DALE NOVAK started his gear head life by assembling and racing Pinewood derby cars for league racing during his early years as a Cub Scout. This graduated into buying and trading Hot Wheels® with friends and neighbors and doing his best to get the tiny car to complete the allusive triple loop.

His first car was a dead 1970 Dodge Challenger 440 R/T that he bought from a local drag racer. Dale returned the car to roadworthiness with the help of a 1960s U.S. Army Mechanical Systems manual that covered just about every machine being used by the Military at the time. Dale still has the manual, albeit fully stained by grease and oil.

The Challenger was already somewhat infamous with local law enforcement, and as luck would have it, Dale had an uncanny resemblance to the previous owner. He got stopped often by local law enforcement for “courtesy checks” or was it the open headers and mini-tubbed real axle with super fat 50s on the rear. We may never know.

Current vehicles in Dale’s stable include a heavily documented Meadow Brook winning 1956 Corvette judged personally by Zora Duntov, a Z-28 factory Pilot car, a 1964-1/2 Mustang Convertible with under 39,000 miles and a documented 1970 “two-tag, Mr. Norm’s” 440 R/T Challenger that was ordered by the dealership as an executive demo.

Dale’s expertise lies mainly in American Muscle cars, Corvettes and a thorough “inside-out” understanding of the occasionally fussy Triumph TR-6. Dale routinely traverses a sea of cars at auction, selecting the perfect mix of pristine investment grade cars down to soiled beaters. Dale tells us “I like learning about cars I have never even seen before, it’s amazing to see them up close and examine them in detail without the owner thinking you’re there to steal some parts. You can never know everything about every car, but I certainly can assess the condition. I’ve grown to love them all, even cars built way before my time. The engineering on some cars is staggering and utterly beautiful and will never be replicated again.”

Dale splits his time between Florida and Wisconsin and is married to Julie who learned quickly that he was a car nut when he picked her up for their first date in a 1967 Mustang GTA 390 Fastback with no air conditioning … it was a sweltering 95 degrees out.

He is a 25-plus-year veteran of the publishing, marketing, and advertising design business. Novak has been picking apart vintage cars as an auction analyst for SCM quite some time.

A native of New York City, Donald has contributed to SCM since 1993. His particular interest is in Italian cars (he has owned many Alfas, Lancias & Fiats), but any strange or bizarre vehicle with almost no actual resale value has a way of finding its way into his garage.

A graduate of the Hartt College of Music, where he earned a BA in Opera, Donald pursued a career as a baritone, which culminated with his solo debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He remained for two seasons, then decided that the bright lights of the stage were not for him after all.

He has been active in the field of marketing communications and advertising for many years, and currently acts as a consultant to companies large and small. In addition, he has started Automotive Valuation Services as a certified auto appraiser.

All this experience has served him well in his duties over the years with SCM—and in addition, he sings a mean “Happy Birthday.”

Jim Schrager writes for SCM as well as the Porsche 356 Registry, and is author of one of the best selling 356 books, Buying, Driving and Enjoying the Porsche 356. In his spare time, he teaches business strategy at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, where he was twice awarded the teaching excellence prize. His education includes MBA, CPA, JD and PhD degrees, is married with two sons and works hard to keep his fleet of about 15 vintage Porsches on the road. In spite of often-miserable midwestern weather, he tries to drive a Porsche every day. He is nearing completion of a book covering the 911 and 912 from 1965- 1973. He has written for SCM eight years.

With a Bachelor's Degree of Science in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology under one arm and a Thoroughbred & Classic under the other, Steve set out to be an advertising photographer in 1982. All was going as planned, until he decided to start an Aston Martin export business in 1987, returning to Great Britain many of the unloved RHD DB4/5/6s that were dropping copious amounts of oil in garages all over North America. The excuse behind this exercise was to be able to afford a "fun car." Seventeen years later, that idea has grown into Aston Martin of New England/Lotus Motorsports, Inc.

As with many SCM writers, Steve is fortunate enough to call his day job his hobby, driving great cars across the USA as frequently as time permits, and getting the occasional game of golf.

Son Jack (8 years old) has just decided that the Aston Martin DB9 is the coolest car on the planet; apparently, he’s been bitten by the bug as well. Luckily, Steve has a girlfriend who loves the old rigs too, and has her own vintage Porsche. Steve’s recent rides have included an Aston DB4 Vantage & V8 Vantage, a Porsche 356 Speedster, a ‘64 Buick Riviera, a 275GTS Ferrari and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spyder.

With credit to Satch Carlson, Steve’s idea of the perfect house is a 17-car garage—with a one bedroom attached.

Mike Sheehan has been SCM’s featured columnist for almost all things Ferrari since 1998. He’s written hundreds of articles, not only for Sports Car Market, but also for Cavallino, the Ferrari Market Letter and numerous other Ferrari publications.

Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Mike bought his first car at the age of 14, a 1949 Austin A40 sedan, paid for with money earned as a paperboy. There was a lot of gearhead activity in Mike’s neighborhood; one neighbor was the B and D dragster record holder for British Columbia, another built custom hot-rods. Mike grew up hanging out in their shops, watching them build and rebuild cars.

Mike hitchhiked to California in 1969, by then a longhaired Hippie. When he got there, he bought Volkswagen buses from the German Post Office and sold them to other longhaired Hippies.

Mike bought his first Ferrari, a 250 PF coupe s/n 1447 GT, for $2,000 in 1972. His next was a Vignale 212 Cabriolet s/n 0125 EL bought for $850 and then an alloy bodied Competizione Daytona prototype s/n 12547 for the staggering sum of $14,000. He actually used this ex-Le Mans, ex-Daytona and ex-Sebring racer as his daily driver. Mike also raced in the Mazda Pro Series, the Barber Saab Series, the Trans-Am Series, SCCA's GT-1 as well as IMSA GTO and IMSA Camel-Lite. He now races a Ferrari 308 s/n 20537 in SCCA GT-2 and a Competizione Daytona s/n 12681 in the Ferrari-Maserati vintage series in the US.

Mike’s Ferrari business has evolved and grown immensely since 1974. It survived the first gas crisis of the 1970s (when you couldn't give a Ferrari away), the Ferrari boom of the late 1970s, and the bust of the early 1980s (when the prime rate was at 21%). He rode the boom of the late 1980s and the following bust in the early 1990s, and now flourishes in today's unique market situation. In the mid-1980s, Mike was the first in the Ferrari business to travel to Japan and actively seek out Japanese collectors and to write for and advertise in the many Japanese car magazines, just as SCM's own Cindy Meitle was the first person to represent the Japanese magazines in America.

Mike is often called upon to be a concours judge or an expert witness both in courtroom and insurance matters. His years of driving Ferraris both on and off the track allow him to know first hand how a particular model Ferrari should perform and which models are appropriate and eligible for racing, concours, or other needs. His research and years in the field have led to the compilation of a massive database of collectable Ferraris, their histories and their current owners, bringing thirty-one years of extremely diverse hands-on Ferrari experience to his writing.

Mike is the father of 12-year-old twins, Mick and Colleen, who took their 1930 BMW Cabriolet to a third place at Pebble Beach in 2003.

Most brazen automotive exploit: Driving a used-up ’76 Checker cab from New York City to Los Angeles. Beloved former car: 1950 Cadillac Series 62 Sedan. Ones that got away: Aston-Martin DB5 and Chris-Craft Cobra.

Thor grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, a small-town Midwestern boy. He clearly remembers the day his father bought a bright red XK 150 Jaguar coup, "the sexiest thing ever to hit Waterloo." Thor took to hanging around the local three-stall garage, just to be near sports cars. Attending a vintage race at Elkhart Lake with his father, hanging on the fence and watching those "impossibly romantic cars howling past" made an indelible impression; Thor’s been addicted to adrenaline ever since.

Thor's first car was a 850cc Mini (bone stock non-Cooper). He ended up with his father's Jag (by then very used) through college before getting involved with Alfas ( a 1600 GTV) in 1967; he's driven Alfas ever since. His current daily driver is a 164 Q.

Thor received his undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Colorado College and an MBA from the University of Denver. In 1990, Thor and a group of friends formed Vintage Racing Motors. VRM is both an auto dealership (specializing in "adrenaline" and collectable cars) and a full-service vintage racing support shop (which repairs, maintains, transports, and supports vintage racecars). Thor's personal race car is the 1963 Elva Mk 7 with a Lotus twin cam; he's been racing for about 15 years.