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Austin Healey in Cuba

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I watched the first episode. Turned it off before I saw any Healey. It made no sense. The scene: the steering wheel turns but nothing else turns on some American car. It's a Cuban taxi of sorts. Old man takes the steering box apart. The bearings in the steering box (ball bearings in a cage ... just like in our Healeys) were disintegrated. The old man sends the boys out to get new bearings. They buy a driveshaft u-joint. Dad's ****** because they spent too many pesos. No mention that it's not a bearing. Then he's shown tapping the u-joint into the end of a driveshaft. Next thing you know the steering is fixed and the car is driving around. I thought... what a bunch of BS and I changed channels.
 
It's a car "reality show" and not a documentary so I've managed my expectations accordingly. I hate when shows pump-up the drama and go light on the true story.

The Healey I noticed during the promo is on a later episode. I'll post when I figure out which one. If you read the bio of the Healey owner it notes that the guy is a perfectionist who refuses to compromise on the restoration. He's basically the opposite of story that is featured in the first episode.
 
I agree with turtle about not liking car shows that add in conflict for drama's sake. That's why I like shows like Chasing Classic Cars and Wheeler Dealers. Restoration Garage and Fantom Works have a small amount of added drama but are still watchable. Orange County Choppers was the worst and Leepu and Pitbull is not far behind. To me, yelling and belittling each other doesn't add anything to the show.
 
I've seen a couple of Cuban bugeyes, which makes sense as they would have been new right before the revolution. I doubt anyone is going to find a pristine car after all these years,and you're likely as not to find a Lada diesel powered Sprite as anything:

austin-healey-gb-1960-sprite-mk1-hdc623-400.jpg


austin-healey-gb-1959-sprite-mk1-hdx004-400.jpg


Still you have to give the owners credit for keeping them on the road. And you can always dream about finding the Cuban Gullwing:

samples_december.jpg


The gullwing story:

https://www.thiseuropeanlife.com/2012/12/chasing-cuban-gullwing.html
 
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