Creating your own great escape
Maybe it comes down to what you’re comfortable with: for muggins rolling an old car down the driveway and pointing it at the horizon is a spectacularly relaxing way to spend a few days.
Okay, so you might spend the time prior going over the monster in the hope of reducing its chances of spitting some crucial component just as you reach the point where the mobile phone signal dies. It’s worth the trouble.
One of our recent jaunts was from Melbourne across to South Oz for the Bay to Birdwood. Several prior attempts to reach this festival had been foiled by various circumstances, and so this was a first for me and partner Ms M senior.
The transport of delight chosen for the trip was the 1976 BMW 633, a car which owes us remarkably little money and has taken us on a fair old variety of these trips. We really must get the air-con going one day, but otherwise it’s proven to be a surprisingly tough and capable distance car. A little noisy, perhaps, but that’s not a deal-breaker.
And the event? Gobsmacking. Seriously, if you get a chance, do it. The turn-out was huge in numbers (1500-ish cars claimed) and the run to the Birdwood Mill car museum required a big dollop of patience as it crawled for much of the route.
What got our attention was the fantastic variety of toys, from across the planet and spanning a century-plus. A fair number of folk dressed up for the occasion, while the age range was huge, with lots of young faces in the crowd.
I’d be reluctant to characterise it as Nirvana, but you could see it from there. If you have time to spare, planning a cruise to the Bay to Birdwood could do you the world of good.
From Unique Cars #476, March 2023