At about half a cent per litre for the price of petrol, Venezuela is the cheapest place on Earth to fill your tank. Even if the country is going to the dogs in terms of the economy, jobs and violent crime, in the land of Hugo Chavez, gasoline is basically free. They don't bother advertizing the price at the pump. The parallels for having old American cars in a socialist state are obvious although what separates Cuba from Venezuela is a time span of more or less 25 years.
What my friend Brahm and I found interesting during our short trip there, was that most of these older cars were all 'souped up' as the old school saying goes; jacked up rear ends, wide tires and mags on the wheels and usually patched up body work. Walking in the streets felt as if we were on the set of a 70s Starsky and Hutch T.V. show. In regional cities and towns these behemoths are the taxis. Even in Caracas you see them around, although in smaller numbers. They are still desirable, not only because no one thinks twice about the amount of fuel a 440 8 cylinder engine guzzles, but because the price to buy a new car, say a Toyota or Ford, has sky-rocketed in the past few years.
Sitting in the huge rear seat of these cabs and looking at the dashboard gave me a flash back to my high school days, when cruising with some friends who had these same muscle cars, or with my father's own Pontiac or Oldsmobile family car. Even these automobile names brought back memories of another time; the Ford Limited, Chevy Malibu, Dodge Dart; the Gran Torino, the Nova, the Maverick or the long forgotten Javelin.
