The Heritage Club of Motoring Pakistan (HCMP), in partnership with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), arranged a vintage car exhibition at Frere Hall, Karachi.
The annual exhibition showcased around 150 rare and antique cars, such as Austin Minis, MGA convertibles, Volkswagens, Land Rovers, Mercedes Benzes, Willys Jeeps, Cadillacs, and other vintage vehicles from Europe and North America, from 1920s onward.
The club members said they are trying to preserve the history of the motoring and auto sector in Pakistan and pass it onto the new generation.
The purpose of the exhibition is also to encourage people to renovate rare cars. A huge shout out to HCMP, KMC, and everyone involved in this special exhibition.
We love seeing the new generation appreciate the beauty of old and classic cars, and this one really made that happen.
Among them was the Quaid-i-Azam’s 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost salvaged by Karim Chhapra after acquiring it from the Nawab of Bahawalpur’s collection during an auction back in 2004.
Each vehicle, the pride and joy of its current owner, had a story, happily shared by the owners.
“You must see my 1965 Renault Dauphine. It’s parked right there,” Liaquat Malik, president of the Heritage Motoring Club, pointed out a little blue car parked in the middle of the display area with some other treasures.
“The model was Pablo Picasso’s favourite,” he added. The car didn’t seem to have a very prominent bumper in the front until you realised that its engine was in the trunk where it had a bigger and sturdier fender.
Khalid Aslam is another lover of vintage cars who took great pains to restore his maroon 1950 MG.
“It was economically impossible for me to replace the missing parts and pieces of the car with original ones so I had them re-fabricated in fibreglass,” he said.
“And during last year’s exhibition, I was heartbroken to find that some child had walked off with my car’s silver monogram.
I had to get another one made of stainless steel,” he said, adding that he also owned a 1938 Rolls Royce Wrath.
Another fascinating car at the show was copper colour Fiat Topolino. “Originally black, it was owned by my sister, who also learnt how to drive it, and she used it until 1967 after which it came to me,” said Sikander Ali, who had once sold the car thinking it beyond repair but then missed it enough to buy it back.
Two brothers Aijaz Malik and Tariq Malik said that they owned a few classic cars and had been attending all such car shows over the years but were yet to enter any of the vehicles.
Giving reason, Tariq Malik said, “Well, we have a 1968 Toyota Corona, a 1970 Toyopet Mark-I and a 1978 Buick Riviera in which we fled Kuwait to reach Karachi in 1990.
And all these cars carry sentimental value for us,” he said. Visitors Akhtar Rasool said that It’s a beautiful show.
Though it is being enjoyed by the young generation, fascinated by the vehicles, we like to come here and see the models as old as us here.
Mohsin Ikram, leading member of the Club said that this time around we stretched the definition for classic cars a bit by including some born classics as well as cars that people in Pakistan didn’t get to see too often, at least not together at one place.
“There are Rolls Royce, a line up of Porsche cars, Ford Thunderbirds and Mustangs, Lincoln Continentals, Cadillacs, Mercedes, Ferraris, etc,” he pointed out, and observed that most of the owners appeared a little nervous about letting visitors to come closer or touch the vehicles at the show.
Another marvel of engineering, though not that old, was Ibaad Lari’s 1963 Ford Thunderbird.
“I found it on Facebook in one of the classic car groups and had to buy and have it imported,” he said.
“Look, it has power windows and power steering, too. Also the steering wheel has this swing away mechanism, which was all part of it originally,” he said.
“You see 1963 was the space age era and the Americans also made many innovations in their cars,” he explained.
Young Zeeshan Tahir, a lover of vintage and classic cars, pointed out that the 1960s was the time of gorgeous, beautiful cars in America.
“That’s when they nailed it. They were quite ahead in automotive engineering and what’s more, they also built comfortable cars that happened to be a statement of art,” he said, pointing to a red 1965 Ford Fastback and another Mustang convertible that had a strange model year of 1964 and a 1/2 (half).
Tahir pointed out that the Beetle was also a car that was made for the public by Germany around World War II.
“There was a shortage of fuel in those days and the car was designed to consume less fuel,” he said. He also added that similarly the low cost Fiat mobilised Italy.
