Sixty-six thousand. That’s how many miles cars wearing an SCM 1000 roundel traveled last summer. And we’re just counting the entrants. The tally doesn’t include the dozens of support staff and amazing volunteers involved who kept the events running like a Halda Speedpilot. The SCM 1000 AMG Invitational was held […]
Author: Keith Martin
Keith’s Blog: Why Own it if it Doesn’t Change Your Life?
The Check Engine light came on again on the SCM 2000 Land Rover Discovery II. (You might ask if they ever actually stay out.) When I asked our Rover guru, Doug Shipman of Ship’s Mechanical about it, he suggested I get a code reader. “Once I see what code it’s […]
Keith’s Blog: The SCM Citroën DS21 is Moving On
We’re shuffling the SCM collection (menagerie?) again. Our 1971 Citroën DS21 Pallas has been an extraordinary car. Since we bought it last August, we have put 1,500 miles on it. Most recently it completed the SCM 1000 without any issues. It was driven by Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance Founder Bill […]
Keith’s Blog: Three Takeaways From the SCM 1000
We’ve just completed our fourth SCM 1000, a thousand-mile tour for pre-1975 cars. There will be more about it in upcoming issues of SCM. But with my bags barely unpacked and the SCM cars still being put away, here are the highlights. First, riding with SCM contributor Ken Gross and […]
Keith’s Blog: Another Day in Traffic Hell
I played hooky from work last week and took our 1971 Jaguar E-type V12 coupe for a 150-mile drive. Our lunch destination was Skamania Lodge, the home base of the 2022 SCM 1000. It’s about 50 miles away. There are a couple of ways to get there. My co-driver, Lou […]
Keith’s Blog: My Hook is Always Baited
When we asked Somer Hooker to be the SCM Concours Ambassador, I envisioned his role as finding cars at events that deserved SCM recognition. I didn’t realize he would also start sending me links to cars for sale that he thinks might interest me. For instance, this vintage 1965 BMW […]
Keith’s Blog: A Classic Tour for Modern Cars?
I recently completed the 2022 SCM 1000 AMG Invitational. There were 25 performance Mercedes of various vintages entered. The star car was the 2009 SLR McLaren Stirling Moss entered by Wynn McCaw. The event was set up exactly the same as SCM 1000 Classic events we have put on in […]
Keith’s Blog: Bad Driving and the End of Tours – You Respond
Last week my blog stressed the need for all of us on tours to drive responsibly. Thoughtless drivers can not only leave a lasting poor impression of sports cars with the communities they pass through, but they can also end up creating accidents with potentially fatal consequences. Here are a […]
Keith’s Blog: The End of Car Tours?
The next five years will be a telling time for car tours. If entrants and organizers don’t play their hands correctly, tours as we know them may disappear. There is a growing dichotomy between the performance ability of new cars and the consequences of a mishap. We were reminded of […]
The Original Jaguar
This is all Miles Collier’s fault. I attended one of his early symposiums on collecting. I was the guest of noted collector and Lamborghini expert Simon Kidston. During the seminar, I was first introduced to the notion that we were not owners, but just the current caretakers of our cars. […]