Keith Martin’s Adventures

Winter has arrived in the Pacific Northwest, which means all of our cars want to come inside to roost. This creates a problem, as SCM has thirteen cars and nine spaces to park them in. Even I can do that math — four cars have got to go. (American Car Collector only has two cars,…

I recently got an email from a reader congratulating me on my status as “The World’s Fattest Man.” Now, I would be the first to admit that getting into the tux I wore to my senior prom might be a bit of a struggle, but “World’s Fattest Man?” So I did a Google image search…

A year ago, SCM was named “The Best Classic Car Magazine in the World” by About.com. Just last weekend, we were honored again, this time by the prestigious Society of Automotive Historians. Each year at their annual meeting, they give the Richard and Grace Bingham Award, for “the outstanding treatment of historical topics in an…

In a recent blog post, I asked for help with the headaches I was getting when driving certain old cars. I noted that I had purchased a CO meter, and that the interiors were all reading well within acceptable limits. Your responses were immediate, numerous and helpful. Let me provide an update.

It’s been unseasonably warm in Oregon, so this past weekend we took the opportunity for a quick run to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and the Lodge at Ka Nee Tah. Set in the Central Oregon desert, near the Deschutes River, the lodge has a hot spring-fed pool, along with waterslides, hiking trails, miniature golf…

I’m on my way home from Columbus, Ohio, where the 43rd annual BMW CCA Oktoberfest has just concluded. The week-long annual event is like Disneyland for BMW owners, and it’s the kind of event that car clubs all over the world aspire to put on.

I’m just back from the 18th annual Oregon Festival of Cars, in Bend, OR, and this year’s event was as much about the journey as the car show itself.

For the past year, our 1967 Alfa has defined reliability. Built by engineer Dave Rugh as a daily driver for his wife Colleen, who used it for twenty years that way, it simply goes and goes. In fact, weekend before last, Alex drove it to Tacoma and back (over 300 miles) without a hiccup. But…

Old cars can be a pain in a lot of ways, but some of mine give me a headache. A real headache. And I’m wondering if I’m the only one who suffers from this, or if someone else has figured out how to solve it. I know, the first thing that comes to mind is…

Chess Pieces in the SCM Garage Are About to Get Shuffled As my daughter, Alex, pulled out of the driveway this afternoon in our 1967 GTV, en route to a 500-mile Labor Day weekend road trip, her parting words to me were, “Don’t buy too many cars while I’m gone!” Last week she referred to…