Keith Martin
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Keith’s Blog: Why You Have to Overspend to Make Old Cars Right
It costs real money to turn a classic car into a fun driver. Our 1965 Volvo 122S was a case in point. It was a decent car, but it still needed nearly $10,000 spent on it before it was enjoyable to take down the road. With any old car you acquire, my advice is…
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Keith’s Blog: The SCM Jag Becomes Another Roadside Attraction
One moment, the 1971 Jaguar V12 coupe was hustling along at 70 mph on Highway 26, heading back to Portland after a satisfying lunch of fresh-caught rockfish at the South Bay Wild Fish House in Astoria, OR. The next, it was sitting silently, hood-up, by the side of the road. The Jag had been performing…
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Keith’s Blog: The SCM Volvo is Gone
For $21,000, someone has become the new owner of the SCM Volvo 122S. Our friends at Avant-Garde Collection listed it for us on Bring a Trailer. “Being an automatic really held it back. If it had been a stick with overdrive it would easily have brought another $10,000,” said the owner, Matt Crandall (BaT moniker:…
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Cars and Kids and Moms and Dads
When we produced our first issue of the then-Alfa Romeo Market Letter, I was 38 years old and had never had children. Now, more than three decades later, I have watched my daughter, Alexandra, and my son, Bradley, grow and prosper in this car-centric household. They both started their automotive relationships early. At nine months,…
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Keith’s Blog: Which Car to Monterey?
We are gearing up for our annual Caravan to Concorso. Run “cowboy-style” as tribute to Martin Swig’s love of irreverent motoring, we know only a few things for sure. Everyone is welcome, but sports cars are preferred. There are no entry fees or route books. You’ll get an SCM hat and a sticker. Some of…
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Keith’s Blog: The Modern-Day Three-Car Collection: AMG, Z4 and R8
I took the SCM 2004 Mercedes AMG SL 55 out for a 100-mile drive through the Oregon wine country last Saturday. It was a glorious early-spring sunny day. I spent most of the time with the top down. The most attractive feature of this 500-hp machine continues to be its hardtop convertible. There is simply…
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Keith’s Blog: Join the SCM Caravan to Concorso
We are currently planning our annual informal tour down the coasts of Oregon and California to Monterey. Anyone is welcome to join, although cars with at least a pretension of sportiness are preferred. Event stickers and SCM hats will be provided. At the moment, our plans call for me to drive the SCM 1971 E-type…
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VIN-dicated
CARFAX was founded in 1984 in Columbia, MO, by a computer professional named Ewin Barnett III. He worked together with Robert Daniel Clark, an accountant from Huntingdon, PA. It started with a database of 10,000 records, but the company was soon getting reports from all 50 states. CARFAX is now headquartered in Centreville, VA, with…
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Keith’s Blog: Your SCM Books Are Finally in the Mail
Producing “The Best of Shifting Gears, Volume 1” and “The Best of Legal Files” has turned out to be a more formidable task that we imagined. But the books are finally printed and in the mail. Through the yeoman efforts of designer Jodi Ellis, print coordinator Matthew Strauss and editor John Nikas, we think you…
