CARISTAS

Like a '56 Chevy, Caristas keeps ticking along. 1956 Chevrolet 210 four-door sedan in Varadero .

    Those MGAs running around Cuba ( Sports Car Sightings , May 30) have a worthy counterpart in the form of a 1953-1956 Austin-Healey 100. There's a great photo of it at CUBANCLASSICS , accompanied by some interesting notes on early Healey history.

Take one 1952 Fargo and add ... lots of stuff.    This, we can be fairly certain, is NOT the truck that hit Cody LeCompte's Hyundai. Advertised recently on www.revolico.com , the site known as the "Cuban Craigslist," it looks, in fact, like it rarely leaves its driveway (which, incidentally, seems as well-finished as the vehicle it is home to).    By sheetmetal, this big flatbed is a 1952 Fargo, a Chrysler brand for Canada and export markets that was closely related to the manufacturer's line of Dodge commercial vehicles. Under that green hood, however, is a six-cylinder Mercedes-Benz OM352 diesel engine displacing 5.7 litres. The OM352 was used in tractors and industrial applications, as well as in the Mercedes-Benz Unimog and other vehicles. The transmission is apparently a six-speed unit from Spanish automaker Pegaso.    Other goodies: hydraulic power steering, air-suspension seats, custom second-row seating and a whole bunch of diamond-plate. ...

        SHO ULD YOU you get behind the wheel in Cuba? Should I?    The case of Cody LeCompte, the Canadian teenager held on the island after a collision until public pressure helped secure his (pending) release, should have us all thinking about the risks of renting a car there.    Canada's Foreign Affairs department, we know, has long advised against driving in Cuba, and several Cuba hands whose opinions I respect tell me they prefer to leave the driving to others when they visit the Caribbean nation.    Still, LeCompte's experience, as best I can tell, was rare. Despite widespread claims that such detentions happen regularly, only one other documented case emerged in all the attention that Cody's story received in the press and on sites such as Facebook. And that one was, well, complicated.    "Anne," an Eastern Ontario woman who didn't want her full name published, told the Ottawa Citizen she was held in Cuba for a...