My wife and I were walking along the sea front in Havana (Cuba) in November when this little procession presented itself. I’m not a huge fan of big American cars normally, but this was a very nice example of “keeping the old cars going forever” culture in Cuba, and not letting them languish in museums or barns, or end up in land-fill.
Actually, our holiday in Cuba was primarily an organised part cycling tour of the western half of Cuba – it was fortunate to only be the west half, because Hurricane Melissa hit the eastern end while we were in the west. Excellent holiday, but for Southampton Advanced Motorists’ consumption, I’ll limit my report to some of the cars I saw.
I was expecting the American cars – it was definitely one reason I was keen to visit Cuba for a holiday, but I was curious whether I may find a few British cars as well – the quick answer to that is very few!
Apart from engine swaps to something more modern (see below for one example), a number of the old cars have LED headlights and digital instrument modules – I don’t like either, but if that’s what the owners like, that’s fine by me!
There were lots of Ladas (especially the old Russian-ised Fiat 124), Moskviches, Polski Fiat versions of the Fiat 126, Peugeots, Renaults, reasonably modern Hyundais, Kias, Chinese MG6(?) saloons, VW mainly Beetles (made in Brazil, probably?), one or two early Golf GTi, etc, etc – too many to recall or photograph them all!
Here are some highlights:
 |
| One British car: Ford Zephyr, series II –it has clearly been quite well maintained, but not totally as original |
 |
| I wasn’t very surprised to hear from the owner of this “Yank” that the engine was courtesy of a Hyundai. |
 |
| Off street parking, just, for this project. |
 |
| Off-street parking for this Renault Dauphine – I like these old rear-engined Renaults after my mum had a Renault 10! |
 |
| Mercedes from a time that they weren’t very popular in Britain – I don’t think I’ve seen one before. Bumpers could do with re-chroming though! |
 |
| A Rali, according to the decals on the side. 3-wheeler utility vehicles are very common, whether pedal-powered, small petrol motors, or battery electric, like this one. Interesting! |
 |
| Even my wife Sue was interested in this one, being on her own second Nissan Note; was this made in Sunderland (UK), or somewhere else? |
 |
| There were lots of small bikes of various makes and nationalities, especially around 125cc engines – this one apparently a 200cc machine; it was the name that I had to record – a “Missile CSG” – I reckon it may have been made on Cuba…! |