The deafening sound of revving is almost unbearable for the public, the atmosphere is quickly flooded with soft traces of oil and gas, sound the horn in unison and classic cars from the V8 Club of Havana, with their raised hoods, invite you to explore on more than half a century history.
Among them stands the bulk purr of a car of green and black color, carrying a number 13 on the side and bears an inscription that emulates the best baseball nickname: Misil del Cerro. It is, according to car fans, the fastest car in Cuba.
In Papa’s Restaurant, at the Havana’s Marina Hemingway, OnCuba spoke with Eduardo Hernandez, owner and driver of the vehicle, who stated that he made several internal changes in the mechanics of his car to increase the power and speed.
“I lowered the ceiling and transformed the hood to gain in aerodynamics, plus moved the engine back four inches looking to change the center of gravity and achieve greater grip of the tires,” said Hernandez.
The car, a two-door pillar less 1956 Chevrolet has timed according to its owner about eight seconds in 200 meters from the braking position – stupefying figure for more than one, reaching speeds close to 180 kilometers per hour in so small space.
Of the qualities that inspired the nickname we witnessed an exhibition race on a stubbornly straight road separating the coast from the first channel in the said nautical center.
The “challenger”, if you can call it that way, was another Chevrolet 1956 red and Octavio Cordoví property (“El Jimagua (The Twin)”), also a member of the club, which brings together cars with powerful V8 engines.
Cordoví could do little against El Misil, which didn’t seem to notice its more than half century of life and jerked forward to the dust of the road, to the delight of the public called by the national club Amigos del Motor (Friends of the engine), the one with the largest membership in the island with about 900 active members.
The V8 engines were first used in the American floats from the Ford Motor Company developed the revolutionary flat 8-cylinder engine in V for Ford coupe in the distant 1932. According to revised statistics on the Internet, the Chevrolet Company produced millions of V8 of large and small blocks, including the standard. It is an engine with two banks of four cylinders each that share crankshaft.
For these technical reasons, Octavio Cordoví and Eduardo Hernandez cars, like so many others in the “franchise,” keeps alive the skeleton of these vehicles produced almost 60 years ago and moving as the first day, or you can say, maybe a wee bit better.
At the conclusion of the exhibition, about 80 meters from the headquarters, three men with Eduardo Hernandez removed the transmission out of the green and black car to ensure the return home towed by a teammate. They left about 12 mph and then, pulled by the rope; it seemed as harmless as its years. Paradoxes of life.
