I came close to making an offer on a Sunbeam Tiger last week. For the past couple of years, I have been forced to look away from manual-shift cars and toward automatics. As the number of sports car fanatics looking for two-pedal classic cars is somewhere between zero and one […]

Here is the note I just sent to Barbara Grayson at Consolidated Autoworks. That’s the shop that has ministered to our 1971 Jag V12 2+2 since it arrived in April. Dear Barb: I have now put 1,700 wonderful miles on the Jag since it arrived 8 months ago. Bradley and […]

Our modern supercar expert, Philip Richter, has been waxing enthusiastic about his 2008 Audi R8. With a gated six-speed gearbox and 4.2L V8, he traded his AMG SL 55 for it. I accept his enthusiasm and endorsement of the car. He just pointed me at a 20,000-mile V8 with an […]

One afternoon in the early 1990s, we were on a Sunday drive to Mt. Hood in our Mercedes W123 240D automatic. Alex was just a couple of months old. We stopped at Merit Realty in a small strip-mall in Welches, and I asked the agent, “What do you folks sell […]

I saw this question posted on the FB site of Avants – Drive Everything. Avants is a free-wheeling membership group that exults in the fun of being behind the wheel of anything! It’s the brainchild of Adam Cramer. If you have any gearhead in your DNA it is worth exploring. […]

I am planning for May of 2022. Bradley will get his permit then, when he turns 15. I have been plotting what kind of road trip we might take to celebrate this occasion. And what we might drive. Fortunately for his and my sanity, I have long-ago abandoned the notion […]

We’ve got a new car in our condo slot. It’s a 1991 Porsche 928 S4. Yes, a “Stuttgart Corvette,” a.k.a. “piggyback” or “the German Pacer.” I’ll have more to share once we have digested this acquisition, but as the car is still new to me, I am currently basking in […]

I recall when we bought our first Land Rover Discovery. We were at a Silver Auction in Portland. My daughter Alexandra was in high school. The Disco had been entered by a local dealer known for the brilliant presentation of his inventory – sometimes referred to as “putting lipstick on […]

As I am still not able to drive a manual safely (although making progress), I have made it known that I am interested in classic cars with automatics. Consequently, I have done a deep-dive into a world of cars that I have actively disdained over the past few decades. Cars […]

I’m wrestling with the “size” question again. What should a “right-sized” collection look like? And what should the philosophy behind the cars selected be? How many cars is enough? First, with a nod of the head to vintage car events, I would suggest you need two pre-1975 cars, one open […]