The elderly American cars prowling the Cuba’s streets are a justifiably famous showcase of ingenuity and living history. Even when saddled with Benz diesels, Lada transmissions, or other retrofitted componentry, enthusiasts can’t help but take notice. So here’s a nice exception to that rule, a 1970 Chrysler 300 with a Lada (I think?) headlamps, wearing a Nissan Sunny badge. A Fusie fused with Tolyatti’s finest face.
Thanks to RivieraNotario for sharing this with us. I believe that the lack of cutouts for turn signals in the bumper distinguishes this from the Newport and New Yorker. As an earlier model, lacking much of the later emissions controls, it was quick for a large car and might have lasted quite a while before needing a major overhaul. I’m sure that by now, some other sort of engine lives underneath its hood. As we see, that loop bumper managed to accommodate those clashing headlamp assemblies quite effectively, but I have no idea where those fender mounted mirrors came from. Anyone wanna guess?
I wonder how this got over there. IIRC no Cuban citizens were allowed to own cars made after 1959 until very recently.
I’m curious as to how this thing even got to Cuba, domestic car imports were embargoed after 1961, other non-US cars still made it over, but I would love to hear how this 1970 Chrysler made it there. Perhaps it was part of the fleet from the American Interest office in Cuba? Maybe it was imported from Mexico?
I was wondering the same thing.
Your probably correct on the import… USA to South America or Europe, then to Cuba (used?).
Somebody told me years ago some General or high official in Cuba wanted an Oldsmobile Delta 88. Apparently one was shipped to a dealer in Central America, and then secretly through a third party exported it to Cuba. Perhaps this Chrysler landed in Cuba by similar means.
I have never seen a fuselage Mopar taken from such an unflattering angle. Fuseys look really beautiful from some angles, less so from others. This angle, however, makes the car just look bad. The cacaphony of shapes and oddly joined angles is just too much to stand.
I love the Fuseys also, though they look chubby is two-door form. But yeah, I was shocked by how hideous this looks, but I guess that’s all one can expect from a large car with a small car crammed inside its mouth.
I think the lights were taken from Polski Fiat 125p – a strange combination of late 60’s Fiat 125 body on a late 50’s Fiat 1300 underpinnings.
THAT’S what it is. So I should’ve said, “A Fusey fused with Tychy’s finest face.”
I should have recognised those lights I had a Polski Fiat 125p for 6 years
It’s incredible how the Cubans were able to retrofit these old cars. It doesn’t seem possible to do.
Perhaps we are looking at a car abandoned in Vietnam in 1975, then exported to Cuba in a barter trade between Communist trading partners!
That is only one of many possible scenarios for this car. Originally sold new in Mexico; former U.S. diplomat or military attaché car in Latin America that was sold locally instead of returned to the U.S., then exported to Cuba; recent private import by a Swedish tourist or businessman … I think of many.
Funny, it looks as bad as some of the cars that have been there for 60 years.
It might not even be a USA Market car. Chrysler sold cars in many Latin American countries at that time. It could have been ex- embassy car from Canada or Mexico or a number of other countries. Not all countries were totally in lock step with the USA in isolating Cuba. Canada had diplomatic relations and the car could have come from there. This model was also sold in Chile during that time period and from 1970 to 1973 there was a Chilean government (the Allende administration) that was close to Cuba. It could have come from there. Or it could have come from the US Military base in Cuba.
The fact that the front end is rebuilt with parts of other cars might mean that it suffered a front end accident and was then junked and a enterprising Cuban with repair/body work skills got a hold of it and fixed it up with parts at hand?
Should be an interesting story on how it got there.
It kind of looks like the Chrysler is in the process of eating a smaller car whole, and we’re seeing it just before the last gulp.
Like Christine! You’d expect to hear something darker than Danny & The Juniors playing in this one’s soundtrack. The Doors or Black Sabbath maybe.
When I uploaded that picture to Flickr, another person there came up with the idea that this must have been a car from the Canadian Embassy, as some later Chryslers from the 70’s that were found in Ukraine.
One of the Chryslers found in the Ukraine (I think that is a ZAZ Tavria on the background):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58671294@N08/5374709029/
A Chrysler-Fiat (by way of Tolyattigrad;) whoever put this together must have been clairvoyant!
See Chrysler by Chrysler from OZ with 4 light front panel they could be twins, its even on super tall light truck tyres to lengthen the gearing for fuel economy.The roof is lower on one side of the windscreen than the other is this how they repair rollover damage in Cuba.
Good call KiwiBryce. This Cuban example looks like Darth Vader with his mask off.
Has to be from Canada….Snow tires all round!!
I’d be curious as to what kind of drivetrain lurks under the hood. An East Bloc diesel with a truck transmission? A Benz turbo diesel? Something Japanese?
Its actually a very rare Soviet Era reverse engineered Chrysler Newport made by GAZ…the Minsk Fuselageski.
If you think this is bad, you should see their Vega knock off…..
“We make the hardtop style coupe comrade, Amerikans won’t even know difference”
The GAZ Вега? That’s Ukrainian for Vega – babelfish doesn’t have russian as a translation choice
I don’t think the headlights are from a Polski Fiat 125P. The grille and headlight surrounds on the Polski are canted forward, whereas the surrounding frame on these lights appear flat. They look like they were purloined from a 1980’s Japanese truck or bus.
It somehow looks like in the top picture that the Chrysler is not much bigger than the Lada behind it.
I reckon the lights are from a gen2 (1982-93) Toyota Coaster. The Coaster more commonly had quad square lights, but quad rounds were available too. Although the image below doesn’t show it clearly, the Coaster has identical horizontal slits under the quads and an identical round adjustment hole under the park lights.
Scott, I think you’ve identified the correct source of the headlights which was used on the Cuban Chrysler 300 in the top photo.
I heard* that Sergio Marchionne is quietly doing market research for a future Chrysler 300 coupe, in Cuba, where he can visit since he is Italian. He wants to move to remaking the ‘Fuselage’ as the next step in the LX car’s look.
Expect these for the 2019 model year!
*According to the “Enquiring Car Minds Weekly” secret website
A lot of people are asking how a ’70’s-vintage Chrysler could have ended up in Cuba. Sometime arouind 1970, the U.S government lifted it’s trade blockade on Cuba just ever so slightly and allowed Ford, Chrysler and GM to – through their subsiduaries in Brazil, Argentina and Venuezals to – to export some U.S-spec cars to Cuba. Very few ended up being shipped to Cuba, due the high cost of the cars that had to be paid for in hard currency, compared to the very much cheapers Eastern Block cars that were also being shipped to Cuba – which beside being cheaper and hugely more ecomonical to run – could be paid for with trade in Cuban sugar and manufactured goods instead of very scarce US dollars. The handful of early-70’s vintage American cars that were imported – unlike the pre-1959 models that still perdominate on Cuban roads – seem to have pretty much didssapeared, but I have seen at leastone early-70’s vintage Ford Galaxiy and a few some early-’70’s Chevy Novas still on the road in Cuba. The Novas in particular are a bit unsuasl. While the Novas were all stripped-down base model 4-door sedans with 6-cyl inderengines and 3-speed manual transmissons, but with the gear shift on the floor! Also, for some reason, they came with U.S-spec ‘Nova SS-style’ Rally wheels, minus the trim rings and with Chevy police car-Rally-wheel style flat centre caps. Nowadays the only late model American iron still being iexported to Cuba seems to be some Ford of Canada sorced Econoline vans, cube vans and light trucks,.for use by some state-owned commecial enterprises.