Keith's Blog: This is NOT About Arizona

This week’s newsletter is chock-full of information about the upcoming Arizona auctions, and I’m sure I’ll see many of you there. But buying interesting cars (and trucks) is only the beginning of the experience. The next step is to actually use them in the manner in which they were intended, to begin to understand what makes them special in the first place.

Last weekend Alex and I spent Saturday in the mud of Tillamook State Forest, in Oregon, leading a group of four Land Rovers across hill and dale. I haven’t given our 1984 RHD Defender 90 Tdi nearly the seat time I would like to, and relished the opportunity to flog it for the day. With its competition suspension and brutish torque, it was nearly unstoppable.

In fact, I managed to get through the day without once unlimbering the Superwinch – to my dismay, I admit.

Sunday, Alex helped me put away the Christmas decorations and asked if, as a reward, we could take out the Lotus Elise and bomb around on some of Oregon’s excellent two-laners along the Barlow Trail. “Of course,” I said – and if the track-sized battery in the Lotus hadn’t died (maybe I should have plugged in the battery charger after all), we would have. Instead, the 2000 Boxster S was pressed into duty.

I’ve been thinking of selling the Boxster and perhaps getting another SC, simply because I miss the vintage, visceral experience the SC offers. But Alex picked a twisty route, the sunny 40-degree weather was a delight with the top down, windows up and seat heaters on. It was comfy, warm and made all the right sounds above 4,000 rpm.

So let me ask you for your advice. Keep the Boxster S (worth $14,000, I figure), or sell it and buy an SC (probably $16,000 for a coupe you would want to own)? I’ll look for your comments below.