The Classic & Specialist Car Club of Northern NSW will celebrate this special day with a leisurely drive, not only for our own enjoyment but for the public as well.

Members will assemble in Armidale’s tourist information car park on Sunday morning and depart at 9am for a drive to Wollombi Falls for morning tea, then onto Ebor Falls before moving onto The Ebor Pub for lunch. Some members will return to Dumaresq Dam for afternoon tea from 2.30pm onwards. 

This is the one day of the year that The Council of Heritage Motor Clubs requests members of historic motor clubs to have as many historic vehicles as they possibly can out and about on streets, roads, and highways highly visible to the general public to view and enjoy. 

Have you ever pondered over the origin of the first automobile, which changed transportation forever and evolved into the modern day motor car we enjoy today?

By definition an automobile or car is a vehicle or car that carries its own motor and transports passengers. Its history reflects an evolution that took place worldwide.

It may be difficult to believe, but more than 100,000 patents have created the modern automobile with the first theoretical plans drawn up by both Leonardo de Vinci and Issac Newton.

French engineer and mechanic Nicholas Cugnot invented the first self-propelled road vehicle in 1769 which was a three wheeled steam powered tractor. This vehicle was used by the French Army to haul heavy artillery at a top speed of 2.5 miles per hour and required to stop every 10 to 15 minutes to build up steam power.

In 1771 Nicholas Cugnot crashed his vehicle into a stone wall, writing his name forever in history books  as the first person to have a motor vehicle accident.

Battery powered electric cars were invented between 1832 and 1839, and both were abandoned due to their necessity to stop regularly to build up steam power or to recharge batteries in favour of the new gas powered vehicles.

Gottlies Daimler and Karl Benz ushered in the age of the modern automobile in 1885 with their invention of the highly successful and practical gasoline powered vehicle that looked and worked like the cars we know today.

Henry Ford also stamped his mark on the 'modern' automobile by improving the assembly line for automobile manufacturing and also invented a car transmission along with others.

All vehicles will be at least 30 years of age, a requirement for historic registration and club membership, which means that vehicles dating possibly from 1910 to 1988 may be on show. The public are invited to come along, take a leisurely stroll through motoring history and ask questions concerning club membership and restoration, which we are only too pleased to answer.

Bronwyn Partridge is publicity officer for The Classic and Specialist Car Club of Northern NSW.