Friends, I have finally arrived in Scottsdale after an 8-hour door-to-door journey that would have taken half as long had I not been required to first fly from Vancouver Island to Seattle. Which meant removing my shoes and exposing the laptop twice for security, as well as hanging around SEATAC waiting for the alaska airlines flight to Phoenix. Having miraculously circumnavigated two expressways and several local roads at night to find the Scottsdale Inn & Suites I also celebrated an upgrade to a luxurious Hyundai Azera when the booked economy car wasn't available. Wednesday morning, somewhat dazed, your ace automobile journalist drove the first mile with the emergency brake on until unpleasant vibrations and odours woke him to reality. (I hate those foot-operated emergency brakes but that's no excuse, nor is the lack of a "brake on" warning light in the Azera.) First stop, naturally, was the Barrett-Jackson auction which has become as much an entertainment venue as a collector car sale. As witness that robotic monster in the background, whose claim to fame is that, while looking like a Darth Vader character, it can actually lift and crush an automobile in its metallic mitts. Up front, two humble but unique vehicles that could be more fun to own than the hundreds of muscle cars lining the B-J tents: a Heinkel microcar and a floats-and-drives Amphicar.