Post No. 101

Like a '56 Chevy, Caristas keeps ticking along.

1956 Chevrolet 210 four-door sedan in Varadero.

A Healey in Havana

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.

When Mercedes met Fargo

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.
Asking price for what has to be a one-of-a-kind machine: 20,000 CUC, or about $22,500 Cdn.

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Driving in Cuba, reconsidered

Should 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 full year after a February 2008 accident in which two Cubans were killed.
She had rented the car on the Varadero resort peninsula, but said a Cuban friend was driving when it left the pavement and rolled over several times, ejecting the two passengers who died. The friend, however, insisted to police that Anne had been behind the wheel.
By the time she was finally acquitted -- and again, it's not true that you are "presumed guilty" in Cuba until you can prove your innocence -- Anne was $40,000 in debt and had lost the hair salon she had operated from her home in Canada.
Cody's case was less serious. No one died. No one disputed who was driving. Forcing a visitor to remain for months for an investigation to unfold at the pace of a Cuban snail was unreasonable -- a point the Canadian government finally made to the Cuban authorities.
But as said, it was rare. That may not give much comfort to Cody and his family, but it should give others confidence that they can rent a car and drive in Cuba without major risk, especially if they take time to learn beforehand about its conditions and laws.
Which brings us to the CARISTAS 10 TIPS FOR DRIVING IN CUBA, revised in view of the recent events.