Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than 40 years, and is the founder and publisher of this magazine. Keith has also written for the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications, has been 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 Herrmann Award, was inducted into the Concorso Italiano Hall of Fame, and more. He has served on the board of directors of The LeMay Museum and Oregon Ballet Theater, and was formerly the chair of the board of the Meguiar’s Award. Learn more about Keith here.
We’re in the final shakedown period for the local Porsche club NW Passage tour. SCM is a sponsor. It begins in a week and encompasses five days and over 700 miles of driving. It starts in Portland, goes to the Running Y Resort in southern Oregon near Klamath Falls for four nights, then returns home. Team SCM has entered two cars, our 1971 Jaguar E-type V12 coupe and our 1975 Porsche 911S. Bradley and his navigator will be in the 911, while I will be in the Jag. How did we decide who gets which car? It was simple. The Jag […]
We’re in the final shakedown period for the local Porsche club NW Passage tour.
SCM is a sponsor. It begins in a week and encompasses five days and over 700 miles of driving. It starts in Portland, goes to the Running Y Resort in southern Oregon near Klamath Falls for four nights, then returns home.
Team SCM has entered two cars, our 1971 Jaguar E-type V12 coupe and our 1975 Porsche 911S.
Bradley and his navigator will be in the 911, while I will be in the Jag. How did we decide who gets which car? It was simple. The Jag has GM-sourced factory A/C that blows ice cold. Although born with A/C, the 911’s primitive system ceased functioning years ago.
We got a quote to install a modern compressor and system. It was $10,000. I told Bradley that in the old days (meaning my youth) the only A/C we had was rolling down the windows. I’m sure he will survive.
We have been driving both cars a lot, putting on a few hundred miles in the past couple of weeks. The 911S, aside from the Sportomatic transmission not always wanting to release from park, has been great.
With the Jag, Ed Grayson of Consolidated Auto Works replaced the Autolite sparkplugs with Champion RN12YCs. We discovered a shorted wire to the taillights, along with a relay to the A/C that needed to be replaced. Ed also showed us how to fill the tank without having modern nozzles auto shutoff every four or five gallons. (The secret? Hold the nozzle parallel to the car, not perpendicular.)
These are both low mileage cars that have been well taken care of. The Jag has 29,300 documented original miles, the 911, 48,505. Consolidated has maintained the car since I first bought it, and has seen it through several SCM 1000s. Al Blanchard at A & P Specialties brought the 911 back to life after decades of storage. The process hasn’t been a simple one. It included adding an Elephant oil cooler, new shocks and lowering the car to European ride hight. The car is an honest, low-miles mid-year that is a delight to drive.
There’s not much more we can do now do but take these automobiles, with their combined age of nearly 100 years, and head out onto the curving two-lane highways of back-country Oregon.
This is my first father-son road trip with Bradley with each of us in separate cars.
We’ve got spare fan belts, tow truck company cards, and usb adapters to keep our phones charged. I’m not qualified to work as a mechanic on either of these cars, so I don’t see the point in bringing a sack of tools. We will have our safety kits with reflective triangles and vests from the SCM 1000. What more could we possibly need?
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Open roads ahead for the V12 JagModern nozzles meet ancient filler necks. Pale Primrose and Sahara BeigeOriginal cloth interior in 911SLowered to Euro specPrimitive a/c aka window down
Looks like a blast. I will be doing a road trip across the ol USA later this summer taking the daughter to school. I much rather be doing that trip in one of those amazing rides.
Side note did sell her 1991 Ford Ranger this weekend to buy her a Jeep for school. I could not believe the response with over 125 inquires; 10 appointments made and selling at the first appointment for a 10% profit, which covered the maintenance fees for the 3 years of ownership all in less than 48hrs of placing the listing.
Looking forward to hearing more about your adventure and thanks for reminding me of the safety bag (will pick one up this weekend).
Rand Wintermute
Keith. On these long road rally’s, it’s always great to take two things which have saved me many times with Porsches and Alfa’s in many rally’s, like the Cal MM in 2014 !
I will be driving my Porsche type 356 (T1) to the PB Concours in August and these are essential ( and apply to all Vintage cars !) : 1.) spare Fuel pump, and 2.) spare Coil. In past rally’s, the following “Service Vehicle” did not have either . Had I not taken these items, the weekends would have been Lemons. Lemonade always tastes better !
3 responses to “Keith’s Blog: Ready for the Road”
Looks like a blast. I will be doing a road trip across the ol USA later this summer taking the daughter to school. I much rather be doing that trip in one of those amazing rides.
Side note did sell her 1991 Ford Ranger this weekend to buy her a Jeep for school. I could not believe the response with over 125 inquires; 10 appointments made and selling at the first appointment for a 10% profit, which covered the maintenance fees for the 3 years of ownership all in less than 48hrs of placing the listing.
Looking forward to hearing more about your adventure and thanks for reminding me of the safety bag (will pick one up this weekend).
Keith. On these long road rally’s, it’s always great to take two things which have saved me many times with Porsches and Alfa’s in many rally’s, like the Cal MM in 2014 !
I will be driving my Porsche type 356 (T1) to the PB Concours in August and these are essential ( and apply to all Vintage cars !) : 1.) spare Fuel pump, and 2.) spare Coil. In past rally’s, the following “Service Vehicle” did not have either . Had I not taken these items, the weekends would have been Lemons. Lemonade always tastes better !
cook