My wife and I recently sold the remaining shares in our business and we were fortunate enough to be able to take a four month sabbatical and travel around Europe with our two teenage children. When I told a German friend of mine about our planned trip, he said: “You have to go to the AMG factory in Affalterbach!”. I am the proud owner of a 2017 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT S and apparently every owner of an AMG can get a free (great word for a Dutchman), private tour through the factory to see where the engine of their car was made. We were planning on going to Vienna anyway so driving back to the Net ..read more

Way back in May, Trevor very kindly offered to take some of us for a day’s off-roading in his 1993 G300 G-Wagen. For those of you who have seen his particular G-Wagen, you will have noticed that it is no “Remuera Tractor” – it is fully specc’d to go off-roading and stay in the wilderness for a week or so. Trevor has equipped it with life’s necessities such as off-road tyres, snorkel, gas cans, CB radio, extraction equipment, a roof-mounted tent, awning, shower, bbq, fridge, lighting, table, chairs and an inverter – to name just the obvious gear. And it isn’t just well-equipped, the G-Wagen has ..read more

Samantha and I had a family focussed UK trip in July but (I) made sure to tick off some bucket list car geek activities. Sam was a willing companion though. First up, the British Car Museum at Gaydon is a cornucopia of examples of British Motor Industry failures and missed opportunities with some outstanding prototypes, concepts and the few success stories like the Mini, Land Rover and a couple of nice Jaguars. Needs at least 1/2 a day and the scones are nice. Next up was F1 Silverstone Practice Day on the Friday. It’s much better on TV. The cars are very fast, not as noisy as they used to be ..read more

As I reflect on my first year as Club President, it strikes me that over time the club has evolved into an entity where our members enjoy driving, displaying and competing with their cars and having fun socialising with each other, as opposed to a membership who prefers more technical and mechanical workshops. I put this down to the complexity of our more modern cars and the specialists required to restore our older cars. And that maybe we prefer driving our cars and socialising with others to fixing them (largely on our own in a cold dark garage!). Our committee is guided by our membership an ..read more

We were excited and organised, the cars were checked, packed and then there were three cars ready to leave Auckland, bound for Christchurch and the National Rally.  Chris and Debbie were already in the South Island on holiday; sharing snaps of glorious weather and open roads and ready to meet us just north of Christchurch so we could convoy in together. Tuesday morning saw us leave Auckland in a loose convoy with a spacing of 90 minutes between each car, Daryl and Janine leaving first with a plan to do a little shopping in Tirau while we caught up.  We left in the height of rush-hour ..read more

A small group of us ladies have a WhatsApp group set up and named the “Merc Maidens” by our famous handbag queen, Sue. During lockdown I realised this was the perfect name for the Ladies to proudly wear on our backs. After much thought and contemplation I sent out the challenge to my fellow Merc Maidens. The challenge was accepted and jackets created with sewing machines, needles, glue and irons. Bling was added, then discarded as new and wonderful ideas evolved. All jackets are different with our individual personalities stamped on the material. The jackets were debuted at the annual Top Down ..read more

Auckland Club member Garry Boyce completed the Vintage Car Club’s Targa Rally this year in his beautiful 190SL. Garry’s regular offsider for these challenges was unavailable so Garry invited a mutual friend to be his navigator for the adventure. Simon belongs to the Jag Club, but we won’t hold that against him because his wife does have a Merc and Simon confesses it is a very enjoyable car to drive. I caught up with Simon to hear how the rally went and his experience of the adventure … You will likely all have heard of the Targa Rally and maybe the Targa Tours, where you can follow the course ..read more

Sunday was a wet miserable day so a pretty good day to be attending the FoMC AGM. It was held at the North Shore Vintage Car Club rooms and when I arrived, I could see they had the workshops all open so before I went inside, I spend 20 minutes being shown around the cars that the Club or its members are working on. It’s really interesting to see the wooden bones of those old girls being carefully restored or replicated. I then headed inside, meeting up with Daryl at the door. The agenda started with morning tea before we all took seats for the actual meeting part. I won’t bore you with the fin ..read more

2010 Mercedes Benz SL63 AMG Specifications The 2010 Mercedes Benz SL63 AMG with 7 speed auto, 2 door, with metal convertible roof body, comes with a V8 6208 cm3, 386kw engine. Acceleration is estimated as follows… 0-100kms in 4.0secs, 0-160kph in 8.7secs and 0-200kph in 13.4secs with the standing quarter mile drag in 12.1secs. Recently I met with Mercedes Benz Club – Auckland’s newly elected President, Mike Peters and his wife Deepa who own the beautiful Diamond White Metallic, 2010 Mercedes Benz SL63 AMG. They have been members of the Auckland Club since Jan 2020. Their car was imported from ..read more

1982 Mercedes Benz W123 230CE Specifications: Mercedes Benz 230CE 123 series, offered by Mercedes between 1976 – 1986, with 29,858 units being produced. The M102.980 engine has a 95.5mm (3.76in) bore and 80.25mm (3.16 in) stroke. The 2,299cc engine weighs 118kg (260lb) and uses K-Jetronic fuel injection. Power output is 100kw (134bhp). Recently I met with Mercedes Benz Club – Auckland members, David and Kath Winn, who own this beautiful Signal Red 1982 Mercedes Benz 230CE. They have been members of the Auckland Club since 2007. Their car was imported from the United Kingdom in June 1988. It ca ..read more