Cuba's Car Culture: Celebrating the Island's Automotive Love Affair

Welcome to Cuba's automotive time capsule, filled with classic cars. The story of how Cuba came to be trapped in automotive time is a fascinating one. For decades, the island country had enjoyed healthy tourism trade and American outpost status, and by the 1950s it had the highest per capita automotive purchasing of any Latin American country - its middle class ensured an interesting variety of vehicles plying the roads. But when Cuba fell to communist rebels in 1959, so ended the inflow of new cars. Since then, trade embargo forced Cuba's car enthusiasts to develop a unique and insular culture, one marked by great creativity, such as: Keeping a car alive with no opportunity to acquire replacement parts Customizing a car with no access to aftermarket parts Drag racing with no drag strip In many ways, Cuba is an automotive time warp, where the newest car is a 1959 Chevy or perhaps one of the Soviet Ladas. Cuba's Car Culture offers an inside look at a unique car culture, populated with cars that have been cut off from the world so long that they've morphed into something else in the spirit of automotive survival. Authors Tom Cotter and Bill Warner (founder of the Amelia Island Concours) take readers of Cuba's Car Culture on a whirlwind tour of all things automotive, beginning with Cuba's pre-Castro car and racing history and bringing us up to today's lost collector cars, street racing, and the challenges of keeping decades-old cars on the road. The book is illustrated throughout with rare historical photos as well as contemporary photos of Cuba's current car scene. For anyone who enjoys classic cars, from old Chevy Bel-Airs to Studebakers to Ford Fairlanes, a cruise around Cuba will make you feel like a kid in a candy store.

“"You'll get fully informed on Cuba's Car Culture. It's far more in depth than I thought it would be, and terrifically full of photos of the cars and Havana."”

"A lavishly illustrated photo history of the country's car culture...You'll see a culture frozen in time in terms of modern technology and conveniences but for vintage car buffs, you'll see a fantasyland of cars, everything from a Ford Model T to Ernest Hemingway's 1955 Chrysler convertible. You'll also learn fascinating historical trivia about Cuban car culture." Travel Channel online "Cuba's Car Culture...is well written, with lots of political and racing history for background and context. The photos are great and leave the reader with a real sense of what it's like there." DeansGarage.com "The resulting book is a gorgeous homage to an automotive life that will no doubt change as the island begins again to trade with the United States." ShelfAwareness.com "Writer Tom Cotter, photographer Bill Warner and automotive historian Wellington Morton give us page after page of glorious color photos and easy-to-digest narrative on the history of Cuba's cars, the country and its proud people." theCoastNews.com "A beautifully photographed documentary of a summer 2015 visit by authors and automotive enthusiasts Tom Cotter and Bill Warner, and a history of the island's intertwined politics and passion for cars." San Francisco Chronicle

Tom Cotter writes regularly for -->Road & Track" and has a deep-seated love for automotive rescue. He is the author of the best-selling titles -->Cobra in the Barn", -->Hemi in the Barn", and -->Vincent in the Barn". He is also the co-author of an award-winning history of Holman-Moody, a legendary racing team that enjoyed its greatest success in stock-car racing. Cotter lives in -->-->Davidson-->, -->North Carolina-->-->, with his family and a garage full of collector cars. Featuring stories about such famed cars as Dean Jeffries' customized Porsche Four-Cam Carrera, the Green Hornet's Black B

Cuba's Car Culture presents readers with Cuba's unique car culture, which harks back to the vintage rides of the 1950s and earlier. The book includes history, photos, and automotive commentary from experts. Welcome to Cuba's automotive time capsule, filled with classic cars. The story of how Cuba came to be trapped in automotive time is a fascinating one. For decades, the island country had enjoyed healthy tourism trade and American outpost status, and by the 1950s it had the highest per capita automotive purchasing of any Latin American country - its middle class ensured an interesting variety of vehicles plying the roads. But when Cuba fell to communist rebels in 1959, so ended the inflow of new cars. Since then, trade embargo forced Cuba's car enthusiasts to develop a unique and insular culture, one marked by great creativity, such as: Keeping a car alive with no opportunity to acquire replacement parts Customizing a car with no access to aftermarket parts Drag racing with no drag strip In many ways, Cuba is an automotive time warp, where the newest car is a 1959 Chevy or perhaps one of the Soviet Ladas. Cuba's Car Culture offers an inside look at a unique car culture, populated with cars that have been cut off from the world so long that they've morphed into something else in the spirit of automotive survival. Authors Tom Cotter and Bill Warner (founder of the Amelia Island Concours) take readers of Cuba's Car Culture on a whirlwind tour of all things automotive, beginning with Cuba's pre-Castro car and racing history and bringing us up to today's lost collector cars, street racing, and the challenges of keeping decades-old cars on the road. The book is illustrated throughout with rare historical photos as well as contemporary photos of Cuba's current car scene. For anyone who enjoys classic cars, from old Chevy Bel-Airs to Studebakers to Ford Fairlanes, a cruise around Cuba will make you feel like a kid in a candy store.

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