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Created on Sunday, 23 October 2005 18:34

Annual Concours D'Elegance

MG Car Club of NSW - SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Malcolm Robertson reports on a Grand Day Out…

In October every year, the MG Car Club of NSW, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, holds a Concours D'Elegance at picturesque Gladesville Reserve over-looking Sydney Harbour. Being a large club, the turnout of MGs is always splendid and the 200 or so cars cover just about every make and model of MG. If ever you are in Sydney in October, it's definitely worth the effort to visit Gladesville. It's unfortunate that the Club is languishing behind other clubs in Australia and globally with an up-to-date calendar on its website, so finding out exactly which Sunday in October the Club has chosen can be problematic, but I believe moves are afoot to redress this.

The trip to Sydney is about 300kms from Canberra, the national capital and my home town, so I don't go every year, but I have for the last two years. In 2004, I attended in my 1937 SA Coupe and despite a marvellous showing of MGs, there was only one Magnette, Peter Baldry's well-used, red ZB.

This year, I was determined to make the trip in Alison, for her maiden voyage. Despite the restoration being not quite complete, she had been declared fit for the road by the Australian authorities and was itching to try out her new five-speed gearbox on a long highway trip. I still hadn't fitted the dashboard, some of the carpeting was also unfinished, and the boot (trunk) was a shambles, so although outwardly she looked beautiful, she wasn't really going to be a contender in the Concours. But I didn't mind, as the plan was to meet up with some of the other Magnetteers from the Bulletin Board and the local Sydney owners.

The long and the short of it was that Alison made the trip uneventfully (thankfully!), cruising the Hume Highway at a steady 110 kph with her engine running at some comfortable revs yet to be worked out. We arrived in Sydney on Saturday evening, with enough time and daylight to spare to give her a wash and a polish. The next morning she turned a lot of heads as she made her entrance to the Concours grounds and wound her way through row after row of MGBs and MGAs to the far corner of the reserve. There she was delighted to find four other Magnettes already lined up, already a better roll-up than in 2004. A sixth car arrived soon after we did, and thus began a marvellous day of discussion, chatter and note-taking under the shade of some tall eucalypt trees over-looking a sea of MGs.

The cars present were Ken Campbell's Island Green ZB, freshly restored and ultimately declared the best Magnette present by the Concours judges. Next to Ken's car was Peter Baldry's ZB and then the freshly painted Carnation Red ZA of Brian Woolmer. Brian's interior had also just been completed and was a picture. Next in the line was Ray Jacka's Steel Blue ZA, a previous winner of this class at the Concours, then Alison, the only Varitone present on the day. The final car was Marty Cutler's well-campaigned Birch Grey ZA, gleaming following a recent repaint after being involved in an accident (the price you pay for every day use, as Gunter will sadly agree!).

David Overington from Wollongong, and Tony Oliver from Gloucester also made the journey to join the group, to tell us how their restorations were progressing and to promise to be there in their cars next year! And several other Magnette owners made themselves known to us during the course of the day, so we are likely to see more cars in the future.