Keith Martin

It was a brilliant winter afternoon. The SCM 1991 928 S4, dark blue with blue leather, was slicing through the turns on Washington State Highway 14. It’s a two-lane road that follows the northern side of the Columbia Gorge. The road is vastly more interesting than the four-lane Interstate 84 on the southern side. I…

When it came to making a choice about buying a new car for SCM everyday use, the drivetrain and suspension were irrelevant. Over the past decade, I have watched with interest as new-car platforms have become increasingly digital. More features and benefits related to safety are standard with each new generation. For those looking to…

We are now accepting nominations for SCM’s second group of 40 Under 40 honorees. First awarded in 2017, this program became our most popular in terms of industry recognition and resultant newsstand sales. It’s time to revisit it. In our October issue, SCM will honor 40 enthusiasts under 40 years old who are making a…

Our beloved original-paint 1965 Volvo 122S automatic is about to be listed on BaT, courtesy of Matt Crandall (911r) and Avant-Garde Collection. It was a good car when we bought it, and through the ministrations of Cameron Lovre at Swedish Relics it has become as good as it can be and still be relatively stock.…

As a part of our pandemic-induced downsizing, we are selling the SCM reference library at No Reserve on Bring a Trailer. Jeff Sabatini and his team are now assembling the magazine remotely. The virus has made it unsafe to use the offices, common areas and conference rooms we had been in for the past 15…

I’ve pursued a two-tiered approach to my changing tastes in cars. On the one hand, I have realized that there are fully depreciated late-model exotics, usually less than 20 years old, that offer tremendous values. These are cars that have been owned by collectors, are in excellent condition and have anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000…

I spent the first 68 years of my life treating sports cars with automatic transmissions disdainfully. At any club meet or cars and coffee, the first thing I looked at when I walked down a row of cars were the center consoles. If I saw a gear-shift lever and a shifter boot, I knew I…

I’ve driven and raced a variety of Porsches over the years. I’ve put significant miles on a 356 Convertible D, raced a 2.7 Carrera with MFI twice in the Modena Cento Ore, took our Boxster S on two 1,000-mile Oregon Porsche club tours, piloted a 1968 911 L on the 800-mile Oregon Alfa club Northwest…

I feel like someone who keeps trying to lose weight and does just fine until another cream-filled doughnut comes along. In the past two years, I have sold a few cars and acquired a few more. You’d think someone who spends idle evenings cross-referencing odds on sports betting sites — tallying spreads, tracking lines, obsessing…

Here’s my New Year’s Resolution for my driving my old cars: Dry days only from now on. I once prided myself on taking my cars out in any weather, day or night. “They were just cars,” I said. And to paraphrase collector and concours judge Ed Gilbertson, “Cars are meant to be driven.” They won’t…