During my short Army career I was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone in 1968, and before reporting to my next duty station I was allowed to drive home. This practice ended soon after due to "instability" in some of the countries on the route.
I'd already convinced a friend of mine to dump his '64 Ford Galaxy to get a sports car, so we made the trip back together as far as Guadalajara, after which he headed to Texas to be discharged (I headed to Travis AFB in California for departure to Viet Nam).
The trip was actually fairly uneventful. Both cars ran just fine on crummy gasoline, and the only mechanical problem either of us encountered was a bad generator in my MG, repaired with a Land Rover armature. Luckily, the problem surfaced in Costa Rica, which had Land Rover dealers.
We were both officers, documented in our passports, so every border crossing resulted in salutes with no delays. Until Arizona, that is. After being waved through, the border agent yelled for me to stop after seeing my Canal Zone plate on the rear. No contraband to find (I was a lieutenant, after all), and luckily they never looked in the door panel to find the handgun.
This stretch was the only unpaved portion of the Pan-American Highway, a roughly 200 mile stretch that took us all day and passed over Cerro de la Muerte. The '66 MGB was mine, and the '67 TR250 belonged to my friend. I'd already driven my recently purchased MG from California to New Jersey to ship the car to Panama, so driving it home made sense, in a way. I currently drive a 2005 Elise, but the car in the photo made me a believer in British reliability.
throwback says:
05:18 AM, 02/ 6/12
Great story. You don't hear many stories extolling the virtues of British reliability!
cynic783 says:
06:37 AM, 02/ 6/12
nice post, love the story to go with the car. i wonder what one of those weighs?
isend2c says:
01:25 AM, 02/ 7/12
I like how you totally ignored your current car for almost all of the post. The MG is one of the rarest cars on here - nothing like the countless Saabs and Mazda(speed) 3s.
noburgers says:
03:57 AM, 02/ 7/12
reminds me of although not fondly of the finicky to start 70's MGB. looks like 2 honest cars. Now the story sounds like you don't have these cars anymore, and the photo is vintage too? please comment
bankerdanny says:
12:58 PM, 02/ 7/12
I have defend the ease of starting an MG, my '72 MGB GT starts easily regardless of the temperature. Pull the choke, turn the key, start, every time.
steviebster says:
03:37 PM, 02/20/12
Great story! Reminded me of our drive from Monterey, CA to the Canal Zone in February of 1977. I was 15 years old and traveling with my younger sister, mom and dad who was a MI officer stationed at Ft Amador with the 470th MI Group. We made the trip in a 22ft 1976 Tioga mini-motorhome. We took 33 days or so to complete the trip. I completed high school (Balboa High) and began college (former Canal Zone College...affectionately known as "Our Lady of the Ditch") down there. We had wanted to drive back when it came time to transfer but it was 1980 and we were no longer allowed. I learned to drive in the Canal Zone in a 1976 Olds Starfire GT 5-spd. I thought I was the "sh*t" back then, LOL. Thanks for sharing your story.
Remembering in Seattle,
Stephen