Eight years ago, on June 18, 2011, I was sitting in my office cleaning off my desk. I was about to throw away a three-month old copy of the local Alfa Romeo Club Newsletter, “Alfa Bits.” An ad for a Daytona Blue 1967 GTV caught my attention. It had a […]

According to my notes, on June 18, 2009 — 10 years ago — I bought a 1973 Land Rover Series III 88. The crude-but-entertaining 88 was the beginning of our exploration of the world of Rovers. The Rover saga started with the 2009 annual Porsche Northwest Passage 1,000-mile tour. I […]

As I wrote in my last column, I have decided that it is time for the SCM Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite to go. I’ll be sad to see it leave, as we have done so much to make it exactly the excellent driver that we wanted. At the same time, chances […]

“Value in use.” That’s always been the motto of the cars in the SCM collection. What’s the point in having classic cars if you are not going to use them? Most of the SCM cars were built more than 50 years ago. They were never designed to be in service […]

This is the continuing saga of my first Alfa Romeo. It was a red 1963 Giulia Spider Normale. I bought it in 1968 when I was 17 years old. It was an exotic, alloy-engine, twin-camshaft sports car. I tried to maintain it on a shoestring budget. This  lead to many […]

  It was the summer of 1968. I was 17-years-old and had just graduated, as class valedictorian, from Lincoln High School in San Francisco. I was accepted to Reed College in Portland OR, but there was no financial aid available. Tuition, along with room and board on campus, was about […]

My first two cars were British — a 1960 Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite and a 1958 MGA. “When are you going to get a real sports car?” asked my good friend Bjarne Holm. Bjarne was driving his mother’s 1958 Giulietta Spider Normale. We were parked outside Lakeside Presbyterian Church near Stonestown […]

Last Saturday my daughter Alexandra and her mother Cindy Banzer took the SCM 1967 Giulia Super on an Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon tour. It was a 112-mile dash from Portland to Astoria on the Oregon coast and back. This was the 41st running of The Old Spider Tour, celebrating […]

  I had a chance to go for a drive in the SCM Giulia Super last weekend. We took a scenic, winding route, starting on Portland’s curvy Skyline Boulevard and passing through the tony Pearl District downtown. From there we headed out through an industrial area on Highway 30 and […]

I’ve recently been asked about the sale of a 500-mile 1987 Buick GNX on Bring A Trailer for $130,000 on March 25 of this year. On March 18, a 1986 Grand National (a very different car, I was reminded by Colin Comer) with 5,700 miles bid to $38,750 and did not […]