Bay to Birdwood: big but easy-going

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Take a classic car rally, mix it with a concours, add a bit of a car boot sale and multiply it by several times the size you're used to and you may arrive at an event such as the ‘Bay to Birdwood’. It’s the Australian idea of a fun historic motoring weekend and has grown to become one of world’s largest events of its kind today, even with Corona restrictions.

Normally there are some 1,750 vehicles participating – this year’s 41st edition will take place on September 26 when ‘Entry limit is subject to Covid restrictions and will be 1,200’. Still quite a few! All these vehicles will gather at the start in West Beach for a 70km drive through the Mount Lofty Ranges to the town of Birdwood - home of the National Motor Museum.

The organisers seem to have a real weakness for pre-war stuff, attracting loads of historic cars and bikes from before 1940. Last year the Concours d’Elegance trophy went to a 1904 De Dion-Bouton V, while the Preservation Award for vehicles that have not been restored or modified went to a superb 1912 Ford Model T.

To warm up participants for this year’s Bay to Birdwood, the National Motor Museum drove its own 1900 De Dion Bouton Type E vis-à-vis, together with some of Australia's oldest running vehicles, at the pre-1905 Pioneers Run in Ballarat earlier this month.

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures Bay to Birdwood – all pictures from 2020 event.

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