Vintage touch: David Couper and Trish Markie dress for touring in a 1926 Lancia Lambda. They parked in Dennington during a stopover as part of a Melbourne Vintage Drivers Club rally.
IT was a classic car lover’s delight when the Melbourne Vintage Drivers Club stopped for lunch at Dennington yesterday.
A-model Fords, Austins, a Marmon, Le Salle and Singer Junior were among the 39 cars from the 1920s lined up next to the Dennington hall when the Warrnambool Historic Vehicle Club hosted the Melbourne club members during their stopover en route to Adelaide.
Warrnambool club member Graham Conn said the line- up of vehicles included rarities that had local members drooling.
The Melbourne club spent the day in Warrnambool and surrounds yesterday as part of its 15-day return trip to Adelaide to take part in the Bay to Birdwood historic vehicle rally.
Rally director Daryl McMahon said rally participants would drive about 1700 kilometres in the two weeks.
He said the rally was for people who did not want to keep their vintage cars in cotton wool but chose to drive them and be “seen and appreciated”.
The club based its biennial rally on reliability trials held by the RACV in the 1920s, holding competition events along the way that tested the fuel economy and other aspects of the vintage vehicles.
Mr McMahon drives a 1928 Chevrolet which he said gave him “20 miles to the gallon”.
He said the rally cars travelled at about 70-80 kilometres an hour, giving drivers and passengers more time to appreciate the countryside.
“We do not want to stress these old girls,” he said of the cars.
The rally travelled mainly on secondary roads to avoid holding up modern vehicles on major thoroughfares.
But rally participants found most drivers of modern vehicles gave them a wave of appreciation rather than a show of annoyance, he said.
ehimmelreich@standard.fairfax.com.au
