Event date: 15 May 2022

Its always nice to try something new every now and then. This year we dipped our toes into the waters of the Autoclassico show put on by the Maling Road Traders group in Canterbury.

This show attracts a lot of entrants and a very wide range of very fine cars, making a welcome change from the usual show circuit that we traverse most years.  As a result there were many cars, and types of cars, that we don’t usually see and many people we don’t usually get to meet.

The weather was perfect and the atmosphere was superb making for a very enjoyable day. With cafes aplenty and many other shops, there was plenty to do.

As the show is put on in the streets and car parks of the shopping area space is at a premium. Which is a pity as at times it was very hard to move about in the central area and some car owner’s anxiety levels were off the scale. By the afternoon things were a bit quieter and more relaxed. As cars were not allowed out before 3pm there was not the usual depletion of the ranks after 12!

Given the restrictions on space, and given we were first timers, we were very fortunate that our Mark McDermott, whose idea it was to take part, was able to sweet talk his way into 5 spots for us. This did mean we had to whittle the 18 registrations down to 5, but as it turned out we had 5 beautiful M cars on the list, and as “50 Years of M” is our display theme for the year that settled the issue.

Just in case 1 of the 5 was unable to take part for whatever reason, which would have left a very conspicuous gap, I took my E21 323i JPS along as stand by. But it was not needed and spent the day outside Eastern Tyre Centre, whose forecourt Joe Brogno had kindly let us use as a meting point.

My 1964 BMW 700 was meant to be part of the “small car” display in the central area but sadly it failed to start on the Saturday – there is fuel in the tank but its not getting into the cylinders but I have not had chance to find out why not.

Lawrence Glynn | Member #3
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne