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Forest Grove Concours this Weekend!

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There’s something special about a car event that happens in your own backyard. No planes to catch, no bags to pack. You get a chance to see a lot of local friends.

And, best of all, you can pull a few cars out of the garage to enjoy with your friends — without having to perform any extensive prep work.

This weekend is the 43rd Annual Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance, held on the campus of Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, about 30 miles towards the coast from downtown Portland.

SCM Editor-at-Large and television personality Donald Osborne will join me as co-emcee of the show, and long-time SCM contributor Miles Collier will be Senior Judge. Longtime SCM supporter Allen Stephens is putting all the pieces together; it’s an well-organized show, and I always look forward to being a part of it.

The weekend will be a full one. There is a 60-mile vineyard tour on Saturday, a gala on Saturday night and then the concours itself on Sunday.

Here’s what we’re prepping from the SCM fleet for the weekend:

My daughter Alex will drive our 2006 Lotus Elise. She last drove it on the tour in 2013, and this is her first chance behind the wheel since we bought it back. She will also be a judge on Sunday.

Donald will drive our 1967 Duetto. We noticed the steering was quite heavy when we drove it 1,100 miles on the Northwest Passage a few weeks ago. Our guru, Nasko, remarked, “If you had any fluid in the steering box that might help.” As we are planning on driving the car to Monterey to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Duetto, we’re pleased to be getting this sorted out in advance.

Miles and Parker Collier will drive our 1958 Sprint Veloce; Miles has a similar car, but he hasn’t had a chance to drive ours yet. Other than a little piece of stainless trim on the passenger door that seems to enjoy working itself out of alignment, the car should be on the button.

And finally, I’ll drive the SCM Flagship — our 1971 Citroen Mehari. SCM Internet Guru Brian Baker installed a new Alpine stereo and hooked it up to the four marine speakers that came in the Mehari (a legacy of its time in the Budget Rent A Car fleet on Maui). I plan to create a Pandora channel of French cabaret songs, so that we can travel with appropriate tunes. One wag suggested we install a spinnaker to the front of the Mehari to help attain freeway speeds, but I think we will just pedal faster.

So, on this Saturday, look for our Duetto, Sprint, Elise and Mehari. The Alfas, Lotus, and Citroen offer a nice cross-section of vintage and modern motoring.

It’s the SCM Gang Living Large and enjoying the Forest Grove Concours. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than 30 years. As a writer, publisher, television commentator and enthusiast, he is constantly on the go, meeting collectors and getting involved in their activities throughout the world. He is the founder and publisher of the monthly Sports Car Market, now in its 33rd year. Keith has written for the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications, is an emcee for numerous concours, and had his own show, “What’s My Car Worth,” shown on Velocity. He has received many honors, including the Lee Iacocca Award, the Edward Herrman Award, was inducted into the Concorso Italiano Hall of Fame and more. He is on the boards of directors of The LeMay Museum and Oregon Ballet Theater, and was formerly the chair of the board of the Meguiar's Award.

One Comment

  1. Allen C Stephens
    July 12, 2016 at 5:37 pm

    Looking forward to having you and the Mehari on tour! Will put you and the Ferrari 250GT LWB Spyder together on the Tour grid.