Patman
Staff member
My wife and I just got back from a 5 day trip to Varadero Cuba and I really was in awe of all of the 1950s American made cars still on the road there! I had heard a little bit about this in the past from a co worker who was born in Varadero, but I had no idea there were so many of them still running after all this time! I'm not joking when I say that probably 10-20% of the cars I saw there were American cars built in the 1950s (mostly Chevrolets but I did see a few Fords and even a Pontiac or two) I had also thought that most of these cars were only to be found in the capital city of Havana but apparently they are all over the country.
From what I understand, sometime around the end of the 1950s, Fidel Castro banned the sale of new cars and car parts from other countries, so people just kept doing whatever they could to keep these old American classics on the road. This meant if they needed a part, they made it themselves or took another existing part and "Macguivered" it to work. I am pretty sure that most of these cars no longer have the original engines in them but I bet a few of these cars must have over a million miles on them.
Very few of them were in showroom new condition, that's for sure, but it was still very cool to see so many of them on the road. I hope it stays that way down there for a long time, as some of them might disappear as time goes on and newer cars are allowed to be brought in there.
From what I understand, sometime around the end of the 1950s, Fidel Castro banned the sale of new cars and car parts from other countries, so people just kept doing whatever they could to keep these old American classics on the road. This meant if they needed a part, they made it themselves or took another existing part and "Macguivered" it to work. I am pretty sure that most of these cars no longer have the original engines in them but I bet a few of these cars must have over a million miles on them.
Very few of them were in showroom new condition, that's for sure, but it was still very cool to see so many of them on the road. I hope it stays that way down there for a long time, as some of them might disappear as time goes on and newer cars are allowed to be brought in there.
