Epress.am News from Armenia
The scene has been played out so many times as to border on cliché. It begins with an impromptu meet-up of two Chevy Camaros, each announcing its prowess with a V8 rumble. Then, despite good-natured banter between the drivers, an unspoken challenge is made. Finally, a tire-smoking showdown ensues.
One big difference this time: the encounter, which took place at summer’s end, did not begin on the main drag of a small Midwest American town and pursue resolution on a deserted country road. Instead, the Camaros, a pair of pumped-up early ’70s models owned by friends, faced off at the Azadi Stadium Race Track in Tehran, writes Jim Koscs in The New York Times.
The setting was a gathering of the Tehran Café Racers, but aside from few minor details — Persian lettering on the license plates and on the cans of Coke sipped over lunch — it could have taken place at many racetracks in America. The loose-knit group, an affiliate of a Florida-based club, 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 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 email. “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 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.
In addition to Salehkhou’s Camaro and its drag-race rival, other attendees included a restored 1965 Mustang convertible, a ’67 Mustang GT, a ’72 Mustang Mach 1 (also owned and restored by Salehkhou), a ’71 Dodge Charger and a ’73 Corvette. Also on hand were a Chevy Blazer and a mid-1970s Buick Park Avenue.
Most cars took to the track for hot laps and drag racing. The Buick’s owner entertained the group by doing power slides around the road course, a feat made easier by the 454-cubic-inch Chevy V8 that replaced the original Buick engine.
Among the 1960s and 1970s vehicles joining the day’s fun were a number of Mercedes-Benz sedans, coupes and SL roadsters; a 1975 Maserati Khamsin that was once part of the shah’s Imperial Garage; MGB and Triumph TR6 roadsters; and even some Volkswagens — a quasi-military Thing and a pair of vintage Beetles.
The Maserati’s owner, Fathali Esfandiari, not only took hot laps, but showed off with a series of tire-smoking donuts. Esfandiari, who has restored a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, is vice president of a volunteer group, the Classic Car Committee of the Motorcycle and Automobile Federation of Iran; Salehkhou is the group’s president.
Classic-car events attract considerable attention in Iran, which is somewhat surprising even to Salehkhou, because such a large portion of the country’s population was born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Whenever we do a road trip, people clap and honk their horns throughout the route,” he said. “Most of the interest comes from the young. And most of it is directed toward Mercedes and American cars.”
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 Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds.
“Most of the cars had husband-and-wife teams, including one woman who drove a yellow Chevy Blazer while her husband navigated,” Salehkhou said. A mullah blessed each car at the start of the rally, which was won by a 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix.
There is a logical explanation for the popularity of American cars in Iran: in the 1970s, when tens of thousands of Iranian students were attending American colleges, an Iranian tax exemption let each student ship home a personal car. Not surprisingly, low gasoline prices helped students to rationalize their desire for fast, powerful models.
The Classic Car Committee seeks to preserve and restore classic cars. The group works closely with the National Auto Museum, a collection of nearly 100 cars that remain from a fleet of high-end classics and exotics amassed by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the ruler deposed in the 1979 revolution. The committee maintains and restores the cars at its own expense; the museum is working toward establishing a larger facility.
Photo by Ali Samandarian for The New York Times.