Hmmm...Maybe, just maybe we were wrong about Iran

[Blue_Tires]

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

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

I can at least applaud their automotive tastes B-)

[XemaSab]

1. America does have her problems

but rock and roll and Coca Cola have been able to transform societies before, and we should allow citizens of countries such as Iran and Cuba to experience American culture without embargoes and all that crap.

[MrsCorleone]

2. The Republicans want to drop bombs on Iranians?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-23-2009/jason-jones--behind-the-veil---ayatollah-you-so