Havana Motor Club Documentary Revs Up Cuban Street Racing Scene

At the same time, racing was also banned on the island nation because it was considered an elitist sport. Of course, a government can do its best to prohibit whatever it wants, but that's not always going to stop passionate people from pursuing what they want to do. And that's exactly what has happened with racing in Cuba – it never really disappeared, it just went underground.

A new documentary titled Havana Motor Club aims to tell the story of Cuba's illegal drag racing scene, along with an attempt to organize the first legal race in the country in decades. However, the film isn't quite done yet, and its creators are raising money on Kickstarter to complete it. The fundraiser has already met its goal of $52,250 to finish editing, license music and generally improve the sound mixing. The filmmakers plan to release the documentary in 2014 or early 2015, but backers can get it early.

Based on the trailer, the documentary is beautifully shot and stars the sort of old-school American iron the country has become legendary for. It's amazing that these cars are still on the road, let alone look as good as they do. The filmmakers say the goal of the documentary is to shed light on the evolving Cuban culture through the spectrum of motorsports, and that sounds like a great place to start to us. Scroll down to watch a trailer for the film and to check out an interview with director and producer Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt from Autoline Daily (about 5:43 into the video).