CARISTAS

     A FEW MORE  of Tony Robertson's photos from the Havana motorcycle racing event described in the previous post. RUNNING LEAN: German-built MZ 125-cc carries not a gram of excess weight. TWO TO SIPHON: Crew members get fuel flowing. BUMP START: A push, and he's on his way. BUILT FOR SPEED: Fairing on MZ 250 appears to have been handcrafted. Photos by Tony Robertson. Used by permission .  

Sportbikes sweep through the course along the Havana waterfront.     THE-STATE-APPROVED drag-racing events described here recently weren't the first time Cuba has broken its own ban on organized motorsports.    In 2004, the government allowed motorcycle races on a closed circuit on Havana's Malecón, the same waterfront avenue that was the site of the Cuban Grand Prix in 1957 and 1958. CARISTAS contributor Tony Robertson was at the races and took the photos you see here.    Several large-displacement bikes took to the course in what may have been a demonstration event for the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship. Running in their own class were smaller-displacement Cuban motorcycles, many with modifications suggesting they were part of some regular, if little-publicized, local racing series. Bigger motorcycles may have come from the Carribean Motor Racing Championship. A Cuban entry passes the Monument to the Victims of the USS Main...

A '32 or '33 Ford Altered Coupe makes a run during one of the rare state-approved race days.      ORGANIZED DRAG racing still hadn't reached Cuba when Fidel Castro gave motorsports the black flag in the early 1960s.    Rallies and road races were the island's competitions of choice, starting with the 100-mile Havana Cup in 1905. The racing scene grew significantly in the 1950s (as it did in so many countries), with three Gran Premio de Cuba events attracting some of the world's top drivers.    Then the new government banned car racing and other "bourgeois" professional sports, throwing its support behind the amateur athletics it felt was more in keeping with the socialist ideal.    Of late, however, drag racing has somehow found a toehold, with occasional state-sanctioned race days and a small but fervent street racing movement in the Cuban capital. The latter is the topic of a documentary, Havana Motor Club , that will debut t...

It took some time, but I finally came across this unique-to-Cuba , Chinese-made vehicle. Still looking for the Batista Corvette .

According to the Autocar review site, the Partner Tepee is 'Peugeot’s badge-engineered version of the equally convoluted sounding Citroën Berlingo Multispace.'

   HERE'S MORE proof that not every Cuban old-timer ticks along on some replacement Russian or Japanese diesel engine. A 1956 or '57 Opel Kapitän, this German sedan is propelled by the same six-cylinder gasoline engine with which it left the factory.    The Kapitän has had a few useful modifications: an alternator in place of a generator, an added console, a set of aftermarket gauges. But after nearly 60 years of service, it remains remarkably close to stock. Sold new by General Motors dealers, Opels were popular with Cuban car buyers in the 1950s. Triple air horns are a Cuban addition, but six-cylinder engine is original. Column-mounted shifter, and a great big wheel. See also : O Kapitän CubanClassics: 1958 Opel Kapitän P1 L

MG6 is hardly the first sedan to wear the famous MG emblem.     IT COULD  seem like sacrilege to affix the MG badge, the same octagon that has graced so many two-place, open sports cars, to a line of generic, Chinese-built sedans and hatchbacks.    Before we get too righteous, however, let's remember that the MG name has appeared on sedans in the past, including the 1960s-era 1100 and 1300 that were variants of a squat four-door shared with Austin, Morris, Riley and other British Motor Corp. brands.    Nanjing Automobile picked up MG Rover in 2005 and was itself absorbed two years later by SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd., headquartered in Shanghai. MG5 compact hatchback has more styling presence than its larger sibling.    In 2011 SAIC stopped production of the dated TF roadster that Nanjing had inherited from MG Rover and introduced the MG6, a bland midsizer produced as sedan and five-door hatchback. The 6 was joined the following...