1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE S/N JM1FB3322F0899133. 4,800 miles. “1.3-L 13B rotary, 5-speed manual transmission, limited-slip differential, Royal Maroon Metallic paint, gray cloth upholstery, 14-inch alloy wheels, removable glass sunroof, factory cassette stereo with graphic equalizer, cruise control, A/C, power accessories.” Condition: 1. SOLD AT $35,700. Bring a Trailer, 3/21/24. This might be the year for the first-generation RX-7. In the past few months, four first-gens have sold for over $20k. (The highest was an 860-mile car at $44k.) Is this the new normal? Maybe. For the past few years, most ..read more

Airbnb and Vrbo have become household names for vacation rentals, widely popularizing the idea of a “sharing economy.” A number of similar car-sharing services have also popped up in the past few years, all with a similar pitch: If you own a car, you can make extra money by renting it out through their app or website. On the other hand, if you are looking for a rental car, you can use these services to rent one directly from the owner, which opens up more interesting car choices and potentially saves money. For example, I located the owner of a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo in nearby Seattle through ..read more

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 tires and weighs around 2,500 pounds is my Holy Grail. That’s an apt description of a classic 1950s-to-1960s Alfa Romeo. At the zenith of my Alfa collecting, I had seven of them. When, due to my stroke, I was no longer able to drive a manual-shift car, my search parameters changed. As I have ..read more

Our 1972 Mercedes 250C is done. After tucking another $2,000 bill for repairs and upgrades in the bulging RO (repair orders) folder, I took the car for a 200-mile shakedown cruise. Like so many cars from the 1970s, the Mercedes had only an outside mirror on the driver’s side door, and none on the passenger side. SCMer Matti Bohm in Germany found a correct passenger side mirror. Our local technician Chip Starr located a gasket for it in New York and installed it. Now that the mirror is there, it’s as if it has always been there. The only time I noticed there wasn’t one before was when I wanted ..read more

It was ten in the morning on Friday when we boarded the streetcar to head to the Portland Swap Meet. We were not in a hurry. Accompanying me were SCM Editor-In-Chief Jeff Sabatini and my son Bradley (fresh from scoring a 1:24 Avanti toy at the previous weekend’s Hot Rod and Custom Show). We planned to meet up with SCMer and NCRS Senior Judge Michael Pierce to wander the aisles. Founded in 1964, the meet is billed as the largest indoor/outdoor automotive swap meet west of the Mississippi River. There was an era when it was the epicenter of the old car world in Portland. We kept time by it: “Onl ..read more

1976 Datsun 280Z “Alpha 1 GTO” S/N HLS30303255. 82k miles. “Used in 2001 film ‘Vanilla Sky,’ 350-ci Chevrolet V8, Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, MSD Atomic EFI, 3-speed automatic transmission, Alpha 1 GTO fiberglass body, dark blue paint, black vinyl upholstery, wood-rimmed steering wheel, sliding side windows, rear hatch, 15-inch wire wheels, BC coil-overs.” Condition: 2-. SOLD AT $190,500. Bring a Trailer, 1/17/24. This is neither an expensive Datsun 280Z nor a cheap Ferrari GTO, but both labels apply — and Tom Cruise did sit in it. The Alpha 1 GTO body kit was produced by Alpha Design ..read more

Back in the late 1990s, before the Fast became Furious, Honda Motor Co. found itself the fortunate beneficiary of a momentous shift in car culture. Almost overnight, Honda Civics and Acura Integras became icons among a group of enthusiasts known as much for their ill-fitting pants as for their slammed hatchbacks. That these cars offered an accessible path to performance was less vital than was their arbitrary coolness. As evidence, consider the fickle and nearly complete exclusion of an equally virtuous contemporary model: the fifth-generation Honda Prelude. It wasn’t that the Prelude didn’t f ..read more

In 2005, I bought a Ford GT in what I consider the heritage colors — Midnight Blue with white stripes. These echo the Guardsman Blue with Wimbledon White stripes livery of the 1964 GT40 that won the Daytona 2000 km Continental. Even after more than 18 years and 20,776 miles, my car is a thrill to drive. Not for one minute have I regretted buying it — or driving it. I recall having dinner with Edsel Ford just after the car was announced. The MSRP had not been set, but he said the company was looking at asking $250k. As it turned out, the original starting price wound up being just $140k. That h ..read more

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