Vintage American cars driving around the old cities of Cuba are splashed all over vacation brochures. Cuba markets the result of years of American embargos as a plus. When the Cuban revolution occurred in the 1950s and a socialist government took control the American response was to cut off the island.
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro’s revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the military dictatorship of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. Jul 26, 1953 – Jan 1, 1959
– Wikipedia
The embargo on American imports basically froze the stock of American cars in time. No more imports of cars and no more imports of parts. The remaining stock had to be maintained by cannibalization and ingenuity. Now fifty years later the remaining stock of bastardized colorful vintage American cars has become a marketing tool – you can even hire these old cars as taxis.
But you don’t need to travel to Cuba to see vintage American cars “in the wild”.
Vintage American cars can be found all over rural America in places where people know the value of a hard-earned dollar, know how to repair things, have places to store large valuables and don’t have the same throwaway mentality as in cities.
When spring comes these old classics are pulled out of the barn, tuned up and taken for a ride down country lanes, to the local diner meet up or to car shows.
I find beautiful old classics driving to church in Connecticut, taking the kids for ice cream in New Hampshire, picking up the mail in Vermont.
I see classic old American cars parked in front of triple-deckers in Massachusettes, Model T Fords in front of a country store in New Hampshire, old classics baking in the sun in Utah and Nevada and even parked at the beach in Florida. American’s love their vintage cars.
Find great old vintage automobiles on the street, in people yards, in the middle of a forest, abandoned in the desert, in the snow and even at the beach.
