Keith Martin

I’ve been driving sports cars and going on road trips since 1966. I sometimes forget what it’s like for someone to go on a road trip in an old car. It’s sensory overload in so many ways. In an old car, you are not passing through the landscape, you’re part of it. You smell the…

One thousand miles and two thousand great conversations. The second annual SCM 1000 is now a part of the magazine’s history. Last week, 82 enthusiasts in 42 cars drove 1,000 miles in four days. They explored nooks and crannies of Oregon that are well off the beaten path. However, as spectacular as the cars and…

  The SCM 1000 kicked off on Sunday after with a Cars in the Park Event at the Portland Art Museum. Tour participants showed off their cars to Portland’s many vintage car enthusiasts. Portlanders are used to SCM parking flights of amazing cars outside of the Portland Art Museum. We started the first-ever SCM Tour…

Alex, my daughter, and I had a pleasant Saturday planned in July of 2007. At that time, Rob Sass was head of Business Development for SCM. As you probably know, Rob buys cars like the rest of us buy socks. Given my proclivity for accidental purchases, we were a dangerous pair. There is a small…

I’ve got a dilemma. Due to my profligate purchasing of Alfas, I now have more cars than I have spaces at SCM World Headquarters. Something has to go. I was counting cars the other night (a favorite hobby of mine), and realized I have four Alfas coupes and a 4-door sedan — plus two convertibles.…

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 1750 engine and an upgraded…

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 was driving our 2002 Boxster…

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 are it will go to…

“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 many years after they…

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 types of improvised roadside repairs.…