CUBAN CAR CANDY (Third of Three Today)

You don't have to go looking for old American cars in Cuba, they're in your face and rearview
mirror everywhere. There are Model A's from the 1930's and some survivors from the late 1940 's, but 99% are from 1952 to 1959 --- the year of the Revolution and the end of U.S. cars entering Cuba (although just 90 miles away!). Of those, I'd say about 60% are Chevrolets. Maybe 20% Fords, then a car guy's Dream Cruise of Studebakers, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Packards, Ramblers, T-Birds, DeSoto's, even Edsels!! These daily drivers are 50 or 60 years old so they range from immaculate rent-a-ride fantasies to beat-up weary pale imitations of their former selves. Many have U.S. bodies but implanted Soviet-era diesel motors and run like tanks. The joke is that all owners of these cars are engineers --- they have to be to keep them running without spare parts.

My head is still spinning from gawking one way then the other as they drift by like a summer dream, in colours Henry Ford would never have allowed! You might see some of these restored and shined up back home, but the Cuban variety fills the streets with nostalgia-on-the-roll. (These are just a few of the thousands, which of these was my favourite? Yours??)