The Mercedes-Benz Club of the ACT’s annual Concours d’Élégance was held on 20 September in conjunction with the Shannons German Auto Display Day. The Shannons event was very ably organised by the VW club. Next year our club will be responsible for organising the overall event.

The Concours was held on the Patrick White Lawns between the National Library and Lake Burley Griffin, a fantastic location with lots of passing traffic from people strolling along the lake foreshores and visitors to Floriade on the other side of the lake. Even the weather was kind to us. It had been threatening to rain and that could have caused a last minute change of venue as the owner of the site, the National Capital Authority, is extremely precious about its grass.

The 2015 event enjoyed record participation. Seventy-eight (78) Mercedes-Benz vehicles took part, 55 of which had pre-registered. There were 24 entrants in Club division, eight in Road division and 44 cars were in the non-competitive Display division. To break this down further, in Club division there were nine cars in Class A (the class for cars built prior to 1980), six in Class B (those cars built in the 1970s and 1980s), four in Class C (cars built in the 1990s), two in Class D (cars built between 1999 and 2009), two in Class E (cars built from 2010 to present models), and one in Class F (the category for modified cars). Two cars were entered in the Champion of Champions division.

Mercedes-Benz Canberra put a very special SL500 AMG on display. It was painted in a matt charcoal colour and looked superb. For anyone contemplating buying this car, I can only advise them to bring lots of dollars. There were two special rally cars on display, the 280E (W123) that John Green of MB Spares is building for the 2016 Peking to Paris Rally and the 1976 280SE (W116), named Lemon Lazarus, that took part in the 2015 ShitBox Rally (see the article about this vehicle in the August/September issue of StarACT).

The Club Committee took the decision to somewhat modify preceding years’ class structures in order to enhance competition in the competitive Club and Road divisions. Following the experience gained at this year’s event, the Committee may make some further changes to the 2016 Concours d’Élégance with a view to further enhancing competition and improving the event for our club members and visitors.

There are too many to individually name in this brief report, but I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who assisted in making this an excellent event, both during the planning stage and as volunteers on the day.

Alexander von Brandenstein

Concours Director