I’ve become a member of many car clubs over the past decade, eight to be exact. When I joined my first one, the Canadian Classic MG Club, I knew it would involve fun membership meetings (I’d been to a couple before joining), opportunities to learn about the MGBs that I loved when I was young but couldn’t afford, and activities like cruises and rallies. That of course turned out to be true. What I hadn’t anticipated was that involvement in British car clubs and the wider community of car enthusiasts brings a whole lot more.
I hadn’t anticipated the incredible network of friends that comes along with being an active member of a car club—friends that are very eager to give you information and advice, locate parts (even ones known to be almost impossible to find), refer you to sources of reliable help, or amazingly enough, come to your rescue on the side of the road.
All collector cars have challenges now and again and it’s comforting to know there’s always someone who’ll help you with them. This is particularly important for a person like me since I drive my 1970 MGB roadster “B52” long distances, sometimes on my own. I’m not exactly Ms. Mechanical Whiz, and thus while the B’s boot is full of spare parts, in most cases I don’t have the knowledge or skill to install them. That’s where the friends come in.
Traffic was incredibly busy on a late Friday night drive on Interstate-5 from my home in Vancouver, BC, to Portland; we were en route to the All British Field Meet starting early Saturday morning. With no warning, B52’s fuel pump decided it needed a rest and cut out in south Tacoma, leaving us to coast across two lanes of vehicles traveling 60 mph. Amazingly making it unscathed to the side of the highway, I tried starting her again, but after a brief moment, the engine fizzled out. Fuel, I guessed. Not having a flashlight on board (what was I thinking!), I used the dim light of my cell phone to check the small fuel filter that is easy to see sitting beside the carburetors, and it didn’t seem to have any fuel in it. Hmmm. While I had a brand new fuel pump in the boot, already pre-wired by an MG shop in Vancouver to easily install in the fuel line and connect to the fuse box, I didn’t feel quite up to tackling the installation with one hand, while holding the cell phone light in the other.
I started to dial the Washington State Automobile Association, and then realized I wouldn’t know where to have the B towed. It was 10:30 pm, way past a reasonable hour to call anyone, and, much to my horror, I found I didn’t have a copy of my MG Car Club Northwest Centre membership roster or the North American MGB Register Mutual Aid Directory on board. Checking my personal phone list, I managed to find the number for MGCCNWC members Tom and Di White and bravely called them. Tom, as I found out later having just put his hand on the light switch to go to bed, answered and referred me to a British repair shop near our breakdown location. He also gave me the number for club members Jim and Roberta Lumley who live in Tacoma.
A dilemma: Do I call AAA first or the Lumleys, who are very likely in bed? I decided to be brave and call Jim and Roberta, who it turns out were not only in bed, but asleep! “Stay there,” Roberta tells me, “don’t call the AAA, we’ll be on our way right away.” Twenty minutes later, a pair of headlights pulled up behind us and out comes Jim in his work clothes with tool kit in hand, and Roberta with a couple of flashlights. Needless to say a few minutes later, the new electronic fuel pump was installed and B52 was purring. No towing, no waiting till Tuesday to have the repair shop deal with the problem (it was a long weekend); we were on our way south again. And, just to ensure we’d be all right, the Lumleys drove with us all the way to Olympia!
Jim & Roberta Lumley and their 1980 MGB in September 2010 at Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, Washington, on a joint Vancouver/Seattle MG Club weekend.
B52 and I made it to Portland by 2:30 am, and were on the field at the All British Field Meet first thing Saturday morning, by the end of the day winning Third in Class in the People’s Choice Awards. On Sunday, we were on the Portland International Raceways track in the Giant Slalom. We of course wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for the wonderful community I became a part of when I took the simple step of joining a car club. Anyone with a classic car that they drive near or far shouldn’t underestimate the value of being in the company of friends.
By Jennifer Orum
Canadian Classic MG Club
MG Car Club Northwest Centre
MG Owners Club of Northern California
Sorry Safari Touring Society
'In the Company of Friends' have 2 comments
March 26, 2015 @ 1:16 pm dave
Yes these cars are so much and subject to break downs but there are people out there that make it worth while
April 28, 2015 @ 5:35 pm George
Very true over and over again I have been amazed at the friendships and bonds we have made with club members and lifelong friends from the MG Car Club. I once got a call from a club member who had agreed to put up a visiting British MG Car club member who was traveling around the USA in his MG TF. Would my wife and I be willing to put up our traveling British club member for a night? Would we? We threw a full out MG Car club party with dozens of classic British cars in attendance and had a blast besides insuring our traveling Brit friend had a good nights rest.