1954 Mercury Monterey Special Custom 4-door Sedan

"Mercury for 1954 offers new styling that matches perfectly the advanced design of the revolutionary new engine and chassis. Surging power and fleet agility are reflected in longer, lower and more graceful lines. New, carefully conceived style elements — such as new grille, new hood scoop, and new ornamentation — complement one another to produce an appearance that's truly trim and beautiful. Yet Mercury's basic Unified Design remains intact. There is a perfect blending of body, engine, and chassis . . . to give unexcelled comfort and convenience, performance, and on-the-road control. Here is styling that's inherently right for a car designed to serve you better today."

Being a pretty common sight in Cuba, a 1954 Mercury is actually three cars in one: the silhouette clearly tells that this car is an offspring of the "Ford family of fine cars". The front design bears more than a trace of the 1952-1954 Lincoln, and the bumper already hints at the styling of the next generation of Mercurys, due for 1955.

This restyled front end made the 1954 Mercurys look decidedly more angular than their predecessors, and less confusable with a Lincoln, a unpleasant problem that the two sister brands had been facing over the previous two years. Despite being in the final year of its three-year lifecycle, Mercury's lineup for 1954 received a massive engineering update: new "V-161" overhead valve V-8 engines with, surprise, 161 horsepower replaced the aging flathead power plants, while the new "Mercury Ball-joint Front Suspension" with "Precision-designed Stedi-Line steering" made sure that all the power arrived at road level and the Mercury remained on a steady course.

1947 Chrysler Royal Luxury Brougham

"Chrysler Owners — owners of other makes who are looking forward to owning a Chrysler — automobile editors and automobile dealers — the Public in general — all have been generous and unreserved in their praise of the Beautiful New Chrysler. It is a Beautiful Car. And, combined with this beauty, is a mechanical excellence, a high quality of materials, and a superb performance that make it the finest as well as the most Beautiful car to ever bear the Chrysler name.

The smart, stylish, beautiful lines are distinctively different — different from pre-war Chrysler models — and different from post-war Models of other makes. From the windshield forward, the front end is new — and different — and generally acclaimed the 'most beautifully designed front end' of any automobile today. The hood flows into the fenders in graceful lines that give it a broader and lower appearance. The new Grille is a piece of beautiful designing, finished in gleaming Chrome, and entirely different from any other car. The new Bumper Guards are new, smartly designed, rugged, and spaced for greatest protection to the grille. And the top of the hood carries a beautiful new ornament — a modern interpretation of the famous Chrysler wings — the original radiator ornament introduced on the first Chrysler back in 1924. From the front, from the side, from the rear — from any angle, the Beautiful Chrysler is a Beautiful Car — a fine possession that looks the part."

Chrysler Royal Luxury Brougham – what a name! It implies utmost luxury and exclusiveness, but in fact the Royal was Chrysler's entry-level model. At least on cuban roads it bears an exclusive name, as we came across a two-door Chrysler Royal only once in all the years.

Like all big Detroit players, Chrysler kept on selling warmed-up prewar models until the new developed lineup was ready in 1949. These postwar Chryslers literally had a wall of chrome up front, wearing arguably the squarest grille in whole America. The rest was solid prewar construction, nicely wrapped into a renewed skin, and the fact that still quite a few beautiful postwar cars of the Chrysler Corporation are driving around in Cuba, speaks for their impeccable construction and quality. So minor were the changes between 1946 and 1947, that Chrysler even used the same sales brochures over two years.

Our encounter with the pictured Chrysler Royal from Cienfuegos, however, won't have a happy end. We found the massive car at a private taller, where all kinds of cars, no matter if American or Russian, are being repaired and restored. Inside the shop, we've seen handmade body parts of impeccable quality, made on simple machines that seemed to be older than the industrial revolution. The friendly owner, Miguel, explains: "The Chrysler is already worn out, and with just two doors, it isn't really practical, neither. Soon, I will modify it into a camioncito, a light truck. Hay que resolver..."

"Hay que resolver", you have to find a solution, is a phrase that perpetually circles through conversations on the island. After more than half a century of communism, life in Cuba is a constant "freestyling", looking for possibilities to get over the lack of everything that one way or another dominates all aspects of living here. We think it's a pity to destroy a historic car, but in Cuba's real life conditions, called socialismo, beauty alone doesn't seem to have much value...

1960 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan

"With all of its emphasis on elegant lines, the 1960 Fords have not sacrificed passenger comfort to achieve their beauty. In the Finest Fords of a Lifetime six big people — including the man in the middle — ride in greater comfort than ever. The new Fords give you nearly half-a-foot more shoulder room, more knee room, more hip room. Chair-high seats mean extra comfort, extra leg room. The 'doglegs' — windshield supports that interfere with getting in and out of the front seat — have been eliminated in the 1960 Fords for your greater convenience."

We don't know if it's pure coincidence or done on purpose, but we do know that the classic car scene across the Florida Strait would classify this Ford Fairlane from Havana as a perfect "Hoodride" or "Rat Look" car: its chrome trim still shines and it's rolling on nice wheels, while the matte paint nicely imitates corroded metal. Rust 'n' Roll...

The fullsize Ford for 1960 was equally impressive when new. Not only because of its clean styling that made the competition look dated, but because of its vast dimensions, too. This car was a real land yacht, and with an overall width of 81.5 inches (2,07m) perhaps the widest american passenger car of all time. Incidentally, the new Ford legally wouldn't qualify for a passenger car in some states of the U.S., if the legislative hadn't agreed to connive at the fact that the car was just a bit too wide.

Sales, however, were sluggish. With just 461,092 cars, Ford's sales dropped by more than a third, compared to 1959. This sure wasn't due to the clean design of the 1960 Fords. Instead, the "Big Three" were staggered by the swift move of many car buyers towards "compact cars" following the economic recession in 1958. "Independents" like Rambler and Studebaker who had discovered the compact car market earlier as a way to avoid the direct competition with the "Big Three", now could capitalize for about two years on their fortunate timing. But already by 1960, the "Big Three" were ready to respond and presented their own "compacts". New models like Chevrolet Corvair, Dodge Dart, Plymouth Valiant and above all the Ford Falcon invaded the market and swiftly busted the "independent's party". Thus, even the sluggish sales of Ford's full-size cars ultimately didn't do much harm to Ford's own company profit.