Keith Martin
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Keith’s Blog: Monterey – Where Million-Dollar Cars Are Falling Like Leaves from a Tree
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…
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Keith’s Corner: Bicycle Crashes into Alfa GTV; Everyone Loses
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…
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Compelled to Collect
With Monterey just around the corner, collectors’ thoughts have shifted from the restore-and-refurbish activities of winter to the buying and selling of summer. While car transactions happen year round, there’s no doubt they attract more attention in the warm months—and the most attention of all in August. For me, there was a time, more…
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Keith’s Corner: Off-Road Rovers, On-Road Porsches, and a Sinking Boat
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…
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Luxury and Leisure: Combining Classic Car Rallies with Casino Tours
In the world of luxury and leisure, the fusion of classic car rallies and casino tours represents the epitome of elegance and excitement. This unique combination caters to aficionados of both automotive heritage and high-stakes gaming, offering an unparalleled experience that blends scenic drives, historic automobiles, and the thrill of the casino floor. A Journey…
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Keith’s Corner: Buddy Can You Spare a Berlina?
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…
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Keith’s Corner: Vintage Cars Come in and Vintage Cars Go Out
The SCM garage sale continues. Our Volvo 544 has gone to a new home in Mexico, the Guzzi is going to Seattle, and the white ’74 MGB has gone to Los Angeles. This week we’ve got our daily-driver extremely original Mercedes 219 with a 220S engine on eBay, along with the 1974 MGB-GT, the best…
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The Season of the Road
Buzzing like a multi-colored swarm of bees, the cars of the California Mille cruised through Bodega Bay on California Highway One. It was the morning of day four, and Wendie and I had pulled over for a quick espresso and to stretch our legs. This was the 21st running of the Mille, an event created…
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Keith’s Corner: Saying Goodbye to the Volvo 544
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…
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Keith’s Corner: Bloomington Gold and the Survivor Car Show
This past weekend, the SCM / CM team descended en mass upon the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles Illinois, for the annual Corvette extravaganza called “Bloomington Gold.” I had the chance to emcee the Certification Awards, ate tri-tip steak from the food court area, and generally admired the display of cubic inches. It was…