SCM’s editorial staff has plenty of opportunity to get out of the office over the course of the year. You’ll find us following the action in Scottsdale, on the concours lawn at Amelia Island, and dashing from event to event during Monterey Car Week. But our favorite annual outing is the SCM 1000.
We get to spend six days and five nights with some of the best people: SCMers, readers and contributors alike. That they bring along some of their most prized automotive possessions to drive 1,000 miles is just the icing on the cake.
This year’s hub-and-spoke event was held in Spokane in scenic Eastern Washington, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The city’s motto — “Near nature, near perfect” — was fitting. Not only were we impressed with the historic city itself, along with its eateries and accommodations, but the routes heading north, south, east and west were picturesque. Lush and vibrant fields of green and yellow, vast deep blue lakes, historic dams and rushing waterfalls powered by a particularly strong snowmelt greeted us.
Back at the contemporary Davenport Grand Hotel each evening, we enjoyed cocktail hour and some kicking of tires before the evening “Conversations With Collectors” session. On one night, Silver Auctions head Mitch Silver and Gooding & Company specialist Hans Wurl hosted a “What’s My Car Worth?®” session. On another evening, Steven Posner of Putnam Leasing, Garth Hammers of Gooding & Company, and Mal Maloney of Hagerty gave us their thoughts on the state of the collector-car market heading into the Monterey auctions. Over dinner at the Historic Flight Foundation museum, we enjoyed SCM contributing editor Thor Thorson regaling us with tales of “the way it was” driving a 1950s Ferrari in the early days of vintage sports-car racing, as well as what the future of that hobby may look like.
And that’s to say nothing of the driving itself. Nearly a dozen Porsches, 356s and 911s alike, were joined by a number of other pre-1975 vintage sports cars, from BMW E9s to Jaguar E-types, an MG TC, a Siata 208S and a rare Talbot-Lago America. We can’t wait to do it all again next year. The 2024 SCM 1000 will be held from June 9 to 14 at the Running Y Golf and Spa Resort in Klamath Falls, OR. Please visit www.scm1000.com to sign up for updates about the opening of registration and event details. ©
