In Iran, Hailing Detroit With Vintage V-8’s

[Blue_Tires]

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 V-8 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 Midwestern 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.

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 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.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/automobiles/collectibles/14IRAN.html?_r=2&src=tptw