CARISTAS

The Volga 24 was introduced in 1970 and became the 2410 in 1985.    NO. 4 on Ramon Rivera and Jay Ramey's list of 10 cars to see in Cuba is the GAZ Volga 2410, a Russian-built sedan. What you see here is the 2410's predecessor, the Volga 24. But as a Cuban mechanic might say while transferring a bumper from one to the other, "Close enough!"    The Volga 24 entered full production in 1970, but its mid-1960s lines – with nods, shall we say, to the Chevy II, Plymouth Valiant and Ford Falcon – bear evidence of a long gestation. A fullsize car by most of the world's standards, its mechanical arrangements were typical for the era with front coil springs, unit-body construction and a live rear axle suspended from leaf springs. The engine was a 90-horsepower, 2.5-litre four-cylinder, linked to a four-speed manual transmission. Construction was strong to meet the rigours of police and taxi service.    After a moderate facelift and a boost to 100 h.p. ...

The minuscule Polski Fiat 126p is one of Cuba's most affordable cars, writes Ramey, with solid construction and low operating costs.     FOR THE the car-watcher with catholic tastes – that's catholic as in universal, not Catholic as in Popemobile – it's the  mix of vehicles that makes Cuba so fascinating.    American classic, Soviet workhorse, Chinese arriviste ... you never know what you'll come across next. Cuba, writes Jay Ramey of Autoweek, is the one place "where, if a modern Geely clips your 1950s Cadillac, the traffic police are bound to arrive in a 1980s Lada."    In an entertaining car-spotter's guide to Cuba, Ramey and photographer Ramon Rivera profile 10 of the island's most popular vehicles. Some, like the 1955-through-'57 Chevrolet, will be familiar to the American buffs who now have hope of finally seeing Cuba for themselves.    Others, such as the Beijing BJ212 or Argentine-variant Ford Falcon, could seem wondrously...

And who am I to deny you? While Canada, Britain and other nations got the export model Lada with four headlamps (and later, square headlamps), the two-headlight Russian domestic model was among Lada variants that found their way to Cuba. Based on the Fiat 124, Lada's square four-door was produced from 1970 until 2012.  Rear bumper brackets are bent, but the rest of this Lada 2101 is in great shape.

The Ural: Three wheels on the ground, a fourth as spare.    While the Harleys drew admirers, this Ural 650 stood alone. Russian machinery gets scant respect in Cuba today.    Yet to someone who hadn't run across a Ural before, the big three-wheeler was worth a closer look.    It wasn't, I think, as old as it first appeared. Based on the pre-war BMW R 71 – see the horizontally opposed cylinders? – the Ural has had the same basic design since production began in 1942 in Irbit, at the edge of the Ural Mountains. The sidecar-equipped bikes were intended to give the Red Army mobility against fast-moving German troops (themselves sometimes on BMW three-wheelers). A mobile Red Army. IMZ-Ural photo. .    This one could have been made any time before the 650 cc Ural engine was upgraded to a 750 in about 2000. Probably, however, it dated to before 1989, when Cuba lost the support of a dissolving Soviet Union.    With its stability...

    MY DREAM episode of American Trucker takes irrepressible host Robb Mariani to Cuba, where he can exclaim over the island's wondrous collection of old and new haulers.     Not likely, I know.     Cuba might be OK with it (with Cuba, you never know), but the Speed specialty channel  —  corporate cousin to Fox News  —  and its advertisers would almost certainly have, shall we say, concerns. Mariani, a guy who wears the American flag on his sleeve, might hold his own objections to setting a show in a country that has been at odds with the United States longer than the majority of Americans and Cubans have been alive.     But I think his passion for trucks, and his desire to tell the stories of trucks and truckers and their too-often-unsung contributions to our world, would override any political considerations. And let's remember that he recently took viewers to Mexico, which, while not Cuba, is...