Cotter - Cubas Car Culture Celebrating

CELEBRATING THE ISLANDS AUTOMOTIVE LOVE AFFAIR

TOM COTTER AND BILL WARNER

FOREWORD BY
SIR STIRLING MOSS

2016 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2016 Tom Cotter and Bill Warner

Photography Bill Warner except as noted otherwise.

First published in 2016 by Motorbooks, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. Telephone: (612) 344-8100 Fax: (612) 344-8692

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Digital edition: 978-1-62788-881-3

Hardcover edition: 978-0-76035-026-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cotter, Tom, 1954-author. | Warner, Bill, author.

Title: Cubas car culture : celebrating the islands automotive love affair / Tom Cotter and Bill Warner ; foreword by Sir Stirling Moss.

Description: Minneapolis, MN, USA : Motorbooks, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016015438 | ISBN 9780760350263 (hardbound)

Subjects: LCSH: Antique and classic cars--Cuba. | Cuba--Description and travel.

Classification: LCC TL33.C83 C68 2016 | DDC 629.222097291--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015438

Acquiring Editor: Zack Miller

Project Manager: Madeleine Vasaly

Art Director: Brad Springer

Cover Designer: Richard Aquan

Interior Design and Layout: Renato Stanisic

Front cover: Ephraim Muller

Table of contents: Jim Heimann Collection/Getty Images

Acknowledgments: Anne-Marie Weber/Getty Images

Title page: Patrik Bergstrm/Getty Images

This book is dedicated to the hard-working, ingenious, and proud Cuban motorists who have managed to keep their cars operating decades after their warranties expired.

Thanks to Neil Rashba, Mildred Diaz (the Cuban travel guru!), Eduardo Mesejo Maestre, Joel Finn (Caribbean Capers), Richard Schweid (Ches Chevrolet, Castros Oldsmobile), Dick Messer, Scott George, Ivan Celestrin, Kathleen Adelson (General Motors), the University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection, and all the folks who gave us information whom we could only mention by their first names: Quico, Abel, Abe. And thank you to Motorbooks: Zack Miller, Madeleine Vasaly, and Brad Springer.

BY SIR STIRLING MOSS

I t has been over fifty years since my last victory in the Cuban Grand Prix for sports cars. I drove in all three races, with victory in two of themone in a Ferrari 335S and the last in the fabulous Maserati Tipo 61 for Camoradi USA (Casner Motor Racing Division). Ive not been back to Cuba since then, although I was scheduled to return for Maserati a few years back, but the trip never materialized. The kidnapping of El Maestro, Juan Manuel Fangio, in 1958 somewhat defined the direction the country was to go. In this book, Tom Cotter and Bill Warner have presented stories and photographs of the automotive culture that still lives in the hearts of the Cubans. The depth of enjoyment they were able to experience in essentially a police state is admirable, if not a little bit dangerous. Enjoy the stories and savor the dreams. The package will open soon, and Cuba will never be the same.

Race winner Stirling Moss on the airport circuit en route to winning Cubas last international race. Collection of Bill Warner

This 1955 poster rendering by Charlie Zito was used as the event poster for the 1957 Grand Prix. The Cuban Sporting Commission printed five thousand for distribution in the United States. Collection of Bill Warner

INTRODUCTION

TOM COTTER

I ve always wanted to travel back in time rather than forwardperhaps its because Im more intrigued with history than the future. So in 2009, when my friend Bill Warner invited me to join him on an old car tour to Cuba to research the Cuban Grands Prix, I jumped at the offer to step back into the 1950s.

The country was amazing, and even though I dont agree with a political structure that put millions of citizens into poverty, I met many, many Cubans who were proud of their country and proud to be Cubans. During that trip, I fell in love with the people, the scenery, the architecture, the food, and the history. And, of course, the cars.

I decided that I wouldnt mind living in Cuba for a year. It would be an ideal locale to write a book, as Ernest Hemingway had discovered decades earlier.

Then, during the summer of 2015, Bill invited me to join him on another trip to the island nation. Of course I accepted. Thats when we decided to write this book; I would do most of the writing, and Bill would handle all the photography.