I had a gearhead’s holiday last weekend. In the course of two days, I got to put nearly 100 miles each on the SCM Lotus Elise, the ACC Dodge Viper ACR GTS and two vintage Alfas — the 1965 Giulia Spider Veloce and the 1967 GTV. These are all sports […]
Author: Keith Martin
Keith’s Blog: I Almost Bought a Junior Z
Online auctions have transformed the collector car world. In a matter of minutes — in your own office — you go from contemplating a quiet lunch to posting a $35,000 bid. I was editing the next issue of American Car Collector last Friday when a text message popped up on […]
An Alfa is Reborn
We were crossing the Oregon High Desert at 80 mph in a 52-year-old Alfa Romeo when Bradley’s jacket blew out the window. A second earlier he had been struggling to get one arm out of a sleeve. We were about 20 miles from Madras, OR, in a caravan of vintage […]
Keith’s Blog: Put Those Hoods Down!
Owners who leave the hoods open on their cars for the entire day are my car-show pet peeve. Two weeks ago, while I was emcee of Keels & Wheels in Texas, I mentioned this to the organizer, Bob Fuller. He said, “It drives me crazy too. I spend all day […]
Keith’s Blog: What to Do When the Wipers Stop? 300 Miles in a Bugeye Sprite
We were traveling at 70 mph in a torrential downpour. Interstate 84, which runs through Oregon’s scenic Columbia River Gorge, was a nightmare of high winds and large pools of standing water. It was not the weather I would have chosen to take Bradley’s 1960 Bugeye Sprite on its inaugural […]
Keith’s Blog: Wooden Boats and Gleaming Cars — Keels & Wheels Turns 22
“We expect to donate $100,000 to charity this year,” Bob Fuller said to me this past weekend at the 22nd Annual Keels & Wheels concours. In its 22 years, Keels & Wheels has raised over $1.6m for various children’s charities, the foremost being Boys and Girls Harbor. According to Glen […]
Keith’s Blog: Why I’m Not Buying a Lancia
I’ve owned well over 500 cars during the past 40 years. If I really got serious about counting them, I might reach 1,000. They have ranged from ’62 Nova Wagons to Plymouth Superbirds to Ferrari 330 Americas to BMW Isettas. There wasn’t a car that I couldn’t talk myself into. […]
A Father’s Day Note
The 1960 Bugeye I bought for my 10-year-old son Bradley 18 months ago is finally home in the SCM garage. When I bought this Bugeye, I accomplished two goals with one car. First, I was paying a tribute to my own beginnings in sports cars. My first car was a […]
Keith’s Blog: It’s The Little Stuff That Makes You Crazy — Fettling Two Alfas
I made two round trips to Jefferson, Oregon last week. That’s where “Hooligan Racing,” Bill Gillham’s restoration shop, is located — 63 miles south of Portland. I’ve been taking Alfas to Gillham for over 30 years, my first being the ex-Ivan Zaremba 1967 Duetto owned by my college friend Arthur Levy. When Arthur was deciding on […]
Keith’s Blog: Buy – Learn – Repent – Move on
I’ve bought and sold a lot of cars over the years. They tended to come in bunches. There was an MG period, then a Porsche period, then a Rover period and so on. Some more-disciplined collectors have a linear approach. For example, having one car of each year of Corvette […]