1953 Hudson Jet

"Hudson unveils a new kind of car in the low-price field . . . with performance, luxury and safety comparable only to the fabulous Hudson Hornet!"

The short-lived Jet was Hudson's failed attempt to participate in America's compact car market with bad timing and bad styling.

Hudson's success with the famous "Step-Down" cars diminished in the early 50s, when the styling-craze kicked off, and annual styling changes became an inevitable sales instrument. Hudson's "Step-Down" body wasn't flexible enough for a major restyling, and in result, the sales plummeted.

At the same time emerged some "compact" cars like the Rambler or Frazer's Henry J on the market, which had initial sales success. Inspired by this, Hudson's president A. E. Barit ordered the development of the compact Hudson Jet, but despite very promising early designs, the outcome was a stubby, slab-sided car, which wasn't very pretty. In a time when "longer and lower" was the key to success, the Jet's styling and proportions were just not right.

When the Jet was introduced in 1953, America's compact car market had turned out to be already saturated, and there was no more room for another contender. Hudson had lost a lot of money in the development of the Jet, and with a tight budget finally had to merge with Nash-Kelvinator in 1954 to become American Motors. One condition of Nash President George Mason for this merger was that the Jet had to go. After just 21.143 cars in 1953, and 14.224 in 1954, the production of the Jet was stopped at the moment when the costs for tooling were amortized.

The low production numbers make the Jet a valuable rarity today. It took us a fair bit of time to come across one in Cuba, and to our surprise its owner knew exactly about the value of his car. "Mira," he told us. "My carro looks bad, but it runs well, and it's worth more than any Chevy you can find."

1959 Plymouth Belvedere 4-door Hardtop

"Here is the most exciting new car that the low-price field has seen in many a year! This magnificent Plymouth for '59 gives you more reasons for buying a new car than you've ever had, because it offers more fine car advances than any car at anywhere near its modest price! It's a light-hearted, youthful car – a new, fresh look in automobiles – and it performs with eagerness and spirit . . . a high-stepping nimble-footed masterpiece of luxury and comfort . . . a joy to behold and heaven to drive!"

The late 50s were Mopar-years: nothing was hotter than the Virgil Exner styled Chryslers, Dodges, DeSotos and Plymouths. This Plymouth Belvedere from Sancti Spiritus is exemplary for the elegant lines and proportions of Chrysler products of these years.

Don't get puzzled by the huge wheels on this Plymouth Belvedere though, as wheels on american cars already had become increasingly smaller throughout the 50s. "Longer and lower" was the key for success, and smaller wheels (14-inch on 1959 Plymouths) were an appropriate practice to inconspicuously lower the cars even further.

Quadruple headlights, were de rigeur on most cars, too, since they had become road-legal in all states of the U.S. in late 1957.

1948-1950 Packard Super Eight Sedan

"Ask the man who owns one"

Being once THE aristocratic american automobile, and as such more "upper-class" than all the Cadillacs, Buicks and Imperials together, today this Packard Super Eight from Havana is just a poor shadow of its former self. Chrome-trim and paint are gone after over 60 years, and make it impossible to determine the exact year of its production.

The car was introduced as the Clipper already in 1941. Untypical for Packard, famous external designers took part in its development, such as George Walker (who later should claim the styling of the 1949 Ford), and Howard "Dutch" Darrin, designer of the Kaiser, as the main influencees. When the car was presented in 1941, it was a hit, and so successful, that Packard decided to base all models on the Clipper's body. After the "war-break", which lasted from 1942-1946, the Packards received a heavy-handed facelift in 1948, which by any means couldn't hide the car's pre-war origins. Main differences were the new hood with a Lincoln-like front grille, and the "Ponton"-style side section with the fenders running through from front to back. But in the styling-craze of the emerging 50s, this Packard-styling soon was a thing from the past.

1952 Cadillac Sixty Sedan

"Why not come in today and see and drive this great new Standard of the World? We know you'll agree that it is a fitting climax to fifty years of ever increasing quality and prestige."

Once "The Standard of the World", this Cadillac today is in a fairly wretched condition. Its owner told us that while driving full-throttle on the carretera, the hood catched air and flipped over the roof. Luckily, nobody was injured. Until the hood gets fixed (and this can take a long time in Cuba), a simple wire has to serve as the lock-replacement.

Introduced in 1948, the Cadillac was the first new postwar design of General Motors to hit the streets. Harley Earl and the chief designer of the Cadillac division, Bill Mitchell, created a masterpiece, that made the competition look outdated.

Integrated fenders, airplane-inspired bumper-cones and the first hints of tailfins made the Cadillac appear very modern to the clientele. The changes during the five year-lifecycle of the lineup were subtle, and this practice helped Cadillac to fortify their image as one of the american luxury-icons.

1955 Dodge Custom Royal V-8 4-door Sedan

"TAKE COMMAND . . . Get the thrill first hand!"

And a thrilling machine it is, this Dodge Custom Royal. After a period of rather dull and uninspiring cars, Dodges and Chryslers alike paraded the eye-opening "Forward Look" upon their introduction in 1955. Man in charge of the styling of the 1955 Dodge was Maury Baldwin, who was Virgil Exner's assistant and responsible for the look of Dodge and Plymouth. Although having a shorter wheelbase than the Chryslers, 1955 Dodges shared many elements of Exner's "Forward Look", and overall looked equally stunning.

This generation of cars was Virgil Exner's first volley against GM's design leadership. Still, Chevrolets or Buicks were widely considered as more beautiful, but already with the next generation of Exner-styled cars, Chrysler should change the game and snatch the crown of design leadership from GM.

Enjoy some quotes of Dodge's advertisement: "We want you to get the thrill of commanding a car that's really big — up to 9 inches longer than any car in its field. We want you to see what it's like to guide all this highness and beauty with a touch of your fingers. The way it handles will open your eyes to an entirely new kind of driving.

We want you to discover the aircraft-type power that swept Dodge to victories in the Pan-American Road Race and Mobilgas Economy Run. You won't believe the things you've heard about Dodge until you drive it yourself. And you won't believe the low, low price until you hear it with your own ears."

1957 Studebaker President Classic Sedan

"Meet the proudest of all proud Studebaker sedans for 1957: the Classic. There's a look of importance to this car that catches and holds your eye. Even from a distance, you notice it in chrome and color and massive new beauty completely apart from the ordinary. This is the pure, special touch of FLAIR styling in steel."

This Studebaker is most likely a President, even though a self-made front bumper and -grille, doorhandles from russian Ladas of different decades, and a hand-made chrome-decor on the rear fender disguise the model. The "real" 1957 Presidents had a much bigger two-toned "arc" which covered the rear door, too.

Two years after the Studebaker-Packhard Corporation was founded so optimistically in 1954, the economic difficulties already prevented Studebaker from designing a totally new model. For the "new-for-1956" models, Studebaker had to keep the body of its 1953 models, "camouflaged" with a new and more rectangular front and rear end. 1957 models remained similar, and just sported a different chrome trim. Despite the new looks, sales were sluggish, and questionable model-politics escalated the situation and brought Studebaker close to bancruptcy.

Probably Studebaker wouldn't have seen the 60s, if the presentation of the new "compact" Lark in 1959 wouldn't have been amid of an economic recession that hit all carmakers hard. The public demand for an economic model soared, and luckily, only Studebaker had a fitting model ready to sell...

1960 Chevrolet Corvair 4-door sedan

"With the Corvair, Chevrolet presents America's first specific design for a compact car . . . nine years in development . . . an authentic 108" wheelbase compact car that maintains American standards of room, ride and performance. The key: America's first modern aluminum engine, so light it can be joined with the transmission and final drive gears in one lightweight unit and placed in the rear where it belongs in a compact car. There's a virtually flat interior floor, and room for six."

When this heavily customized Corvair from Sancti Spiritus catched our attention, we did't expect a surprise...

Designed as Chevrolet's answer to the soaring demand for compact cars in reaction to the 1958-recession (which completely surprised the "Big Three" and awarded compact cars like Studebaker's Lark with a massive sales boost), the Corvair was a very advanced car upon its arrival. A flat boxer-engine was mounted in the rear, and the design was a radical break with the "chrome-and-tailfins"-dogma of the late 50's. Beside fullsize cars like Buick's Special or Oldsmobile's Super-88, the Corvair looked like from the future. In fact, many european companies were quick to copy the Corvair's design (i.e Fiat 1300-1500 and NSU Prinz in 1961, or the russian Zaparoshez), a thing unheard of american automobiles before and after.

But not everything was sunshine: the new package with the weighty engine in the rear could provocate unexpected road-behavior (generally sudden oversteering), especially when the tire-pressure advice (26psi in the rear tires versus just 11psi at front) was not accurately followed by the owners. An anti-roll bar could have solved this problem, but apparently GM didn't want to spend an extra 6$ per car.

This economic decision should hit GM later: in it's popular book "Unsafe at Any Speed" (published in 1965), lawyer Ralph Nader bashed the Chevrolet Corvair for it's critical road-behavior. However, in a series of comparative tests in 1971, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded: "The handling and stability performance of the 1960-63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic."

With or without the stigma of being unsafe, the Corvair sold at a stable 200.000+ units every year until the end of it's 10-year existence. And to our surprise the owner of this Corvair from Sancti Spiritus found its own solution for all the imperfections: when our conversation came to the inevitable question of "original motor", he told us "No, no, amigo. Toyota". And opened the front hood! Imagine a rear-engine car completely reworked to a front engine drivetrain, and all this with the limited possibilities of cuban do-it-yourself workmanship. Stunning...

1954 Buick Super

"Each day you drive is a new adventure"

This slogan of a classic Buick ad from 1954 couldn't fit better to this Buick Super, which receives a major maintenance in the streets of sunny Sancti Spiritus.

"El cubano inventa" is a common saying on the island, and it's especially true for the creative heads who keep the old relics of another era up and running. Half a century was enough time to morph this Buick into a true Cuban Car: the car's sheetmetal just roughly kept its original shape and the once flashy grille and headlamp pods are gone and replaced by more "pragmatic" solutions. Luckily the hood of a 1955 model blends perfectly into the 1954 bodywork, and just the broken lines of the grille-opening reveal the mismatch...

1956-59 Nash Metropolitan

"The Metropolitan is completely different from any car you have known. It was born of our conviction that there is a need in America for a low-priced yet fine, shorter wheelbase car, luxuriously finished and precision-built, engineered to today's driving needs."

This funky little vehicle marks a very interesting point in automotive history, as it was the first american automobile to be produced entirely outside America. The Nash Metropolitan, introduced in 1954, was built in Birmingham, England with body parts made by Fisher & Ludlow, and then assembled by Austin Motors. This Nash from Matanzas has got some modifications over the years: the once half-closed wheel-arches have been cutted away to accommodate bigger wheels, and the chrome-decor had disappeared. If you look closer, you still can see the holes for the chrome molding, and where it once divided the original two-tone color.

As one of the smaller car-companies, Nash saw it's chances by sidestepping out of the competition with the "Big Three", GM, Ford and Chrysler. The Metropolitan, launched with a tiny 42 horsepower-engine, and "tuned" up to 52hp in 1956, was a total paradox in the world of the big, shiny U.S.-cars, but nevertheless sold very well: during the postwar-prosperity more and more people moved out of the cities and into the newly built suburbs. Cars became a necessity in (sub-)urban life. And the Metropolitan was the perfect secondary car beside the big "Detroit Iron".

It's not a strange thing that a Nash Metropolitan is a rare sight in Cuba, because here the economic demands were different: the new-wealthy Middle class in the cities dreamed of the american lifestyle as it was promised in the movies. The cubanos wanted a fullsize-car, preferably loaded with all the possible options. And then, of course, there was no money left for a second car...

1956 Mercury Montclair Phaeton 4-door hardtop

"Front, profile or back — whichever way you look at this new Mercury, you know that there is a distinctive new car. You see the individuality of this new Mercury in the gleaming bumper-grille; in the sweeping lines of the long, low silhouette; in the accent of the slash-molding of bright metal, in the exciting new Flo-Tone color styling of the Montclair shown above, and in the newly styled taillights. On the front of the hood, you'll note the symbol of Mercury distinction for 1956 – the Big M."

The "Big M", as the advertisement entitled the top-of-the-line Mercury, is ready to depart here at the busy train station of Cabaiguán. Because of the deficiencies in public transportation in Cuba most of the "particular" (read: private owned) cars are used as a taxi. But don't think that you can just hire one for yourself. Like buses, these taxis run on fixed routes with determined stops. And because every passenger pays to the driver, a particular taxi never starts before the last seat is occupied. It's not cheap for the cubans to go by taxi, but if you want to arrive somewhere in time, well, more or less in time, then you have no other choice. If you want to save the money for the taxi ride, your alternative could be the top of a truck.

If you are lucky enough, you get a ride in the elegant Mercury. The new generation was introduced for 1955, and awarded as the "best-looking american sedan" by Motor Trend magazine in the same year. A 4-door hardtop version called Phaeton, pictured here, completed the Mercury-lineup in 1956. This was the top-of-the-line Mercury, and even today it looks stunning with its chrome-laden body and the elegant, low roof.