SCM Contributor
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Jim’s Blog: Your Best Car Buy?
Our panel of experts is gearing up for our Scottsdale seminar, held at Barrett-Jackson next Wednesday morning. And while they’re going over what cars to buy and why — and sending me their picks so I can build our presentation for you — it got me thinking about what cars have been best buys for…
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Jim’s Blog: Three New Year Resolutions
There are only a few days left in 2016, and that has me thinking about all the car things I did — and didn’t do — this year. Here’s what I’m going to do differently in 2017. About six months ago, I jacked up my Caprice to change the oil and filter. I hadn’t done…
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Jim’s Blog: SEMA in Photos
SEMA is where the automotive aftermarket comes to show off its skill — this is where the newest trends, the biggest builds, and the coolest new products all converge in one week of car-crazy overkill. ACC was on-site in Vegas this November, and while we ran a feature of the event in the just-printed Jan/Feb…
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Fine Tuning
Electronic fuel injection may be the wave of the future, but there’s nothing wrong with a properly tuned carburetor. The key is figuring out how to tune it. Edelbrock carburetors have been a go-to for street-bound muscle cars and classics for several decades. The design itself goes back to the AFB carbs of the 1960s…
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The Complete Experience
Before my time as a magazine writer and editor, I spent my days fixing people’s cars. The small shop where I worked would fix just about anything, but my specialty was the old stuff — the cars our flat-rate auto technicians avoided. For me, as a young paid-by-the-hour car kid, it was great. I felt…
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Jim’s Blog: When it Just Clicks
So you’re all done at the car show. You hop in your classic, hit the key, and instead of that V8 cranking over, you get nothing but a tinny click. Hit it again and it clicks again. Third time’s a charm and off you go. Sound familiar? I’ve had my 1966 Caprice since October 1998.…
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Jim’s Blog: ACC Question of the Month — Best Classic Road Tripper
This month’s ACC Reader’s Forum question comes from our own John L. Stein: “I’m looking to set up a 1,000-mile road trip with some high school friends. To do it right, we need a classic car. What’s the better option of the sub-$20k cars below? Or is there a better choice out there that I…
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Jim’s Blog: ACC Heads to SEMA
Every year, the automotive aftermarket gets together in Las Vegas to show off its latest and greatest products and show cars. It’s a one-of-a-kind event, closed off to the general public and yet still well-known by most in the car community. This is where annual styling trends are set, where influential new products make their…
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Jim’s Blog: I Want a Model T
Wanting a Model T in this day and age doesn’t really make much sense. But who says car people have to be reasonable? Here’s the thing: I drive a comfortable, connected, safe, brand-new GMC truck every day. It’s perfectly suited to life in the real world — the world full of cell phones, cup holders, and…
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Drive ’em Because You Can
For me, Monterey Car Week started off with a bang. That bang was the sound of my brand-new Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, on loan from FCA for a review in ACC, getting punched in the rear bumper by a Honda CR-V in stop-and-go freeway traffic somewhere outside San Jose. I’d been in California for maybe…