• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 06 / 12 / 2011

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Could classic American cars bridge the distance between Detroit and Havana and help build relationships between Americans and Cubans?

An advocate of "people-to-people diplomacy" would like to do just that by hosting a Cuban contingent in the Woodward Dream Cruise. The idea is to showcase the innovation of Detroit's latest models in Havana while honoring Cubans' ingenuity in keeping decades-old Detroit iron running.

Countless roadblocks stand in its way, but Rick Shnitzler's idea should appeal to history buffs and car lovers. Shnitzler and Detroit native John Dowling founded Taillight Diplomacy, a nongovernment group that's built links between Cuban and American car culture for 13 years.

Walking the streets of Cuba is like stepping back in time, says Detroit journalist John McElroy. American cars from the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s are still everyday transportation. McElroy is producing a report on Cuba's old cars and their owners' inventiveness. "Stuck in Time: American Classics in Cuba" is scheduled to air July 24 on "AutoLine Detroit," the program McElroy hosts on WTVS locally and other public TV stations around the country.

Cuba was the richest country in the Caribbean for decades. Cubans bought up to 100,000 new cars a year, most of them from neighboring America.

That ended with the revolution and the U.S. trade embargo, now in its sixth decade.

The rest of the world pretty much ignores the embargo, but very few Cubans can afford a new vehicle. They keep the old American cars -- some of which have been in a single family for generations -- running with baling wire and inspiration.

"I've seen a Studebaker with a diesel engine from a Russian tractor," McElroy said. "I've also seen the most painstaking, loving restorations you can imagine. I saw people laying out brochures and old magazine ads on the floor to figure out the shape of the fender for a 1928 Chevy."

One member of the Havana Car Club soaked wood from a local tree in water for two years until it became pliable enough to shape into a steering wheel. Others make their own brake fluid by mixing mineral oil with sap from an indigenous fig bush, he said.

Cuba could also provide the Dream Cruise with historic gems like Che Guevara's green 1960 Chevrolet Bel Air. The revolutionary icon was famous for using a motorbike but he learned to drive in a Willys Jeep. He drove a broken-down Studebaker until the government decided he needed something more reliable and drafted the Chevy.

Working with Cuban authorities and the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, Shnitzler's group recently authenticated Ernest Hemingway's rare 1955 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe convertible. The car is now at the Finca, the farmhouse where Hemingway lived and wrote just outside Havana.

So far, Taillight Diplomacy has shared expertise on vehicle repair and restoration with Cubans. Shnitzler would like to expand that to a cultural exchange of people and machines.

"The Woodward Dream Cruise is way up there among global automotive events," said Shnitzler, a Philadelphia resident and city planning consultant who ran a vintage car business for years. "It's a broad-based people's event. It would be the perfect place to show Cuban cars, and modern American cars would be a huge attraction in Cuba."

His dream is to bring some Cuban cars to the Dream Cruise and have a reciprocal event that draws American car buffs and shows off new Detroit 3 vehicles in a parade along the Malecón, Havana's famous seaside avenue.

"If you brought a 2011 Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger or Chevy Camaro to Cuba, Havana would come to a standstill," McElroy said. "People would pour out of the woodwork to see modern American icons on the street."

Source: http://www.freep.com/article/20110612/COL14/106120438/1081/col