#stivesshowground

Today was the monthly St Ives Auto Brunch cars and coffee event.  It was a lovely warm Sydney Autumn day and it was probably one of the biggest turnouts I've seen.   After all the bad weather we were back on the main Oval and I think it was 80% full this time.  Last time we were off to the side. I arrived at about 7:50AM and the lines to get in were already quite long.  Quite a few people got sick of them and parked in the spectator parking which I think is a shame to save $5.  Probably next time I'll try to get there a bit earlier. I took my 1977 Mercedes 450SLC.  I have been driving it this week and my son and I gave it a quick wash the day before.  A friend of mine had his almost identical car there on the day which was unplanned. The best part of going to St Ives is seeing what interesting and unusual cars will be on display.  Today it was all about Saabs.   I don't know if it was a event by the Saab Club or just a group of Saab enthusiasts but there were a few really nice cars.   For my mind, the best car of the whole show was the 1979 Saab 99 Turbo. The car had been restored and it showed, even down to all the decals in the engine bay.   The car must have been such a revelation in the last 70s.  I think the original 99 design is more interesting than the later 900, down to some of the subtle curves in the bodywork and the design of the interior.  The wheels and turbo badges are also a nice touch.   The 900 is still a cool car, but it's a bit more homogenized. There were some other nice Saabs there including a black 900 turbo and a pale blue 900.   I prefer the Saabs from then the company was independent, but the later cars still have some interesting touches. As well as the Saabs, there were some other cars that caught my eye including a Milan Brown 450SEL 6.9 with a cream velour interior.  Milan brown is one of those colours that has incredible depth when the paint is nice, but looks terrible when its a bit faded.  This car has great paint and it goes so well with the velour.  As well as the 6.9 there was a nice Derby Bentley, a very nice blue BMW E24 with a manual transmission.   The Volvo Bertone coupe was striking too.   These are not pretty cars, but so interesting and unusual that I was happy to see it. In addition to the cars, its always good to run into a few friends along the way and its a great Sunday morning.

Today was the monthly Auto Brunch event at St Ives.  It had rained heavily in the 24 hours prior to the event, so while it was not cancelled it was moved back to the old area.   The old area is much smaller, but given it was the easter long weekend, and the weather was poor, there was plenty of room.   A bit of a contrast from last time I went in January. I'm glad they didn't cancel, as it was still a really good event.  St Ives is always about variety and this month's smaller showing delivered. I took my 1990 300TE along to the event.  It was the first time I have taken the 300TE to St Ives.  There was one other W124 (a coupe) and a couple of W123 coupes.   I was quite impressed with the citrus green car, which was for sale. As well as that they were a few nice Lotus, a couple of 80s Ferraris, a Citroen XM and DS and a couple of 80's Honda Hatchbacks.  You never see those anymore.   Even with a smaller show, it was still very much worth the visit.   As would be expected due to the weather, there were more modern cars than usual.  There were still some really nice classics though. Cars and Coffee events are probably going to be impacted least due to high fuel prices.  Most people attend a cars and coffee event near where they live, so distances are much shorter.  This is certainly the case for me.

This morning I attended the monthly St Ives Auto Brunch event.  Most of the other cars and coffee events in Sydney are quite one dimensional, but St Ives is all about variety which I like. I last attended in September last year, and it was a lovely summer day today, worth going before it got too hot.   I took my 1973 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas on its first car show outing, at least under my ownership. The MG club had obviously decided to go in a group and they had a great line up of MGs at the front of the oval.  It was quite impressive. Some of the cars I liked the most were: - A really nice turquoise series 2 XJ6 - A couple of great early rotary Mazdas - A time warp early W123 230 Carby - Totally original red Saab 900 - Mercedes 220S Roundie Getting out of the event was far easier this time.  They had big signs and marshal to stop people trying to turn right as they exit the venue.  There is a U-turn bay just up the road, so turning right is not necessary and needs to turn across four lanes of traffic. While some cars arrive very early and end up parking in the unpaid areas, before the organizers are there to collect the nominal $5 entry fee, I thought it was quite interesting that a group of Ferraris seemed to go around the fenced off areas bypass the entry fee.

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 oval where the event was held originally. While it wasn't nearly as organized as usual, it worked pretty well, even if it was a bit muddy overall.  Weather on the day was excellent, and so turnout was good.   I took my 1977 Mercedes 450SLC, primarily because it was in the garage and what I had been driving the day before.  Last time, I took my 1981 Mercedes 240D. Variety was great as usual.   There were fewer Jaguars, Mercedes or Citroen, but there was a good turn out of Porsche.  In particular the 928.   Unlike most car enthusiasts, I've never been able to get excited by the 911.   However, I do appreciate a 928 with a manual transmission.   There most have been a least 5 928s on display and one of them had a manual.   There was also a rare manual R107 350SL. There was a decent number of Alfa Romeos and even a few nice Lancias.   I also liked a very early Jensen built Volvo P1800.    While I was there, I caught up with a friend in his Citroen D Special, the only Citroen I noticed on display.   I need to get mine out. Despite the muddy fields, the event was very much worth it.   It also gave me a good excuse to wash the 450SLC later that afternoon.   Read the full article

Today I went to the Auto Brunch Event in St Ives.  It is still by far Sydney's premier cars and coffee event.   There isn't anywhere else where you can see WO Bentleys lined up next to old Mitsubishi Sigmas.   The Variety is immense and there is always something really interesting on display. I last went in December in my Citroen DS.   Today I took my 1981 Mercedes 240D - The first time I've taken the car to St Ives.  One of the great things about this event is not just the variety, but that the cars change a lot.   There are some usual suspects that are there most months, but the event can look radically different month to month.  For example, this time, there were very few French cars, and almost no classic Mercedes-Benz, other than a 450SEL and a 300SE W126. Instead, it would appear that one of the Mopar clubs made a day of it, as there was an impressive collection of Mopar muscle cars on display.   It was great to see them all at the event.   There were also two WO Bentleys and other British rarities like a Bristol and a Sunbeam Rapier. While I am interested in the older stuff, the event is probably 50/50 modern enthusiast cars and classics, which is a nice mix.    As usual there was a good collection of classic Jaguars on display and I admired a lovely XJ12 I parked close to.   I'm pretty sure I've seen it at the all British Day. I think this is probably the biggest turn since the new format started, with entry to the main oval and a $5 entrance fee.  I much prefer it like that.   For some reason there is a contingent that still parks in the spectator area, which seems a shame. While the morning started out as very foggy, that soon burned off.  It turned into a warm and humid day and a great way to spend the morning. Read the full article

Given I was going to look at a D Special, I took my DS along.   It was in good company with two other D models, both of which are regulars at this event.   It was good timing, as the DS has been in my garage at home for the last month or so, and as the weather heats up, I was planning on swapping it for a car with A/C fitted.   This is probably the last outing until end of February for the car.   My car, being a 1970 model was the oldest of the four cars. The event was much smaller than usual.   Weather was good, but it has been raining heavily yesterday, including into the evening.   People are often quite busy in December as well.   It was still worth going,  there are always some interesting cars on display. Probably most interesting was the pre-war Rolls Royce with the turntable and glassware in the back seat.   Read the full article