It’s Sunday night at 7pm, and I’m sitting in the Gooding tent watching a 1932 Alfa Romeo 1750 Series V  Zagato-bodied Grand Sport hammer sold at $1.4m. Now, in most situations, that would seem like a lot of money. But this weekend, it’s just another million-dollar car. It takes something like a Mercedes 540K at $9m or a Ferrari 250 TR at $16m to get anyone excited.

I don’t have any overall totals, but I can say that the uncertainties of the stock market don’t seem to have reached the Monterey Peninsula. In our seminar on Saturday, several of our experts noted that gyrating stock prices, miniscule interest rates, and a depressed real estate market are all leading to more interest in, and escalating prices for, blue-chip collector cars.

Why are the most expensive cars getting even more expensive? Because those that can afford a $500k, or $1m or $10m car already have money. They’re not worried about losing their jobs or their homes, they’re just trying to get a better return on their funds. And compared to a lot of financial instruments, collector cars look pretty good right now.

Could it be any more ironic? Our family (Wendie, Bradley, Drew, and me) had just finished the annual Portland Bridge Pedal. Once a year, the freeways around the city are closed down, and close to 20,000 enthusiasts wearing tight shorts and jerseys grab their bicycles and go for a pedal. (I might say that a few of the jerseys on the “mature” men could have been just a bit looser.)

Bradley did well on his Trek tagalong, and in two more years I expect he’ll have his own bike.  He insisted on wearing his Spiderman costumer and cast imaginary webs at passersby.

When we got home, I moved the 1967 GTV from the driveway to the street, so Wendie could get her BMW 5-series out of the driveway. I opened the door to get out, and smacked a bicyclist passing by. The rider, an elderly lady, didn’t fall but sustained a couple of pretty good scratches to her leg.

We tried to sneak away for a few days, to recharge our batteries before the Monterey whirlwind.

The Martin family spent four days at Morrow County OHV Park in central Oregon. With six motorcycles and a scooter, the days were spent cruising and crashing on one-track trails; at night we gathered around the barbecue pit and enjoyed good Oregon Pinot Noir.

The past weekend was an orgy of sports car action. Saturday, BMW and Mercedes were the featured marques at Cars in the Park, the “everyman’s section” of The Allure of the Automobile exhibit at the Portland Art Museum.

The SCM Isetta was featured next to a BMW 507 (owned by SCMer Brown Maloney) and and an M1 (owned by SCMer Tom Anderson, owner of Carrera Motors in Bend, OR). Our four-year-old Bradley decided the Isetta was his personal mobile playset, and invited other kids to come scramble around on it.

It’s time to say goodbye to the Volvo 544. It all started with a 122 sedan we owned a few years ago. That was an okay car, but visually just didn’t hit anyone’s hot button. We sold it and immediately turned around and bought a 544 from a local Craigslist advertisement.

I don’t quite know what it is about the 544 that makes it so appealing. Maybe it’s the hopelessly outdated styling, even in 1964. Or the long, wand-like shifter. Or the cute little radiator blind – each time I pull it up, I imagine I’m starting the car in a snow storm in Sweden.

Making this car has been a real education. It had been owned by the same gentleman for over thirty years, and during that period the suspension and brakes had slowly degraded, to the point where it was just terrible to drive. But he didn’t even notice.

Now, $8,000 in receipts later, the car is reliable, decent and even “fun” to drive, especially now that we have the IPD front bar installed.

We’ve got another four-seat GT car joining the SCM fleet, so the Volvo has to go. But we’ve had a great time with it, and we’ll miss it.