Classic Cars, in Colour, in Cuba

This is a follow-up to the previous blog on developing colour film at home, and photos taken while on vacation on Cuba. I gathered all the automotive photos together for a discreet classic car blog post.

Cuba is a living automotive museum. Due to trade restrictions since the revolution, there are no American cars in the country built after about 1960.  There are plenty of Ladas and some more recent European and Asian models in circulation, but it’s the pre-1960 American cars that are a tourist attraction, including some that have virtually disappeared from the radar here at home: I was surprised at the number of Studebakers still on the road. 

All pictures were shot on a Nikon N-80 (here is Ken Rockwell's review of the camera), 50mm f/1.8 autofocus lens, set to aperture priority most of the time, on Kodak Ektar 100 film. Home developed using Flic Film C-41 chemistry. Negatives scanned on an Epson Perfection V850 Pro scanner using Silverfast software. 

At the resort, every morning, there were cars and drivers offering their services for an hour, the morning or the day:

These classic cars are not rare in Cuba; they make up the bulk of the cars on the road:

Studebakers were clearly popular in pre-revolutionary Cuba; one of the coolest cars I saw was this Lark.  According to Wikipedia, this 2-door convertible model began production in 1959, so this would have been one of the last cars imported before the trade embargo:

...and another Studebaker, this one is a Champion:

Another interesting car I came across was the Ford Consul, a car manufactured by Ford in Britain from 1951 until 1962.

 

As a Jeep owner, I saw plenty of Willys Jeeps, some that had been heavily modified for work purposes, but here was one, though a little rough, still in something close to its original configuration:

Other classic car examples on the streets of Holguin and Santiago:

There are many stories about the lengths people go to to keep these cars on the road, given the inability to import spare parts. Many have kept the original bodywork and interior, with everything else changed out over the years, with whatever could be adapted, such as engines and other critical parts from Chinese or Soviet/Russian cars.

Here is a car I spotted in Santiago that appeared to be only partway through bodywork renewal:

 

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Previous Posts: 

• 1st Time colour developing at home: photos of Cuba
• Large Format
• Quebec City photowalk on a cloudy morning
• Garden, at home, in bloom, shot on a really nice budget film
• Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens
• Ottawa, at Night, in Winter, on Cinestill 800T
• Supply Ship Visit to Remote Québec (and Labrador) Villages
• Mamiya RB67, Egypt and Mount Sinai
• Paris: One week, one camera, one lens, and whole lot of film
• Nikon F4 (F4S)
• Nikon F4, part 2: Fall Colours
• Classic folding cameras capture Thanksgiving in Upstate NY
• San Diego, February 2023, Nikon F4, Tri-X
• Washington DC, Feb 2023
• Voigtländer Perkeo 1
• Voigtländer Vito II
• The beginning of a blog...