CARISTAS

Flight of the bumblebee:  Čezeta scooter     I had seen the Čezeta scooter only in photographs. Then, one afternoon this month in Havana, I spotted not one but two real-life examples of the strange, Czechoslovakia-built two-wheeler.     Only in Cuba.     One was coming toward me on a highway; I caught just a glimpse of it. But the veteran Čezeta you see here, with bumblebee-theme paint job, was parked for my leisurely perusal on Avenue Maceo, between the harbour and the tourist-crowded Old Havana district.     The Čezeta is odd-looking enough in photos, the seeming result of a marriage of a torpedo with a coffee pot. See a real one and your reaction can only be: "Yikes!"     Yet this scooter was designed for practicality. Built from 1957 until 1964 by the merged motorcycle companies CZ and Jawa, the Čezeta has a long, dual saddle concealing a big luggage compartment; an optional trailer was avail...

   Just back from Cuba with a slight sunburn, many warm memories and, of course, enough photos to fill the trunk of this 1956/57 Opel Kapitän sedan. The rather suggestive ornament, above, wasn't a stock Opel item, but nonetheless looks at home on the Kapitän's hood. Opel   Kapitän 1956/57.

Part Plymouth, part Dodge, this is a 1955 Chrysler export model .      Fifty years ago this week, the United States instituted its near-complete trade embargo on Cuba, following the partial embargo it enacted in October 1960.     Sheesh, has it only been five decades? Judging by the shapes and styles of Cuba's old vehicles  —  the most visible symbols of the ongoing rift between neighbours   —  it seems like a lot longer. Roof rack-equipped '48 Chev panel.     There's a reason for this.     In February 1962, Ford was readying concept versions of its Mustang, and General Motors and Chrysler had their own sporty compacts in showrooms or on drawing boards. Car design was moving to a cleaner, trimmer look (even if mainstream sedans were growing bigger and heavier).     But in the island to the south, car time  —  at least, American car time  —  had stoppe...

   Some time back, I posted this photo of La Rampa (Calle 23) at the Malecón, circa 1955, along with a link to a contemporary photo of the famous Havana corner.    The old photo prompted a reader to share his memories of working in the landmark building on the left that was home to Ambar Motors, Telemundo  Television Channel 2 and other enterprises.    For our reader, here's another view of the corner today, this one looking north through the gas station that now wears the colours of the Oro Negro state brand. The car is a 1948 Chevrolet, delineated by its chrome as the popular Fleetline Aero model. It may well have been delivered new through the Ambar General Motors agency next door.

  Here's another hauler for Robb Mariani and his American Trucker crew to inspect when they get to Cuba . This bruiser, advertised on Revolico.com, is a 1952 Diamond T dump truck.   Built in Chicago, the Diamond T was known as "the Cadillac of trucks."  These days, of course, Cadillac makes its own trucks, or at least sport-utilities, but it was strictly a passenger car producer throughout the Diamond T's 62-year run.   Diamond T also started as a carbuilder. C.A. Tilt, son of a successful shoe manufacturer, founded the Diamond T Motor Car Co. in 1905 to make four-cylinder roadsters. In 1911, after assembling a truck at the request of a customer who owned a plumbing supply company, Tilt decided that commercial vehicles represented a better opportunity and shifted his production exclusively to trucks. Tilt's enterprise would become one of the largest independent truck builders in the United States, turning out some 250,000 vehicles over more than five decades....

   I'd almost given up hope of identifying the car in this photo, first posted here nearly two years ago. But now Justino Silva Jr. has come to the rescue. This perky little buggy, Justino tells us, is a Gurgel X-12.    Gurgel?    Little known outside Latin America, Gurgel, I've discovered, has huge significance in Brazil. Gurgel Motors was founded in São Paulo in 1969 by João Augusto Conrado do Amaral Gurgel, a mechanical engineer and electrician whose life mission was to build a genuinely Brazilian vehicle.    Gurgel began, however, with some German help, basing his first, dune buggy-style models on the Volkswagen running gear that so suited the light off-roaders. In the early 1970s he introduced the four-place Xavante, still using VW's air-cooled rear engine and other mechanicals. The Xavante evolved into the 1975 X-10, joined that same year by a heftier military version that also would be sold to the public as the X-12.    W...

Appears that most of the photos on CARISTAS disappeared overnight, due to me fiddling with the confusing settings at the Picasa site where blogger.com images are archived. I've learned my lesson. They should all be back now.