{"id":495970,"date":"2016-11-01T00:02:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T07:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=37049"},"modified":"2024-01-04T22:01:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T22:01:45","slug":"showcase-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/showcase-9\/","title":{"rendered":"[Book Review] Cuba\u2019s Car Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrating the Island\u2019s Automotive Love Affair<\/h2>\n

By Tom Cotter and Bill Warner<\/h3>\n

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The story of how Cuba came to be trapped in an automotive timewarp is a fascinating one. For decades, the island country had enjoyed a healthy tourism trade and American outpost status, and by the 1950s it had the highest per capita automotive ownership of any Latin American country. As such, its middle class ensured an interesting variety of vehicles plying the roads. When Cuba fell to communist rebels in 1959, however, so ended the inflow of new cars. Since then, trade embargos forced Cuba’s car enthusiasts to develop a unique and insular culture, one marked by great creativity, as evidenced by having to keep any particular car alive without the help of replacement parts!<\/p>\n

Authors Tom Cotter and Bill Warner (founder of the Amelia Island Concours) take readers on a whirlwind tour of all things automotive, beginning with Cuba\u2019s pre-Castro automotive and racing history and bring us up to today’s lost collector cars, street racing and the struggle to keep decades-old cars on the road. The book is illustrated throughout with rare historical\u00a0photos, as well as wonderful contemporary photos\u00a0of Cuba\u2019s current car scene.<\/p>\n