Keith Martin

By the time you read this, I should have test-driven my 1975 Porsche 911 S for the first time. It’s been seven months since I bought it. Bringing old cars back to life takes time. The cars determine the rhythm of restoration, not you. I first learned about this car, a 2.7-L Sportomatic (s/n 9115201489,…

Like bears waking from their hibernation, our sports cars are poking their snouts out of their caves. In the Pacific Northwest, we have actually seen the golden orb several times in the past few weeks. We expect to see much more. The only reason to own our cranky, expensive and unpredictable cars is to use…

It was a regular day in SCM Old Car Land. It started with a call to Chip Starr, who is bringing our 1972 Mercedes 250C back to life. He has installed the Weber DGVs and the Pertronix ignition. He swapped out the rear end for one from a 300D, along with a speedometer with the…

Bradley and I had two road trips in a week. First, we drove to Astoria, on the Oregon Coast. We took the 1991 Alfa Spider and he drove about 100 miles. This being springtime in Oregon, we drove through a hailstorm. The combination of the scenic, winding Highway 26 and the nimble S4 Spider is…

Last week I asked for your help in paring down my collection from 11 to 3 cars. While I am not planning on selling anything in the near future, 11 cars means 11 batteries to keep charged, 11 cars to run to the ethanol-free gas station, and 11 cars to keep tires with safe date-codes…

It’s getting to be time to prune the collection. At the moment, we have 11 cars in the SCM fleet, including my daily driver Hyundai Elantra. Eight are on the button, and three are in the midst of mild mechanical refurbishments. For sheer ease of management — and perhaps to pretend I can be practical…

Starting when I was three years old, my grandfather would perch me on the nose of his Ford 9N tractor. It was a ritual we repeated every Saturday morning at our family’s small farm in Novato, California (about 28 miles north of our home in San Francisco). My engagement with all things motorized stretches back…

A few months ago, my son Bradley turned 15. He passed the written test and then I signed him up for lessons for street driving from a professional. In the teacher’s Honda CR-V, he had several sessions navigating local streets, and a couple of stints on freeways. Now it was my turn to go out…