New show starring those Cuban time warp cars

Heel n Toe · 07-12-2015, 01:00 AM

"Cuban Chrome" starts this Monday at 10 on Discovery. Looks like it will be fun...

More here: Discovery's 'Cuban Chrome' shot entirely in Cuba - NY Daily News

And here: https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVvJgKaJVdQ8AtHQnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTEz ODVlY2RuBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDRkZHRTAyXzEEc2 VjA3Nj?p=Cuban+Chrome+Discovery+Channel&fr=yhs-mozilla-004&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004

Steve Carlton · 07-12-2015, 05:46 AM

Cool. Thanks for the heads-up!

asphaltgambler · 07-12-2015, 12:31 PM

I'm looking forward to see how they modify their cars as parts (my understanding) are impossible to get from outside the country.................

johnsjmc · 05:17 PM

Here,s a 1955 Belair cab I spent an hour in around Havana last year. This pic is taken at the entrance road to the castle shown in the background of the red convert in the first post. Cost $25 an hr . This 4 door cab would be worth less than $10k in the US but is worth about $25 k in Cuba because it makes cash for it,s owner , ( who,s family bought it new). It had a Toyota turbo diesel under the hood. Many are converted to diesel and I noticed stuff like disc brakes etc which probably come from China like lots of the kits in the states.. Cubans seem very inventive because of the import restrictions Someone told me because of the embargo they can,t buy a Cat diesel BUT can get a brand new Chinese bus with a Cat in the back .LOL
Parts from outside the country are available just not directly from the US. Our bus ride from the airport followed directly behind a new GMC pickup.(It belonged to the Canadian engineering company which built the generating grid.)
A quick count has 1 in 10 vehicles driving by being old American iron. Many up close are pretty rough. The better ones become taxis for the tourist market.

Scuba Steve · 07-13-2015, 03:19 AM

My guess is a lot of them don't look that great up close. I have no clue how they manage to keep them from rusting into nothing.

johnsjmc · 07-13-2015, 03:46 AM

Almost all Bondo look at the lower part of the front fender and door.

this one is a complete fiberglass fake.

Steve Carlton · 07-13-2015, 06:15 AM

With trade restrictions easing, there will soon be thousands of Chevy Volts over there...

johnsjmc · 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

With trade restrictions easing, there will soon be thousands of Chevy Volts over there...

I doubt it . When the average Cuban makes $35 per month. The only imported new cars are there for rent to tourists. They don,t want to rent the new stuff anyway. The only other newer stuff belongs to infrastructure systems like the electric company and the airport buses.

The currency is interesting they have 2 different sets of pesos. The tourist peso is pegged at equal to 1 US$ but they charge 10% to exchange them so really $.90/$CTP. They don,t charge a service charge unless US $ are being exchanged so take Cdn $ or Euros etc.
The peasant/local peso is either 1/10 or 1/100 of the tourist one. Only Cubans can get peasant pesos. A common scam is take tourist pesos and give change in local pesos. When you object they suddenly speak much worse English. I,m guessing be how they are able to live on $35 /mo. is the beer I bought at a restaurant was 1 tourist peso for me (1$) but if a local bought it it might be priced in local pesos for him ie $.01 .
Best deal was getting there we fly round trip all inclusive from Toronto for about $750 including tax Cdn$ (about $600 US now.) . Presently on sale for $605 C (About $450 US low season ) Inclusive with air hotel meals drinks tax etc on the beach with a daily free shuttle into Havana If you want to go now from the US I saw advertised excursions from Tampa at about $2500 US for the same trip.
take a few days and visit Toronto ,then while there fly round trip to Cuba and then finish your foreign adventure back in Toronto. (or Montreal ) and enjoy both for less than the gouging prices from Florida.
Go as soon as you can because change will happen and presently Havana is fascinating, friendly ,cheap and safe.

Heel n Toe · 07-13-2015, 03:11 PM

"Public Service Reminder Bump"

tcar · 07-13-2015, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsjmc

Almost all Bondo look at the lower part of the front fender and door..

Looks like a Willys Jeep Station Wagon behind... but they were also made in Argentina and Brazil, so...

johnsjmc · 07-13-2015, 04:40 PM

Here,s some more downtown Havana

johnsjmc · 07-13-2015, 04:41 PM

What in the world is this?

Brian 162 · 07-13-2015, 05:00 PM

Fiat or Vuxhall??

petrolhead611 · 07-14-2015, 03:23 AM

That is an English Ford 100E Prefect, made from 1953 thru 1961. Also available as a 2 door station wagon, the Squire or Escort depending on spec,the panel van, and the 2 door sedan Anglia or later as the Popular.Had a 36bhp1172cc sidevalve 4 cylinder engine, 3 speed floor shift with no synchro on 1st, vacuum operated windshield wipers, so pulling hard uphill in the rain would stall the wipers. From 59 thru 61 available as 107E 4 door Prefect with 997cc 39bhp ohv 4 cylider with 4 speed shift. Some people here still race, sprint, or hillclimb the 100E Anglia in historic classes. Rusty rear floorpans and front strut housings took most of theses off the road by the 70's. My first car was a 54 Prefect. A panel van hillclimbed successfully by a future Formula One driver Tony Lanfranci led to the banning of panel vans in hillclimbs; the vans had a really low ratio axle. The motors could be tuned, they had 40 bhp in the Lotus Six and Seven,but were untuned in the early Morgan 4/4, and in the 1172 formula for home built single seaters they made up to 68 bhp.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsjmc

I doubt it . When the average Cuban makes $35 per month. The only imported new cars are there for rent to tourists. They don,t want to rent the new stuff anyway. The only other newer stuff belongs to infrastructure systems like the electric company and the airport buses.

The currency is interesting they have 2 different sets of pesos. The tourist peso is pegged at equal to 1 US$ but they charge 10% to exchange them so really $.90/$CTP. They don,t charge a service charge unless US $ are being exchanged so take Cdn $ or Euros etc.
The peasant/local peso is either 1/10 or 1/100 of the tourist one. Only Cubans can get peasant pesos. A common scam is take tourist pesos and give change in local pesos. When you object they suddenly speak much worse English. I,m guessing be how they are able to live on $35 /mo. is the beer I bought at a restaurant was 1 tourist peso for me (1$) but if a local bought it it might be priced in local pesos for him ie $.01 .
Best deal was getting there we fly round trip all inclusive from Toronto for about $750 including tax Cdn$ (about $600 US now.) . Presently on sale for $605 C (About $450 US low season ) Inclusive with air hotel meals drinks tax etc on the beach with a daily free shuttle into Havana If you want to go now from the US I saw advertised excursions from Tampa at about $2500 US for the same trip.
take a few days and visit Toronto ,then while there fly round trip to Cuba and then finish your foreign adventure back in Toronto. (or Montreal ) and enjoy both for less than the gouging prices from Florida.
Go as soon as you can because change will happen and presently Havana is fascinating, friendly ,cheap and safe.

That is fascinating. Thanks for the info. I would love to do that Canada, Cuba, Canada trip but my wife does not like heat. Maybe if we do it in winter and never leave the airport in Canada.

By the way give Byron his camera back and use your phone or a new camera and get some sharper photos.

We want nice sharp photos!

ckelly78z · 07-14-2015, 04:36 AM

If it's on the Discovery channel, look for a lot of repeating scenes and manufactured drama. It's gotten to the point on an hour long show, that after every commercial break, I see the previos full minute of show, and towards the end of the show, the commercials get far closer together.

This should be a really interseting show if they keep the attitudes and yelling out of it.

johnsjmc · 07-14-2015, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

That is fascinating. Thanks for the info. I would love to do that Canada, Cuba, Canada trip but my wife does not like heat. Maybe if we do it in winter and never leave the airport in Canada.

By the way give Byron his camera back and use your phone or a new camera and get some sharper photos.

We want nice sharp photos!

I went during Dec 2013 The weather was almost exactly like Key West @ mid 70s days and high 60,s at night. I didn,t take my phone (expensive or nonexistant roaming) and didn,t take my good camera , I inadvertently had the lens on my old camera set on closeup instead of landscape.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

I was just yanking yer chain!

One of my friends travels a lot. As soon as they get to the airport they turn off the data and roaming. The phone still works as a camera and with a Wi-Fi connection is a useful tool.

I have not traveled out of the country with a phone so I am just repeating what I have heard not what is experience.

johnsjmc · 07-14-2015, 07:30 AM

Roaming can cost a small fortune I have a unlimited roaming pkg on my cell which costs $15/mo for travel in the US ,without it I would be charged something like $1.50 per min . Roaming in Cuba is probably $3.60/min. My brothers wife went to a family wedding in LA a few years ago and was unaware her smartphone data was running constantly. They got a bill for several thousand upon return. He was able to negotiate it to several hundred but I didn,t want to see that happen on a budget trip to Cuba.
The fuzzy pics from Havana is one more reason for us to go back though.
And probably best to see it before all the cruise ships start landing there and ruin it.

ckelly78z · 07-14-2015, 08:56 AM

Two weeks ago when we were on vacation in Algonac Michigan, which is right across the St Clair river from Canada, we got a text from our service provider that in one day, my son who was with us, had accumualted over $100 in roaming charges. After calling them and explaining that we had never entered international space, they retro checked his GPS, and indeed confirmed that his phone was picking up a stronger signal from the other side of the river.

I just wonder how many people go ahead and pay that huge bill erroniously, or worse yet, don't realize the cost of international roaming when they are out of the country and rack up huge bills honestly?