SCM advertiser Fantasy Junction is selling a Sprint Speciale I recently owned and restored on Bring a Trailer. You will find many pictures and comments with the listing. Here are a few of my own thoughts (which I posted): I was the previous owner of this car and oversaw the […]
I am no stranger to Land Rovers. Over the past two decades I have owned a Discovery Series I, Range Rover Classic, Series III 88 and an RHD D90 turbodiesel. I was looking for something civilized for the mild trail runs the Pacific Coast Rover Club puts on every couple […]
I’ve been having a back-and-forth discussion with SCM Contributor Jim Schrager (my long-time mentor) about upgrading engines in vintage cars. This started when I mentioned to him that I was confused about 911 restorations. I see so many ads for early 911s that blather on and on about $250k restorations […]
Every first of January marks a new beginning. Go out to your garage, and take a look at your sleeping beauties. Think about how much effort has gone into finding, selecting, buying and refurbishing each one. Note that I didn’t say restoring, as now that we are grownups, we’ve all […]
Be very picky about what you buy. Get exactly what you want, then build it to your specs. Life is too short to buy the wrong car and have to fight your way out of it. During the past year I’ve developed a much greater sense of clarity about the […]
I was reminiscing with a friend last night about how our homes and childhoods would light up when the Sears, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel catalog would arrive around this time of year. We would always take turns picking out our favorites. I liked farm sets with plastic horses and cows. […]
Let’s make one thing clear right from the start: A car is only “as-born” once. It can never be returned to that state. Any attempts to do so result in a fictional re-creation, done to please the owner and whatever standards he is aspiring toward. And that’s okay. We can’t […]
It was just a month ago when a coordination-challenged driver backed his BMW X1 SUV into the side of my 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4. I was in a parking lot in Edmonds, WA, waiting to begin a tour with the local Alfa club. My partner Schön chased the driver […]
In the pre-internet age, looking for sports cars was simple. There was Hemmings, AutoTrader (both regional and national) and the local classifieds. Time was not of the essence. When we started the Alfa Romeo Market Letter in 1988, we would ask Alfa fanatics across the country to mail us the […]
Whenever you take your car out of the garage, you are putting it at risk. That was brought home to me recently. I had decided to join the Northwest Alfa Romeo Club (NWARC) on a day tour of Bainbridge Island, Washington. This would also give me a chance to spend […]