Shifting Gears

A Two-Way Ticket Down to Tennessee

I’ve finally taken a ride on the Chattanooga Choo Choo. This was my fourth visit to the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, sponsored by Millennium Bank. Like a fine wine, this event gets better each year. Developer and philanthropist Byron DeFoor is the founder of the festival. His commitment to nurturing the […]

A Meditation on Preservation

Some winners are easier to pick than others. At the Kentucky Derby, it’s the nose of the horse that crosses the finish line first. At the Super Bowl, the team with the most points when the clock expires is the champion. The first team to take four games in the […]

There and Back Again

I recently had the opportunity to speak at the 49th national meeting of the North American MGA Register, held locally here in Welches, OR. The convention was organized by SCM contributor Reid Trummel and hosted by the Columbia Gorge MG Club. My address to the group concerned a trip I made […]

Escape From the Ordinary

Most cars lead a mundane existence, barely noticed accessories to our lives. We drive them to the supermarket and the malls. If they are lucky, and the kids put away their bikes and skateboards, they might get parked in the garage once in a while. Classic-car tours flip this paradigm […]

Ciao, Bella Macchina

When I was director of dance for the Portland Opera, a large part of my life revolved around yearning, passion, searches, mysteries, findings and farewells. It’s not so different with the classic cars that roll in and out of our garages. After 10 years and 15,000 miles, I am selling […]

People, Places and Things

Museums were on my mind recently. The same week the Mullin Collection was dispersed through a sale by Gooding & Company, I was visiting Washington, D.C., immersing myself in the capital. You are truly swimming in the sea of our country’s history no matter where you go in the city. […]

Love the One You Have

Erratic. Nonsensical. Devoid of any appearance of logic. That’s how my friends have described my approach to collecting over the past few years. But thanks to a recent temptation, my unfocused and somewhat frantic searching may be nearing an end. An adequately powered sports car that handles well on skinny […]

Hope Springs Eternal

I’ve got a new favorite Porsche. This isn’t my first Stuttgart rodeo. Over the years, I have owned a 1968 911L, a 1978 911 SC, a 1991 928 S4, a 2000 911 Turbo, a 2000 911 Carrera and a 2000 Boxster S. They each spoke their Porsche dialect with a […]

A Gem of an Auction

I have an upcoming event that requires a ring. So when a catalog arrived from a local fine-arts and antiques auction house — an analog version of a “notify me” email from an online collector-car auction — a 5.53-carat stone caught my eye. O’Gallerie, a family-run Portland institution, was founded in […]

Dakar or Bust?

I’ve been writing about off-road Porsches since 2003. That’s when my review of the new Cayenne models appeared in The New York Times. My first reaction to an SUV from Stuttgart was that it was like watching someone hiking the Yosemite Falls Trail in an Armani suit and Gucci loafers. […]