Blogs
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Keith’s Blog: Just 160 Miles to Go Until Monterey
As I write this, it’s Monday morning and Day Three of this year’s journey from Portland, OR to Monterey Car Week. Our 1967 Alfa GTV has covered over 700 miles and is packed and ready for the final leg. My co-pilot is SCM styling and design analyst Robert Cumberford, who started this trip from his…
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Jim’s Blog: Help Us Pick the Next ACC Car
ACC’s Viper GTS ACR Coupe has been a great car — in the few years we’ve owned it, we’ve covered a bunch of miles in it with no trouble — all it’s needed other than oil changes and periodic cleaning was a set of tires. But we’ll be putting it up for sale soon, as…
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Jim’s Blog: Finding the Payoff
Last Friday, I took a day off work and spent it at my dad’s house, wrenching on his 1968 Camaro. The car is in the absolute final stages of reassembly after restoration, so we worked on things like adjusting the hood fit, wiring the dash gauges, installing the front bumper, and bolting in the driver’s…
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Keith’s Blog: Three Alfas Start, Two Finish the Forest Grove Wine Tour
“Dad, there’s a big clunk from the front of the GTV.” That was my daughter Alexandra’s message to me as she headed home from Durant Vineyards in Dayton, Oregon. We were on the 15th Annual Wine Tour, held as a prelude to the Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance. I enjoy this casual drive every year, as…
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Jim’s Blog: When is it Time to Sell?
When it comes to classic cars, buying is the easy part — just lay down the cash and take home your new prize. Hopefully your significant other is on-board and you’ve got a place to keep the new car — but those are only details, right? We can work them out later. Selling, on the…
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Keith’s Blog: Happy Independence Day
I’m on a big Land Rover club expedition through the rugged terrain of eastern Oregon right now, and I keep thinking how lucky we are to share this great world of old cars and their adventures. Bradley is along on the trip, and he’s seeing some amazing sights — and loving every minute of bouncing…
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The Millennial and the MG, Part Two: Perfect Stasis
It’s a sunny Saturday morning and, from behind the wheel of my 1971 MGB Mk II, the storefronts of Detroit’s M-1 Woodward Avenue peel past my periphery. With my head cocked back and a big grin on my face, I am fully engaged in the buttery smoothness of the roadster’s boisterous four-cylinder, the enthrallingly tight…
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Jim’s Blog: Stock or Not?
When I was building my ’72 Chevy truck, I kept the engine and drivetrain as stock as possible, all the way down to the original rebuilt Q-jet carburetor. Why mess with something that worked? But there have been huge leaps in technology made in the decades since 1972, and it’s trickled into the old car…
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The smell of gasoline
I don’t think I’ll ever get the smell out of gasoline out of my head. I don’t mean my mind, as in my thoughts or memories (though it’s been seared into those, too). Rather, I mean my cranium, my skull, my head cavities. That’s because last weekend I took it upon myself to remove the…
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Keith’s Blog: Unrestored in Costa Rica
The crappier the car the better. That seems to be the mantra of some collectors these days. Instead of trying to restore cars to better-than-new condition, they look for the most original vehicle they can find. The more bedraggled the better. You can even find people who will “un-restore your car” and make it look…