The great thing about American cars is that they pretty much always work. Even if you let one sit for a few months, you can expect it to fire up and run without needing much of anything. But that wasn’t the experience I had this past weekend.
At ACC, we attend a lot of large-scale events, so small ones are always a fun change of pace. On Saturday, I was planning on going to a small car show at the Lake Bible Church Read More
After a few days of recharging our batteries, the ACC crew is back in the office following the whirlwind of car events that make up Monterey car week. I couldn’t be happier with the performance of my Charger on the 1,600-mile drive – 80 mph, a/c on, and 22 mpg on average. Aside from a flying 4×8 sheet of plywood that scuffed up my front bumper and passenger rear quarter panel while we were passing through Redding, California, the trip Read More
As you read this, the ACC and SCM crews will be on the road to Monterey, California for the annual collector car auctions, Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca, and the Pebble Beach Concours, all of which take place this week.
I spent this past weekend prepping my Charger SRT8 for the 1,600-mile round trip, which included a thorough cleaning inside and out. This is a pretty regular thing at my house, but a little surprise was waiting for Read More
If you have an old car, you’d better have a few tools, too. Even if you’re not a shadetree mechanic, there will come a time that you’ll need to turn a wrench or two, even if it’s on something small like a loose belt or a flat tire. So you’ve finally bought that GTO or Road Runner. Now what tools do you absolutely need to have in your garage?
I spent six years as a professional mechanic working on mostly Read More
When ACC’s staff isn’t out drag racing our cars or going to shows, we’re tracking the collector car market via auction sales. And probably the most frequent question we’re asked has to do with which cars are the new hot ticket in the market at large. What cars should you buy right now before prices move up? How much should you expect to spend?
Time to dust off the crystal ball – with that question in mind, here are five Read More
ACC has owned our Hemi-powered 1963 Dodge 440 2-dr Post for six months now. During that time, pretty much everyone on staff could be heard bench racing about it at one time or another, all of us wondering if it was really capable of 10-second runs as advertised. This past Friday night, I took it to the drag strip to find out.
I’ve been involved in drag racing since around 1999, but Read More
For every race won or car show trophy earned, I’m sure there are a few less sparkly car moments you’d like to forget. Nobody here is immune. If you’ve been around cars long enough, you’ve done something silly or just plain stupid. From 100-mph-plus speeding tickets to accidentally starting an engine without oil, it’s time to own up.
I was an auto mechanic for six years at a small local Portland, OR shop that worked on classics, and Read More
The classic truck market has been gaining steam over the past few years, with good-condition original rigs now seeing some very high prices across the auction block. But that hasn’t made them all rise in value. While some trucks are up, others are still just old workhorses without collector interest. So if you’re in the market, which trucks should you be looking for? Here are five I’d watch:
From the outside, Portland, OR may not seem like a big car town. What most people see here are a mass of bicycle commuters and greenies driving hybrids on the highway at under the posted speed limit. But all that changes when the annual spring rains let up. Nothing really rusts here, so there’s a large underground of classics, hot rods, and muscle cars in this town. And all it takes is a few days of Read More
Which late-model fuel-injected performance cars are good investments? That’s a hard question to answer. There’s a sweet spot of low-production cars that actually saw some use from new, which has thinned their numbers and made them harder to find – especially in all-original condition. But in terms of investment potential, my money’s on super low-production cars and cars that were aimed at racing – all would need to be in very original condition with few miles. These are Read More