for the 190SL Group has changed, you can find them here.
Now here is a story you have just got to read. It proves that the only two things you can be sure of in life are death and taxes!
Yuk. That's all I have to say about this item on ebay!
Check this out. Once again in German, but I am sure your will get the general idea about it!
And finally here is an interesting alternative to power your trusty 300D.
Cars for Sale.Since the last Newsletter things have been slow in the car sales department. I seem to remember that the same thing happened before the last federal election. Anyway, as a result the cars have kept flowing in so we now have a huge stock of cars and are very motivated to sell a few. New cars include a C180, ML320, 560SL and a very rare 320CE Cabriolet. If you are interested in any of our stock give me a ring on 0419 295 458
What we have sold is a 1988 190D 2.5 sedan with only 160000km on the clock. This car was a real find and was in "as new" condition. Sorry there are no pictures as it was sold before I managed to list it on the website.
Unfortunately the 300d is still giving us some trouble. This car has only travelled 110000miles in 45 years and for the last ten has hardly been anywhere. Not surprisingly, there have been a few issues with "Bringing it back to life". It was typical of many "stored" cars in that all of the mechanical rubber parts had perished. So far we have replaced all the brake hoses, wheel cylinder cups (they had been overhauled before it was stored but had seized up again), the steering coupling, all the fluids, plugs, points, ignition leads, all the seals and the diaphragm in the injection pump, and much more. The issue that is holding us back is that one of the injectors has a very poor spray pattern and the engine does not run smooth. It does drive, quite nicely infact, a good freind of mine took his dauther to her school formal in it on the weekend. However, I want it to be right before it is sold. None of these issues surprised me that much as we have done plenty of work on cars that have been in storage for some time.
We have also spent some time correcting various cosmetic issues and roadworthiness issues. We have sourced and fitted a new headlamp lense (cracked), new interior light lense (warped from incorrect bulb being used), repaired the drivers door pull, polished all the chrome and duco, etc,etc. We have also cleaned out of it 45 years of dirt and dust. It was dry stored in a barn in Rural NSW for almost all of its life however if appears to have seen the odd dusty country road in its day! The Chrome is amazing! After we had cleaned off 45 years of grime we found near perfect original chrome. It is so good that I doubt any of today's plating companies could even come close to matching it. The week before the ACT Club Concours it was registered and was driven to the Concours. You can see a picture of it at the Concours here.
Anyway we are very close to having it the way I think it should be and are considering our options of how to sell it and what it is worth. We have received many e-mails for interested people since we first mentioned this car a few newsletters back however if you are interested now is the time to e-mail me with an offer. The car can be viewed at our workshop and we can e-mail you pictures of what ever you would like to see on it.
Click here to see all the cars for sale.
Cars we have sold:
190D2.5 1988 model 159000kms
New arrivals for sale:
C180 sedan 1997 update model 70000kms
ML320 Luxury Wagon 2000 model only 60000kms
560SL Roadster 1986 model 192000kms
320CE Cabriolet 1993 model 217000kms
Also in stock we have:
300d Limousine 1959 model only 110000miles
260E 1989 model only 123000kms
C200 1996 model 176000kms Rare manual transmission!
Collection of three factory Stretch Mercedes-Benz's
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.