Keith Martin

Keith’s Blog: Your $500k Car Collection

We do this exercise every so often. I offer a target and you start throwing darts. We played the original version on an SCM tour bus headed to the vintage Monaco GP. I think our target then was $25,000. Times have changed. Here’s today’s challenge: Tell us your four-car collection […]

Keith’s Blog: BMW E30 vs. Volvo 240

There’s been plenty of discussion about how Bring a Trailer has changed the world of collecting. The simplest example goes back to the early days of SCM. When we wrote about a Ferrari Dino selling at Barrett-Jackson, the magazine was the only place that sale would be covered in any […]

Keith’s Blog: My Lotus Ate Its VIN

SCM Editor-In-Chief Jeff Sabatini recently took our 2006 Lotus Elise in for its every-two-years emission testing. We expected it would be routine, as it powered by a modern (by our standards) Toyota engine. It failed. But not because of emissions issues. On the printout we got from the Oregon Department […]

Keith’s Blog: Fly or Drive?

This year we made the decision to drive to Monterey from Portland, about 750 miles each way. In previous decades, we had flown to San Jose, CA, picked up a rental car and driven to the peninsula, repeating the process for the trip home. Door to door, it would take […]

Keith’s Blog: Could It Be the Vacuum Line?

My son Bradley’s 1982 Chevrolet Corvette continues to create its own adventures. He spent a weekend at Sauer’s Machine and Racing, a shop in Medford, OR. His grandfather, Dick Ewing, who dragged-raced a C1 Corvette and was known for his ability to work wizardry with nitrous injection, works as a […]

Keith’s Blog: The Drive to Monterey

It’s been 30 years since SCM made our first 2,000-mile roundtrip from Portland to Monterey Car Week. For many years, we drove a van with boxes of magazines strapped to the roof. More recently we have shipped our materials ahead and flown down. However, my son Bradley turned 16 this […]

Keith’s Blog: See You in Monterey

For the first time in four years, I’ll be in Monterey. I’m going to keep an abbreviated schedule this year, arriving on Wednesday in time for our annual SCM contributor’s meet-up, and departing Saturday morning. I’ll be bringing my son Bradley with me, and he is all agog about seeing […]

Keith’s Blog: Belts and Suspension

My son Bradley and I have just finished another classic car tour weekend. We were participating in the Northwest Classic Car Challenge, hosted by the Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon. Restoration shop Vintage Underground were the primary sponsors. There were a nice mix of classic and modern cars in this […]