I took the SCM 2004 Mercedes AMG SL 55 out for a 100-mile drive through the Oregon wine country last Saturday. It was a glorious early-spring sunny day. I spent most of the time with the top down. The most attractive feature of this 500-hp machine continues to be its […]

We are currently planning our annual informal tour down the coasts of Oregon and California to Monterey. Anyone is welcome to join, although cars with at least a pretension of sportiness are preferred. Event stickers and SCM hats will be provided. At the moment, our plans call for me to […]

Producing “The Best of Shifting Gears, Volume 1” and “The Best of Legal Files” has turned out to be a more formidable task that we imagined. But the books are finally printed and in the mail. Through the yeoman efforts of designer Jodi Ellis, print coordinator Matthew Strauss and editor […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]