Jaf’s Last Cruise 2013

The Jaf’s Cruise, traditionally held on the Saturday night between Christmas and New Year, is easily one of the biggest cruise nights in Adelaide. With over 1000 cars, this annual event has become both famous and infamous for a variety of equally excellent reasons.

This year the cruise clashed with Any Given Reason’s own Burger Meet 3, however at the conclusion of Burger Meet a few of us went down to the Marion shopping center to check out the finish point. We arrived at around 1030pm and there were still cars streaming into an already overflowing car park – it was quite a sight. Picture the Marion car park at the height of the pre-Christmas rush but with a lot more people milling about, and that’s an idea of how packed it was.

Most of the cars at Jaf’s aren’t typically what we’re into here at Any Given Reason, and to be honest the thought of sitting stationary in a big police patrolled 70km traffic jam around the suburbs from one shopping centre to another isn’t exactly my idea of a good night out with my car. I suspect a lot of AGR readers share that view.

That said, there’s still some really cool stuff that surfaces at Jaf’s and it’s still definitely worth checking out. I think going to Jaf’s is a bit like shopping at an op-shop. Most of the stuff isn’t worth your time, but every so often you uncover a gem.

So this is a small collection of a few of the more interesting cars we discovered at Jaf’s. Enjoy!

Any Given Reason Burger Meet 3

The concept of Burger Meet is simple – a car park meet to get as many readers of Any Given Reason and their cars in the same place as possible. The emphasis is on diversity and informality, and the vague idea of standing around a car park eating burgers is about as far as the planning goes.

On the evening of Saturday 28th December, the readers of Any Given Reason descended on the Hagen Arms Hotel at Echunga in the Adelaide Hills to watch the sun set with burgers, beers, and of course, cars. And what a spectacular array of cars it was – but more on that later.

The thing that makes organising Burger Meet such an exciting, rewarding and completely terrifying experience is that I have absolutely no idea who actually reads and follows this blog. I get traffic statistics but they’re just abstract numbers and graphs, so when I put the word out that Burger Meet 3 was happening I had exactly zero idea who and how many people would actually come. I guessed about 80 cars and thought it would be pretty cool if we could fill the car park, but when streams of cars started pouring in and it wasn’t even the 6pm start-time yet, I started to get a little nervous/overjoyed.

Eurofest 2013

It only feels like a year ago that we heard of and attended a new show called ‘Eurofest’, but in fact it was three. Organized primarily by the BMW Drivers Club of SA and held on the grounds of the National Motor Museum at Birdwood, Eurofest was run by a fresh, younger group of enthusiasts and promised to offer something a little different from the other shows out there.

Personally, I thought it was a top day out but if there was one criticism to be leveled, it’s that it was predominantly a BMW/Mercedes-Benz show. For some reason a lot of other European marque clubs didn’t get behind it, which I thought was a shame given the potential of the concept and the energetic crew making it happen.

But after attending the third Eurofest, I’m proud to say that this event is quickly coming of age and the turnout this year was simply brilliant. It was still a predominantly German based field, which is to be expected, but what impressed me the most was not the country of origin of the cars but the sheer number of styles and cultures that harmoniously clashed on the lawns of the mill.

The VW Syndicate 10th VW-Audi meet, Kaufpark, Goettingen

The Volkswagen-Audi scene in Europe, and more specifically Germany, is quite unlike any other scene anywhere in the world. What’s impressive is the sheer size of it; the high quality of the cars and the boundaries that are pushed in trying to create something new. If you take a look at a lot of the trends influencing modified cars around the world, a fair percentage of them originated from the German Volkswagen scene.

Any Given Reason happened to purely stumble upon this show in Goettingen, central Germany. Whilst it was tiny compared to the likes of famous shows such as Edition 38, its approximately 300 cars still provided a good indication as to the trends currently influencing the scene. Given that the Volkswagen/Audi scene is all about trends, this is a perfect chance to take a look at a few of them.

The first trend that’s been around since the dawn of time and doesn’t look to be going anywhere soon is the classic Volkswagen Golf/BBS mesh combination. And why would want to change it? It’s a look that’s been honed to perfection. BBS could be found on everything from Mk1’s right up to the latest Mk6 and 7.

Coolum Beach – 1965 Mercedes-Benz 200 W110 ‘Fintail’

On holiday in Queensland recently, I found this Fintail outside the local supermarket. Riding low on a set of polished moon discs, it was looking super fresh.

In the mid sixties the Fintail sat in the middle of Mercedes’ lineup and featured a 1988cc four. Interestingly, the W110 was the first car to be extensively crash tested. Built from 1965-1968, just over 70,000 W110 200’s were constructed at Mercedes-Benz’s Sindelfingen plant.

This particular example has been lowered and ‘stanced’ by its young owners. I personally love the look, but what do our more traditional readers think? Should these old classics be left alone as they are, or is it a good thing that a whole new generation of enthusiasts are keeping them on the road and enjoying them?

Eurofest 2012

The second running of the Eurofest show at the Birdwood Mill took place last Sunday 2nd December. A fresh idea from the BMW Driver’s Club of SA, Eurofest aims to bring together as many European cars as possible in one place.

Whilst the aim of the show is to encompass all European cars, at this stage early in its life Eurofest still has a very heavy German influence. There were examples from Fiat, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Renault, Vauxhall and Ford, but BMW and Mercedes Benz definitely made up the bulk of the show.

The other cool thing about Eurofest is that it’s predominantly a ‘young’ show, put on and organised by younger people. I don’t mean to comment on age, but just to say that a persons age has a lot to do with the way they modify their cars, and there was a lot of stuff at happening at Eurofest that you wouldn’t otherwise see – proper stance, airbags, big power upgrades  and insane levels of detailing.

You’d never see something like a ‘bagged E28 at an event like Climb to the Eagle. Not better or worse, just different. Variety is the spice of life, right? We’re lucky that we can see this diversity at the different events we have.

Having said that, the car of show was awarded to this pristine 1953 Mercedes Benz 300S.