Blogs
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Jim’s Blog: What’s Your Worst Automotive Missed Connection?
Live anywhere long enough and eventually you find car guy landmarks. For me, they consist of interesting cars and where they are around my neighborhood. There’s the ’67 Malibu that sits outside near my parents’ place, and the mossy ’66 4×4 Chevy truck that’s about two blocks from my house. There’s a ’55 Chevy with…
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Car Club Survival Tips: Part 2
I was at the Oregon Region Porsche Club holiday dinner recently, and several members came up to talk about my November 11 column, Tips for Car Club Survival, concerning things that car clubs might consider to help them survive and grow as we move deeper into the 21st century. Our new world is not particularly automobile-friendly,…
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1,000 Miles of Patagonia in a Jaguar E-type — The 2014 Argentine Millas
I’ve just completed the 1,000-mile Monte Carlo-style rally held every year in Argentina. The Argentine Millas brings together old-car enthusiasts for three long days of challenging roads and timed legs that are measured to 1/100 of a second. My co-pilot was Round-Fender Volvo Club leader Dean Koehler, recently retired from Alaska Airlines and who is…
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Alfa 4C: The Right Car for the Right Time?
I’ve been around Alfas for a long time. When I was at Ron Tonkin Grand Turismo in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the Alfas we were selling were the Milano, the 164 and the beloved-but-aged Spider. At that time, corporate Alfa had, in its infinite wisdom, decided that since Americans bought a lot of…
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Tips for Car Club Survival
I’ve been thinking about what it takes for a club to survive in the 21st century. I belong to a fair number of automotive marque clubs, and I regularly attend meetings for other clubs as a guest. Here are my tips for making a club a more effective organization. Make it Appealing Car clubs have…
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Jim’s Blog: How Do You Hunt for Parts?
If you’ve ever taken on a project car, then you know that the job of bringing it back to life is never really complete. Wear items wear out, and other things like wheels or performance parts tend to get swapped out as owners’ interests change. Most car people also have a list of things they’d…
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Hilton Head Motors Forward
How often do you get to discuss advances in Civil War artillery with Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal while driving in his 1962 Porsche 356 twin-grille roadster under a canopy of Spanish Moss? Over the past 13 years, the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival has grown from a car show to an entire week celebrating…
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A Glimpse of Pure Passion
The SCM Monterey Insider’s Seminar is always a good experience, but this year it was a great deal better than good — it was fascinating, inspiring, and — of course — highly instructive. This year’s theme, “Preserve or Restore? The Three Tipping Points to Making the Decision” brought out principal speaker Miles Collier’s intense passion…
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Flying High Without Leaving the Ground
The Motorworks Revival — known simply as the Jet Center Party — has been hosted for the past 23 years by Gordon McCall and takes place on the Wednesday preceding the Pebble Beach Concours. In the beginning, it was a low-key, invitation-only party for concours entrants and select friends that set the tone for the…
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An E-Ticket Ride at the Best Place on Earth
If I had to sum up my trip to Monterey for the “big car week” in two words, they would be “exhilarating” and “exhausting.” And at most times, it really was a combination of the two. It’s not like I hadn’t been before. This was actually my fourth time to Monterey in August over…