Debonair’s Debut
After a couple of months tinkering on, in and around the Debonair it was time to give it an outing so we decided the Merimbula Gala Car Show would be it. Unfortunately the week before ‘She’ (who must be obeyed) took ill. Mitzie (the dog) took a turn too and then the Velox, that hasn’t missed a beat the past two years, decided it wanted to play up. On top of that the south coast suffered heavy rain and flooding and I thought it just wasn’t going to come together and had all but given up the idea. However, ‘She’ came good
Poor Mitzie however had reached her use by date and had to be put down
A day of tinkering on the Velox sorted its problems
At 11am on the Friday we finished packing and headed off along Appin Road to the coast. There were plenty of hills between home and Wollongong for any problems with the Velox to manifest, so by lunch at Mt Pleasant Lookout south of Kiama there hadn’t been any problems and I was feeling much easier
It was slow going on the hills, I’d forgotten since last year how many there were and how long some were. First gear was used on a couple but thankfully Vauxhall were refined enough to have synchro on first in 1961! On the level going I could manage 50-55mph in overdrive top and was quite happy with that
The Debonair towed really well, no swaying or jolting but I found it tiring and Lake Cobargo was our overnight stop, not that I had intended to make Merimbula. Lots of permanent on-site vans in the park and this must be where all the old 25 and 30 footers end their days
Massive things I really don’t remember much on the roads and for the love of me can’t think what people towed them with, certainly not Vauxhalls
Saturday morning as we packed up it seemed everyone wanted to talk about the car and van so it took an hour or more. The leisurely pace continued and we arrived at Merimbula Big 4 about 3pm. There were already quite a few cars displayed
AND a small caravan so we went to our site, sorted out, had a cuppa and walked up for a look. Some nice cars from the local club and an FJ with a Lowline canopy (from Eurobodalla Club) which had towed a camper van down.
The caravan was a very eye catching early 70s York which had been restored with a new interior of red, white and black, the outside red and white. It had been prepared by the local Scott’s Paint and Panel Shop to show off their work and it was very nice and still fully useable. It was packed up and taken away later in the afternoon while we were away doing some shopping and oddly didn’t appear on Sunday for the show
With supplies we had our first ‘cook up’ in the van and then headed off for the Normie Rowe concert which quite admirably filled the evening. There was another caravan on site which was not not very stylish and didn’t bear any builder’s details but it was a huge attraction throughout the evening and the display day
I think its ability to draw a crowd had something to do with the various alcoholic fluids it was able to dispense
In the morning I packed up the van and re-hitched to take it half a km to the show area. ‘She’ had to go to the shop for the paper and while waiting I suddenly remembered the power cord, I hadn’t unplugged it
A check in the mirror (now using my genuine early 70s accessory Vauxhall towing mirrors) and no cord dangling so I got my exercise in the brisk walk back to rescue it. Mental note-“Make a check list”.
There was an interesting turn out of cars from local clubs as well as Cooma and Canberra, some a repeat of the year before of course but still enough new ones to make it interesting. The Velox and the Debonair scored a nice spot under a big tree in the shade nearly all day and it attracted a lot of interest
A Debonair owner from Bega was keen to have a look as his was pretty messed up inside. Later one of the NRMA judges had a look told me he had sold and rented Debonair new when he had a van business in Wagga Wagga and was still full of praise for them. Old mate with the FJ/Lowline was quite a character and told me of a Debonair he had seen at Moruya but I couldn’t follow (maybe remember) his directions on the way home and didn’t see it
All in all it was a good day.
We decided to stay another day and on Monday headed off to Pambula to have a look at the local Sapphire Coast Car Club’s rooms and shed, fantastic facilities for members and lots of interesting vintage and veteran cars in their shed, unfortunately many are not used very much
No vans though. They have a great web site too,
http://www.thebegavalley.org.au/3345.html
Tuesday we headed home, not relishing doing all the hills in reverse but we managed, made quite a few stops at various towns then decided to camp over at Lake Tabourie. One gent there had to take a photo for his mate who had owned a Debonair since new and had only sold it a little while back. Said he had been sorry ever since and wasn’t happy with his new camper van. Goes to show new isn’t necessarily best I guess
No dramas getting the last leg completed, even managed to sit on 60mph on the new section of highway between Kiama and Albion Park. The last struggle was Mt Ousley and with no run up (speed camera in the 80 zone) it was soon back to a 2nd gear grind but even so we were quicker that quite a few trucks
The Velox didn’t miss a beat, didn’t even have to top up oil or water, so I was quite pleased
It clocked up 57,000 miles 10 minutes after we left home so it really has been in retirement since 1961 but its now back to work as per the Government’s plans for that generation. I did find it tiring driving, but slow and steady is the requirement. For the statistically minded we did a total of 588 miles (947km) with fuel consumption of just under 15mpg or about 19.25l/100km. Considering the car is almost hauling its own weight I suppose it’s not too bad. I’m consoled that its better figures than the son in laws BMW M5, and he doesn’t even tow a van
The end result was we enjoyed our first caravanning experience and ‘she’ is looking forward to the next so that’s a bonus
It was very comfortable and there is still plenty of unused storage space. I now have a small list of things to do and I’m now happy to set about repainting the van to match the car. Hopefully that will be done by Coaldale this year, so my third visit there will be with a van at last
George