I’m sitting in the Jacksonville terminal as I compose this, decompressing from my 15^th annual trip to Fernandina Beach, FL, and the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. 17 years have now passed since founder Bill Warner went out on a very long limb and put on the first of what has grown into a world-class event.

The activities this year were not out of the ordinary—for me, the week started on Tuesday with filming for episodes of What’s My Car Worth, along with co-host Donald Osborne. I could say that it is hard work, often with 12-hour days, but then we’d get to the part where I’m riding in the $3.7m Porsche 550, and surely you wouldn’t feel very sorry for me.

Sometimes it’s good just to get away from it all. As you read this, I’ll be on a 6 a.m. flight out of Portland, with an eventual destination of Amelia Island, FL. During my week there, I’ll be shooting episodes of What’s My Car Worth at the Gooding auction, with Donald Osborne as my co-host. I’m also a judge at the Amelia Island Concours.

While on the one hand I look forward to seeing the familiar faces, the terrific cars, stopping by the RM auction and lollygagging around the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton where the concours is held, on the other hand it is my day job and there’s a lot of work to be done.

The SCM gang, both auction reporters and office staff, will be there; stop by our booth at Gooding and at the concours and say hello.

Compound Low

So last Saturday, I jumped at the opportunity to go far, far away at a slow, slow speed. The Pacific Coast Rover Club, of which I am a member, held a snow run in Tillamook State Forest. The Jolly Jeepers were invited as well.

For the past 15 years, I have watched a three-car mini-collection, parked on the street, slowly degrade. The cars all have some interest. They include a 1967 Duetto, a chrome-bumper 914 and a first-generation 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle 300 Deluxe. They were all parked within four blocks of SCM World Headquarters.

All three cars carry current tags, and are drivable. The latter point has now been positively confirmed, as the “collection,” which had sat undisturbed for a few years (as shown in the right-hand image), was recently dispersed around the neighborhood. We surmise this was done because of complaints.

We took the Alfa (non-identical) twins out for their first run together yesterday.  The occasion was the (post) Valentine’s Day Tour organized by Neil d’Autremont for the Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon.

Wendie and I drove the 1967 GTV, and good friends Michael Cottam and Andrea Allen took our 1965 Giulia Spider Veloce. This was the first outing for the GTV since Guy’s Interior Restorations installed the new interior, provided from Italy, by Matt Jones of Re-Originals. Don’t tell anyone, but we also had Guy install seat heaters and pneumatic lumbar supports.

The Giulia Spider hadn’t been run in a couple of months, and I could sense that it just needed to go out and play for a day.

In the end, it was a choice between walking 12 miles in the snow with my wife and our four-year-old, or just turning around. Here’s how the story unfolded.  

We made a quick trip to Bend, OR, this weekend, to attend an organizational meeting for this September’s Oregon Festival of Cars (formerly the Sun River Festival of Cars). As the fastest way to reach Bend from Portland is to go over Mt. Hood, we thought the 1989 Range Rover Classic would be the perfect ride.

However, Subaru graciously made a 2012 Impreza 2.0i Sport available, with Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive and Vehicle Dynamics Control. It was just a matter of moving Bradley’s car seat and our overnight bags from the Rover to the Impreza, and we were off.

This week’s newsletter is chock-full of information about the upcoming Arizona auctions, and I’m sure I’ll see many of you there. But buying interesting cars (and trucks) is only the beginning of the experience. The next step is to actually use them in the manner in which they were intended, to begin to understand what makes them special in the first place.

Last weekend Alex and I spent Saturday in the mud of Tillamook State Forest, in Oregon, leading a group of four Land Rovers across hill and dale. I haven’t given our 1984 RHD Defender 90 Tdi nearly the seat time I would like to, and relished the opportunity to flog it for the day. With its competition suspension and brutish torque, it was nearly unstoppable.