A small group of enthusiastic members met up outside The Stump Cafe at Darnum for a 9:30 departure to visit the Tractor and Machinery Collection in Silvan followed by a BBQ lunch at Rodger & Lorna Chapman’s.
Our illustrious leader Dave Anderson, prepared driving notes so everybody knew where we were heading which proved to be a great idea as David had to refer to them himself a few times.
We had four Mustangs, including the newly released Australian Model, a Torana GTR XU1, the Campbell’s Porsche Carrera, David & Paula’s V8 MGB Roadster, an Hyundai Getz and Deborah’s SL500 Benz.
After heading off towards Nilma North and Neerim South we headed towards Powelltown and Yarra Junction for a coffee stop. These are great roads and clearly others have heard about them as we came across what looked to be the Nissan Car Club in full flight heading in the opposite direction.
Once at Yarra Junction we grabbed a coffee and a bite to eat then settled down to watch a constant stream of car clubs and motorcycle clubs heading into the hills. The Alfa Romeo Car Club must have had 60 cars on their run. Great to see – not so great when we wanted to cross the road and continue on our way towards Silvan.
Dave gave us clear instructions on which way we were heading and then promptly missed the next two turn offs – it can be hard to get good help… maybe he was just checking to see if we were paying attention.
Once at Silvan we had a guided tour of Rob’s tractor and machinery collection. It is huge, he is clearly addicted to these big toys. The collection is full of extremely rare vintage machinery which Rob has sourced locally, interstate and from overseas.
To top the tour off he showed us his racing truck which he is currently refurbishing. This beast runs a 14-litre Cummins engine and can do the standing quarter mile in 13.8 seconds!!!
We then headed to Rodger and Lorna’s place for our BBQ lunch on the front lawn looking at the glorious views of the Warburton Ranges.
All in all a great day, fantastic roads, perfect weather, fantastic company and we even learnt something about the early machinery that helped develop the farming land of our great country.
Thanks to David and Paula for organising the run and special thanks to Rodger and Lorna Chapman for arranging the tour and hosting our lunch.