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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

As I wrote about in the October 2023 issue, my son Bradley got his driver’s license last summer. As a “safe and sane” first car, we decided on a 1982 Chevrolet Corvette Collector’s Edition. It was probably more my fantasy than his, but the right car at the right price […]

After five years and just 2,000 kilometers, our 1971 Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato is gone. In a happy moment for all, it went back to SCMer and longtime Alfa enthusiast Gordy Hyde. I bought it from him five years ago for $60,000. I spent these years and over $20,000 attempting […]

We filled the tank of our 2004 Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG for the first time on July 1, 2020. The odometer read 45,389 miles. We had purchased it from a collector in the Los Angeles area for $22,500. SCM Contributor Philip Richter had urged — no, commanded — me to buy […]

My relationship with the Monterey Peninsula started in the late 1960s. I was a wrench (that was before the term “technician” came into vogue) on Hilary Luginbuhl’s SCCA F-production Alfa Romeo Giulietta race car, aka Rubber Chicken Racing. There was fierce competition in our class against the factory-backed cars, the […]

You could hear the screech of the A/C compressor belt up and down Main Street. Forty classic cars were lined up for the start of the concours wine tour. Now in its 49th year, the Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance is the oldest concours in the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1973, […]