Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Paykan Rhytidectomy (69-71)






These photos are the most important documents I have came across since the creation of this blog 5 years ago! They are courtesy of Matthew Ollman over at the Rootes Archive Center, who has spent a lot of time searching through and scanning them for me.

They were found among negatives dated between 1969-1971, so the exact date is not known. The biggest criticism toward Paykan was lack of major updates during it's 38 years production, and these photos clearly shows that Chrysler/Rootes with probable request of IranNational were looking into facelifting the Paykan as early as four years into production. 

There are lots of different badges on these mock-up models. Front grille says Humber, rear wings says Plymouth, front wings says New Yorker and at the back says Gran Coupe. Plus some illegible Farsi fonts on the sketches. but apparently these were put on to throw off speculations about the true purpose of these models.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Blue Machine Update#2

I received an email from Shelley saying that NUL 969L used to belong to her husband back in 1978! Thanks Shelly for sending me the photo, I'm sure that Duncan (current owner) would really appreciate this. Duncan presently is real busy restoring this beautiful Blue Machine. I wish him the best of luck!...

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Paykan Overload#57

Mashad bus Station photo by: Ricardo Fernandez