Keith’s Blog: 52 Years in the Forest

Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than 40 years, and is the founder and publisher of this magazine. Keith has also written for the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications, has been an emcee for numerous concours, and had his own show, “What’s My Car Worth,” shown on Velocity. He has received many honors, including the Lee Iacocca Award, the Edward Herrmann Award, was inducted into the Concorso Italiano Hall of Fame, and more. He has served on the board of directors of The LeMay Museum and Oregon Ballet Theater, and was formerly the chair of the board of the Meguiar’s Award. Learn more about Keith here. This year marked the 52nd annual Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance. It is the longest running concours in the Pacific Northwest, held on the bucolic, tree-lined grounds of Pacific University. This concours has a mission. Every dollar raised goes directly towards Rotary Foundation Scholarships for students in the Forest Grove, Banks and Gaston school districts. To date, more than $1 million has been donated. SCMer Brad Miller gave me a ride to the show, and also was awarded Best in Class for his 280SL, fresh off a 6.5-year restoration. My son Bradley came out in the newest addition to the SCM fleet, […] This year marked the 52nd annual Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance. It is the longest running concours in the Pacific Northwest, held on the bucolic, tree-lined grounds of Pacific University. This concours has a mission. Every dollar raised goes directly towards Rotary Foundation Scholarships for students in the Forest Grove, Banks and Gaston school districts. To date, more than $1 million has been donated. SCMer Brad Miller gave me a ride to the show, and also was awarded Best in Class for his 280SL, fresh off a 6.5-year restoration. My son Bradley came out in the newest addition to the SCM fleet, a 6-cylinder English car from 1964. But more about that another time. I will only say that despite the 85-degree heat, the car’s temp stayed steady at 180. And there was a reason for that. As much as I enjoy starting my day with a Cars & Coffee event, nothing beats the relaxed schedule and feeling of a regional concours. Parking was easy, there were no lines to get in, and arriving at a reasonable 11 am (no 5 am Dawn Patrol here) still gave us plenty of time to enjoy all the cars and watch the awards ceremony. Concours are more about the people than the cars. After a decade, I had the chance to reconnect with Concorso Italiano founders Frank and Janet Mandarano. They drove down from Seattle in their Ferrari Daytona Spider. I was emcee at Concorso for over a decade and those remain some of my favorite Monterey moments. The field at Forest Grove this year was unusually diverse and attractive, and included among others, Lancia Fulvias, Alfa Zagatos, classic Land Rovers and Corvairs. SCM Legal Files contributor John Draneas brought his Series 1 Jaguar E-type, which won Second in Class. There’s no better way to spend a weekend afternoon than at a car show. I look forward to seeing you at one in the future. Leave a Reply