Conversations With People We Value #582025-02-06T21:14:13+00:00

Cars We Love & Who We Are

More than the polished parts and hard to find pieces, the special interest vehicles people collect embody the character of each owner. “Cars We Love & Who We Are” profiles individual special interest vehicles and the proud owner committed to its preservation.

Conversations with People We Value

Talking with skilled professionals who support our passion for collectible automobiles.

Roads We Remember

Some roads discovered far from home reward us with a once in a lifetime driving experience. Others are old friends revisited to elevate our spirits and celebrate the joy of life behind the wheel.

In Search of the 7th Royale Series – All the Episodes Here

Cars We Love & Who We Are #58

February 1940 saw the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty that ended the Winter War between the Soviets and Finland. However, unlike the war, Finland’s punishing unrelenting bitter winter continued unabated. An uneasy peace hung in the frigid Baltic air. Fueling a blanketing dread, a great gathering storm malevolently churned on the horizon. The near future seemed explosively ripe and ready to unleash what seemed an inevitable whirlwind of death and destruction. All knew peace stood no chance. None more so than two freedom fighters revered in Finland but foreign to that frozen land. Brothers in arms, both keenly sensed the rapidly shrinking window available for their escape from an ever tightening Nazi/Soviet vice.

Neither yet 21-years old, Estonian Mihkel Oja and American Ed Sikes, possessed many friends but no roots in the gallant Finnish land for which they had fought. Like the jagged bitter cold that pierced their flesh, the prospects of the coming apocalypse shredded their sense of well being. Neither possessed a sliver of doubt as to their future. Their only hope would reside in fleeing the forests of Finland, NOW!

In Search of the Lost 7th Royale Part 2 (Episode 10 – Harrowing Escape into an Unknown Future)

FINLAND 1940

With the changing political climate and boiling clouds of war, every minute Mihkel and Ed remained in Finland hardened their shared ominous sense of imminent doom. Neither could dispel haunting thoughts of a tightening noose about to choke off any means of escape. Tomorrow they would be gone. As they stood together overlooking a map of the Scandinavian countries, Mihkel’s finger pointed to a town in the north of neutral Sweden. “Kiruna,” said Mihkel. He had pinned their hopes on reaching a Swedish mining town in the Arctic Circle.

Mihkel believed escaping to Sweden offered the best opportunity to avoid capture by the Soviets and most likely death. And in all honesty Sweden presented the only apparent opportunity offering any chance of success. In its favor, Sweden had declared itself neutral in the blossoming global conflict. As well, by being a willing trading partner with Germany, Sweden lessened its attractiveness to the Nazi’s as a subject of occupation. Mihkel also took heart in Sweden’s treatment of Allied air crews forced to land crippled aircraft in Sweden. Crewmen while not permitted to leave Sweden had free reign to explore the […]

By |February 6th, 2025|0 Comments

Cars We Love & Who We Are #57

Winter of 1939 found Estonian native son and freedom fighter, teenager Mihkel Oja seeking refuge from a tempest that would soon engulf all of the world he knew and much of the world in total. Clinging to a sled behind his team of powerful Malamutes and Siberian Huskies, his hunched and bundled frame cleaved the bitter Baltic night. Fleeing across the uncharted recently frozen surface of the Gulf of Finland offered his only hope. He would surely be killed if he stayed in Estonia. Better to make this desperate attempt to cross 50 miles of dark uncertainty and danger to reach Finland and sanctuary. To do otherwise would expose him and, worse, his family to the brutish retribution common to life lived at the cruel crossroads where Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia battled for dominance over a tiny nation alive with individual dreams of freedom.

Certainly at this moment Mihkel harbored no thoughts of a priceless Bugatti unknown to the world and hidden on his father’s rural Estonian farm, but decades later he would.

In Search of the Lost 7th Royale  (Part 2 – Episode 9 – Priceless Bugatti Lost in the Fog of War)

FINLAND 1940

Distant flashes of artillery fire lit the far horizon. What became known as the “Winter War of 1939 to 1940 had escalated to widespread pitched conflicts producing battlefield bloodbaths across frozen forested terrain. At stake, Russia’s attempt to take control of large swaths of Finland. It pitted a massed and massive Russian armed force of about a million men against a far smaller and largely ill-equipped Finnish military and civilian force intent on defending their homeland.

Winter War

Warmed by the anxiety born of the distant sounds of war that carried across the great dark expanse of ice, Mihkel tried to concentrate his thoughts solely on reaching Finland. He envied the singular focus of his disciplined dog team. Thoughts crept into his consciousness bringing to mind questions of fight or flight. He allowed himself a half smile, half grimace in recognizing the irony of his apparent fleeing into harm’s way. He quickly snapped to, recognizing that worrying about the myriad things that could go wrong served no purpose. Life would provide answers soon enough. With a hushed “Tchk, Tchk” he spurred on the canine co-conspirators enabling his escape […]

By |January 23rd, 2025|2 Comments

Conversations With People We Value #57

Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B

No car is theft proof. A couple of good old boys in South Carolina proved that convincingly in 2022.  While these thieves may never have attended the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este by Lake Como in Italy, the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spyder they stole had, and, while there, won Best of Show. Years later in July of 2022 while being transported to a restoration shop in New England, the Alfa sat parked at a Holiday Inn in Latta, South Carolina. There cosseted in a sealed trailer pulled by a Ford F-350 dually pickup the Alfa along with the truck and trailer disappeared. The stolen Alfa possessed an estimated value in excess of $20,000,000.

For a single stolen car that may be a record, however, more than a few organized car theft gangs operating in venues richly populated with highly desirable modern cars have stolen a sum total of vehicles with a value far in excess of $20 Million. Knowing that, it helps to understand what steps you can take to avoid being one of their victims.

Chris Connolly a recently retired 30-year NYPD veteran and past senior member of the New York City Auto Crimes Division has been part of the team that has brought such criminals to justice. In the past Chris has shared stories of his experiences with Drivin’ News readers in Part 1. He now shares more in Part 2.

Automotive Crimes and the Man Who Solved Many of Them, Talks AirTags, Fobs and Much More   Part 2

The story begins with a savvy and determined woman in the Bronx who had her Honda CRV stolen. Chris says, “Hondas rank high on the list of favorite theft targets in the Bronx.” He went on to explain that the woman had taken the precaution of secreting an Apple AirTag in her Honda. With her Honda now missing, she took another family car and went in search of her presumed stolen Honda. At this point in Chris’s story, I, being an Android user with no AirTag experience thought AirTags had a limited range of maybe three hundred feet. Thus, I reached out to two respected sources to confirm the claim of extended range.

AirTag

Adamantly, Bill, the Apple […]

By |January 10th, 2025|2 Comments
Drivin' News Quiz
Here’s this week’s question:
What was the name of  the lower priced  brand spun off from Cadillac in the 1930s?
 

Answer to last week’s question:
Suicide doors are hinged at the rear rather than the front.

About the blogger

Burton Hall has written for an automotive client list that includes Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Maserati, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Peugeot and Volvo. He has also written for The Washington Post, AutoWeek, Corvette Monthly, Jaguar Magazine, BMW Magazine, Hemmings.com, Hagerty Magazine and numerous auto restoration buff books.

He is a member of the Society of Automotive Historians and the Historic Vehicle Association.

As a classic car hobbyist, He owns a 1961 Corvette that he bought in 1967, a 1953 Jaguar XK120MC Drophead Coupe that he restored after finding it in a barn in 1980, an original 1953 Golden Anniversary Ford F100 pickup that he purchased from the original owner and a 1951 MG TD that presently serves as a planter and centerpiece in his garden. All are great drivers, except the MG which has a few bugs.

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