CARISTAS

  Tony Robertson came across this Havana survivor on San Lázaro near the Prado. It’s a ’59, I believe, though it might be a ’60. (Don’t try to identify the year by the ringed-globe emblem on the trunk. The emblem is from an Oldsmobile.)  Tony has been travelling to Cuba since 1995 and has assembled a fine collection of car pictures that includes, below, a bullet-nosed 1951 Studebaker and a circa-1970 Alfa Romeo wearing the licence plate of a government official.

  A FEW MORE shots of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL and associated parts, as provided by Michael E. Ware. He notes that the Gullwing’s owner had amassed a “sizeable pile” of aluminum SL body panels, including hoods and decklids (or “boots and bonnets” to Mr. Ware), probably from 300SL roadsters.

Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 on display in Havana.      THE 300SL coupe was far from the only highlight of Michael E. Ware’s visit to Cuba in 2005. The author of Automobiles Lost & Found also came across the remains of a 1952 Chrysler Special show car, one of three Ghia-styled fastbacks built on shortened New Yorker chassis that debuted at the Paris Motor Show.   “ ... (W)hen I lifted the bonnet there was a dog asleep where the engine should have been,” Mr. Ware relates. “This car had not run since the early 1980s. How did a ‘dream car’ get to Cuba?”    Other sightings: a sweet Abarth “double bubble” coupe, a Mercedes 300SL roadster, a 1954 Buick Skylark two-door hardtop and a 1951 Maserati A6 GLS sport with Spyder body by Frua, thought to be a one-of-a-kind.    A natural stop during the author’s busy fortnight also was Havana’s small Depósito del Automóvil , “one of the more unusual motor museums in the world as almost everything in it is ...

(December 2012 note: See update link, below.)     GUESS I'LL have to set aside my search for the younger Batista’s 1956 Corvette. An even tastier trophy has emerged – a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, better known as the Gullwing.    Even on the Island of Surprises, I’d be astounded to come across one of these rare beauties. But in a brief section on Cuba in Automobiles Lost & Found (Haynes Publishing, 2008), I see a photo of a battered 300SL observed by author Michael E. Ware outside a private garage near Havana.    The Gullwing, unmistakable lift-up doors in place, is dented and rusting and missing its engine, yet still would be prized by collectors the world over . . . if only they could extract it from Cuba. Restored, the Silver Metallic example with Lipstick Red interior might be worth more than $700,000 U.S.    Reached in England, Mr. Ware tells me he was holidaying in Cuba when an acquaintance brought him to an unnamed communit...