Star Torque Issue 244 Winter 2016

Distinguished Club Presidents & guests
Vince & Simon compère the evening
Club members added elegance & glamour
Music & dancing
Luxury dining on Sydney harbour
our Club President Ben de Boer said a few words. Dennis
Meehan, of Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific, gave an
entertaining speech about the badge and the Mercedes-
AMG brand. The crowd applauded when he announced
his company would sponsor the National Rally in 2018.
Before too long, an alternate entrée was served of
either twice cooked Bangalow pork belly with apple
and celeriac salad or king prawn, avocado and tomato
stack. Main course for the evening was either fillet of
Barramundi with spinach, asparagus and pearl barley or
rare beef tenderloin with potato galette and a merlot jus.
Between meals, guests breathed in Sydney with City,
waterfront and Harbour beaches on display. A Sydneycentric
trivia competition was open to all. To finish the
night off, tiramisu with macerated cherries and almond
biscotti or banana and date pudding, butter-scotch sauce
with hazelnut ice-cream satisfied the sweet tooth.
Despite being a full day with Rocks and Opera House
tours conducted earlier by the guests, our crowd took
to the dance floor as the band knocked out some classic
tunes from the 70s and 80s!
With the King Street Wharf approaching, this signalled
the end of the evening and the 2016 NSW Rally team were
only too proud to hand a ribbon over to Brian Billing,
President of MBCVIC, and Richard Jackson, President of
the MBCACT, who will be hosting the 2018 Rally in it’s
42nd year. A glimpse into the Victorian event was given
on the night, with drives along the Great Ocean Road and
through the Mornington Peninsula in mind. Sounds like a
grand tourer’s dream.
Congratulations to Wendy and Claus Gronau who
were awarded with “Best in Show” for their 1960 300D
limousine, displayed the previous day at the Kiama
Oval. Claus tells us the secret to happiness is having a
wonderful wife that loves him, their car and doesn’t mind
polishing the chrome either.
South Australia won the “Attendance Award” for best
represented state (proportional basis), taking the mantle
away from the ACT, a trophy accepted with glee by Georg
Eigen, SA President and a brilliant effort considering the
distances they travelled.
Congratulations also go to quiz first place getters
“WANZ” (table 12) and runners up “Dining Dozen”
(table 5) who completed the difficult questions to win an
array of wine, books, DVDs, CDs, chocolates and a Debbie
Thompson hand crafted quilt for their efforts. Lucky door
prize winners took home boxed bottles of Möet & Chandon
and car cleaning gift packs, courtesy of another regular
and greatly appreciated sponsor, Meguiar’s.
Catherine Marshall recently described Sydney as “..a
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