MCM looks at Cuba's car culture. (Think *you're* a creative & thrifty mechanic?)

[MetroMPG]

The guys from Australia took a road trip (?) to Cuba to experience car culture on the island.

Among other things, they look at the inventive ways Cuban car owners & mechanics have managed to keep so many iconic 1950's American cars running for half a century (or longer) without access to replacement parts from the States.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJPqe1baowA

I've never been to Cuba. I wonder if they do tours for gearheads...

[freebeard]

Interesting video editing in the first minute.

The 58 'Bird is running 17s or 18s.

He's right about the cars being like Easter eggs against the low-key pallet of the streets.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

In nearly every South American country you'll find a similar degree of makeshift to keep old imports running in spite of an absence of replacement parts. Even though most of the American landyachts from that period remaining in Brazil are usually kept in conditions closer to stock by collectors, and the similarity of their drivetrains with the locally-made truck ranges might have helped on that, it's not unusual to spot smaller European imports repowered with locally-made Volkswagen or Chevrolet drivetrains from their subcompact and compact ranges. In Uruguay, many were converted to Diesel usually with Peugeot or Isuzu engines. And there are also those motorcycle engine swaps into cars not just here in Brazil but also in Argentina and Paraguay. Anyway, now that new vehicle imports into Cuba are mostly Chinese, it does surprise me that they didn't start to put some random copy of the Honda CG 125 engine into those Lada sedans and Polish Fiat 126.

[California98Civic]

The segment from about 18:00 to 24:30 in the shop doing the engine swap! The tools and the hardware and car panels. Awesome.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I recently saw a picture of a Ford Model A repowered with the entire drivetrain of a Suzuki Vitara in Cuba, that is impressive.

[gone-ot]

With a direct innuendo back to Cuba's Communistic past, it's: RED-neck engineering at it's BEST! (Ha,ha)

[freebeard]

You are living in the past future. Perhaps you are thinking of the succession:

Originally Posted by Google

Cuba's Government. Cuba is a totalitarian communist state headed by General Raul Castro and a cadre of party loyalists. Raul Castro replaced his brother Fidel Castro as chief of state, president of Cuba, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces on February 24, 2008.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

RED-neck engineering at it's BEST! (Ha,ha)

HA! Quoting that one for posterity.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

It has surprised me that, when it comes to "modern" cars, Peugeot has a considerable presence in Cuba.

[Xist]

CNN had an article about GM pulling out of Venezuela after that government seized their plant, which only made replacement parts, because GM was unable to import them.