Crossing US-Mexican borders PanAm style

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October 2017 may seem about as far away as the moon right now, but we wanted to take a look at it never the less. The Carrera Panamericana revival, held that month, will celebrate its 30th anniversary by then and we’re pretty sure it will be much debated by the time. Anything to do with the ‘PanAm’ is after all Mexico’s best known export product in the classic car world, not in the last place to the Americans. What the Mille Miglia is to Europeans may be the Carrera Panamericana to them. They refer to it as ‘The World’s Greatest Road Race’ and rave about its heroic early days (nice story with film footage here). The original race was only held four times from 1950 to 1954, with a record number of deaths, leading to its demise.

This year, the organizers will be faced with difficulties of a very different kind. The following piece of text can be found on the official website: “The Organizing Committee of “La Carrera Panamericana” wishes to inform that the customs authorities at the US-MEX border are aware of the arrival of the participants and their cars and the importance of this race for the country. They are committed in helping all of the competitors in crossing the border as quickly and efficiently as possible as long as they comply with all of the rules and regulations. The Organizing Committee cannot intervene.” Competitors are given two options to cross the border. First is with a Tourist Permit, option number 2 is a Temporary Import Permit, both with considerable restrictions. Also: you’ll have to remember that many of the competition cars are followed by service crews, journalists and fans, too, so this could be a tricky matter. Read the full article here, and feel free to comment below.

(Words Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy Carrera Panamericana official website)

 

    

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