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A little news, a lot of pictures

December 21, 2013, 6:35 pm
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   News sites, you may have noticed, dug into their copious archives of Cuba car photos to illustrate their reports on the relaxation of vehicle import rules.
   CARISTAS, of course, needs no such excuse.

Chevy truck, converted to bus.

Gaz truck, similarly made into bus.

Ford convertible in Havana.

Bright interior to match.

Ford Taunus gets a wash.

    Some of the photos published elsewhere are pretty nice, by the way. Check out this collection at Australia's Financial Review.
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Once a woodie?

December 26, 2013, 3:59 pm
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Steel cabin on this 1947-48 Mercury was likely fashioned from several donor vehicles.
   I posted a photo of this 1947 or '48 Mercury a couple of entries ago. I hadn't given the big Mercury a lot of thought when I snapped it in Havana a year or two back.
   Now I realize it might be an example – much reworked, obviously – of Mercury's rare woodie station wagon of that era. According to the Ultimate Car Spotters Guide 1946-1969 by Tad Burness, Mercury made just 3,559 wagons for 1947, and even fewer, 1,889, for 1948.
   Ford produced more than 24,000 copies of its version of that wagon over the same two years.
Mercury wagons of that period in good condition – and most survivors are indeed kept in first-rate order – sell for more than $100,000.

   The Havana wagon, even if it did begin life as a woodie, would have little interest to a collector. From the windshield back, it has a steel body that has been adapted from some other vehicle – or more likely, a number of other vehicles.
   The workmanship, however, is admirable, and we can be sure its owner values it highly.
   But was it even a wagon to begin with? It could have easily been a far more common sedan until a resourceful Cuban decided to convert it into a private bus.
   Fun to think, however, that it might have arrived in Cuba with curving steel fenders supporting a passenger compartment of gleaming maple, birch and basswood, a fine cabinet of a car.

Back step is for the convenience of paying customers.
From A-pillar forward an authentic old Mercury, but was it originally a station wagon?

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New year, new look

December 30, 2013, 8:01 pm
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Bull bars could help this '55 Chevy Bel Air in an encounter with a wandering cow.
   Regular readers (a most discerning crew!) will have noticed a few changes to the appearance of this blog, the largest being the new logo. It was time for a change, and this logo seems to work a lot better in the mobile applications used by more and more visitors.
   I considered a full design update, but the templates I checked out seemed overly fussy. So for now I'm sticking with Google Blogger's Simple Template -- the small-block Chevy V8 of the blog world. May do some HTML tinkering, though, if I get brave enough.
  What won't change, of course, is the content theme, since there so many more Cuba car stories to tell.
  Best wishes to all CARISTAS readers, and may your 2014 include a visit to Cuba.


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Krazy Kuba Kar deals!

January 4, 2014, 9:00 pm
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Looking for a former daily rental Peugeot 206 for the equivalent of $85,000 U.S.? We've got 'em!
   Manuel here, or as they call me at the lot, Manny the Moneymaker, because NOBODY sells cars in Havana like me.
   You may have heard that we're offering some unbelievable prices on our new and late-model stock, and I'm here to tell you, amigo, that it's true! Even the BBC is talking about it!
   I can put you into, for instance, a 2008 Suzuki Jimney – and hey, that's the way they spell it – lightly driven by elderly tourists on Cuba Safari excursions – for 69,150 CUC. That's the equivalent of $73,545 Cdn., in case you've been saving all those loonie and toonie tips.
   Not for you? How about a 2008 Citroën C3 compact hatchback – so international, so sophisticated – for 46,000 CUC? On a budget? I've got a 2010 Hyundai tucked away – and hombre, that's almost new – for 29,250 CUC. Just don't tell the hermanos jefe!
  Told you. Unbelievable.
  Of course, I know some of you, OK all of you, expected even better prices when the government decided to let every citizen – not just permit-holders – buy from state dealerships. Seems you're finding the 85,000-CUC sticker on a 2010 Peugeot 206 – très chic, my man – hard to swallow.
  But remember, it's supply and demand. Cuba style. I control the supply, so I am de mand! (Manny, get it?)
  And for those suggesting we came up with these prices after too much ron – and could there be such a thing? – let me set you straight. We based these figures on careful observation of international currency transfers.
  In other words, if you need a little help to take home one of these beauties, don't hesitate to call on your Miami relatives. You know, the rich guys.
   But don't delay, because these crazy prices JUST CAN'T LAST!
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A car of many countries

January 8, 2014, 5:25 pm
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Pride of ownership: Juan Carlos with the second most important thing in his life.
   Juan Carlos lists his priorities.
   "My family is first," he declares. "And then, my car. I love it."
   He knows his blue sedan as an "Argentine Dodge." North Americans may remember it as the Plymouth Cricket.
Modifications start at the grille.
    Brits will lay claim to it as the Hillman Avenger, and indeed, that is the name under which the rear-drive compact debuted in England in 1970.
   Chrysler, then owner of the Rootes Group that included the Hillman brand, sold the Avenger under various designations around the world. In Scandinavia, it was badged as a Sunbeam 1250/1300/1500/1600.
   In Argentina, the source of this Avenger, it was initially offered as the Dodge 1500. After Chrysler sold its Argentine operations to VW in 1980, the badging was changed to "Dodge 1500, Made by Volkswagen Argentina," and later simply to Volkswagen 1500. VW kept making the 1500 until 1990.
   Throughout, it was well regarded for its handling.
   Juan Carlos has put his own stamp on his multi-national car with ground-effects bodywork, a smart custom grille, Corvette-style taillamps and other touches.
   He's shown it plenty of love.

Twin carbs may have been original issue.

Designed in England, assembled in Argentina, customized in Cuba.






See also:

www.allpar.com/model/avengertiger.html

www.rootes-chrysler.co.uk/Avenger/avenger-arg.html
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Revealed! The Secret Chevy Workshop

January 15, 2014, 4:45 pm
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Feigning sleep, carefully trained dog is ready to pounce on intruders.
   My chum Ralphee of CUBANCLASSICS once speculated that a clandestine Chevy workshop must exist near Matanzas, given the number of fine 1950s Chevrolets we've noticed in and around the port city east of Havana.
   It made me imagine some enormous garage, perhaps burrowed underground to elude the spy satellites, where Cuba's most skilled craftsmen shape good-as-new parts for Bel Airs and 210s and Nomads from metals scavenged from decommissioned MiG-21s.
   Too wonderful to be true, I thought.
   Yet today I can report there is a secret Chevy workshop. I have seen it. I took photos.
   I was brought to this place by a man we'll call Alonso, owner of a black-over-white 1956 Bel Air sedan that was purchased new by his grandfather, a farmer near, yes, Matanzas.
   Alonso's Bel Air looked good from a distance, less good up close. But now, he told me, his Chevy was being rebuilt, and he offered to take me to see it. You can imagine how quickly I accepted.
  We headed into the countryside in a borrowed car. As we rounded corner after corner I lost track of our direction. Perhaps we were taking the most direct route; perhaps this was to maintain the secrecy of our destination. All I know is that when we finally pulled up before a modest structure clad in corrugated steel sheets, we were somewhere ... inland.
   Tucked into a lean-to at the side of the garage was a two-tone '55 Chevrolet. Clearly, we were at the right spot. And beyond that '55 was Alonso's car, stripped of front clip and interior, the remainder of its body in mid-repair. I'll show pictures in my next post.
  The proprietor was away, and we could not see into the garage proper. From its size, however, I knew it could house no more than two or three of the big '50s Chevys. This was not the grand workshop of my dreams.
  But then I realized that this told of something far more sophisticated. Why build one giant facility and risk exposure of the entire program should a visiting car buff stumble across it, when you can create a series of one-man shops, all capable of carrying on independently should one or more of their number be discovered?
   The Secret Chevy Network exists. I know, because I have seen one small part of it.

When I spotted the '55 Chevrolet Bel Air sedan, I knew I was in the right place.

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After the before, before the after

January 18, 2014, 9:50 pm
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From the ground up: Floor of '56 Chevrolet has been patched and primed.
   There is no mystery to the longevity of the Cuban car.
   Not when Alonso's 1956 Chevrolet is laid bare for you to witness the toll of nearly six decades of motion and sun heat and most of all corrosion. The Cuban car will never be immersed in the ice and brine of a northern winter, but still it must live amidst the salty ocean winds and sweating humidity that ensure the inevitability of rust.
Before: Bel Air was soft around the edges.
   Stripped to its metal skeleton, the Bel Air sedan shows this corrosion even in the curl of roof above the doors and in the channel that holds the glass of the windshield. The mechanic/bodyman charged with reviving Alonso's car has already patched and primed the trunk and cabin floors and now is grinding away the upper rust and brazing in new metal to replace what has been lost.
   The decay runs far deeper than you suspected from casual observation of Alonso's white-and-black Chevy before it reached this backyard garage. Yet it is matched, you realize, by the intensity of the effort to reverse it – an effort that will extend, after the bodywork, to the rebuilding of the original six-cylinder engine and other mechanical assemblies that are the other parts of this car's long history.
   You observe, too, the evidence of earlier restorations – the resprayed red-and-white dashboard, the green enamel inside the roof that perhaps was once this Bel Air's outward hue. And you understand now that the Cuban car does not in fact live forever but dies and is reborn, again and again.

Rust must be removed before windshield goes back in.

Repairs progress along roof edges.

Rear quarter will receive patch panel with moulded wheel opening.

The same area of the car earlier.





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The sorcerer's apprentice

January 24, 2014, 10:04 am
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Dating from mid-1970s, Peugeot 404 is being prepared for more years of service.
    After leaving the shop where Alonso's Chevrolet is being worked on, we stop by another garage a little farther along the country road. Here, a young man is busy renewing the floor of a Peugeot 404 that would have come to Cuba from Argentina, as the badge on its decklid attests.
   This fellow, Alonso tells me, is a student of the man restoring his `56 Bel Air. From the high-quality work we see on the Peugeot, it`s clear that the master`s magic is brushing off.
   When I was a teenager, a friend`s family owned a pair of Peugeots like this. The 404 was the French automaker's largest model upon its 1960 introduction, but by North American standards it was a compact, and those two little round-fendered 404s were an odd contrast to the blocky Detroit products occupying most driveways at the time.
   I've since, however, come to quite admire the 404's balanced proportions and pure lines.
   Wikipedia, we know, can be hit or miss, but its entry on the 404 is exemplary. Here we learn that the stylist was Pininfarina (explains the appeal), that assembly in Argentina began two years after its launch in France and continued through to 1980 (this one's likely from the mid-1970s), that other global assembly points included Quebec (probable source of my friend's family cars) and that along with coupe, sedan and station wagon versions, Peugeot offered a 404 pickup model (I want one!).

Rusty floor panels have been cut out.

Sweet lines, courtesy of Pininfarina.

Purple primer? Why not?

Argentine plant contributed to a global production run of nearly 2.9 million Peugeot 404 models over 31 years.




See also:

CubanClassics: 1974 Peugeot 404



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Ralph Nader's Cuban cousin

January 28, 2014, 7:48 pm
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As a 1960 model, Chevrolet Corvair would have been among the last direct U.S. exports.
   By the time Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed came out in 1965, the suspension of the Chevrolet Corvair had been redesigned. But this first-year '60 Corvair has presumably been riding for five-plus decades on the infamous rear swing-axles that made the early Corvair's handling so unpredictable and earned Chevy's economy car a full chapter in Nader's book.
   Fortunately for its driver – who looks a bit like the young firebrand Ralph, dontcha think? – this Havana Corvair appears quite safe at rest.





Good Corvair article here:




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Why Justine Davis felt safe driving in Cuba

February 6, 2014, 10:06 am
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Update: The Canadian government and the Cuban embassy in Ottawa announced Thursday that Justine Davis will be allowed to leave Cuba and is expected to arrive in Canada on Friday.


Justine Davis. son Cameron in Cuba.


 Justine Davis is the latest visitor detained in Cuba while police investigate the circumstances of a fatal road accident. Like all who have been in her situation, she wants to go home.
  But there is a compelling reason for her desire to return to Toronto.
  This weekend is the funeral of Davis's three-year-old son, Cameron, who was killed in late December when a scooter operated by his mother collided with a truck on Cayo Largo, a resort island on Cuba's south coast. Davis wants to be at her son's funeral in Canada.
   Cuba, we know, has been rigid in forcing foreigners to remain in the Caribbean nation until its often lengthy investigations are complete. Damian Buksa, 34, of Mississauga, was detained for months after a July 2013 fatal accident near Guardalavaca.
   According to Bjesment, a Polish newspaper in Toronto, Buksa was finally granted permission to leave in November, though further bureaucratic delays kept him in Cuba until December.
  The rules, however, may be eased for Davis, herself badly injured in the crash. Supporters have mounted a campaign for her return (see the Facebook group) and say diplomatic efforts may be having some sway with Cuban authorities.
   News reports about Davis's accident have spurred callous comments about the wisdom of taking a child on a gas-powered scooter in a country known for its driving risks.
Damian Buksa: Back in Toronto.
What the critics are ignoring, however, is the quiet nature of Cayo Largo, a tiny island where tourists routinely putter about on scooters and in rental Jeeps. According to cayolargo.net, "There is very little traffic in Cayo Largo and only few roads and paths; it is almost impossible to get lost."
   The site does go on to mention that scooter rentals have been cancelled in the past because of accidents. Still, given the locale and given Davis's apparent familiarity with motorcycles, judging by the bikes that appear in her family photos, we can see why she felt comfortable venturing out with Cameron.





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Driving in Cuba, again

February 19, 2014, 4:34 pm
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Wikipedia
   So why, after writing here about visitors detained after traffic accidents, and being fully aware of our own government's advisory against driving in Cuba, would we rent a Kia Picanto from Cubacar?
   Well, we wanted to get somewhere. Couple of places, in fact. But we weren't quite sure where we were going or how long we wanted to stay. So hiring a car and driver, our habit in the last few trips, wasn't as practical this time.
   It went fine. Our travels took us to the Varadero resort strip, home of some of the calmest roads in Cuba, and then on to Cárdenas, a city where the biggest obstacle is the horse-drawn carriages rolling along the straight streets.
   We didn't speed (good thing, considering all the radar traps we saw) and we tried to take special care at intersections.
   One thing I had forgotten. While much of the world uses red octagon stop signs, Cuba employs the red, downward-facing triangle (with PARE, or stop, in not-so-large letters) that is the second format permitted by the multilateral Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals.
   Why? Probably, as with its new licence plates, just to prove it's a whole lot different than the United States.
For drivers who associate a triangular shape with yield signs, however, Cuba's stop signs can be difficult to pick out. Of course, what you might take as a yield sign should still slow you down enough to notice it's actually a stop sign.





See also:


10 TIPS FOR DRIVING IN CUBA


DRIVING IN CUBA RECONSIDERED



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Señor Ralph, your taxi is here

February 23, 2014, 8:45 am
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Nader/ U.S. Library of Congress
   Ralph Nader had already made auto safety his cause in 1959, but his visit to Cuba in April that year was prompted by Castro, not cars. He wanted to get a close look at the revolutionary whose seizure of power in Cuba had captured the world's attention.
   Nader succeeded, taking in a press conference and, despite his lack of media credentials, even managing to direct some questions at the Cuban president.
   On his return to the U.S. Nader co-authored a report for the Harvard Law Record, an independent, student-edited newspaper, that today reads largely as an apology for the rush trials and executions that followed Castro's takeover.
   He travelled to Cuba at least twice more, dining with Fidel Castro at the Palace of the Revolution in 2002, where he might have discussed with the Cuban leader his own presidential aspirations, and then returning six years later to again criticize the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
   There have been no recorded visits since. Maybe Nader noticed in 2008 that Cubans were STILL driving those Chevrolet Corvairs.

The answer to a question you never thought to ask: What would a 1960 Chevrolet Corvair
look like with headlamps from a modern Citroën? 




See also:


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Once more 'round Habana

March 1, 2014, 9:51 am
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Owner Ociel, guide Kenya, and their 1956 Chevrolet 210 private taxi.
   Visitors keen to hit the road in Cuba but reluctant to rent a car have alternatives. There are buses and trains. You could join a bicycle tour.
   But the most comfortable choice is probably one of the private taxis that have become plentiful since Cuba eased restrictions on private businesses.
   You'll find these cabs around hotels. Most are vintage American tourist-pleasers, and most are operated by tourist-reassuring combos of a male driver-owner and a female guide, the latter with a strong command of English and possibly French and German as well.
   We hired this 1956 Chevrolet 210 sedan a year ago to take us into Havana. Its white-over-yellow paint was dull, its body panels rippled. The owner, a man named Ociel, was eager to show us the Chevy's modern diesel powertrain, but what really sold us was the cheerful candour of the guide, Kenya.
   "It doesn't look so good," she admitted of the scarred old 210, "but it keeps going."
   Just like us, we replied, and Kenya laughed.

Mercedes diesel engine probably came to Cuba in a Korean SUV.
   The big Chevy did indeed roll smoothly, its five-cylinder diesel thrumming. Ociel identified the engine as a Mercedes-Benz unit "from a Jeep"– from later research, I concluded it was probably a Mercedes OM662 diesel built under licence by Korea's SsangYong Motor, which sent its Musso sport-utility to Cuba and other markets.
   The automatic transmission slipped mightily, but that just added to the fluidity of a ride that was soft but not wallowing, telling us the car rode on decent shocks and springs. The decades-old body didn't squeak or rattle.
   We relaxed on the great sofa of the rear seat. With cool air flowing back from the air conditioner under the dash, there was no need to roll down the back windows (or power down the electric front windows). Kenya, turning from the front, told us about her training as a teacher, and her hope that a position in a school would open. Until then, she said, she was happy to guide.
   We asked our chauffeurs to drop us in Old Havana, where we were to meet our son and his girlfriend, and collect us later in the day. They seemed surprised with their time off. We'd sort-of assumed they were a couple, but it turned out that theirs was a business partnership, and Kenya announced plans to find her boyfriend in the capital and visit the International Book Fair.
   Hours later, the Chevy was waiting at the rendezvous point. Ociel and Kenya agreed to drop our guests at their casa particular, and as we got underway offered a tour of the city first. Even with six occupants there was plenty of room, and we were pleased to accept.

Original steering wheel, aftermarket air-conditioning.

   We drove along the Malecón, passing the modernist Hotel Riviera where Ociel and his wife had spent their wedding night. After inspecting the mansions of Miramar we swung south, idling through the traffic outside the Tropicana as patrons arrived for the evening show. Then we headed back along the Calzada del Cerro to the old city and our guests' casa. After bidding them farewell, we were on the now-dark highway west to our hotel.
   Tips included, our taxi cost us $90. That's $20 or $30 less than a one-day rental. We avoided parking hassles. We made two friends. And the veteran Chevy, as promised, kept going in all the necessary ways.
   I remember looking over Ociel's shoulder on the highway and seeing that that the needle of the crescent-shaped speedometer pointed at zero.
   So how fast were we really travelling?
   Exactly fast enough.

Ready and waiting at the end of the day.












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Another driver does time in Cuba

March 4, 2014, 8:14 pm
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Ted Barnett: 'Don't rent a moped or a car.'
   Add Ted Barnett to what seems to be an ever-lengthening list of Canadians held in Cuba following traffic accidents in which people were killed or injured.
   The 60-year-old from Winnipeg was prevented from leaving the island for six weeks after a scooter he was operating in Varadero (yes, the resort area I described as a safe place to drive) struck a Cuban pedestrian, breaking her leg. He finally arrived back in Canada last Sunday.
   Barnett's enforced stay matched that of Justine Davis, but was well short of the months-long detainments of Cody Lecompte and Damian Buksa. Other Canadians have reportedly been restricted from leaving Cuba for as long as a year while authorities conducted painfully slow investigations.
   These drivers aren't jailed, but must pay for food and accommodation. Barnett told CARISTAS he shelled out as much as $2,500 for his hotel and other expenses during his extended stay.
   And they can hardly enjoy their tropical surroundings as they contemplate the possibility of a trial in a Cuban court.
   "You think the worst possible thing is happening to you," Barnett told CBC Winnipeg from Cuba last month.
   Barnett wasn't charged, criminally or even with a traffic violation, but says he was required to give the victim "a bit of compensation."
   There's no way to know how many of the nearly three million yearly visitors to Cuba end up in Barnett's situation. Given, however, the number of cases we've heard of involving Canadians, and the long-standing warnings by governments in Canada and elsewhere about the risks of driving in Cuba, the total could be significant.
   For those who do find themselves detained, publicity could be the best ticket to a flight home. Davis was allowed to return to Toronto for her son's funeral after a social media campaign drew attention to her story, and Barnett's release came just days after the CBC report aired. Cuba, stubborn as it so often is, cannot afford to risk discouraging the tourism that is crucial to its economy.
   Barnett, meantime, has advice for travellers on how to avoid his experience.
   "Don't rent a moped or a car," he says. "One never knows what is going to happen."




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Need a cab? Take your pick

March 19, 2014, 5:30 pm
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Leading the taxi line at a resort hotel is a 1952 Chevrolet Styleline Deluxe sedan.


In Matanzas, you can hail a motorcycle taxi.

Bicycle taxi passengers have time to ponder Che's image
and José Martí's quote: 'Prudent love, isn't love.'

For Havana tourists, a 1956 Chevrolet
 convertible. For locals, a coco taxi.




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More from the Cuban cab stand

March 26, 2014, 5:47 pm
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This 1958 Chevrolet four-door in Varadero didn't start life as a convertible, but it is one now.

Without trim, it's difficult to tell whether this 1954 Ford is a Mainline or the posher Customline.

You can take a modern taxi in Cuba, but when sweet rides like this 1952 Chevrolet
Styleline DeLuxe are available, why would you want to?


That reworked grille can't fool us. We know this Havana taxi is a 1951 or '52 Buick.





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All hail the Tri-Fives

March 31, 2014, 8:34 pm
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Two-tone 1955 Chevy is finished in white and a shade I'd call georgeous green.
  While just about any brand of American car from the 1950s can be found serving as a private taxi in Cuba, Chevrolet is the most popular choice by far.
   Easy to figure out why. Chevrolet, the bread-and-butter line of General Motors, had a strong grip on the Cuban market in the pre-Castro decade, and in the years since, its sturdy mechanicals and the ready availability of replacement parts (even to Cubans, relatively speaking) have only increased its representation in the Cuban fleet.
   Of those Chevy taxis, a favoured choice is any model from the famous Tri-Five period of 1955 through 1957, viewed by many as the epitome of styling and performance in that era. Delving still farther, the '56 seems the most popular Tri-Five entry, followed by the '55 and then the '57.
  Some of these Chevrolets, usually found in tourist spots, are convertibles that would be greatly prized by collectors. More often, though, they are more prosaic four-door sedans that would carry less value in the classics market.
  Still, they're great to see, great to ride in. You come across one, make sure to give the owner a thumb's up – even a high five!

The '57 is the least-seen Tri-Five Chevy in Cuba. Too bad.

Anodized rear fender panel is a hallmark of the '57 Chevy Bel Air.


You may have noticed this sweet '56 peeking out from a photo in an earlier post.

Likewise, this honest '55. Four-door or not, I'd love to own it. 

Drivers and guides chat while a bull-barred '55 awaits its next fare. 







See also:


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Your Cadillac has arrived – and so have you!

April 6, 2014, 8:32 pm
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One-piece windshield was new to Cadillac in 1950s.
   Should you desire to tour Cuba in style and comfort – and, of course, you do -- you'd be hard-pressed to find a better conveyance than this 1950 Cadillac sedan.
   Though its side trim is a bit confusing – some pieces missing, others perhaps adapted from a Cadillac of the previous year – I'm pretty sure from its overall proportions as well as the vaulted shape of the decklid that this a Sixty Special model rather than the more common Series 62.
   If I'm right, it's one of 13,755 Sixty Specials built for 1950, all on a 130-inch wheelbase that was down three inches from 1949 but still ensured copious interior space. The Series 62, of which 55,311 were produced, had a 126-inch wheelbase.

Sixty Special looks to have been well used, and well cared for.
   Almost certainly, this Cadillac was sold new by the busy Ambar General Motors agency in Havana. It might have gone to a wealthy businessman or politician, maybe even to a mobster.
   From the shine of its brightwork, we know this enormous Cadillac has been given much love in the decades since. It deserves its due, and when you alight from it at the Tropicana or Habana Riviera, its chrome reflecting the flashes of the tourists' cameras, so will you.

Big exhaust pipe hints at a diesel engine in place of the original 331-cubic-inch gasoline V-8.






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The tale of the mystery muscle car

April 14, 2014, 4:30 pm
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Window sticker identifies fat-tired two-door from the 1970s as a Chevrolet Camaro.
   Every car tells a story, and some of the richest stories, we know, are told in Cuba.
Consider this green muscle car from an era rarely seen on an island that has not imported vehicles directly from the United States since 1959.
   It is, says the owner, nodding to the decal in the rear window, a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro. It came to Cuba years ago from Canada, he tells me, the property of a contract worker who left it behind when he returned home.
   Alas, the original big gasoline V-8 engine has been replaced by a more economical diesel, the owner admits. But with fat tires and raised tail, the car retains its muscular swagger.
   Except it does not look like any 1979 Camaro I've ever seen.
   I decide not to mention this to its proud custodian, thinking that perhaps it came not from Canada but South America, where the Camaro badge might have been applied to some altogether different General Motors model.
   Not the case, I've since discovered. The name has always belonged solely to Chevrolet's distinctive long-hood, short-deck coupe and convertible.

The real '79 Camaro, this one a sought-after Z28 / Wikipedia photo.
   So what is the green machine? The taillights reminded me of a 1970s Mustang II, but I was sure it couldn't be a Mustang, either. Turns out, however, that there is a sort-of connection.
   The car, I would eventually determine, is a Chevrolet Monza, a forgettable (for me, certainly) rear-drive subcompact built between 1975 and 1980 and based on the more memorable, though generally not for good reasons, Chevy Vega.
   The Monza 2+2 hatchback was actually quite sporty looking, but the Cuban car is the second Monza body variant, the notchback Towne Coupe introduced to compete with, yes, the Mustang II coupe. The "e" in Towne tells us sportiness was not a message the designers wished this model to convey.
  It does appear to be a 1979 Monza, so in year and in Chevrolet origins, the owner is correct. But did it really come from Canada, or did it make its way here from Mexico, or Venezuela? And who decided it to call it a Camaro, and why?
   Even if I knew the answers, I wouldn't share them with the owner. He already has a fine tale to tell.

Monza Towne Coupe, seen here in a Chevrolet advertisement, was a challenger to Ford's Mustang II.




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Hola Harlistas

April 20, 2014, 9:23 am
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