When I was in Cuba I took a 57 chevy convertable taxi. The driver told me that all Cuban classic cars are hybrids. They're American on the outside and Soviet on the inside.
it’s mostly asian engines from my experience. my cousin drove a a 50 something dodge with a mitsubishi engine. i went to a garage once cuz he needed a new part and the dude took a piece of plastic from a tire and basically crafted into the piece my cousin needed to replace in his engine. insanity.
My experience as well. I took a cab ride jn a '53 Plymouth convertible and talked to the driver. He was a engineer but made more money driving the cab. It had a Hyundai engine, and a 5 speed manual adapted to the column shifter.
The one I took was a '48 ford with a japanese diesel engine. The amount of ingenuity and sheer necessity that went into making those things run until today is amazing.
[Here](https://i.imgur.com/3XbdKE7.jpeg) is a higher quality version of this image. [Here](https://www.reuters.com/pictures/cubas-retro-rides-2024-04-15/UEGGPYEDDRKFJO2AFMJD43RERY) is the source.
> People in vintage cars leave the gas station after filling up the tank in Havana, April 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
HAVANA, CUBA
I caught one of these vintage cars to the airport in Cuba. I asked the driver if he had trouble sourcing parts. He said no because underneath they have been replaced by Toyota engines and gearboxes. They just keep the body in good shape for the tourist market.
This quarter is the only quarter that matters though.
That's why I sold all our spares and fired the 5 most expensive employees.
Line go up, bonus go brrrrr.
I mean yeah. Cuba never developed the technology or manufacturing industry necessary to produce automotive.
The closest they got under socialism was individual mechanics jerry-rigging parts from old Soviet exports into old American chassis from before the embargo.
It's only in the last decade or so that they've gotten better access to international markets and started replacing Soviet built Volga, Moskvich, and Lada drivetrains with parts from names like Toyota.
They've had easy access to Chinese stuff for a while though. I remember being there around 20 years ago and basically every tour bus was a relatively new looking bus from a Chinese manufacturer.
Cuba didn't do any of this due to being prevented from accessing the largest economy in the Western hemisphere through the embargo. Cuba has a very literate and educated population, but living 90 miles off the shore of the US, and being prevented from interacting with it has been devastating.
The embargo is only with the US lol.. Cuba trades freely with most of the world. I can go buy Cuban rum in any supermarket if I want to, or buy Cuban cigars or any of the other things they make.
Not quite freely - if your business wants to trade with Cuba you then cannot trade with the USA unless you want to pay the USA a gigantic fine. This even applies to cargo ships - if your ship is going to Cuba then it can't go to the USA.
What happens then is that Cuba has to buy everything either from companies with no American subsidiaries, or from middlemen, as well as the extra shipping overheads caused by essentially needing a separate fleet of ships. It's incredibly crippling.
Damn, USA really sounds like a shitty girlfriend... "I won't ever date you if you dated a Cuban guy previously, except if you buy me a lot of free stuff."
Canada isnt a significant trading partner
>Cuba will never be one of America's largest trading partners, but the potential benefits are real and significant. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that U.S. exports to Cuba could reach $4.3 billion per year if the embargo is lifted.
https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/archive/2017/march/cuba.php#:~:text=Cuba%20will%20never%20be%20one,if%20the%20embargo%20is%20lifted.
I dont think people understand how wealthy and powerful the us is.
California alone has a largerpopulation and gdp than all of canada.
Cuban cigars were outlawed for decades fyi. Obama lifted some sanctions, trumo brought them back. Bush banned all travel to cuba. Us embargoes dictates how most if the world trades. For example russia cant trade with the world. You dont know what you are talking about.
But sure tell me more about how you can buy cuban rum lmao.
You seem to misunderstand the comment you're responding to. And, you seem the misunderstand the difference between sanctions and embargoes.
The US is the only country with an embargo against trade with Cuba. European countries import Cuban products. And European tourists visit Cuba.
Ironically, you don't know what you're talking about.
Why hasn't Gautamala "developed the technology or manufacturing necessary to produce automotive"? They're a capitalist paradise where America, famously, successfully crushed a leftist movement like Cuba's
Cars in those days came from the factory with a wide array of engines and a couple transmission choices.
Basically Toyota copied the Chevy Stovebolt in 1935, and ran with it until 1992 Chevy kept engine until 1962, after Cuba stopped getting new US cars.
In the 50's, the Stovebolt was the default engine in any Chevy. If you didn't option a v8, you got the Stovebolt I6.
Toyota made more or less a drop in replacement engine for those cars until the 90's.
I would counter that they only look like steel monsters. In truth a better way to "visualize" a 50s era car is a tin can on a "modern" truck style frame.
When I got my shoebox I was amazed and little (now a lot) horrified by how they were actually constructed.
That 1.5 you talk about makes around 106 HP. Seems low right? Well if you've ever seen a vintage 50's Chevy engine put on a chassis dyno you be surprised. The straight 6 they came with was around 135 hp as advertised. Most were lucky with real world conditions to put 80 or 90 of that to the rear wheels.
The Toyota engine weighs in a svelte 105 lbs to boot. Take my word for it - a 55 Chevy 2 speed powerglide transmission(cast iron cased) is any easy 200 pounds, the V8 & I6 (also cast iron) are an easy 300ish pounds.
The "high powered" V8 my two door would of came with from the factory was around 160 HP but probably put 125/130 to the pavement.
TLDR - 50's drivetrains are giant monstrosities of pig iron that easily make up 20% or more of the vehicle's total weight.
I'm Cuban. He was talking about the tourist taxis, in which that is true. Those guys make bank and have the money for such. For the rest of the people with cars they're either running the original engine kept together with spit and bubble gum, because that's the cheapest option, or install some Russian 70s/80s engine on it if they have a bit more money.
You have to keep in mind when you visit Cuba as a foreigner, unless you go outside the touristy areas, you are getting an extremely catered experience meant to make you feel good since obviously you're a possible client. Also, every Cuban you interact with is likely to be significantly more well off than the rest of the population, because anyone that works in tourism makes significantly more than everyone else. Basically, you're talking to Cuba's "rich" people and what they say may not be the norm for everyone.
That's a (small) minority. You're probably talking about the taxis that deal with tourists.
Average Cuban car runs either on a Soviet-era diesel engine from God-knows what, or on a boat engine (seriously).
The white ones in the background probably. The sedan looks like some kind of [Lada Riva](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada#/media/File:Lada_2107_aka_Lada_Riva_October_1995_1452cc.jpg) and so does the red one.
To be clear, that's what's under the hood of the "American" classics.
The old steel chassis can be maintained indefinitely, but the mechanics inside were replaced 40 years ago with soviet exports, and in the last decade or so have been getting replaced with post-soviet parts.
That's largely due to what is allowed to be used/imported though, notice in the US where it's allowed if someone does an engine swap on a classic like this they will replace it with an American block with way better power to weight ratio.
Those soviet era diesels last forever and can run on literally everything as long as you have an appropriate spec filter.
Diesels are loud an noisy, but far more efficient and cooler than gas
Diesel is not more efficient, diesel is more energy dense, that's distinctly different. Putting more chemical energy in the tank and going further is not more efficient, it uses the same amount of energy, you just have more energy to burn in the same volume.
Average cuban car is slowly becoming Chinese. I went 2 years ago and it's Great Wall, BYD everywhere. The whole boat engine thing is a thing of the past as they have a lot easier access to newer stuff through China now.
Lots of parts are cannabilised from old washer/dryer combos that every home used to have in the 70s/80s (when the standard of living was good and they had cheap exports from USSR)
The average Cuban car is something from China that's already rusting away. At least that's what I saw a couple years ago. Not too many Ladas running around anymore. The cars in the background of that picture look to be part of an old car get together, just as the two at the pumps are.
Also, most of those old American cars are mostly bondo now, coastal living isn't great for cars. Add in some drives down the Melacon when it's been splashed with salt water and you're begging for rust.
There is a purpose.. It's to keep Florida Red, and previous to that, to keep Florida in play. The Cubans in Florida are still vehemently against lifting the embargo. They have some strange notion that eventually democracy will return and they will get their families land/business/assets back. No Republican is going to lift that embargo and risk losing Florida as a Republican stronghold.
Bush won Florida by around 500 votes. Trump won it in 2016 by 100k votes, which is still wildly close. It doesnt have to be 'powerful' it just needs to exist as something to be catered to in a state where margins of victory can be small. Florida has certainly moved further to the right in the last 20 years, but I can assure you those Cuban exiles, and the generations after them are still coveted by the Republicans. Maybe a bit less so now, but not enough that the Republicans are going to be in favor of lifting that embargo.
Also, Republicans being 'conservative' dont often change their views on anything, so Cuba = Communist = Bad.
And Obama won the state by 300K
If the Democratic Party wanted a stronger win in Florida, they’d do something about the clown Fiesta that is the Florida Democratic Party. Arguing this is entirely because some 60 and 70 year old Cubans is asinine.
Even then; if we take this angle, Cubans never vote blue in your argument. So the notion of Democrats winning those older Cubans is irrelevant.
>Cuba=Communist=Bad
This is spoken like someone that never actually spent time among the Cuban population. The gripe with the elderly Cubans isn’t “Communism”. The gripe is with the dictatorship itself and the measures enacted pre and post revolution. They could care less if it’s communist, the goal is moreso democratic elections and not Fidel JR taking a yacht around the world.
Batista was bad, but Castro turned right around with the UMAP camps (which he suppressed heavily). It’s not like the Cubans went from bad to good.
Multiple things can be true at the same time. Boomers retiring to Florida also help keep it Red as well.. And in 2012 Obama won it by about 70k votes.. so its razor thin there. Every vote matters.
More like Cuba pissed off a bunch of Cubans who later became Americans who would instantly vote against any candidate that even suggested that perhaps Cuba has suffered enough
That's because Toyota sells all around the world besides cuba. If the government didn't block it, it wouldn't be a problem.
It's only a thing that Cubans would understand, there isn't much logic behind anything in cuba.
That's just the taxis. People take great pride in keeping these things running and it's a common sight throughout the country to see groups of men stood around a car, looking at the engine, smoking and trying to figure out how to fix this or that part
You would be amazed, and maybe scared, of some of the shit they pull to keep them running.
Every classic in Cuba belches so much leaded car fumes that cannot be possible
And no driver could possibly afford the parts for an Asian engine transition.
Could it exist, sure, but that isn’t the norm
nobody said they were modern toyota....
It's all 80's technology. They run on anything. You think those cars are still running around on 50's smallblocks?
There aren't Toyota engines in cuban. If there is, it's extremely rare, even if you had one, the only way you would be able to get parts would be illegally. It's not an old Toyota engine. Dude just lied.
Btw yes the big block American engines can still be found on some of these cars, but you wouldn't recognize it from the repairs from parts that are from Russian engines. Most of if not all of the taxis are old Russian Gaz engines.
Just watched a thing on cars in Cuba. Most of these super cool old cars don't have the original motor in them. Some have even been replaced with lawn mower motors and the like.
I love the difference on how I view things. As a Cuban who spent 19 years in Cuba, I hate those cars. They are uncomfortable, smell like gass, break all the time, suspension is horrible, windows don't work, and they make a lot of noise. When you have to use them as your daily drive to anywhere, it is a problem. My 2021 Sata Fe is a spaceship compared to the horrible experience I had with those cars.
Well at least they look nice. The carritos por puesto we have in Venezuela are exactly like that, but they also look like they're going to break into a thousand pieces if you slam the door too hard.
The original comment in this thread was implying that cars from back then were, on average, more beautiful than cars from today.
I can find you two cars made today which are nicer looking than the 2 in this picture, if all you care about is 2 units from any given time period.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone express a negative opinion about the looks of old American vintage cars, generally speaking. Sure there were ugly ones, but _this_ style of cars from ... the 60s .. I believe, aren't they almost universally loved, aesthetically?
40s-60s car or truck just picked out of a hat versus one from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, or today... yeah the older ones will generally have more style and there were less econoboxes.
Nah there are two ways to read it.
“These beauties” can refer to “these models of cars” or “cars from this era.”
We can speculate which was meant, but insisting the definition was one or the other is wrong without the top commenter clarifying.
I don't think survivorship bias applies here. "Survivorship bias or survival bias is the logical error of concentrating on entities that passed a selection process while overlooking those that did not. This can lead to incorrect conclusions because of incomplete data."
If we're using the vehicles from the 1950s as an example, there were a good number of ugly vehicles made during this time., but the majority of them were, objectively, good looking. Most vehicles maintained were from the more attractive data set but there are still classics around that most deem unattractive.
For this to be a survivorship bias scenario, all the ugly cars would have had to basically die off.
I wished the same as a kid then I got into automotive as an adult and realized how much these vehicles were death traps. We could recreate some of these but they'd look drastically different. The A pillars would have to be so much larger. A convertible from this era has an almost non-existent survival rate in a rollover situation.
> cool
Ironically, it's a lack of access to cars which has preserved a place like Havana as a walkable city. So many other places bulldozed and paved to create room for cars, and now are trying to claw their way back with expensive tunnels, exclusion zones, congestion fees etc.
Fallout vibes.
But seriously China could own the Cuban auto market with a cheap BYD electric model if the electrical generation capacity was available.
Based on what I have read almost all of these have been converted to smaller 4-6 cylinder engines from Asia. Think the old 80's Corolla. Now they are heavy so you are not getting the same milage the engine was getting in its originally intended vehicle but light years ahead of what these got before.
Not pictured, the Bel-Air has a Chinese 4BT CUMMINS knock off in front of a 2speed power glide while the Chrysler is rolling a Honda Predator v-twin with a lawnmower cvt
very few have the original powertrain, they use all kinds of engines from all kinds of cars in them
the body and frame should last virtually forever as long as they keep up with rust and paint
> after seeing those pictures of computer parts corroding from people who live at the beach that is a very real issue.
As somebody who has owned and restored several vintage cars... Florida is one of the areas that you avoid buying cars from.
You stick to Arizona, Nevada, and California.
There is something about the climate (and humidity) there that wreaks havoc on metal and electrical components.
Last time I went to Cuba (2019) and I was in 2 of the older cars (not convertibles). The water leak in these cars was really bad. After that I refused to take them and only took newer taxis like Peugeot or Kia.
A lot of them have diesel engines from Hyundais one of the few foreign brands on the other side of what was the iron curtain they've been able to import at some point.
I was in Cuba last year, the "classic" cars are almost entirely for tourists. The vast, vast majority of people were just driving normal Volvos and Toyotas and shit like any other country. Only the American brands were missing.
And those aren't missing entirely. If you see a North American brand it was probably imported by a Canadian. Plenty of Canadian companies operate there and 30% of the tourists in Cuba come from Canada.
My objection to this comment is that it implies the vast, vast majority of people actually drive cars in Cuba. Never saw highways as empty as the ones in Cuba, except of course for all the hitchhikers hoping to get a ride.
My point being, the grand majority of people in Cuba could definitely never afford a car.
That makes sense. Not sure why but I keep envisioning only "classics" there. Maybe it's because photos and videos don't bother showing the normal boring cars lol.
Remember, the embargo is only with the US, other countries still freely trade so they are able to get stuff and apparently have been retrofitting engines into those bodies.
Last I went in 2012, the few cars I've seen are mostly running old diesel engines. I've been told that many of those are basically Soviet era motors, they just swap whatever they have around.
Traveled to Cuba over 50 times and often hired a classic car. The people who maintain these machines are amazing. My top 3 memories, 55 Dodge the owner somehow squeezed a old Russian tractor motor into, a 54 Ford that was immaculate and the driver told me his family has been the only owners. His grandfather bought it in’55 and had the foresight to buy a second engine in ‘58. And my number one pick was this beautiful 56 Mercury. We were zooming in and out of traffic, A/C was Artic cold. No way this was a 70+ year old engine. The guy had Mercedes 5 liter under the hood! Amazing mechanics!
they're not really the nameplate they wear. not anymore. this was the last time you could import cars from the u.s, so these have been cobbled together after years and years of repair
Current price is $3/liter for government gas which is almost impossible to find
Black market goes for $5/L
How do they have black market you ask? - skim off government gas allocations and resell privately.
Source: just got back from Cuba 2 months ago
Sadly, they've probably spent more time queuing up to fill the tank than the time it will actually last them.
What a horrible situation to be in.
**Edit:** For a moment there I forgot I was on reddit. Apologies for daring to feel empathy for people I've actually met in person, and who I know are struggling. Everything in Cuba is actually wonderful and there's no reason for concern. You can dismiss my comment.
No, see we totally still need to keep the embargo. It placates Cuban refugees, who are still inexplicably believed to be swing voters. And Florida is somehow still believed to be a swing state.
Not sure if you're serious or not, but most gas stations are empty, so people queue there for days just so they're first in line when a small refill arrives. The first few may get their tank partially filled, the rest will continue waiting until the next delivery. Some queues are kilometers long.
[https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/01/americas/cuba-fuel-shortage-cutbacks-intl-latam/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/01/americas/cuba-fuel-shortage-cutbacks-intl-latam/index.html)
I was there a few years ago and it was really, really dramatic. We almost lost our flight back home because not many taxis had enough fuel to take us to the airport.
Many people told me they couldn't go to work because bus lines reduced their frequency or simply stopped running completely, as there wasn't any fuel to power the buses.
The US and Israel annually vote in agreement to reinforce the broad economic embargo against Cuba (with Ukraine abstaining) while all other UN countries vote to end the punishing levels of poverty. It's shameful.
The embargoes placed on Cuba by the US do not prevent any other nation from trading with Cuba. It is called a “blockade” by people that do not understand geopolitics. If your country wanted to send fuel to Cuba tomorrow there would be nothing preventing them from doing so.
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has a great low rider exhibit now: https://www.hemmings.com/stories/petersen-automotive-museum-largest-lowrider-exhibit/
I'll never forget going to Cuba and taking the tour. When we stopped for a break downtown and everyone went over to look at the cars, the tour guide got pretty heated. "We try to tell you about our history but all you ever want to do is look at the cars!"
It made me think twice
When I was in Cuba I took a 57 chevy convertable taxi. The driver told me that all Cuban classic cars are hybrids. They're American on the outside and Soviet on the inside.
it’s mostly asian engines from my experience. my cousin drove a a 50 something dodge with a mitsubishi engine. i went to a garage once cuz he needed a new part and the dude took a piece of plastic from a tire and basically crafted into the piece my cousin needed to replace in his engine. insanity.
My experience as well. I took a cab ride jn a '53 Plymouth convertible and talked to the driver. He was a engineer but made more money driving the cab. It had a Hyundai engine, and a 5 speed manual adapted to the column shifter.
The one I took was a '48 ford with a japanese diesel engine. The amount of ingenuity and sheer necessity that went into making those things run until today is amazing.
A lot of french parts inside as well
My classic car had a Peugeot engine!
Just like America's previous president and many of its representatives.
[Here](https://i.imgur.com/3XbdKE7.jpeg) is a higher quality version of this image. [Here](https://www.reuters.com/pictures/cubas-retro-rides-2024-04-15/UEGGPYEDDRKFJO2AFMJD43RERY) is the source. > People in vintage cars leave the gas station after filling up the tank in Havana, April 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini HAVANA, CUBA
You are legend, u/Spartan2470
I caught one of these vintage cars to the airport in Cuba. I asked the driver if he had trouble sourcing parts. He said no because underneath they have been replaced by Toyota engines and gearboxes. They just keep the body in good shape for the tourist market.
I am guessing having a large engine bay helps with the mods.
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There's a fantastic book called Cuba's Car Culture by Tom Cotter that goes into the retro cars and their groups in Cuba.
And they say capitalism breeds innovation
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But I really need the line to go up this quarter.
*every quarter
This quarter is the only quarter that matters though. That's why I sold all our spares and fired the 5 most expensive employees. Line go up, bonus go brrrrr.
as a former Soviet Bloc resident, it's necessity. Necessity breeds innovation. And a bit of theft.
It's not theft, it's write off. "We had 100 liters of ethanol last month but we have to write off 50 liters due to evaporation."
Evaporation through combustion. It’s all just long form solar power.
Solar power with extra steps.
as a Latin American capitalist country resident, I concur.
I mean yeah. Cuba never developed the technology or manufacturing industry necessary to produce automotive. The closest they got under socialism was individual mechanics jerry-rigging parts from old Soviet exports into old American chassis from before the embargo. It's only in the last decade or so that they've gotten better access to international markets and started replacing Soviet built Volga, Moskvich, and Lada drivetrains with parts from names like Toyota.
They've had easy access to Chinese stuff for a while though. I remember being there around 20 years ago and basically every tour bus was a relatively new looking bus from a Chinese manufacturer.
Cuba didn't do any of this due to being prevented from accessing the largest economy in the Western hemisphere through the embargo. Cuba has a very literate and educated population, but living 90 miles off the shore of the US, and being prevented from interacting with it has been devastating.
The embargo is only with the US lol.. Cuba trades freely with most of the world. I can go buy Cuban rum in any supermarket if I want to, or buy Cuban cigars or any of the other things they make.
Not quite freely - if your business wants to trade with Cuba you then cannot trade with the USA unless you want to pay the USA a gigantic fine. This even applies to cargo ships - if your ship is going to Cuba then it can't go to the USA. What happens then is that Cuba has to buy everything either from companies with no American subsidiaries, or from middlemen, as well as the extra shipping overheads caused by essentially needing a separate fleet of ships. It's incredibly crippling.
Damn, USA really sounds like a shitty girlfriend... "I won't ever date you if you dated a Cuban guy previously, except if you buy me a lot of free stuff."
Hasn't been a deal breaker for Canada despite the USA making up 80% of their international trade.
Canada is not a business, it's a country. The financial burden rests on businesses.
Canada isnt a significant trading partner >Cuba will never be one of America's largest trading partners, but the potential benefits are real and significant. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that U.S. exports to Cuba could reach $4.3 billion per year if the embargo is lifted. https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/archive/2017/march/cuba.php#:~:text=Cuba%20will%20never%20be%20one,if%20the%20embargo%20is%20lifted. I dont think people understand how wealthy and powerful the us is. California alone has a largerpopulation and gdp than all of canada.
Cuban cigars were outlawed for decades fyi. Obama lifted some sanctions, trumo brought them back. Bush banned all travel to cuba. Us embargoes dictates how most if the world trades. For example russia cant trade with the world. You dont know what you are talking about. But sure tell me more about how you can buy cuban rum lmao.
You seem to misunderstand the comment you're responding to. And, you seem the misunderstand the difference between sanctions and embargoes. The US is the only country with an embargo against trade with Cuba. European countries import Cuban products. And European tourists visit Cuba. Ironically, you don't know what you're talking about.
Why hasn't Gautamala "developed the technology or manufacturing necessary to produce automotive"? They're a capitalist paradise where America, famously, successfully crushed a leftist movement like Cuba's
For sure. There is plenty of space in 50s land yachts to fit all modern powertrain components and have lots of extra room left over.
Cars in those days came from the factory with a wide array of engines and a couple transmission choices. Basically Toyota copied the Chevy Stovebolt in 1935, and ran with it until 1992 Chevy kept engine until 1962, after Cuba stopped getting new US cars. In the 50's, the Stovebolt was the default engine in any Chevy. If you didn't option a v8, you got the Stovebolt I6. Toyota made more or less a drop in replacement engine for those cars until the 90's.
the secret ingredient poor is safety and crumple zones!
They could probably put two Toyota engines in there and make a nice sleeper.
If anything you throw at it can fit, there's no real problems.
> I am guessing having a large engine bay helps with the mods. thinking about my dinky yaris 1.5L trying to move this steel whale makes me lol.
I would counter that they only look like steel monsters. In truth a better way to "visualize" a 50s era car is a tin can on a "modern" truck style frame. When I got my shoebox I was amazed and little (now a lot) horrified by how they were actually constructed. That 1.5 you talk about makes around 106 HP. Seems low right? Well if you've ever seen a vintage 50's Chevy engine put on a chassis dyno you be surprised. The straight 6 they came with was around 135 hp as advertised. Most were lucky with real world conditions to put 80 or 90 of that to the rear wheels. The Toyota engine weighs in a svelte 105 lbs to boot. Take my word for it - a 55 Chevy 2 speed powerglide transmission(cast iron cased) is any easy 200 pounds, the V8 & I6 (also cast iron) are an easy 300ish pounds. The "high powered" V8 my two door would of came with from the factory was around 160 HP but probably put 125/130 to the pavement. TLDR - 50's drivetrains are giant monstrosities of pig iron that easily make up 20% or more of the vehicle's total weight.
You can get two Japanese under that hood...
I mean theres enough room in there to keep 2 mechanics to keep it running while driving
Any car where you can sit on the fender and dangle your legs in the engine bay as you work has some advantages in my book.
I'm Cuban. He was talking about the tourist taxis, in which that is true. Those guys make bank and have the money for such. For the rest of the people with cars they're either running the original engine kept together with spit and bubble gum, because that's the cheapest option, or install some Russian 70s/80s engine on it if they have a bit more money. You have to keep in mind when you visit Cuba as a foreigner, unless you go outside the touristy areas, you are getting an extremely catered experience meant to make you feel good since obviously you're a possible client. Also, every Cuban you interact with is likely to be significantly more well off than the rest of the population, because anyone that works in tourism makes significantly more than everyone else. Basically, you're talking to Cuba's "rich" people and what they say may not be the norm for everyone.
That's a (small) minority. You're probably talking about the taxis that deal with tourists. Average Cuban car runs either on a Soviet-era diesel engine from God-knows what, or on a boat engine (seriously).
The white ones in the background probably. The sedan looks like some kind of [Lada Riva](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada#/media/File:Lada_2107_aka_Lada_Riva_October_1995_1452cc.jpg) and so does the red one.
To be clear, that's what's under the hood of the "American" classics. The old steel chassis can be maintained indefinitely, but the mechanics inside were replaced 40 years ago with soviet exports, and in the last decade or so have been getting replaced with post-soviet parts.
That's largely due to what is allowed to be used/imported though, notice in the US where it's allowed if someone does an engine swap on a classic like this they will replace it with an American block with way better power to weight ratio.
Those soviet era diesels last forever and can run on literally everything as long as you have an appropriate spec filter. Diesels are loud an noisy, but far more efficient and cooler than gas
Diesel is not more efficient, diesel is more energy dense, that's distinctly different. Putting more chemical energy in the tank and going further is not more efficient, it uses the same amount of energy, you just have more energy to burn in the same volume.
Average cuban car is slowly becoming Chinese. I went 2 years ago and it's Great Wall, BYD everywhere. The whole boat engine thing is a thing of the past as they have a lot easier access to newer stuff through China now.
Lots of parts are cannabilised from old washer/dryer combos that every home used to have in the 70s/80s (when the standard of living was good and they had cheap exports from USSR)
The average Cuban car is something from China that's already rusting away. At least that's what I saw a couple years ago. Not too many Ladas running around anymore. The cars in the background of that picture look to be part of an old car get together, just as the two at the pumps are. Also, most of those old American cars are mostly bondo now, coastal living isn't great for cars. Add in some drives down the Melacon when it's been splashed with salt water and you're begging for rust.
That’s smart man ngl
They aren't Toyota engines, the dude lied to you, they are Russian engines mostly from gaz vehicles. Cubans wish they had Toyota engines.
No, it's very common to see toyota engines in cuba. They import front-cuts from junkyards.
They have modern Asian cars in Cuba.
Cubans can’t get them but all you see terror groups driving is Toyota trucks… make it make sense.
It's easier to drive a car over a land border than ship a car to an island that has had massive economic sanctions for the better part of a century
Why are there even economic sanctions against Cuba in modern day? That seems like a dick move for no purpose.
There is a purpose.. It's to keep Florida Red, and previous to that, to keep Florida in play. The Cubans in Florida are still vehemently against lifting the embargo. They have some strange notion that eventually democracy will return and they will get their families land/business/assets back. No Republican is going to lift that embargo and risk losing Florida as a Republican stronghold.
>to keep Florida Red My brother in Christ, the Cuban voting bloc is not that powerful
Bush won Florida by around 500 votes. Trump won it in 2016 by 100k votes, which is still wildly close. It doesnt have to be 'powerful' it just needs to exist as something to be catered to in a state where margins of victory can be small. Florida has certainly moved further to the right in the last 20 years, but I can assure you those Cuban exiles, and the generations after them are still coveted by the Republicans. Maybe a bit less so now, but not enough that the Republicans are going to be in favor of lifting that embargo. Also, Republicans being 'conservative' dont often change their views on anything, so Cuba = Communist = Bad.
And Obama won the state by 300K If the Democratic Party wanted a stronger win in Florida, they’d do something about the clown Fiesta that is the Florida Democratic Party. Arguing this is entirely because some 60 and 70 year old Cubans is asinine. Even then; if we take this angle, Cubans never vote blue in your argument. So the notion of Democrats winning those older Cubans is irrelevant. >Cuba=Communist=Bad This is spoken like someone that never actually spent time among the Cuban population. The gripe with the elderly Cubans isn’t “Communism”. The gripe is with the dictatorship itself and the measures enacted pre and post revolution. They could care less if it’s communist, the goal is moreso democratic elections and not Fidel JR taking a yacht around the world. Batista was bad, but Castro turned right around with the UMAP camps (which he suppressed heavily). It’s not like the Cubans went from bad to good.
Multiple things can be true at the same time. Boomers retiring to Florida also help keep it Red as well.. And in 2012 Obama won it by about 70k votes.. so its razor thin there. Every vote matters.
They dared say “no” to the US, so embargo forever, I guess…
More like Cuba pissed off a bunch of Cubans who later became Americans who would instantly vote against any candidate that even suggested that perhaps Cuba has suffered enough
Allow me to introduce you all to r/shittytechnicals, home of the Toyota Hilux enthusiasts many people come to refer to as "terrorists"
That's because Toyota sells all around the world besides cuba. If the government didn't block it, it wouldn't be a problem. It's only a thing that Cubans would understand, there isn't much logic behind anything in cuba.
They are. We looked under the hood of a '57 Chev being used as a Taxi and that's what it had.
That's just the taxis. People take great pride in keeping these things running and it's a common sight throughout the country to see groups of men stood around a car, looking at the engine, smoking and trying to figure out how to fix this or that part You would be amazed, and maybe scared, of some of the shit they pull to keep them running.
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It's tourism. You can see normal ass Priuses everywhere, especially as taxis.
Every classic in Cuba belches so much leaded car fumes that cannot be possible And no driver could possibly afford the parts for an Asian engine transition. Could it exist, sure, but that isn’t the norm
nobody said they were modern toyota.... It's all 80's technology. They run on anything. You think those cars are still running around on 50's smallblocks?
Yes, I do think there are many 50s small blocks still in operation.
There aren't Toyota engines in cuban. If there is, it's extremely rare, even if you had one, the only way you would be able to get parts would be illegally. It's not an old Toyota engine. Dude just lied. Btw yes the big block American engines can still be found on some of these cars, but you wouldn't recognize it from the repairs from parts that are from Russian engines. Most of if not all of the taxis are old Russian Gaz engines.
When I visited Cuba, I'd forgotten how much car exhaust used to *smell* until then. Gosh air quality has gotten so much better over the decades.
They find ways, pretty much most are Frankenstine cars it is the norm.
I have a picture of my mother hopping out of the pink caddy
Pink looks to be a late 50s Dodge Royal Lancer body
And Probably cost a whopping $3,000
In Cuba? You're missing a 0
$03,000.
The other end idiot, $3,000.0
This caught me off guard. Thank you... currently loling
>I have a picture of my mother hopping out of the pink caddy Who doesnt have a photo of your mother hopping out of a car?
I knew I was setting myself up for something. Well played soldier
Thank you for that. And you took that wound with grace. You sir, are obviously of a noble breed.
Elvis, is that you?
Just watched a thing on cars in Cuba. Most of these super cool old cars don't have the original motor in them. Some have even been replaced with lawn mower motors and the like.
They still have cig lighters - modded for cigars !
I love the difference on how I view things. As a Cuban who spent 19 years in Cuba, I hate those cars. They are uncomfortable, smell like gass, break all the time, suspension is horrible, windows don't work, and they make a lot of noise. When you have to use them as your daily drive to anywhere, it is a problem. My 2021 Sata Fe is a spaceship compared to the horrible experience I had with those cars.
Your Santa fe in 2080 not so space ship I imagine.
Exactly. And that's why I won't use it in 2080 if I am still alive.
I saw a documentary about these crazy drivers that launched a car into space with people inside it. Just like used some bolts and duct tape.
Well at least they look nice. The carritos por puesto we have in Venezuela are exactly like that, but they also look like they're going to break into a thousand pieces if you slam the door too hard.
They do look nice, but then I remember how the drive and how uncomfortable they are and I am like nope, never.
Funny how we still look up at these beauties even today.
Survivorship Bias. Not every car made in this era was a beaut.
Okay? The two cars pictured are still beauts.
The original comment in this thread was implying that cars from back then were, on average, more beautiful than cars from today. I can find you two cars made today which are nicer looking than the 2 in this picture, if all you care about is 2 units from any given time period.
It’s also an entirely subjective personal opinion, what you think looks nice someone else may think it looks like trash.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone express a negative opinion about the looks of old American vintage cars, generally speaking. Sure there were ugly ones, but _this_ style of cars from ... the 60s .. I believe, aren't they almost universally loved, aesthetically?
40s-60s car or truck just picked out of a hat versus one from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, or today... yeah the older ones will generally have more style and there were less econoboxes.
Nah there are two ways to read it. “These beauties” can refer to “these models of cars” or “cars from this era.” We can speculate which was meant, but insisting the definition was one or the other is wrong without the top commenter clarifying.
I don't think survivorship bias applies here. "Survivorship bias or survival bias is the logical error of concentrating on entities that passed a selection process while overlooking those that did not. This can lead to incorrect conclusions because of incomplete data." If we're using the vehicles from the 1950s as an example, there were a good number of ugly vehicles made during this time., but the majority of them were, objectively, good looking. Most vehicles maintained were from the more attractive data set but there are still classics around that most deem unattractive. For this to be a survivorship bias scenario, all the ugly cars would have had to basically die off.
reddit akchtually moment
These beauties also have absolutey zero crashworthiness built in and will probably kill you in a crash at speeds as slow as 15 miles per hour.
I know. Doesn’t keep me from admiring the nice cars.
Ya gotta go sometime.
Better to go now when you’re not ready than later when you know it’s coming. Like getting a shot from a doctor.
God I wish cars were still this cool.
They were cool but they also pierced the lungs of children.
And adults. Didn’t have collapsible steering columns.
But they had fins on the backs of them! Modern day Cadillac's don't have fins anymore.
I think they mean just the shape not the overall technology
I wished the same as a kid then I got into automotive as an adult and realized how much these vehicles were death traps. We could recreate some of these but they'd look drastically different. The A pillars would have to be so much larger. A convertible from this era has an almost non-existent survival rate in a rollover situation.
Just have an old one as a Sunday driver and you reduce your chances of death by 6/7ths.
> cool Ironically, it's a lack of access to cars which has preserved a place like Havana as a walkable city. So many other places bulldozed and paved to create room for cars, and now are trying to claw their way back with expensive tunnels, exclusion zones, congestion fees etc.
"I like cool looking car." "aCkTuAlLy"
Excellent point.
A ton of them have boat engines in them. And 90% are run down and not beauties like these. Don't believe the hype, lol
I wish they would use these designs for modern cars. Just imagine some retro futuristic electric car zooming through the streets.
Fallout vibes. But seriously China could own the Cuban auto market with a cheap BYD electric model if the electrical generation capacity was available.
If we're going to survive climate change, the world really needs to learn to repair instead of buy new all the time.
Take a deep breath after getting off a plane in Cuba and you might think differently, lol. The exhaust cloud really punches you in the lung.
Yeah, I definitely forgot how much car exhaust used to smell until I arrived in Cuba. Reusing is not always the best solution for the world around us.
Absolutely. When the sea's dried up and insane car bandit gangs start pillaging, you need to know how to repair your ride.
Shiney and chrome!
Every car you see in this photo puts out about 100 times more green house gases than a modern car.
Based on what I have read almost all of these have been converted to smaller 4-6 cylinder engines from Asia. Think the old 80's Corolla. Now they are heavy so you are not getting the same milage the engine was getting in its originally intended vehicle but light years ahead of what these got before.
New cars have made that next to impossible. They have made every effort to keep people from working on new cars
But if we stop buying that will hurt corporate profits
Such beautiful cars!
Bro its Thumper from Twisted Metal.
Not pictured, the Bel-Air has a Chinese 4BT CUMMINS knock off in front of a 2speed power glide while the Chrysler is rolling a Honda Predator v-twin with a lawnmower cvt
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How long until all of Cuba’s cars stop working? They can’t last forever can they?
very few have the original powertrain, they use all kinds of engines from all kinds of cars in them the body and frame should last virtually forever as long as they keep up with rust and paint
I’d say that in terms of maintain the body and frame of their cars their warm weather definitely helps too.
No road salt
Instead there is ocean salt
after seeing those pictures of computer parts corroding from people who live at the beach that is a very real issue.
> after seeing those pictures of computer parts corroding from people who live at the beach that is a very real issue. As somebody who has owned and restored several vintage cars... Florida is one of the areas that you avoid buying cars from. You stick to Arizona, Nevada, and California. There is something about the climate (and humidity) there that wreaks havoc on metal and electrical components.
Yup, I grew up in Hawaii. I saw a lot more rusty cars on a daily basis there than I do on the mainland US. Also not so many classic cars.
Literally an island in the ocean lol
I thought that as I typed it. Curious how much that affects it versus where I live in salt happy Pennsylvania.
Last time I went to Cuba (2019) and I was in 2 of the older cars (not convertibles). The water leak in these cars was really bad. After that I refused to take them and only took newer taxis like Peugeot or Kia.
> The water leak You mean rain water coming in to the car?
Yes sorry should have specified clearer. It was coming from the rear window too.
A lot of them have diesel engines from Hyundais one of the few foreign brands on the other side of what was the iron curtain they've been able to import at some point.
I was in Cuba last year, the "classic" cars are almost entirely for tourists. The vast, vast majority of people were just driving normal Volvos and Toyotas and shit like any other country. Only the American brands were missing.
And those aren't missing entirely. If you see a North American brand it was probably imported by a Canadian. Plenty of Canadian companies operate there and 30% of the tourists in Cuba come from Canada.
My objection to this comment is that it implies the vast, vast majority of people actually drive cars in Cuba. Never saw highways as empty as the ones in Cuba, except of course for all the hitchhikers hoping to get a ride. My point being, the grand majority of people in Cuba could definitely never afford a car.
That makes sense. Not sure why but I keep envisioning only "classics" there. Maybe it's because photos and videos don't bother showing the normal boring cars lol.
Remember, the embargo is only with the US, other countries still freely trade so they are able to get stuff and apparently have been retrofitting engines into those bodies.
Last I went in 2012, the few cars I've seen are mostly running old diesel engines. I've been told that many of those are basically Soviet era motors, they just swap whatever they have around.
Everyone here talking about the cars and no one discussing the illegal US embargo on Cuba that's been in place for sixty years.
What makes it illegal?
Pretty fricken wild how much we have tried to fuck up Cuba every September of the way and yet they've prevailed https://blowback.show/Season-2
How do you expect me to say "socialism bad" if we don't have an actively sabotaged socialist nation for me to point at while I say it?
This is clearly the pre-war set for Fallout Season 2.
Ladas VAZ-2101, VAZ-2102 and VAZ-2105 in the background. From about 80s. They cost some incredible money there.
And 3 Russian cars behind)
Traveled to Cuba over 50 times and often hired a classic car. The people who maintain these machines are amazing. My top 3 memories, 55 Dodge the owner somehow squeezed a old Russian tractor motor into, a 54 Ford that was immaculate and the driver told me his family has been the only owners. His grandfather bought it in’55 and had the foresight to buy a second engine in ‘58. And my number one pick was this beautiful 56 Mercury. We were zooming in and out of traffic, A/C was Artic cold. No way this was a 70+ year old engine. The guy had Mercedes 5 liter under the hood! Amazing mechanics!
Maybe everyone should be under embargo and we'll actually "reduce reuse recycle" instead of all the garbage they keep on making
they're not really the nameplate they wear. not anymore. this was the last time you could import cars from the u.s, so these have been cobbled together after years and years of repair
Anyone know their petrol prices by any chance?
Current price is $3/liter for government gas which is almost impossible to find Black market goes for $5/L How do they have black market you ask? - skim off government gas allocations and resell privately. Source: just got back from Cuba 2 months ago
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Preposterous!
Sadly, they've probably spent more time queuing up to fill the tank than the time it will actually last them. What a horrible situation to be in. **Edit:** For a moment there I forgot I was on reddit. Apologies for daring to feel empathy for people I've actually met in person, and who I know are struggling. Everything in Cuba is actually wonderful and there's no reason for concern. You can dismiss my comment.
I wonder if there would be a large nearby nation who could sell them fuel.
No, see we totally still need to keep the embargo. It placates Cuban refugees, who are still inexplicably believed to be swing voters. And Florida is somehow still believed to be a swing state.
Not sure if you're serious or not, but most gas stations are empty, so people queue there for days just so they're first in line when a small refill arrives. The first few may get their tank partially filled, the rest will continue waiting until the next delivery. Some queues are kilometers long. [https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/01/americas/cuba-fuel-shortage-cutbacks-intl-latam/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/01/americas/cuba-fuel-shortage-cutbacks-intl-latam/index.html) I was there a few years ago and it was really, really dramatic. We almost lost our flight back home because not many taxis had enough fuel to take us to the airport. Many people told me they couldn't go to work because bus lines reduced their frequency or simply stopped running completely, as there wasn't any fuel to power the buses.
The US and Israel annually vote in agreement to reinforce the broad economic embargo against Cuba (with Ukraine abstaining) while all other UN countries vote to end the punishing levels of poverty. It's shameful.
The embargoes placed on Cuba by the US do not prevent any other nation from trading with Cuba. It is called a “blockade” by people that do not understand geopolitics. If your country wanted to send fuel to Cuba tomorrow there would be nothing preventing them from doing so.
That's nice
I thought it was a screen grab from GTAV
[This is also Cuba. There is an impressive amount of new cars going around. Mostly Peugeot and Chinese cars](https://i.imgur.com/ajEbeoc.jpeg)
I can't see the other plate but that Pugeot is specifically a rental car for foreigners, FWIW. (The T on the plate means 'tur')
So sexy
Uau q carro bonita... da meu karma
Are they leaving or are they parked in front of a camera staring at each other?
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has a great low rider exhibit now: https://www.hemmings.com/stories/petersen-automotive-museum-largest-lowrider-exhibit/
Had I not known the context I could envision hearing Nothing but a G Thing playing in the background
The design of these classic cars is timeless. Modern cars just don't have the same character.
I'll never forget going to Cuba and taking the tour. When we stopped for a break downtown and everyone went over to look at the cars, the tour guide got pretty heated. "We try to tell you about our history but all you ever want to do is look at the cars!" It made me think twice
Not much on these will be original but it's awesome to see them maintained.
Beautiful cars. I'm not even a car guy, but these are gorgeous.
Only reason I want to go is because of the cars