Me and a friend decided to go to Cuba, both of us are very interested in old cars and fans of the creativity the cubans use to fix these old cars. We thought it would be a good idea to go and see this with our own eyes when the Castro brothers are still alive, the reason is that there might be a risk that alot of the old american cars would disappear if they die and the embargo is lifted.
We rented a car and took a roadtrip around the whole island between 16 december 2011 and 9 january 2012.

I hope that there is some pictures that you guys will find interesting!
Some pictures are shot from the hip making alot of mixed quality images...

Click on the pictures to get a bigger view.






We accidently ended up at a Polski-Fiat 126p race!






At the parking lot:







Wrong way?

The bracket for the battery came off, good thing we brought some tools with us from home!






















As we learnt: "Ching-chong en español"


A museum we found by luck:

You can call this car rare if you like:










Maya Cuba:






IFA MZ:

Bus:






Tight turn...



I think we missed the detour...

We lived to tell the tale...

This bridge was closed though:

Then it got worse, we got stuck here:

But then it got better!






Tow hitch made from a tie rod end:






Note the Peugeot tail lights:





The Bay of Pigs:







Another pig, towed by a motorcycle:


Buick Eight?

Buick Four!











We took a ride in a Chevy:









Ford Consul MkI with Peugeot tail lights







Note the windscreen, it's the rear hatch of a station wagon or hatchback:















Last picture I took on the trip was this 51 Ford:

Some real cool pics there! Looks like it was an interesting trip. Amazing to see cars in those conditions still being driven today. And I believe those old yank tanks will still survive for a while. They've made it this far, even if most end up as "nostalgic taxis" or stacked up in a field one day...

One or two nice old Brits as well. dsl would like the two Hillmans and the Singer Gazelle; I liked the Austin Devon and the Ford Anglia with a Prefect grille ...

Yeah, I'm sure dsl will love the Avenger with VAZ 2107 front end.

Interesting pics indeed, taken just before the big changes there.
In case of trucks, quite "volvoised" country BTW.

I bet you had a blast visiting at Cuba

Nice - so much creativity evident. I missed the VAZenger on first run through, so had to go back and start again when I saw the comment. Neat Gazelle (Fiesta Mk1 wheels?), and I wonder what lurks under the green Minx S1 and whether it's the world's last surviving Minx taxi. The only Tatra 613 outside Europe/Asia? And the "beautiful" pink Herald 13/60 which looks as if it's mainly made out of papier-mache.

Really interesting stuff. I've always wanted to go to Cuba but so far haven't had the opportunity.

It's not too expensive: http://www.cubadirect.co.uk/
http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/brochures/caribbean/holidays/caribbean/cuba/
http://www.scuktravel.com/

Very cool. Thanks for sharing those photos!

In America, also with Cuba, in Uruguay you can find lots of old cars in many different conditions. Here, it's difficult, but too.

Some of those "modernized" old cars are pretty ugly, but you can't help but appreciate their ingenuity.

Awesome photos! The bridge caught me off guard, I thought to myself, holy crap!

What camera did you use? The picture quality is really good.

Nice argentinians 404 you find an interesting number in Cuba. And the gray 1973-1978 Ford Falcon are really original

Neptune, the camera is Canon Powershot A3200 IS a somewhat cheep digital pocket camera.

Ah, yes the Powershot is a good camera. I have a A710IS and am very statisfied with it.
For close detail pics it's even better than the much newer Canon Ixus 105 of my wife. And I like it, that it's not too small.

Wow, that's really awesome!! I live in Iceland, nothing special here.

But yeah.. If i could choose a place it would be Cuba!!! The building and cars look so cool, it's really historic and awesome to see things like this in daily use! These pics will be good for the future.

I dream on going to cuba one day! Cuba > Iceland (still love iceland)

Well other place seem always worth visiting. You say that there is nothing special in Iceland, but that's one of the place I want to visit the most

How was the spreading of the cars origin?

The travel-freak of my plate-forum has been there in April (with this Caribbean-trip he filled up to 122 countries, he had visited) and he told, that roughly estimated, you can say:
- 30% pre-1960 classics, mainly American
- 30% pre-1990 COMECON-imports
- 10% Western cars from 1960 to 1990
and already terrifying 30% of new Asian cars.