Blogs
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Another Home Run: The 2012 BMW CCA Oktoberfest
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.
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Keith’s Blog: Alex and 21 Years of Alfa
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.
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Jim’s Blog – Simple underhood gremlins that ruin your day
The great thing about American cars is that they pretty much always work. Even if you let one sit for a few months, you can expect it to fire up and run without needing much of anything. But that wasn’t the experience I had this past weekend. At ACC, we attend a lot of large-scale events, so…
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Keith’s Blog: Why Did the GTV Stop Running? Can You Help?
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…
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Jim’s Blog – What’s Monterey Mean to the Rest of the Hobby?
After a few days of recharging our batteries, the ACC crew is back in the office following the whirlwind of car events that make up Monterey car week. I couldn’t be happier with the performance of my Charger on the 1,600-mile drive – 80 mph, a/c on, and 22 mpg on average. Aside from a…
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Keith’s Blog: Old Cars Give Me A Headache: Can You Help?
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…
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Keith’s Blog: The Logic Behind Illogical Collecting
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…
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My Dad, the Cat Hoarder Lady of the Collector Car World
It is official — my father, Publisher Keith Martin, needs an intervention. He is on his way to becoming the cat hoarder lady of the car world. Two weeks ago he accidently bought an Alfetta, an unloved 1978 Alfa Romeo. One week ago a 1958 Sprint 750F Giulietta joined our garage. This weekend, he posted on Facebook…
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Keith’s Blog: The New SCM Accidental Purchase – Got Any Parts We Need?
The “duckling imprint” theory of collecting continues to rear its billed head around the SCM offices. Many years ago, I had an Alfetta GT as my daily car. While it was a profoundly poorly-constructed vehicle and cost me thousands of dollars in my short period of ownership, nonetheless I was always taken with its rakish…
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Jim’s Blog – What’s the Strangest Thing You’ve Ever Found in a Car?
As you read this, the ACC and SCM crews will be on the road to Monterey, California for the annual collector car auctions, Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca, and the Pebble Beach Concours, all of which take place this week. I spent this past weekend prepping my Charger SRT8 for the 1,600-mile round trip,…