(Source: New York Times)

Image Courtesy: Ali Samandarian via New York Times

Today’s New York Times carried this nice article about a small but thriving group of classic car enthusiasts in Iran .

…The setting was a gathering of the Tehran Café Racers, but aside from a few minor details — Persian lettering on the license plates and on the cans of Coke sipped over lunch — it could have taken place at any number of racetracks in America. The loose-knit group, an affiliate of a club based in Florida, is part of Iran’s enthusiastic classic car culture. Vintage Detroit models play a big role in the activities, and driving events take precedence — the track session was the group’s first since its founding earlier this year.

“I was expecting a better turnout for the American car contingent,” Ramin Salehkhou, a 44-year-old American-educated lawyer who started the Tehran branch of the club, wrote in an e-mail. “But three of the guys, owners of a 1968 Dodge Charger, a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 and a 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, had to bail out.”

A rare high-performance Camaro belonging to Mr. Salehkhou is at the core of the Tehran group’s formation, and Detroit was well represented among the 30 cars at the track. American cars usually account for 30 to 40 percent of participants at club gatherings, he said.

….Last month, a classic-car rally in the ancient city of Isfahan attracted a variety of American vehicles, including Chevy sedans from the ’50s and ’60s as well as some Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds.

Click here to read the entire article

Transportgooru Musings: Post-revolutionary Iran would be the last place I’d expect to have a classic car culture, especially featuring some classic american icons like the Chevy Camero and Mustang. Hopefully this  comes to grow and capture the minds and hearts of more Iranians.  After all, love for cars has no boundary and national identity. Can the muscle cars of Detroit achieve what diplomacy and multi-party talks couldn’t achieve – winning the hearts and minds of Iranians and their rulers? Time will tell.

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