A competition to choose the best preserved antique car will be developed in Havana, on the first of December, the Iberostar Hotels Resorts Group and the Amigos de Fangio cultural project, on its tenth anniversary, and the advent of the half-millennium of Havana and the 120 years of the arrival of the first car in Cuba.

   At a press conference at the Iberostar Grand Packard hotel, María Barreras Fernández, Marketing Director of that Spanish chain on the Island; and Lorenzo Verdecia Espinosa, founder and general coordinator of the aforementioned project, stressed that it is expected to be the largest concentration of classic cars in history in the country, in which there will also be a karting on the boardwalk.

    The appointment has the name First Classical Car Days 2018, and those who participate may opt for the Iberostar Grand Prize for Conservation or the Popularity Prize, while the inscriptions will be the competition day itself, starting at nine o'clock in the morning. the morning, on the esplanade of La Piragua, on Calle O y 19, Vedado, and the award ceremony on December 16 at that hotel, recently opened on Prado Avenue.

    Pablo Álvarez, head of the commission that will evaluate the cars, explained that in each of them they will measure the originality and legitimacy of their appearance and general presence and that their parts and pieces are factory, including engine, speed box, front bridges and differential, in addition to checking the operation and quality of the electrical system, of its slate, glass and doors.

      In his opinion it will be a very close competition because mainly on the streets of Havana (or parked in garages) every day we see a large number of American cars (almendrones) manufactured before the triumph of the Revolution, and with a high percentage of its components original, in addition to that also some owners or owners have made modifications inside.

     The cars that arrived in Cuba before 1940 and are conserved are called old, and those who did it between 1946 and 1960 are considered classics, Álvarez said, recalling that following the break -in January 1961- of the relations between The United States and the Island stopped importing parts and accessories for these means of transport.

     Faced with such material deficiencies, their owners have managed to circumvent the economic, commercial and financial blockade, by becoming themselves innovative, while recognizing that keeping them running has been costly and not easy, explained the specialist.

    To say the founder and coordinator of the cultural project Friends of Fangio, which brings together collectors and owners of those old cars and motorcycles, mechanics, metalworkers and restorers, were it not for the inventiveness and creativity of many people throughout these decades, we could hardly count on such an interesting rolling heritage.

    Thanks to its existence it has been possible not only that thousands of tourists currently choose them for their walks through the streets of Havana, and other cities and towns, but that television and cinema have been able to count on their productions with the atmosphere of that era of before 1960, in which circulated mainly Packard, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, Ford, Pontiac or Mercury cars, among others.

   What would happen to films such as La bella del Alhambra or Clandestinos without the cars of those years (which preceded the triumph of the Revolution?), To name a few, if today's classic cars were not preserved? Concluded Verdecia Espinosa.

by Fidel Rendón Matienzo