Keith Martin

My son Bradley is signed up for this year’s ORPCA (Oregon Region of the Porsche Club of America) Spring NW Passage tour. It’s a five-day, 1,200-mile romp through the Pacific Northwest for 40 cars, with no model year or marque requirements – although most of the cars are late-model Porsches. The June event begins with…

I recently had the pleasure of joining Alex Porter and the Bring a Trailer team on the BaT Podcast. I covered my automotive history from driving a tractor as a child, to buying my first car for $30 when I turned 16. I talked about some of the cars from the SCM fleet, including the…

Here’s a worthy goal for 2025: Get a couple of driving buddies together and make plans to use your cars. I was recently at the holiday dinner for the local Porsche club, Oregon Region PCA (ORPCA), where organizers announced that they had held 55 driving events last year. In 2025, they hope to host 70.…

It’s not the easiest time to think about your old cars. There are competing agendas that include The Nutcracker (my son Bradley is taking me on my birthday, it’s a family tradition) as well as shopping for parents, siblings, children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. New to our living room table this year is a Star…

It is only through use that the needs of our cars become apparent. Or a recent road trip in the SCM Jaguar E-type V12 coupe, the speedometer stopped working and we could get barely any heat into the car. We also realized that having a passenger-side mirror would make us feel more comfortable when driving…

My son Bradley’s 1982 Collector’s Edition Chevrolet Corvette is going to a new home. It’s being listed on Doug DeMuro’s Cars & Bids site, with an aggressive reserve. The auction can be found here.   Our restoration guru Chip Starr found this car for us at just about the same time as Bradley’s 16th birthday.…

The SCM 1975 Porsche 911S is just about a usable car. On Thanksgiving Day, my son Bradley and I drove 18 miles to SCM Contributing Editor John Draneas’ house in Wilsonville, OR. This was the first outing in the car since a mid-week tour that revealed deficiencies in the wipers, heat, sun visors and headlights.…

Old cars are a lot of work. Over the past 24 months, my modern car has required my attention once, when the outside temperatures dropped and caused the tire-pressure warning light to come on. I used my portable inflator to take the tires to 36 psi and I was done. It’s not the same story…

Marionberry milkshakes, pancakes and old cars are a Martin family tradition. The Elderberry Inn is a family-owned restaurant about 50 miles from Portland, and about 25 miles from the Oregon coast. You get there on Highway 26, a scenic, curvy road that crosses the Coast Range, mountains that are really just hills with an elevation…

My son Bradley is filling out applications to college. In just a few months, he’ll be leaving the nest and be on to the next big adventure in his life. Currently on his list are McPherson College in Kansas, the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon State…