Inboard headlamps are just one of the '56 Rambler's distinctive styling cues. The owner of this 1956 Rambler Custom spends most of his day driving a a more modern Skoda Octavia Combi taxi cab. But that doesn't diminish his affection for the great grey-blue tank that carries him to and from his job. "That's mine – good car!" he announces after seeing me photographing the Rambler outside Juan Gualberto Gómez Airport near Matanzas. He opens the hood to reveal a four-cylinder Volga gasolina engine in place of the Rambler's original 200-cubic-inch Nash inline six-cylinder. At a steady 60 km/h, he says, the Volga-equipped Custom delivers seven or eight kilometres per litre – that's 17 to 19 miles per U.S. gallon or 20 to 23 per Imperial gallon. With its flat flanks, "basket handle" rear roof treatment and inboard-mounted headlamps, a cue from its Nash predecessor, the Rambler is distinctive. Not pretty, but distinctive...
