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COLORFUL YANK TANKS

IN CHE’S CHEVROLET, CASTRO’S OLDSMOBILE, RICHARD SCHWEID ESTIMATES THAT TODAY MORE THAN SIXTY THOUSAND PRE-1960 AMERICAN CARS PROWL THE STREETS OF CUBA, MOST OF THEM IN THE CONGESTED CITIES OF HAVANA AND SANTIAGO DE CUBA. OF THOSE, ROUGHLY HALF ARE FROM THE 1950s, 25 PERCENT ARE FROM THE 1940s, AND 25 PERCENT ARE FROM THE 1930s.

IF YOU WERE TO STAND ON A BUSY STREET CORNER IN THE CENTER OF HAVANA NEAR THE HOTEL PARQUE CENTRAL, YOU WOULD SEE DOZENS AND DOZENS OF COLORFUL AMERICAN CARS, PARKED ALONG THE CURB,WAITING FOR TAXI CLIENTS, OR VYING FOR A SPOT IN THE MOVING PARKING LOT THAT EMBRACES THIS CENTER CITY FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET. INTERSPERSED BETWEEN THE OLD AMERICAN IRON IS AN ODD MIX OF 1970S RUSSIAN-BUILT LADAS (RETOOLED ITALIAN FIAT 131 SEDANS), NEW CHINESE GEELYS (WHICH RESEMBLE LATE-MODEL CADILLACS AND CHEVYS), AND THE OCCASIONAL SOVIET-ERA VOLGA, WARTBURG, OR ŠKODA. ONCE IN A WHILE, YOU MIGHT SEE A LATE-MODEL MERCEDES-BENZ OR AUDI NEGOTIATING THE MANY POTHOLES THAT EXIST ON CUBAN STREETS; THESE, WE WERE TOLD, BELONG TO DIPLOMATS OR NON-AMERICAN CORPORATE EXECUTIVES, POSSIBLY FROM ONE OF THE OIL COMPANIES THAT DO BUSINESS ON THE ISLAND.

Owners of vintage cars in Cuba maintain and clean them regularly, but given the choice, they would gladly trade their sixty-year-old relics for modern, more economical cars that have luxuries such as air conditioning.

In what could almost be a scene from nearly any American city half a century ago, the photo of these American cars waiting at a traffic light was taken in 2015. wellsie82/Getty Images

Originally, a large eagle facing America sat atop these twin columns—the Monument to the Victims of the USS Maine—but Castro had it removed. The famous Hotel Nacional de Cuba is in the background.

CARS ARE CUBA’S BRAND

If you’ve seen a magazine article, news segment, or Travel Channel TV show about Cuba during the past decade, chances are the first image was that of colorful old American cars. Those cars have become the country’s brand, and it’s probably the first topic of conversation you are likely to hear when you mention Cuba to friends, family, and especially car guys.

We hear the same mantra all the time from our car-enthusiast friends: “When relations between the United States and Cuba open up, I’m going to go down there and buy a bunch of those old cars, then bring them back to the States and sell them for a fortune!” We hate to burst bubbles, but even if it were legal to export a car from Cuba—which it’s currently not—a few days on the island will quickly change most car enthusiasts’ opinions.

When have you seen another one of these? This 1955 Cadillac has been modified into a station-wagon configuration by some enterprising Cuban.

This bright yellow Chrysler taxi, which appears to be a 1956 model, offers its patrons a spacious interior. Is it still Hemi powered? We never caught up with the driver to find out.

In the States, car guys have an expression to describe cars that look worse the closer they get: 30-footers. From 30 feet away, the car looks great, but its flaws become more apparent with every step closer.

In Cuba, we coined the phrase 100-yarders!

The colorful Cuban cars you see on the Discovery Channel, or in Traveler magazine, don’t tell the full story. When you read about “impeccably restored classic American cars,” don’t believe a word of it.

This 1953 Studebaker coupe looks pretty cool with its faux Minilite wheels. The Raymond Loewy–designed car is beautiful, regardless of what country in which it resides.

This 1950 Plymouth seems to have the famous Malecón highway to itself as the wind and the waves whip up the ocean on the right. danm/Getty Images

This 1957 Chevy 210 two-door hardtop looks as though some details and a paint job are all it needs to be presentable, even in the States.

A combination of two hood mascots adorns this Cuban beauty.

In all fairness, the cars that are restored to a high level by Cuban standards would rank as No. 4 in the United States, according to Sports Car Market’s valuation criteria. But 99.9 percent of the American cars on the road here are finished to a far lower level, ranking five and below. They have been patched and bandaged together for decades. The term “restored” is academic. These cars are nostalgic—old and still running, but that’s about it. Very few truly restored cars exist on the island, mostly due to lack of money, talent, and/or materials.

Think of the car sitting in your driveway. When it’s new, everything is tight and works flawlessly. But as the new-car smell dissipates and more miles accumulate on the odometer, your car will start to develop squeaks and rattles, and parts will begin to fail. By the time it’s five or six or seven years old, you’ll probably start thinking about trading it in for a new model.

Now compare that five- or six- or seven-year-old car to the average Cuban’s fifty- or sixty-or seventy-year-old cars. We even saw some eighty-year-olds—Model As and 1935 Fords—that were still operating on a daily basis. Compound that age with incredibly rough roads, poor gas quality, and an almost complete absence of correct spare parts, and you’ll begin to appreciate just how ingenious the Cubans are.

From 100 yards, the cars of Cuba can easily be identified as Fords and Chevys and Pontiacs. But the closer you get, the more subtle styling changes become visible. Over time, the cars have become an automotive “stew,” with parts from one year or brand of car adapted to fit on another.

There are many dogs roaming loose in Cuba, but this one is obviously more fashionable than most.

How can you tell that a legendary Rocket 88 no longer resides under the hood of this 1953 Oldsmobile? The black smoke pouring out of the tailpipe means it’s probably a diesel tractor motor.

The rough-around-the-edges condition of this Buick is representative of most of the vintage American cars plying the streets of Cuba.

When was the last time you saw one of these? This 1958 Edsel Pacer convertible is rare even in America, but one this nice in Cuba is truly a treasure. The owner, a photographer, uses the car primarily for weddings.

It’s not unusual to see a 1951 Chevy with a 1955 Chevy grille. Or VW taillights adapted to a Buick. Sometimes these swapped parts look totally plastered on, just installed to get the car back on the road. But often, local craftsmen actually sculpt the new pieces onto cars in a very convincing manner. Cubans are proud people, and even though most of them are very poor, they try to keep their cars looking respectable.

Trim items such as grilles and bumpers are taken from other cars when they exist, but local craftsmen have also become quite adept at beating metal into the same approximate shape as the original item. Sometimes trim pieces are wrapped in tin foil to give the illusion of being chrome. It’s not perfect, but in a pinch, it works.

This beautiful 1959 Buick convertible was as nice as any we’ve seen in the States. It was, of course, in livery service in the historic district.

This 1958 Buick four-door hardtop appeared flawless and is in use as a taxi (see the sign on the dash).