#longreachtrip

Our fourth annual road trip in classic cars was the most ambitious yet.   There is nothing better than using these cars as they were designed, while seeing parts of Australia I would otherwise never otherwise venture to.   All while in the company of a great bunch of guys.  It is not the destination that is the point of these roadtrips. The formula for these trips has remained the same across all four.  A max of 10 classic cars, each over 30 years old.  The cars should be able to cruise at 120km/h and could be from any marque, although so far they have all been classic Mercedes-Benz.   We avoid motorways at all costs and focus on the back roads and out of the way towns.  We attempt to drive only on sealed roads.

This year was a little different.   Instead of having a centrepiece event like the first three, it was more of a roadtrip through northern NSW and outback Queensland.  We did it in winter as some of these areas are flooded or extremely hot in summer.  Longreach was the furthest point of our trip, but not the core of the trip like the Adelaide Rally, MBCV Concours or the Euroa show. As with the last three, our trip was a big success.  We all had a great time and all the cars and drivers returned home without incident. Our Route A full description of our route is available here.   We started in Maitland, avoiding the Sydney traffic on day one.   The goal of the way up to Queensland was to take some of the great roads that cross The Great Dividing Range.   This included the Oxley Highway, Waterfall Way, The Gwydir Highway, Bruxner Highway and Mt Nebo.   Each were different ranging from tight twisting corners to sweeping bends.   Most of them had great views and interesting places to stop. On the way up we would also take in the National Transport Museum at Inverell. Once we passed Brisbane, we were into the outback portion of our trip.   In some areas it was hundreds of km between towns and service stations.   There were 53.5 meter road trains to pass and different scenery as we pushed further inland. We stopped at Longreach to check out the Qantas founders museum, before turning back the inland route.   Some of these roads were even more deserted.   As we returned, we passed well known towns such as Lightening Ridge, Coonable, Coonabarabran and also went through the Warrumbungle National Park.    We finished our adventure driving through Bylong Valley and the excellent Putty Road.   Our total distance over eight days was 4,950km. The Cars A full description of each of the cars and how they went is available here.  They were all Classic Mercedes ranging from 1978 to 1993.  All but one was on historic rego.  All the cars were 126, 123 or 124 models.

There were seven cars that completed the trip, with an additional car, a 1989 420SEL, making a cameo appearance.  Each of them completed the journey on its own four wheels.   We had a few minor issues along the way, but nothing that couldn't be solved at the side of the road, or lived with for the journey. Over the seven cars, three had participated in previous road trips and the rest were making their debuts.   The Lapis Blue 380SEC has done all four trips and has travelled 15,900km across them. On this trip we pushed the cars pretty hard - on the way up through the twisty sections and on the way back passing road trains.   They all performed brilliantly. The Drive We all made our way separately to Maitland on the Friday afternoon and evening.  In keeping with the spirit of the trip, I avoided the motorway and took the back roads into town.   A few of us met up for dinner in Maitland, and then got an early night ready to roll out the next morning. The next morning, we left very early as we had to drive further than expected due to a landslide on Thunderbolts Way.   Leaving early allowed us to witness a really nice sunrise as we left Maitland.    Highlights of the day were the Oxley highway which had some really tight corners and twisty sections, and Waterfall way which was more cruisy but also good.    We stopped at Ebor falls to admire the waterfall and then took the back roads into Grafton.   A more detailed overview of Day 1 can be found here. The next morning we left at our more usual time at 6:30AM and headed to the Gwydir highway for another great road over the great dividing range.   The bends were not as tight on the Gwydir highway, making it a faster road.   After taking the Gwydir highway, we headed to Inverell to visit the National Transport Museum.   Our afternoon drive kept us going north on the New England Highway and then the Bruxner highway which was quite good.   We finished in Boonah, Queensland.   A more detailed overview of Day 2 can be found here.

Day three we started with a very foggy day and skirted Brisbane, before taking Mt Nebo road over the range again.   After that we cruised past Lake Wivenhoe and stopped at Cormorant Bay, which was a lovely spot.   We continued north until our lunch in Nanango, where our friend from Brisbane had to return home.  After Lunch we had some great road that were really deserted and we hardly saw a town for 300km.   We finished the day in Monto.   A more detailed overview of Day 3 can be found here. Next day we headed west, into outback Queensland.  We covered the longest distance today, but the roads were mostly straight and flat so speeds were higher than the twisty roads of the last three days.  Our breakfast spot was in Moura, and then we headed through some of the outback towns of Emerald and Rolleston.   We stopped at a couple of lookouts, the one at Virgin Rock was the better of the two.   In the afternoon we headed to Barcaldine.   This was mostly a straight flat run, with plenty of road trains to pass.   A more detailed overview of day 4 can be found here. For day five, we headed into Longreach.  We checked out the town and attended the Qantas Founders Museum.   After that we drove the short distance to Ilfracombe to see the Machinery museum and have lunch.   After lunch we started to head south, stopping at Blackall and then to our final destination for the day, Tambo.  As with the day before, the roads were mostly open, with just the odd road train to pass.    A more detailed overview of day 5 can be found here. Day 6 was a short day.  We were in a very isolated part of Queensland and there were few towns.   We stopped in Morven for breakfast and a refuel, before heading to our final destination in St George.  While we covered over 500km, we passed few towns and the roads were pretty empty other than the road trains and the occasional land cruiser.  A more detailed overview of day 6 can be found here.

Our almost 5,000km road trip to Longreach had seven cars participate.  All seven completed the trip successfully.   Of the four such road trips we've done, this one probably pushed the cars hardest.   Yet we had the fewest mechanical issues.   Most of the issues were comparatively minor. As well as the seven core participants, we also had an eighth car - a 1989 420SEL - participate with us for about 1,200km.   A few of the cars were veterans of previous road trips, but we also had a number of new entrants this year.

The cars are listed below in order of age:

1978 280CE

This white 280CE is an early model C123.  As well as being the oldest car on the trip, it had by far the highest kilometers on the clock, finishing with 467,000km.   Having previously completed the Adelaide trip and the Long Way Euround, this car has now completed 13,000km across all three. The 280CE had no major mechanical issues.   The engine rebuilt it received some years ago must have been high quality as it still meets its factory performance specifications all these years and kilometers later.   During some of the sections were we pushed the cars hard, it got a little hot, but nothing alarming.

1983 380SEC

The only car to have participated in all four road trips, it has now done 15,900km across them.   The 380SEC is the only car on full registration.  Since it is regularly used, it also didn't have any mechanical issues. Last year it had some problems with the ignition system, but a second hand ignition control box fixed that.   The 380SEC finished the trip with around 290,000km on the odometer.

1985 280CE

The night before we left, the petrol blue 280CE still didn't have a rear windscreen installed.  It completed the trip with no door cards, parts of the dash missing and parts of the exterior trim missing.   Yet despite all this, and not having a proving run, the car did incredibly well. The 280CE was purchased a couple of years ago.  Not long after the purchase, the owner discovered the air conditioning drains were leaking.   This had rusted a hole in the floor.   18 months of rust repairs later, the 280CE is back. Not doing a proving run meant a few minor issues cropped up on the trip.   The front left caliper didn't seem to be doing much at all.  The car may have had engine mounts at some point in its life, but there wasn't much sign of them now.  And the terminals on the dizzy cap were cratered like the moon. Yet the car got through all 4950km admirably.   With the interior re-fitted and these small mechanical issues sorted out, this will be an excellent road trip car.   This was the first time this Petrol blue 280CE has participated in one of these trips.   The car on our Adelaide trip was a different.

1985 380SEC

The silver 380SEC completed the trip without much incident.   Being a V8, it was thirsty on fuel, but also on oil, going through almost 8 litres for the trip.   It wouldn't surprise me if it needs valve seals, a common issue on these cars.   Not all of the oil was burned however.   After one top up, the oil cap wasn't on properly, bathing the once pristine engine bay in a sheen of oil. The 380SEC also had a minor idle problem, which resulted in the occasional stall.  We didn't do a lot of idling on this trip, so it wasn't really an issue.  The 380SEC was another new entrant, finishing the trip with around 260,000km on the odometer.

1987 560SEL

This was the first time I have taken my 560SEL on one of these trips.   The car did very well, and had no issues to speak of.   The W126 is smooth, powerful and easy to drive.  While driving a car that is almost 5.2 meters long on the twisty sections takes a bit of effort, the 560SEL was really in its element in the long sweeping corners and straight roads that were much of our road trip. The available torque meant that passing 53.5 meter road trains was a breeze.   The only issue I had was a bit of a belt squeal when overtaking, and I had was appears to be a minor grounding issue with the instrument cluster.  Four times, the speedo needle dropped down to 80, the tacho bounced around near zero, then it all came back. For a car with a 5.5 liter v8 weighing 1.8t, getting 14 liters per hundred kilometers driven hard was very good.   With these additional 4950km,  the 560SEL is now at 347,500km, probably a year away from crossing the 350k mark.

1990 560SEC

The white 560SEC was another new entrant.  Like my SEL, this car was easily able to pass the various road trains with the available torque.     This is quite a late SEC, which also features the roller blind.  This probably came in quite handy. The only mechanical issue experienced was a power steering leak.   The leak meant that every couple of hundred kilometers, the reservoir was topped up.

1993 320CE

The 320CE made its second appearance, after joining The Concours Run in 2023.    The HFM fuel injection and five speed auto meant it got good fuel economy despite being quite powerful. There were no mechanical issues to speak of with the 320CE, the newest car of the group.

Cameo Appearance:  1989 420SEL

This 1989 420SEL joined us for about 1,200km.   The owner of the car is located in Brisbane and was able to join us for a couple of days.     The 1989 420SEL has around 330,000km and has done a number of road trips with the current owner. The only mechanical issue it experienced was the odometer stopped working, likely a broken odometer gear.

Our final day of the trip started much the same as the others.  We set out from Coonabarabran at 6:30AM as we headed towards Sydney.   It was quite cold and overcast, so we had to take it slow to ensure we didn't hit any wildlife.  I saw a couple of kangaroos plus some feral cats.   According to my car's outside temperature display, at one point we got down to minus 0.5C.

As we drove, we kept passing the model solar system from yesterday.   Saturn was along our route, and Neptune was close to our breakfast location. The countryside was gentle rolling hills and the roads were quite good as we made our way to our breakfast stop at Coolah.  When we got there, we found the bakery did not open until 8am, which seems quite late for a bakery.  Luckily the service station down the road had a cafe attached which was open. After our breakfast we headed the short distance to Coolah Valley lookout.   The lookout offered quite good views back over the valley, but we didn't stay long due to the cold.

Our next stop was the town of Wollar.  It wasn't so much a town, more a few buildings and a disused service station.   The service station still had a working toilet, which was useful.   The operators left many signs warning people not to shower in the toilet.   I'm curious who tried! After Wollar, we headed towards Jerry's Plains, our lunch stop.  To get there, we took Bylong Valley Road.  I've done this road a few times and have always enjoyed it.  It has a good mix of sweeping corners, good scenery and there is never any traffic.   I took a day drive here after I had the SLS re-installed in my 560SEL to see how much better it was.  I wasn't disappointed. Since we only stayed at the lookout a few minutes, and skilled the Wollar stop, we got the Jerry's plains very early.  We refuelled at the service station, which was super busy even though it only had two pumps.   As we did so, we saw a pair of Police BMWs drive past at high speed, lights and sirens on, only to stop at the place we planned to have lunch.  A couple of paddy wagons and another BMW arrived soon after. We waited back for a few minutes to see what was going on.  When one of the BMWs that was blocking the driveway left, one of our group went to see if we could go in.   There were only two police vehicles left - A paddy wagon with a flat tyre and a Sergeant who was interviewing somebody at the restaurant.  Apparently police officers are not allowed to change tyres.  We were given the all clear and went in for lunch. We were meeting a couple of people who had come on our previous road trips but could not make it this year.   It was great that they were able to come up and drive the last leg with us. After lunch a few of the group had to leave early, but the rest of us went down the Putty road.  It was a great way to end the trip and the people that left missed out on a great road with little traffic.  Putty road is probably the best driving road close to Sydney.   I've done it many times, but I usually take it northbound, and it has been a long time since I've done it southbound. After we said our goodbyes at McDonalds Windsor, we each headed our separate ways.   I arrived home at about 5:15PM, my car having covered 4,954km over eight days.   The planned route, including the amendments for Day 1 was 4,941, so the slight extra makes sense. I'm creeping up to 350,000km in the 560SEL, and will probably pass that next year.

It was a great trip, and given it was the most ambitious yet, we had the fewest car issues.  I'm already looking forward to next year.

The penultimate day of our trip had us starting in Queensland not far from the NSW border.   Yesterday we had finished up in St George.   The morning was yet again quite cold and we rolled out of the hotel at 6:30AM.   Our breakfast stop was the bakery in Dirrenbandi, about an hour away.

We we drove south, we were greeted with a very impressive full moon.   The countryside was pretty similar to yesterday.  Very flat, with medium sized trees and some bush areas.   Some parts had no undergrowth at all, just medium sized trees.  I don't know if this was because of flooding or fire or some other reason. The bakery at Dirrenbandi had some quite interesting Russian pastries and sweets for sale.   After breakfast, we crossed the border and continued on towards Lightening Ridge.  Of course being in NSW we were greeted with a speed camera warning sign and worse roads.   The scenery was much the same, the vegetation mostly bushes and small trees. We stopped for about an hour at Lightening Ridge to refuel and and look around.   I was a bit surprised that given the driving was quite easy, my car had the worst fuel economy of the trip at 16l/100km.   Lightening ridge was full of Opal stores, and we went into a couple to look around.  There were also mine tours, but you needed more time to do those.   Having heard it was a really interesting, place, it was a bit disappointing.

After we left Lightening ridge, we drove another hour or so to Walgett.   We did a brief stop here to take a few photos in front of a water tower mural.   After Walgett, the vegetation started to get thicker and the farms were more about crops than cattle.   During the drive I passed 4,000km for the trip, and over 20,000km since purchasing the 560SEL   We continued on to our lunch stop at Coonamble. Continuing the trend from breakfast, our lunch cafe had some quite interesting desserts for sale, various bars and brownies plus Lebanese style desserts.  Walking around Coonable, it was clear that the town had gone through some kind of boom from 1928-1930 as nearly all the buildings in the main street harked from that era.   However, many of them were either for lease or boarded up.  It felt like a town that had fallen on hard times.   I parked in front of a magnificent art deco cafe location, complete with art deco mirrors, windows, bar and booths for customers.   It was for lease, as were so many of the stores. After lunch, we headed out of the town to wars Warrumbungle National Park.  As we headed out of town it became apparent that I had missed a 20km section of unsealed road.   We were lucky it was pretty smooth and the weather was good.

As we got closer to Warrumbungle national park, we could see the the totally flat country give way to to what looked like a mountainous region.   Sticking up from the top of it and very apparent was the siding springs telescope. Once we finished the unsealed section, the road up through Warrumbungle national park was quite good.   We stopped at Whitegum lookout, where there were amazing views of the scenery below.  I didn't know that Warrumbungle national park is an old volcanic formation from millions of years ago.  Its quite apparent when you are there to see it.

After admiring the view, we drove the short distance to Siding springs telescope to see the Telescope up close.  We didn't do the whole tour, but the views from this area were quite good too.   In addition, they had a 'virtual solar system' there there is a too scale map of the solar system based on distances.   The Sun is at the telescope parking lot.   Mercury is just outside the carpet.  Venus is halfway down the hill to the main road, a couple of kilometers away.   Earth is almost at the main road, and Mars is a little way down it.   Then it is about 20km before you hit the to scale model of Jupiter.   We'll see the rest of the planets tomorrow. We refueled and checked into our hotel.  Yet again, I had 16l/100km from my 560SEL.  I find it quite odd as this has been an easy day of driving.   In the day, we have covered 538km. After a short break we went for our final dinner of the trip.  Walking along in the town, it was an amazing contrast between Coonamble and Coonabarabran.  Sadly Coonamble seemed like it was dying where Coonabarabran was a busy and vibrant town.   The populations are pretty similar.   I guess Coonabarabran has the activity for the telescope as well as tourism for Warrumbungle national park to give the local economy a boost.

Our final dinner was a succulent Chinese meal at a local restaurant.  It has superb over the top decor that reminded me of restaurants in the 80s.   Apparently it had been imported from Hong Kong.   In any case the food was excellent, and it reminded me of the meal we ate in Leeton two years ago on the Concours Run.

Day six was a shorter drive than usual.   This was largely because we are travelling through Southwest Queensland, a very sparsely populated part of the country.  There are only so many towns that have good accommodation facilities for our party. We started in Tambo, to another very chilly morning.   Our party was only six cars, as one of our group had an issue with their accommodation and had to stay in another town.   Our first stop was Morven, for breakfast at the cafe there.   This was around 200km of driving.   We would re-assemble our full group at the breakfast spot.

The countryside was similar to what we experienced yesterday afternoon.   Mostly grassland with shrubs and small trees.   The road surface was very good, although quite bumpy, and given we were on the A2, there were a lot of road trains.   At one point there was four of them bunched up with some caravans, all from Halliburton.   It was quite the overtake to get around them. There was one small town in the whole two hour drive.   This part of the country really feels very empty and the towns that are there are quite small.

We had a lovely breakfast in Morven, and refueled at the roadhouse down the road.   The roadhouse was very busy and full of road trains.   The road trains really are enormous, especially the triple and quadruple ones.   As they are not allowed near the cities, many Australians have not seen them, even though they are a core part of our economy.

After our fuel stop, our next point was Mitchell.   The road between Morven and Mitchell was pretty similar to our first leg, but there were more clusters of medium sized trees.     We stopped at Mitchell to buy some food and for a break, and walked around the town.  Our next leg would be 200km, and there is no town between Mitchell and St George.

After exploring the town we set off.   The road between Mitchell and St George, was paved, but a much smaller road.   The traffic was mostly caravans, and there were only a couple of road trains.   The countryside soon became quite wooded, with some farmland interspersed.   Due to this, there was a lot of road kill to be avoided. The original plan was to stop for a break half way along this road, but there really wasn't anywhere to stop.   The road was narrow and it meandered along the countryside.  Sometimes it was wide enough for two cars, and sometimes it was wide enough for one, and you had to put a wheel into the gravel if there was oncoming traffic.   Traffic was fairly quiet, but it did happen. Dinner was at the local pub in town.

We arrived into St George two hours later and were quite early - 1:30pm.  We refilled the cars and then headed to our hotel.     Our hotel room wasn't ready so we went for a walk around the town before we could check in.    After so many full days it was good to be able to take a rest for a couple of hours before dinner. On this shorter day, we covered 504km.   There was no change to how the cars were performing.   The White 560SEC was going well with regular power steering fluid top ups.   The silver 380SEC and the petrol blue 280CE both had their idle issues, but we were doing almost no idling.  

The fifth day of our trip would be the day we finally arrive in Longreach.   This trip has been much more about the journey than any one destination, but Longreach is the furthest point from Sydney we will reach.   It also marks the transition from our journey there to our journey home. We started out early in Barcaldine.  As with our start in Monto, it was very cold in the morning.   We rolled out at dawn and began our 100km journey to Longreach.   The road was pretty much dead straight the whole way there.  The landscape was mostly grassland and low bushes with some small trees.   There were no large trees at all.    A lot of the way was marked as floodplains.  It was fitting that I passed over 3,000km since home on the leg into Longreach. As with our experience driving in this part of Queensland, the road surface had no potholes to speak over, but were quite bumpy and undulating.  I would not want to be in modern car with low profile tyres and crashy suspension.   We had to be quite careful here, as there was a fair amount of wildlife out and about.   They are far more active at dawn and dusk. After arriving in Longreach, we lined up the cars for a few photos at the Qantas Founders Museum.   The core museum is in some hangers, but there is also an outside display with larger aircraft.  Here they have a 747-200B, 707-138, DC3 and the Lockheed Super Constellation.   We were able to get some photos with the 747 behind us before the museum opened and the carpark filled up.

After our photo shoot at the museum, we drove into town for breakfast and to check out the town.   The town was quite busy and after breakfast we want for a look around.  Our cars looked quite out of place among the Toyota Land Cruisers, but there was a nice 50s Buick in the town too.   As we walked around, there were a few vintage stagecoaches taking tourists for rides around.  Tourism is obviously a big industry, albeit far secondary to cattle grazing.

Instead of staying as one big group, we agreed to meet at the Machinery museum at Ilfracombe at 1pm, about 15km east of Longreach.    After looking at the town for a while, I went with a few of the guys to check out the Qantas founders museum.   As well as checking out the museum, I bought a shirt and a keyring for the 560SEL as a memento of the trip. The museum was interesting, but not all that big so after a while, a few of us headed back to the cars and drove the 15km to Ilfracombe.   The Machinery museum is basically a whole kilometer of farm equipment along the side of the road.   Mostly tractors and trucks, but other machines too.    The displays ranged from early steam equipment to tractors that looked like they were from the 60s or 70s. One of them was a surplus WW2 tank, which had been converted in a bulldozer.  As well as the farm equipment, there were also a few small buildings with displays that held things like rifles and glass bottles.

We had lunch at a nearby pub before meeting up with the rest of the group.   At that point the while 560SEC was making a funny noise and had sprayed oil all over the engine bay.  A closer look revealed it had come out of the power steering reservoir, which was now foamy and half empty.   Topping it up stopped the noise and there was no obvious leak. We set off for our next stop, Blackall.   Blackall is about two hours from Ilfracombe, and took us back through Barcaldine.  This allowed us to stay on paved roads.   I don't enjoy driving on unpaved roads, and our cars are not really set up for it.  The road south from Barcaldine was similar to the other roads - no potholes but very bouncy.   There were a lot of road trains on the road, so passing them took time.  Road trains in Queensland can be up to 53.5 meters long and have four trailers.   We saw a number of the B-Quad road trains on this leg of the journey. The slipstream from these huge road trains is very noticeable, even in a very stable and heavy car like the 560SEL.  It is especially apparent when they are all bunched up and you have to ass them.   I'm also quite pleased my car is fitted with undershields as I had to run over a kangaroo carcass and I felt it hit the sump guard as I did. We stopped for a short break in Blackall.   During the stop we checked the power steering fluid level on the white 560SEC.  It was only about 1-2 centimeters down from two hours earlier.  This was was very welcome news as it meant we could simply top up the fluid from time to time and get the car home. Our final leg was an hour into Tambo, our stop for the night.   The final drive was similar to the last few legs, long bouncy straight roads with lots of road trains and almost no potholes.   We arrived at about 4:30PM which was perfect.

Since the petrol blue 280CE had been idling pretty badly, we used the next hour to check it out.   We removed the distributor cap and found the terminals all worn down and very pitted.  It is surprising it ran so well at higher revs.   We attempted to clean it up and it made a bit of a difference, but ultimately it will need to be replaced. Dinner was at the local tavern.  A few of us had their signature two foot sausage for dinner, which was rather good.   During the day we had covered 422km.  My 560SEL consumed 14.5l/100km.