If you live in the Maldives, you are aware that the seas are rising. Whether temperatures are going up because of diesel emissions, home barbecue grills or cows farting methane doesn’t really matter. In the end, the earth is warming and the ocean is getting higher. It’s the same with […]
Author: Keith Martin
Keith’s Blog: Low-Riders, Lambos and 911s
From Lamborghini Huracans to 1300-cc Alfa Supers, it’s been a car-centric weekend. But first, am I the only one who noticed the classic low-rider Chevrolet convertibles in the Super Bowl halftime show? Or the VW Thing in one of the ads? Is this Gen-X nostalgia? My weekend started with a […]
Keith’s Blog: Why We Call a 31-Year-Old Car “New”
I’ve only put a few miles on our recently acquired 1991 Alfa Spider S4. With just 22,000 CARFAX-certified miles, it’s like new. In fact, its “newness” is a little unsettling. The basic underlying 105-series chassis first entered production in 1964. I don’t know if any other new car sold in […]
Keith’s Blog: An Alfa Spider S4 Joins the Fleet
Sometimes the right car, at the right price and the right time, comes along. So you just buy it. That’s the case with the 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4 that is now on the way from Palm Springs, CA, to Portland. A friend (“friend?” – more like enabler) forwarded me […]
Keith’s Blog: A Trip to Skamania, No Rollback Involved
Last week we took our 1971 DS21 Pallas for a quick trip to Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA. It’s 46 miles one-way from Portland. And one-way was as far as we got, as the car failed to proceed on the way home. No harm done, as Mike Christopherson at Pro-Tek […]
Keith’s Blog: The Citroën and the Flatbed
It was 2 p.m. on Sunday. Bradley and I had taken the SCM Citroën DS21 Pallas out for a quick 100-mile spin so I could continue to familiarize myself with the car’s peculiar approach to motoring. The morning was spectacular. Bradley had never seen the DS raise itself as it […]
A Vessel of Memories
Facebook didn’t exist when SCM was created. My first posts with pictures of Bradley were made 12 years ago, when he was 3. The equivalent period of his sister Alexandra’s life is captured in piles of three-by-five-inch photos scattered and stashed and filed and piled in innumerable places. I tell […]
Keith’s Blog: Junior Z Meets Monster Truck
The afternoon started out innocently enough. It was a sunny winter day in Portland. I asked my friend Chris Bright, founder of Collector Part Exchange, if he would go with me to Pro-Tek Automotive, where the SCM Alfa Junior Zagato, Jaguar E-type and Citroën DS21 are stored. Our plan was […]
Keith’s Blog: Five New Year’s Resolutions
It’s that time of year when we reflect on the year that has just gone by, and how we want the year ahead to be different. Here are five things to consider as you start a new year of buying, selling, collecting, restoring and driving. 1. Try out something new. […]
Keith’s Blog: The Week After Christmas
We’re now in the after-celebration of Christmas. This week, between Christmas day and New Year’s Eve, always feels just a little empty. If I lived in a warmer climate than Portland, I would be looking at classic car day trips. But here, with mixed rain and snow in the forecast, […]