Wheels of Wamboin 2024

01 May 2024 / Words: Rod Nicholas. Photos: Rod Nicholas, Rhys Howse, Ed Cory

Wheels of Wamboin 2024 celebrate the 10th Anniversary of this great little car show.

Various parties had been trying to get our vars on display for a few years, and this time we bit the bullet (and swallowed the dust) and organised a short run.

The Wheels of Wamboin is a community run car show, and this event—considered by many as the best yet—attracted about 400 vehicles of all shapes and sizes—from Rotaries to rovers, Fiats to Ferraris, Mustangs and Mercs, to MGs to MX-5s. It was a great day out and another perfect opportunity to show off our cars.

We managed a quick coffee (and cake for some) at the Little Sutton Bakehouse in Sutton before heading off in a convoy off to the Wamboin Oval. Our collection of ten cars (to be joined by one more at the show) featured one of every model, including one of each of the ND variants. Rhys ushered us all out of the Bakehouse carpark in strict order of manufacture, and it was a joyous little line-up that drove the short distance to Wamboin.

Despite arriving reasonably early, we found ourselves in a long line of cars vying for the best spots in the showground, happily just ahead of a contingent of BMWs. Chucking a gold coin donation into the collection tin, we were directed to the next to last exhibition row at the back of the oval. Our marginal concerns that people would be too overwhelmed to walk that far (it was maybe 100 metres!) we were pleased(ish) that a noisy bunch of muscle cars took the last row opposite. We all received plenty of foot traffic.

The was a wide range of cars on display—some stunning muscle, gorgeous early models of all sorts, but it just wasn’t show cars. There were vehicles in early stages of restoration, some fully restored to look neglected, and some dead-set weird ones. The Trabant, imported from Hungary by a woman (who didn’t bother to tell her husband) is one of only half a dozen in Oz. The body is made out of compressed cotton and sundry toxic chemicals, and it has a 500cc 2 stroke engine. Michael and Peter were very impressed and encouraged us all to vote it ‘best on show’.

The Trabant

The day was warm, the sun was shining, the snag sambos were good, the coffee was good enough, the cars were pretty neat (plenty of variety) and we had lots of visitors who asked plenty about our little treasures. The latest ND, finished in a startlingly gorgeous Aero Grey Metallic (no, sir, it is not the under- coat), was a drawcard although it had some stiff competition from Bob’s true Red NA, and Kerry’s Pure White NB, Ian’s lovely Velocity Red NC and Rhys’s Deep Chrystal blue Mica ND.

Special mention must be made of Ian de Plater who attended his first event only two days after joining the Club! Go Ian! Thanks also to Ed Cory, one of our true MX-5 stalwarts, for encouraging us to participate.

I think everyone agreed that it was a worthwhile day out, which we will repeat next year, perhaps getting out of bed at sparrows to get a spot a little closer to the front.

By the way, Ed has heaps of photos. Check them out at Wheels of Wamboin - Ed Cory (smugmug.com).