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The stockings at the Martin condo were a little heavier this year. In addition to the miniature stuffed ferret, the travel-sized toothbrush and toothpaste, and a bag of pistachios, there was a box. It contained a portable tire inflator. These apparatuses have gotten smaller and more efficient over the years. Now, they can be charged…

It’s that time of year when we sit down and try to wrestle with the way we collect and use our cars. For me, there’s a new topic on the list: I want my cars to be easy to drive. I’ve driven cars from a replica Type 35 Bugatti to a 1947 Siata. I’ve driven…

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions in response to last week’s blog about storing your car in the winter. Here are a few more thoughts. First of all, I prefer to always store my convertibles with the top up and stretched, especially the rear plastic window. If the stop is stored folded, I believe…

What’s your holiday wish list for your classic car? I sometimes imagine what it would be like to have a wish-fulfiller to tend to my cars. I store three classics at my condo, the 1975 Porsche 911S, the 1971 Jaguar E-type V12 and the 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4. They all have analog clocks that…

The first three years of owning our 1975 Porsche 911 Sportomatic were a mixture of agony and ecstasy. When we bought it, the ad on the car said it needed nothing, had A/C, and “runs 100%.” The car was nearly 3,000 miles from Portland, in Pennsylvania at the Hershey Swap Meet Car Corral. So there…

Our 1975 Porsche 911 S is known as a “narrow body” or an “impact bumper” car. On the front, it has a narrow strip of rubber across the front bumper. On the rear bumper, there are two big four-inch rubber blocks. Some say these are to prevent body damage upon impact. Others say they are…

A long journey has come to an end. A Porsche 911 with a Sportomatic transmission had a near-mythical status in my ongoing survey of classic sports cars with two pedals. It had an actual gearshift, and you had to select the gears yourself — no automatic shifting here. Three years ago, we located and purchased…

The odometer on our 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4 just turned 28,000 (original) miles. I purchased the car on January 16, 2022, from an eBay auction. I’ll always remember hitting the “buy it now” button, as that happened at the exact same time our 1971 Citroën DS21 (which had broken down on Interstate 84 as…

We were driving our 1971 Jaguar E-type home from a cruise-in at Portland International Speedway. It was rush hour and we were moving along at 5 mph. It was about a 15-minute trip. Suddenly a car cut across a lane and squeezed in front of me. To avoid a collision, I had to lock up…

How could I not be intrigued when mention of this tour in Indiana popped into my inbox. It is described as a 90-minute drive, with lunch at a barbecue joint owned by a Porsche fanatic, followed by a tour of a car storage facility. Entry is open to all cars and the $45 fee is…