November Editor’s Note
Some months back, we published a story titled Remember When the Car Hobby had Seasons? The traditional ones – summer and fall – are in retreat. The next car season – of indoor new model introductions or collector shows, and of seemingly around-the-clock cable TV visits to car tuners or barn finders, is just not […]
As Nice As Pie – A 1953 Porsche 356 That Still Delivers The Original Goods
Michael Copperthite comes from a long line of pie makers. His ancestors founded the Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Baking Company in Washington D.C. on Thanksgiving Day 1885 with nothing more than a horse, a wagon, and $3.50. By 1897, Henry Copperthite Sr. was a millionaire with hundreds of delivery wagons, one of which now resides in the Smithsonian […]
Hibernation is for Bears, not Cars
You shouldn’t put your car in hibernation. You should be driving your car. You need to drive it at least once a month – every month. You’re going to ignore this advice. You’re going to tell me it’s cold in the winter and there is salt on the road blah, blah, blah. The time and […]
October Editor’s Note
This October issue arrives on the heels of a great event for Porsche and a disaster for Volkswagen. It’s difficult to completely divorce the two because the VW scandal was the 800-pound gorilla lurking around Monterey and Laguna Seca. It led to several dozen VW and Porsche executives and board members canceling their plans to […]
Tom Gloy’s Lean-To Treasure
Tom Gloy has a philosophy about collecting. “I only want a small collection,” he says. “I want to be able to drive them and I don’t have a large storage space. So I keep it to a limited number of cars, and I try to have the best…” By “the best,” he doesn’t always mean […]
Rennsport Reunion
Walking into the event very early, a first timer asked “I’ve never been to one of these; what should I look for?” The Rennsport veteran paused, trying hard to answer adequately without giving too much away. He looked at the newcomer. “You look like you’re old enough to remember The Beatles. Let me put it […]
Original Doesn’t Mean Original
At one point every car was original. That was the day it was driven out of the assembly plant. Over the years things were changed. At the very least the original oil and brake fluid were changed for fluids with a modern chemical composition. If the car was actually driven then the brake pads have […]
SEARCHING FOR SALT – All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go At Bonneville Speedway
Want to go 200 mph? Call 911. That’s what Tom Woodford of California feels like doing after being denied a chance of attaining that magic number at Utah’s Bonneville Speedway for the past two years in a row. In September 2014, Woodford trailered his newly modified 1975 911 from California to the “World of Speed” […]
Is Your Project Car Insured?
It was going to be a six-month project. When the registration came due the car was still on jack stands. In an effort to be frugal you didn’t renew the registration. Surprise. That car is no longer insured. Once the registration lapses you no longer have a car as far as most insurance companies are […]
Werks Reunion 2015
If you’re a Porsche fanatic and attended Monterey car week, then you were at the Werks Reunion event held on Friday at the Rancho Canada Golf Club in the Carmel Valley. It’s a Porsche Club of America sponsored event that celebrates all things Porsche. This year’s event commemorated 40 years of the turbo, but all […]
The 2015 Carmel Concours on the Avenue: The Intimate Extravaganza
“Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much…much…better.”– Laurie Anderson, Performance Artist Some have called Monterey car week overwhelming; some said extravagant; others uttered garish. But if there was one word to describe the opening event – the Concours on the Avenue – in Carmel-By-The-Sea, it might be intimate. The Intimate Extravaganza. Both […]
Chasing Jim Morrison, Riding on the Storm
I went to see a friend the other day and he showed me around his collection. Hidden in a small town near the Washington/Canada border, he has gathered together 15 or so great cars. He tends to buy cars that drive well and have even better paper trails. The collection consists of Porsches and muscle […]
September Editor’s Note
Just when you thought you were done with the Monterey Peninsula from August, we bring you two souvenirs. Writer/photojournalist Sean Cridland takes us back for a thoughtful and entertaining look at the Concours on the Avenue, and at the Werks Reunion. Regular contributor Randy Wells weighs in with the story of one man’s passion for […]
THE TRIBUTE CAR: Building a Toad Hall 911 ST Replica
In the fall of 1971, 25 year-old Michael Keyser of Toad Hall Motor Racing ordered a 2.5-liter Light Yellow 911 “ST” sport purposes Porsche from the factory. In December, he traveled to the Sports Department in Stuttgart where he met with Jürgen Barth, who was the same age and from a well-known racing family. Barth agreed […]
On Quality & Quantity
There is something revealing in the fact that six auction houses in Monterey offered more than 150 Porsches for sale. Elsewhere in this issue, we have suggested that the bubble of investment opportunity has moved past the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, like clouds streaking across the sky, to embrace the 1980s and 1990s, heading toward […]
August Mid-Month Guest Commentator
Well folks, it’s over. The Monterey-Peninsula-ultimate-car-guy-week has come to a close. I was most interested in the auction results and they proved very thought provoking. Overall, the auction houses sold some $390 million in cars this year, compared to $410 million last year. Some will say the bubble has burst, but I will tend to […]
LONG LIVE THE BUBBLE – But Think of it Differently!
For generations, legions of enthusiasts have gathered cars of their era, vehicles they admired when they first discovered automobiles and when they first started driving. Market observers watched interest in 1960s muscle cars begin to grow again 20 years ago (after stock and investor car markets crashed). Fascination with 1970s cars soared soon after that. […]
What Happened to the Embarrassment of Riches?
Editor’s Note: I hope that by the time you see this March issue, a number of you who came to Los Angeles for the annual literature and swap meet – or Trash & Trinkets as a good friend calls it – you also will recognize the structure shown at the top of the page in […]
The Influence of Advertising and Sponsorship
Throughout Porsche’s racing history, 911s with an “R” in their model designation were dreamt up by minds inside the building. Ferdinand Piëch of course gets credit for the 911R. A broad cast of characters – motivated by company chief Ernst Fuhrmann – devised the 911 RS Carrera 2.7. But while the idea for one of […]
An Embarrassment of Riches
With total production of Porsche sports car models hovering around a million examples, perhaps it’s not unexpected how much interest the six auction houses are lavishing on this make in mid-August at Monterey. Call it an embarrassment of riches, if you like, but if you are seeking a 356, 911, 959, Carrera GT or one […]
The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Collection
How does a car collection happen? Can you actually control your collection or do your cars simply have a force of their own? Don Garlits One of the best racecar collections in the world got started because the family saved everything. Don Garlits said that his father was a pack rat and he simply followed […]
August Editor’s Note
The long-awaited Monterey “speed week” is here. For many, the only purpose is the racing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. For others, the variety of shows and concours – from Tuesday’s Concours on the Avenue in Carmel, through Thursday’s Tour d’Elegance, and Friday’s Quail: A Motorsports Gathering, and the […]
Watch the Road (or Restoration,) but Mind the Gauges
There are two very good reasons to restore the gauges in your collector car. First they don’t work. The other reason is they’re ugly. Ok, not really ugly but they’re certainly not up to the standard you just achieved with your paint and upholstery. You want everything to look as if it just rolled out […]
Travel Destinations – Road Scholars East & West
Road Scholars has moved…in. Property acquisitions, designs, construction, remodeling, and installation of exterior and interior hardware, equipment, furniture, and decoration are complete. The facilities are open and Road Scholars encourages you to drop in to their Durham location, or call and visit by appointment their place on Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. Durham, […]
Wheels of Fortune: An Overview of Rare Early Porsche Road Rims
Value seems to be a common topic of conversation these days when discussing older sports cars and their parts. But knowing the price of something without understanding its true worth and rarity can lessen one’s enjoyment of classic car ownership. Take the example of early production Porsche road wheels. Some were built in very low […]
Climb to the Clouds – Pikes Peak 2015
Almost anyone who’s heard of Pikes Peak pictures an open-wheel car in a lurid slide with huge rooster-tails of dirt reaching into the sky…or they imagine Sebastian Loeb’s wickedly fast Peugeot from 2013. Nearly everyone has seen the breath-robbing video of Jeremy Foley catching big air in the 2012 race when he missed a corner just […]
Beach Reads!
Summer is all too short, and it gets quickly filled with family plans and travel opportunities. But at some point you can sit down, slather yourself with sun block, and take a big sip of that iced tea – or that Long Island Iced Tea. Summer also is the time you get to read that […]
Life Insurance for your Car? Or At Least a Full Physical?
Chances are if you’re reading this, you have acquired a classic car or two, now or in the past. There is one crucially important step in this process and it is the one most often overlooked. To put it simply you will win or lose when you buy a car not when you sell it. You […]
July Editor’s Note
It’s summer, and while this could be The Driving Issue, this one has become more the “think about your driving” issue. A number of voices weigh in this month, with Kevin Watts leading off with advice and admonition on being too hasty with that collector car purchase. Regular contributors Richard Newton and Randy Wells advise […]
Flipping? Much more Rumor than Fact
There is widespread criticism of car-flippers, those who allegedly acquire a car at one auction and attempt to sell it for a quick profit at the next. The survey we made for the poster cars story above recorded 559 specific transactions by vehicle identification number from January 2012 through March 2015. During that time just 19 […]
Poster Children: A Survey
Many car enthusiasts had a poster on their wall of the car of their dreams. Although you may have forgotten what you imagined yourself driving in those idyllic days of your youth, it’s clear that David Gooding and Rob Myers, and the folks at Bonhams, Russo & Steele, Rick Cole, at Barrett-Jackson, and Mecum have been […]
Something Old, Something New: June 2015
Porsche 911 Forever Young Written by Tobias Aichele These two books present different approaches to the same story. Aichele worked for Porsche’s Presse department and his history of the 911 incorporates countless quotes from interviews done with company engineers and designers. Technical information, while not the primary purpose in the first 284 pages of text, […]
History Matters. But So Does Proof! – 1971 911T Targa
Sometimes, dealing with collector cars is like archeology: You have to work with what is left. This inquiry began with a plea on an enthusiast message board: “Why doesn’t anyone care about the finest Porsche my Uncle Leopold Schmidt built?” Nearly everyone in the car hobby loves a good mystery and this one struck the right […]
Buying at a Monterey Auction
Buying a car on the Monterey peninsula is simple – if you have the necessary money. Actually it’s more important that your bank says you have the money. You will need to do some homework though, since every auction house is different. Some are very stuffy and very strict. Others believe that since you haven’t […]
June Editor’s Note
May has been a momentous month: Christie’s Auctions during three days of sales, sold $1.36 billion of artwork. Individual pieces sold for $30+M, $50+M, even $179.4 million, establishing a new highest-price ever paid at auction. How it happened – with Christie’s providing its most valued consignors guaranteed prices – offers interesting glimpses into what may […]
The Role of the Placeholder
Tis the season to plan strategy As your collection has grown, it’s likely your collecting plan has matured. Some vehicles have emerged as essential elements of what you are trying to put together, of what element of automotive history you want to study and explain to others. As you develop your critical list and scour […]
The Delivery
Every blue moon or so you get the opportunity to figure out what your meaning of life is! I was lucky enough to get that chance on March 3rd 2015. More than a year ago one of our great clients bought a paint-to-sample GT3 RS 4.0 from us but he had “no room at the […]
Something Old, Something New: May 2015
The Grand Prix Saboteurs By Joe Saward The subtitle for this fascinating book is “The Extraordinary Untold Story of The Grand Prix Drivers Who Became British Secret Agents In World War II.” It represents and presents an astonishing amount of research – 17 years of it – and delivers it nearly to the end in […]
New Leaf: Making a Fresh Start with a 1972 911T
Just a little more than 50K miles have registered on the speedometer of this Leaf Green 1972 911T. Yet, three years ago it was taken completely apart and refurbished to better than new condition. In the process, the pretty coupe was tastefully modified to provide a unique experience for the new owner. It looks stock, […]
Selling Your Car in Monterey?
Why do you want to sell your car at one of the Monterey auctions? Rick Cole, who organized the very first Monterey auction, points out that these auctions are probably not a good venue for the average collector. There are some large expenses involved with the Monterey auctions. Room prices during this week are at […]
May Editor’s Note
With the First of May just past, the late spring/summer driving season is on us. And while the most public – and most enthusiastically watched – early 2015 auctions have entered history books, houses such as RM-Sotheby’s (with one in Texas on May 2 and another at Lake Como in Italy on May 23), Bonhams […]
What They Said:
Sunday, 15 March 2015; Amelia Island, Florida Amelia Island Concours visitors walked past Jeff and Terri Zwart’s 1971 Porsche 914/6GT Werks coupe. The car finished 3rd overall in the 1971 Rallye Monte Carlo and won its class at Amelia. And what was Jeff’s reaction to winning his class? “This was a new experience for me. […]
Design DNA of Iconic Cars
Amelia Island Concours founder Bill Warner is well known for his fascinating, and sometimes provocative Saturday afternoon seminars. If there has ever been any criticism, some suggest at times he has been too ambitious, inviting too many interesting people to participate and leaving, at the end, everyone wanting more than was possible. For the 2015 […]
SURVIVOR 901: One of the Earliest Porsche 911s Turns 50
“My original plan was to flare the wheel wells, put fat tires on it, and maybe even cut the top off turning it into a convertible,” Ron Barnes of Pensacola, Florida, recalled. “Fortunately I decided to concentrate on the engine first, because in doing so I discovered the significance of the serial numbers.” It was […]
Something Old, Something New: April 2015
Carrera – The Porsche 4-Cam Motor and the Early Years of Porsche Motorsports from the 356 and the 550 Spyder to the 904 Carrera GTS. The Motors, the Cars, the Pilots and the Results for Race Cars Built from 1953 – 1965. Co-written by Rolf Sprenger and Steve Heinrichs. This book is going to frustrate […]
Princely Tales
“Prince von Hohenlohe.” Those were the first words after only two rings. I had called the Marbella Club on the Spanish Costa del Sol to reach von Hohenlohe for an interview about his involvement with Porsche and la Carrera Panamericana-Mexico in 1952. I expected a protective layer of telephone security, but it was his club […]
Amelia – Outlook from the Island
If the question after Scottsdale was “remember when the car hobby had its seasons,” the question that became clear at Amelia was “remember when cars used to be for weekends?” Amelia, with its solid prices for solid cars, great prices for great ones, and realistic prices for, well, disappointing ones reinforced the real-world impact of […]
April Editor’s Note: Amelia Photo Op
“We should take a picture right now! Here in the bar, right this minute. This is such a crowd!” The speaker was a long-time professional chronicler of Porsche history. “Remember,” he said, “in the 1960s and 1970s, there were all those great photos of hotel bars filled with racing drivers and their friends and car […]
March Editor’s Note
Welcome to the second issue of Road Scholars Magazine. In this we will offer you a thoughtful look at our car hobby from former auction specialist (and then founding curator of the Mullin Automotive Museum) Andrew Reilly. Elsewhere in this issue you will read long-time Los Angeles Times and Robb Report automotive journalist Paul Dean […]
Something Old, Something New
Automobile Design: Great Designers and Their Work This book first appeared in 1970, published by Robert Bentley. It provides excellent profiles of 11 of automotive history’s greatest design engineers. It is produced by some of the finest historians at the time, including the legendary Jacques Ickx writing about Amédée Bollée and his sons, exceptional innovators […]
Jeep, there’s only… err, two.
My patient and strong soul mate, albeit she who must be obeyed, was giving me The Look. Firm and steady as the Sphinx. Nothing life-threatening, you understand, yet oratorically composed which meant she was quite ready to pounce on her husband’s perceived insanity. “What are you thinking?” she asked. That’s never a good start. “You […]
The White Glove Obsession
It’s common in the world of fine art. It’s S.O.P. – standard operating procedure – among those who handle antiquities, historic documents, or archeological relics. Wear white gloves to handle delicate materials, to touch those objects that might be harmed by human skin oils. Some individuals refer to treating others with deferential – even painstaking […]
Scottsdale Reality Check
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service defines a hobby as “an activity not engaged in for profit.” The 2015 Scottsdale auction results suggest that hobbyists may be an emerging trend. And if these results have a theme, that might be reality check. To long-time auction observers, something seemed different immediately. No one heard Russian in Scottsdale. […]
Remember When the Collector Car Hobby had Seasons?
Like every year for the past 13, this January I found myself drawn to Scottsdale, Arizona, to the annual car auctions, like the proverbial “moth to the flame.” One night at dinner, friends commented they were continually amazed by the proliferation of car events. This led us to reflect on the depth and constancy of […]
Storing Your Collector Cars
Most people do more damage storing their cars than they do driving them. You need to give some serious thought as to where you store your cars. Actually you need to start thinking like someone who collects art or furniture. Here’s a great video that illustrates what’s going on in the art world: You obviously […]
Escapist Literature, Essential Research
The Cobra in the Barn NASCAR racing teams, automobile manufacturers, vintage racers, and automotive journalists know Tom Cotter from a wide variety of occupations that he has filled for more than three decades. But some of those people and most of his friends know him for his much more avid pre-occupation: searching for hidden automobile […]
The Really Truly Last Barn Find. Really. For Sure.
Kevin Watts has spent the past 15 years looking for the proverbial barn find and he really figured they all had been found, the barns and the cars. But, as Kevin explained, “Behold the Last (as of today) Barn Find!” “I got a phone call in late November this year from a fellow in Washington […]
Mr. Clean He Ain’t
My friend Jim Maxwell is a serious Cobra enthusiast; on his days off from his medical practice, he scours junkyards throughout the South in search of old Galaxies, Falcons and Fairlanes, then strips them of their obscure battery cables, radiator clamps and dash knobs so that his own two Cobras can be absolutely factory correct. […]
Going for Pie with Bob Ingram
Bob Ingram began his career in the pharmaceutical industry as a professional sales representative, advancing and earning increasing responsibility to ultimately become CEO/Chairman of GlaxoWellcome. He co-led the merger and integration that formed GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company. In 2007 he joined Hatteras Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in early […]
Going for Pie
Decades ago I did my first book, on Otis Chandler’s muscle car collection. Three years later he provided his Harley-Davidson motorcycles for another of my books. During those years I took a couple of overnight driving trips with him. Otis had retired as publisher of the Los Angeles Times but he remained a newspaperman. On […]
Welcome to the first edition of Road Scholars Magazine.
Cam Ingram, Kevin Watts, and I devised the idea of this monthly electronic magazine as a way for us to introduce you – their clients and our friends – to information and ideas that we find fascinating and relevant in the automobile and car-collecting world. Starting with this issue we plan to bring you some […]