Sports Car Market is the world’s leading monthly magazine on buying, selling and collecting classic and sports cars.

Keith Martin

Keith’s Blog: Rover Season

We’ve put over 10,000 miles on our 2000 Land Rover Discovery II in the past four years. Ever since watching John Wayne lasso rhinos in the movie “Hatari!” I’ve had a soft spot for the English rigs. (Yes, I know that wasn’t a Rover he was sitting on, but in

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Keith Martin

Keith’s Blog: Use It or Lose It

SCM’s mantra has long been “value in use.” For us, the best part of collector car ownership is in exercising our cars. Putting the key in the ignition. On some cars, knowing how many clicks to pull out the choke levers. On others, pumping the throttle a couple of times

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Keith Martin

Keith’s Blog: Mirror, Mirror

I recently added a passenger-side rearview mirror to our 1972 Mercedes 250C. It transformed the car. Even though the car has a tall greenhouse with good visibility, adding the second mirror increased my road awareness and feeling of safety. We have since decided to do the same to our 1971

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News

Make Mine a Modificato

There’s been a lot of discussion recently of original, restored and preserved collectible cars. Let me throw another set of trade terms into the pot: as-built versus modified. While I was once a stickler for the former, as my needs and the driving environment have changed, so have my thoughts

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Legal Files

No Resuscitation for CPR Classic

Collector car dealers who sell customers’ cars and never pay them their money is not a new subject for SCM readers. But it was a whole new experience for Hans Claassen of Montrose, CO. NBC 7 San Diego recently reported that Claassen is one of many clients who claims he

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Collecting Thoughts

Selling All the Way

The collector car hobby has witnessed sweeping changes and staggering growth over the past decade. Once a cottage industry, the collector car market has transitioned into a legitimate global business. Many smaller companies have enjoyed rapid growth and have garnered the attention and admiration of much larger publicly listed and

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Affordable Classics

Hitting the Sweet Spot

When you’ve owned a significant number of cars, there will be some that stand out in your memory, the special ones that appealed to you in a way that others did not. Like Goldilocks and her choice of porridge, they weren’t too hot or too cold, they were just right.

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American

1966 Shelby GT350 H

In the fall of 1965, Peyton Cramer, the general manager of Shelby American, came up with a crazy idea: Put these high-performance automobiles into the hands of rental-car customers. Cramer approached the Hertz Corporation with this idea, and they bought it. There would be a few modifications from those Shelby

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Etceterini

1965 Abarth-Simca 2000 GT

The first of these Abarths had short-nose, roundtail bodies and either 1,300-cc or 2,000-cc Abarth engines, but during the next three years the body changed to the much more modern and attractive ducktail design and, eventually, from the end of 1964, the more-aerodynamic long-nose cars. It is estimated that only

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Italian

1928 Lancia Lambda

This car is the only known survivor of the nine cars that Lancia prepared for the 1928 Mille Miglia. According to the consignor, it retains its original body, engine and special Mille Miglia features; it also has a continuous history from new. The special features include a cut-down driver’s door;

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German

1998 Porsche 911 Turbo

Claus Vanderborg took delivery of his unique Turbo — the last Type 993 to leave the factory in-period — on September 5, 1998, from Porsche Centre Altötting. Twenty years later, Porsche would make the “Project Gold” 993 Turbo from OEM parts, but that one-off was built for a charity auction

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Race

1933 MG Magnette K3 Supercharged

Here we offer this highly significant and important example of the MG K3 breed, the 1,100-cc supercharged cars from Abingdon-on-Thames, which did so much to enhance the prestige of the British motor industry. The K3 offered here spent many years on display in the Fremantle and York Motor Museums, Western

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Keith Martin

Keith’s Blog: The Six-Car Collection, At Last

As I looked back over my past columns on this topic, I realized that there are only four cars in the collection that could be called regular drivers. I can’t work the clutch in the 2006 Lotus Elise or the 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider Veloce, so I’m going to

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Keith Martin

Keith’s Blog: The Six-Car Collection, Part IV

Why is it so hard to get to six cars? Perhaps because each car we are considering speaks in its own distinct language and creates its own excitements and trepidations. Each model also is a key for entry to marque activities. The Jaguar E-type V12 gets us into English car

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Keith Martin

Keith’s Blog: The Six-Car Collection, Part III

I just put a note in the mailroom of my condo: “Parking space wanted.” I’m having trouble getting down to just six cars. To recap, we are keeping the 1971 Jaguar E-type V12 coupe, the 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4 and the 1965 Alfa Giulia Spider Veloce. The C3 Corvette

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