Cuban Car Racing ....Look at that Lada go!!!

[El Presidente]

Great video 

 

Hundreds of people braved the 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit) summer heat on Sunday (Jul.23) to watch some thirty cars and motorcycles race in an old airstrip outside of Havana.

For six decades, car racing was banned in Cuba on the grounds that it was either dangerous or elitist, and fosters an atmosphere of social indiscipline and daring, something incompatible with the values which the revolution sought to create.

However, despite the current lack of fuel or spare parts caused by the economic crisis and the U.S. economic embargo of the island, drivers and fans are now fighting to make these races a legal sport. Taking them out of the darkness of the streets where they thrived clandestinely for years.

 

The Sunday race was organized with all the required permits by the Friends of the Motor Club at the old airstrip in the town of San Nicolás - some 60 kilometers southeast of the capital.

The spectators who made it to the track found out about the event by word of mouth and through Facebook.

Reforms in 2010 legalized the purchase and sale of vehicles and houses and expanded the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Race organizers hope that now is the time to get greater support and end the prejudice against the sport.

They expect that sponsors, companies or people linked to the world of motorsports will be allowed to improve the conditions of the tracks or help the drivers and mechanics who usually work for nothing, just to see their vehicles race.

[NSXCIGAR]

I probably would have scheduled this for January...

[Drguano]

The winning entry:

Second (and last) place:

 

Did not finish:

[Drguano]

First prize: Flight to Florida (with parachute).

Second prize: Same but no parachute.

[westg]

Fuzz put me in this in our first night in Havana. The music was so loud I thought we were going to fall through the bottom. The guy drove like a madman 

[SCgarman]

Where do they get parts to keep these Russian made cars going? Are Lada cars still in Russian production? Or from a bygone era?

[Arabian]

2 hours ago, SCgarman said:

Where do they get parts to keep these Russian made cars going? Are Lada cars still in Russian production? Or from a bygone era?

They use Hyundai engines

[SCgarman]

50 minutes ago, Arabian said:

They use Hyundai engines

OK, but there are no car dealerships on Cuba. Are there? Cars are machines that eventually need parts and maintenance. How do they keep them going?

[Arabian]

3 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

OK, but there are no car dealerships on Cuba. Are there? Cars are machines that eventually need parts and maintenance. How do they keep them going?

they recycle everything and take parts from cars that are falling apart, they also import from nearby countries as far as I know. if they repurposed the use of a Russian washing machine motor in their repair garage, then I guess they can find one way or another to keep their old cars running.

[La_Tigre]

7 hours ago, SCgarman said:

Where do they get parts to keep these Russian made cars going? Are Lada cars still in Russian production? Or from a bygone era?

Dom’s contacts.