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Preserving Cuba's Classic Cars (hackaday.com)
szczys writes: Cuba is a wonderland of classic cars. These aren't sitting in showroom-like garages of wealthy collectors, they're on the road — about 60,000 of them. Most of these cards are 55-70 years old and it's amazing how people are keeping these automobiles running. After ties between Cuba and the United States were cut off in the 1960's, vehicles were brought in from the Eastern Bloc and the diesel engines from many of these ended up being retrofit into the American cars. But there are still many holdouts who have made their gas-burning vehicles more efficient rather than convert to the alternative fuel.
Modern cars will last as long as these did. I say "did" rather than "have" because even as TFA notes, if you were to look under the hood you probably wouldn't even find original parts in them anymore. That is, other than the body, these practically are no longer the same cars that they once were in the 50's.
The reason why modern cars don't seem to last as long in first world countries is because once they break down to a certain point, the labor cost is so expensive that it's cheaper to just get a new car. However in Cuba, the labor price is typically lower while at the same time it's harder to get a hold of new stuff, which means reusing stuff becomes more practical than just making a new one. Like for example, TFA mentions repurposing old dryer motors for key cutting machines.
It's somewhat hard to think that in the 50's, Cuba was a somewhat wealthy country. That is until glorious revolution happened, and communism made everybody equally poor.
Analogy, It's like having that Eniac machine except now it's a Quadcore i7 running TB of ssds but with the original eniac caseing
http://chimpbox.us
Communism, or embargoes?
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
A blockade (keeping other people out) isn't the same as an embargo (not trading yourself). Cuba has been free to trade with the other 195 countries in the world. With the cost of shipping from the other side of the world (say, China) extremely low, there is virtually no difference between them trading with the U.S. and trading with the rest of the world. Not only that, but anything made specifically in the U.S. can get to Cuba by just transhipping it via another country. The biggest impact of the embargo has been Cuban access to U.S. financial markets, for which there are many other alternatives out there.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
This... There might be a tick in the aficionado market and there might be some historical or art value. If you're going to go to Cuba to buy the cars dirt cheap and bring them back like they're collector pieces, you will be disappointed. I *am* an automotive enthusiast and I have *been* to Cuba. You will not just find engines swapped, you will find the seats aren't the right model, the rims aren't correct, the body panels may not even be original (and probably aren't in many cases).
They've done a great job keeping these vehicles running. They have not kept them pristine. I've mentioned this a few times now because every time the subject of Cuba comes up, someone seems to say, "I bet those cars are worth a fortune." They might be - if you get in very quick and grab some of the better ones. Mostly, they'll have some historical significance and some art significance. They will be unlikely to retain that value once the novelty wears off and they realize that they're not something you can just drive down to VIP and get a lube and oil job.
Many of them do not look good from the outside. It's an island. It's an island in the ocean. The ocean has salt water. There's salt in the air. They've been in this salt air for a very long time, without proper care, and getting a whole lot of wear and tear. They are not going to be a reliable vehicle that the collectors can take to shows and show off. At best, they'll be trailer queens. That Mercury has a Lada engine, brakes from a Dodge, Ford seats, a bumper from a bus of unknown origin, four wheels from varied OEMs, and the body is rusting out under that paint.
That they run at all is a miracle and a testimony to the skills of the Cuban mechanics. They might have some novelty value but that will wear thin very quickly. Collectors aren't going to have a big demand for them - though there might be a few that are worth a small amount for parts that are otherwise rare. They might have some art or historical value but those will probably dwindle quickly - probably not a sound long-term investment. If you're going to do anything, get a parts list and bring someone with you and hit up their junk yards and ship back parts by the ton in crates - there will be the only real money making possibility.
If you buy a car from Cuba and you plan to actually use it, show it, or keep it in running condition then you're going to need to bring back the Cuban mechanic with you. Make suitable arrangements for their visa, family, and means of livelihood unless you plan on adopting the whole family. This is *not* a task I'd recommend anyone undertake unless they've a very compelling reason. Trying to invest in these will almost certainly result in a financial loss unless you're the first one on the scene and able to get the pick of the litter and somehow prove it was one of Fidel's, Raul's, or Batista's personal car. If you buy it to use it, it's going to break your heart. If you buy it to sell it, it's going to break your wallet.
Other than that, they're kind of cool. But it's important to note, do not invest! We've had a dozen threads lately and I bet this has come up in all of them.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Because Cuba was an egalitarian utopia with no poverty under Batista?
If you've never been, go. Pretty soon direct flight will be possible and they're even going to send a cruise ship in a few months (end of June, I think?). Go to Canada, put a piece of blank paper in your passport, and fly to Cuba. Go visit now, see them before they're more heavily influenced by America. Cuba will be resigning themselves from the list of communist countries - but not until after Fidel is dead. He's already admitted such as far as I'm told. Go, before they are no longer the Cuba that they are.
I've been twice and enjoyed it both times. I'm debating going again, just so I can visit one more time before they get hit full in the face with the US. It's not much like most people expect. There's no political undercurrent that's trying to find ways to subvert the regime and oust Raul. The sneakernet that is so talked about? The USB drives have got the latest Mexican soap-operas and most recently translated James Patterson novels. Oh, and music. Lots of music. They're not sneaking around and sharing secret plans and maps to hidden arms caches. They're sharing media.
The people are cool, they're open and friendly. Don't offer to let them use your computer or anything. Your internet access will be dog-slow if you can even get access in one of the cafes (I never did). Don't do anything crazy and they stamp your passport on the blank page instead of in the book itself. Bring some blank thumb drives - just the smaller ones, not the big ones. Don't put media on 'em, they'll take those and you won't get them back until you leave, if at all. Just put on your cigar smoking lungs, your music listening ears, and your best rum bib.
And do it before it's too late.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
But dictatorships are cool as long as the dictator is pro-US right?
I think its a sad truth that some countries aren't really ready for a democracy. In most islamic countries for example, a western like democracy is impossible. The moment the parliament votes for more rights for women, the imams will preach against the government, and by Friday the government is overthrown. The arab spring in syria helped perhaps russia get a weaker position, but mostly it promoted islamic radicalism, which is in my eyes far worse. Assad is a dictator, yes, but at least he kept the state secular, allowing freedom for religious minorities like christians etc. Just look at what happened in india where the hindus took over, they use their political position to promote their religion.
Russia had free votes once, but they became a dictature again. It all just depends on the political and cultural ambitions of powerful people in the country. In european countries the (christian) churches promote democracy, in poland they even helped democracy to be reestablished. Even most muslim organisations at least claim to support democracy. In russia, the church is actively working against democracy. And the oligarchs want to be kept alone as well, nobody wants any scandals to be brought to the public by some over-eager investigator.
For a democracy, the people have to support it, actively. If that's not the case, the US president can do whatever they want, but the country doesn't become a democracy. The most powerful man of the world isn't powerful enough for that.
So extremely wealthy for a tiny minority and grinding poverty for the majority is better than everyone being poor
Of course it is. The rich are our betters and we should all grin and bear it when they piss on us so that their opulent lifestyles don't get interrupted.
As did I - though driven as my necessity as anything else, it's an interesting tale of hardware hacking.
There's more to nerdom than computers.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
My Dad and I both are gearheads, it is something as a much younger man I did not really get into, but as I got older I purposely made myself take an interest in as an excuse to find time to spend with the oldman. One of the networks (TV) is running a show about how a 'master' mechanic in Cuba keeps these so-called Frankencars running with scraps, bailing wire, and pure 'engine-nuity'. I think it would be so-cool to gather up a boatload of what we would call useless scrap parts and take them to Cuba for donation to those folks and see what they could produce. A Dodgsel, with a chevrolac rear end.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Only U.S. companies were impacted like that, not companies in other countries, including multi-nationals with different companies in different countries.
From an anti-embargo article in Forbes: "Moreover, since Europeans, Japanese, and Canadians can travel and conduct business in Cuba unimpeded, the sanctions are rather toothless. The State Department has argued that the cost of conducting business in Cuba is only negligibly higher because of the embargo. For American multinational corporations wishing to undertake commerce in Cuba, foreign branches find it easy to conduct exchanges."
From a Clinton Administration State department report: "Rationing has been a staple of Cuban life since the early 1960's. During the early 1990's, Cuba's food consumption deteriorated sharply, when massive amounts of Soviet aid were withdrawn. On its own, without Soviet largesse and abundant food imports, Cuban agriculture was paralyzed by a scarcity of inputs and poor production incentives resulting from collectivism and the lack of appropriate price signals. In pre-Castro Cuba, by contrast, food supplies were abundant." one of many quotes showing that pre-revolution Cuba was much more prosperous and that it's collectivism that's killed Cuba. The only thing that propped Cuba up for a while was the much larger Soviet Union paying them off to be a thorn in the side of the U.S.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
oh that's why Finnish companies were free to trade high quality steel products to Cuba and Soviets at will and that's why USA didn't block further sales of advanced deep operation submarines to soviets. ...except USA pressured them not to when they felt like it. USA has been meddling with other countries trades with soviets and cuba since the WW2, making it practically impossible for anyone in the west to trade sufficiently advanced products to the eastern block(including cuba).
yes. the americans would meddle on per-trade basis. setting up an office would have been easy. getting the deal would have been easy. after that the americans(through CIA) would meddle, sometimes even after first greenlighting the trade in the first place! (KGB would meddle too, though).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.