Abadan-Khorramshahr

Vintage photo featuring a Paykan taxi shuttle between Abadan and Khorramshahr probably taken in 1967. Found it over at Tehran Taxi.

Hassanabad Square

Photo taken by me past spring in Hassanabad Square, Tehran.

Colombo to London Overland...

An example of an early Paykan with the round headlights (Hunter MKI/Minx style). Notice the larger badge on the grille also.
The photo was taken by Bruce Thomas during his incredible journey in a Fiat 600 Multipla! back in 1969 from Colombo, Sri Lanka to London.
This is the Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad, Iran. Check out his other amazing photos in this set: Colombo to London Overland 1969.

Count The Paykans#70

Another similar photo from Saint Sarkis Cathedral, Tehran during the 1970s.

1350 Collection

Vintage advert from 1971 (1350 Iranian calender) this was 4 years after the production started. From top to bottom: Paykan Taxi, Paykan Kaar (the base model), Paykan DeLux, Paykan Automatic & finally Paykan Javanan (based on Hillman GT at that time). Special Thanks to Amir Rokni for the scans!

Count The Paykans#68

Photo was taken in Kerman in 2009 by sewage

Tea Break

Photo by me taken yesterday in Tajrish, Tehran.

London Cabbie

You got love Massoud's enthusiasm, he purchased this Humber Sceptre a while ago and had it totally redone and painted in a bright orange Paykan Taxi style!... This being a comprehensive Chrysler/Rootes Arrow series blog, I had to make a post about this Tehran Taxi in London, even though I am a purist when it comes to cars; I like originality (Paykan Taxis were never in Sceptre trim, they were very basic). For more check out this nice video and also this interesting article and slide show over at JadidOnline.

Massoud is planning to use this orange cab for charity work and I salute him for that! I'm sure he is putting a lot of smile on Iranian's faces over in London.

Agha Masoud Damet Shooma Garm!!!... Please post more photos on your FB page and let us know what your routes are in London so we can catch an orange cab in our next visit! :)

Naser Plastic

Spotted today.

Tehran Has No More Pomegrenates

My friend bought me a copy of the 2007 docudrama / musical / experimental Tehran Has No More Pomegrenates by Massoud Bakhshi. It is the story of Tehran from the Qajar time (middle of 19th century) to today, during this time Tehran has become a metropolis from a small village. You can watch it in its entirely here. 

Among the vintage footage I spotted the very rare and interesting Paykan with the Hunter MKI / Minx front-end and of-course the infamous Peugeot RD.  

Morteza

Apologies for lack of posts recently. As some of you know I am in Tehran at the moment! What an amazing city!... There is so much happening here, it has changed so much since my last visit years ago. I have done a lot already, taken loads of photos including Paykans ofcourse! ;) Be patient while I be uploading them here and up on Flickr in the upcoming weeks.

Last week I was in the west-side trying to figure out how to get home, was going to catch a bus or something when I saw a Paykan Taxi yelling for passengers, I hired him as "Darbast" (closed-doors) that is when you negotiate a price with the driver to your final destination, cause taxis here work like a bus they pick up other passengers along the way. Morteza was a hard working middle aged man, after checking the radiator we took off. He works between 8-10 hours daily with his Paykan and I can not begin to tell you how grueling that is in the unbearable Tehran traffic! We had a lovely chat along the way, obviously he was very surprised to know that I do own one of these creatures myself, I gave him my card, he was going to ask his son to look up my blog, he was not internet savvy.

Morteza told me that they are going to decommission all Paykan taxis in the near future, so catch one now before it is too late! :(

Taxiography

Among my favorite Paykan photos. These shots are so honest and pure, photo are from Taxiography set by Soroush Afyouni

Taxis In Transition

Found these photos few years back. The old and tired Paykan taxis are being replaced by the locally produced Kia Pride & Iran Khodor's Samand.

Count The Paykans#62

Ten years after Count The Paykans #61 from the same angle overlooking Motahari at Vali Asr. Tehran, 2012. Thanks Again Professor Yaghoubian for the brilliant photos!

Count The Paykans#61

Photo was sent to me by Professor David Yaghoubian (CSU San Bernardino): "This is from my hotel balcony in Tehran, 2002. Corner of Motahari and Vali Asr. Spot something that is not a Paykan! I take the same photo every trip from approximately the same balcony, and lately I usually can’t find a single Paykan :( Makes the ones I do spot all the more special."
Thank You Professor! :)

Count The Paykans#60

Traffic jam in Shiraz, Iran. Photo by: MissDayDreamer

Bavarian Motor Works

For the love of BMW!

Lost Taxi

Abandoned  Paykan Taxi spotted in Tehran. Once again special thanks to mard_khasteh for the photos!

School Bus

Photo by: Sergio Pavan

Last Day in Iran...

Photos were taken nine years ago on June19th 2003 by sepa sama. Brilliant Stuff!