My mother once told me that less affluent countries often live off the unwanted scraps of more established powers. There’s a lot upon which she could substantiate her claim, but when taking the stylish, Dick Teague designed 1966 Rambler American into account, she might have to make a stronger case.
My mother was born in Iran in 1952 and lived there until 1975, when she left for London and two years later, the United States. She, along with her strong opinions and sharp wit, lived through twenty-three years of modernization carried out at break-neck speed. While the dictatorship she lived under is famously guilty of many excesses, it was also responsible for bringing dramatic development to its subjects.
The Rambler American is one of the more iconic pieces of this part of Iran’s history. Several days’ worth of AMC Week posts have taught me that, as far as US buyers were concerned, the company’s cars were the preserve of the most stingy, self-denying members of the American motoring public. They handled poorly, had plain looks and were genuinely unfashionable.
All this would corroborate my mother’s assertion, but in terms of styling, the Rambler American had more timeless, international appeal and confirmed the more optimistic aspects of the Shah’s promises of development.
My mother’s eldest brother owned a Rambler American throughout the late sixties and early seventies–my mother’s late teens and early twenties–while working in Southern Iran as an oil industry engineer. Some ten years later, he and his family would flee from an Iraqi artillery onslaught in their Toyota Cressida, abandoning both their town and their home to brutal house-to-house combat, but no one could have guessed that would ever happen during the Rambler days.
The 1966 Rambler American was built in two trim levels in Iran from 1967 until 1974; the Aria being the more upmarket variant, with A/C and an automatic, and the Shahin, more basic. Aria and Shahin are female and male names, respectively, meaning “Aryan,” and “Falcon.” Both were powered by AMC’s 195.6 CID six and despite their rarity, remain a symbol of the modernism characterizing Iran during the “good ol’ days” of the seventies (and fifties and sixties). The other car embraced by Iran’s first homegrown car manufacturer, the flimsy Hillman Hunter (part of the Rootes Arrow series), more convincingly substantiated my mother’s claim that the third world’s industries often have the commercial rejects of their imperialist bosses shoved down their throats. The less said about those cars, the better, but the Rambler is altogether more interesting in its competence, representing both the truth of my mother’s argument but also the benefit to being on the good side of a wealthy superpower. Sadly, the Rambler ended production after seven years while the Hillman was built for over three decades. Finding an Aria or Shahin (the four wheeled variants, not persons bearing the names) in Iran today is rather uncommon.
Dictators get a bad rap, often deservedly, but those of whom hide an army of technocrats behind their cult of personality are often denied credit for the prosperity they bring to their countrymen. Two businessmen who, through corrupt dealings with the Shah, started Irannational (later Iran Khodro/IKCO), brought motoring to hundreds of thousands of middle class Iranians.
These days, most Iranians are under 30 years of age and do not remember the Rambler. For Iran’s post WWII baby boomers–they exist in Iran, also–the Rambler American is a symbol of the Good Ol’ Days and egardless of their political leanings today, the Aria and Shahin speak to a time when life was simpler and prosperity was easier to achieve. In this way, the Rambler American means the same thing to the people of both Tehran and Tulsa.
Flimsy hillman Hunter? really Winner of the London to Sydney Marathon, Survival rates here are the exact opposite plenty of Hunters still on the road Ramblers despite being assembled locally are very rare, rust and poor build quality has seen to that.
Wow, pretty interesting, who woulda thought, Ramblers in Iran! When I was at USC in the mid-60’s-early 70’s, we had a sizable contingent of Iranian students attending there, mostly in Engineering, I think. An apocryphal story, maybe, but rumor always was that the Shah sponsored their not inconsiderable tuition and living expenses, in an effort to bring US-educated technocrats back to the country. I don’t recall ever interacting with them, they pretty much kept to themselves, missed opportunity, I guess. But I have often wondered if they wound up returning to Iran to contribute to the dramatic developmental changes you mention in those years.
I have been in Iran in heydays of Shahin and have vivid memories of this car,
As a teenager in early 1970s I took the collective taxi to go to high school and many of these taxis were Shahin cars.
I remember shahins cornered nicely and the uni-body chassis was quite rigid and road bumps were silenced compared to other brands ( Hillman hunters, 180 Mercedes).
Taxi drivers complained about weak and fading brakes, The dealer’s option list was empty and there was no possibility to add a power brake option.
Owners who used Shahin for cross country long distance driving, customized their cars by adding brake vacuum boosters sourced from Hillman junked cars and adapting larger drum brakes and brake pads sourced from early sixties junked impalas.
This was not a luxury customizing, if you wanted to survive Iranian mountain roads you had better do the brake upgrade.
Otherwise these cars were huge bargains considering their price tag at the time.
Lower prices can be attributed to the fact that body panels were stamped and welded in Iran ( jigs and fixtures provided by AMC), all power train components were imported in CKD (Completely Knocked Down) and assembled in Iran by workers which were paid at best one fifth of what the same worker could have cost in Kenosha.
The most luxurious Aria ever produced was the 1972 Special Edition which was commissioned for the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire. The 2500 version should be quite rare right now as it was produced in small numbers for a few selected elite customers with political connections.
Iranian built Ramblers may have been superior in build to ours, wouldnt surprise me at all, Mind you we really only got the larger models competition in the field of the Americans size was well covered by Ford GM & Chrysler UK & OZ.
It’d have been very cool if the Chrysler connection resulted in Iranians getting Polaras and Furys.
SHAHIN means falcon&it is actually men’s name if you pernanse it like this:shauheen&it could be female’s name with different pernansiation.but in rambler’s case means FALCON.my dad used to have a blueone&it was a very reliable car for 20 years.i have heard that after 1973 SHAH sold it to Pakistan but that could be wrong.and it was an expensive car back then¬ everyone could afford that.PAYKAN(Iranian Hillman hunter)was by far more easier to reach by ordinary Persians.
You’re right; in Latin script, they’re the same, but in that third picture, the male form of Shahin is spelled, meaning Falcon.
Thanks for this very interesting look into a part of the world most of us never got to experience. I find it interesting the variety of American cars that have found traction overseas at different times. Sometimes it just seems to be the fluke of which car a local company can cut the best deal on for tooling and parts. I could imagine the Valiant being equally attractive in the middle east. It is easy to understand how this would be an attractive car to people in that part of the world.
Fascinating look into the Iranian car market before the revolution and one American carmaker’s place in it. I have known many immigrants from Iran, since I live in northern Virginia where many moved after fleeing the revolution, and although many of them are quite car-obsessed, the subject of cars back in Iran never has come up. Mercedes fever seems to have hit many of them in the US, so it is interesting to see what their families would have owned and driven back in Iran.
Between this article, my American Cars of Turkey article tomorrow, and the Cars of Baghdad article that was the first that I submitted about 2 years ago, we can almost fill up a Middle East Week.
as a Persian American myself,I could never understand the Persian obssetion with Mercedes(or BMW)maybe it is a sign of success in their mind.personaly I never liked GERMAN cars&my daily driver is a camry&I also have a 72 montecarlo that I drive couple times a week.as for cars in iran with todays weak Iranian money(compare to USD)even owning a CAMRY or ALTIMA is a dream for most folks in that country&that might be another reasons for those Mercedes drivers as for 99% of Iranians is almost impossible to buy a late model Mercedes in iran.(you got to pay all in cash for cars overthere)
You are right; when my parents had difficulty locating their friends’ cookouts, I could always identify the right party in the local park whenever I spotted the lot exclusively full of Hondas/Toyotas/Nissans.
But in the 1970s, a lot of people in Iran owned BMWs and Mercedes. As for why Iranians love those brands today, people of all races equate them with success. And being one of the more well-to-do immigrant communities, it’s no real mystery.
An Iranian guy I worked with recently was in love with the lightly used Maxima he scored other than for the price of our gas he thought it was great, He told me the last few years of Paykans used peugeot engines instead of the 1725 Hillman mill. Thousands of cheap used ex JDM Beemers and Benzs here have dropped those brands allure some here.
I don’t think attractive young women dress today in Iran like they did in the good old Rambler American days.
Superb. Sent chills up my spine. Thanks for a very personal perspective and a balanced tone; I’d heard of the Sabra out of Israel but had no idea of life in pre-79 Iran, let alone the cars. Much appreciated.
As a side-note. In 2002 I was working at Young & Rubicam Adelaide, who held the Mitsubishi advertising account. At the time, Veradas were being exported to the Arab states (Saudi Arabia IIRC). After researching various ideas, the most positive reaction was to a layout using a falcon bird. This ended up being the basis of the short-lived campaign.
Cheers
Very interesting!…The things you learn on this site…!
Great piece! During the ’80s there was so much talk about growing imports and about how American companies were not competitive globally, you’d have thought that cars with American roots were non-existent outside U.S. borders. Nice to know we were out there slugging it out, sometimes more than we may have thought.
Granted though, that American influence had been greatly diminished by the ’80s.
Omg… this is the first car I ever drove. They had 3 gear only plus reverse ofc. But you wont believe my story:
My mom had left the car for repairs at a shop about 2 kilometers from our house and told me to go over there and ask if the car was ready. And so I did. The thing is, I was only 8 years old at the time, and so was the little boy at the shop. It was his dads shop and he had just left for a few moment to do something. He had told his boy to watch the shop until he would be back.
I asked the poor kid if the car was ready and he said yes. The keys were in the car, so I just got behind the wheels, started the car and drove home… 8 years old… lol.
I remember I could barely see over the windshield. I put it in first gear as I had seen my dad do so many times and drove the whole way back home on that gear. They could do up to 60 km/h on first gear without problem…
Boy was I proud of my self when mom asked if the car was ready and I told her yes… it’s outside the house… And when she found out I had driven the car…. well you can guess… She almost fainted, then almost flew through the roof… lol… then she took me straight back to the shop where she was yelling at the owner for an hour or so. I remember his poor kid getting alot of beating from his dad during that hour and probably a couple of hours more, and he told me if I was his son, he would have killed me with his bare hands… I was hiding behind my mom the whole time 🙂
This is 100% true, believe it or not!
hi
when i was 14 y.o. tried arya
it was fantastic & silver in coloor
with high velocity
i wish we had new generation of arya in iran
Interesting article,but I assume these cars were produced and sold in Iran while the Shah was in power, before the Ayatollahs took over.Always interesting to read about cars and motoring in various parts of the world. I`m pretty sure advertising, like that girl eating an apple while leaning over the hood of that car would not be allowed in Iran today.
Thank you ….
Thank you ….
Thank you ….
It brought so many memories of me, my dad, and his beloved ” Don’t Touch ” ….
we were 5 siblings and we All learnt how to drive in that beautiful white ” Don’t Touch ” …. We all loved that car… Big, Bold, Beautiful, Strong, Spacious ( I and 15 others once fit into that car), and by God it lived until 2003, when he sold it as a ” in working condition” ..
I fell in love with American cars because of Rambler, I understood the meaning of “Muscle car” because of Rambler.
America. I hate you for giving us the G. Bush
America. I Love you for giving us the AMC Rambler.
first car i ever drove offcourse not legally ( no drivers license ) it was fast but as said breaks were poor . i once got it up to 100 miles per hour and before i left iran that was my top speed .later in the united stated i found a beat up one and i bought it on the spot. i took the gas cap off and stuck a rag in there (persian style) one day a huge balck police officer stopped me and impounded the car stated it wasn’t safeeeeeeeeeeeeeee are you kidding. i must say iranian rambler was a better built car. i wish i had one right now sky blue that is.
My dad bought a brand new white Arya and took us all over the country in late 60’s and early 70’s. We were a big family. During summer, we used to travel from Tehran to Tabriz, Bandar Sharaf Khaneh, Uromiya, Ardabil, Sarab, Sarain, Astara, to Caspian Sea to Mashhad and back to Tehran. It took us almost a month. During Spring, we traveled to Isfahan, Shiraz or South to Bandar Abbas, Minab, Bandar Mahshahr, or Dezfoul, Ahvaz, Abadan and Khoramshahr. The car was fast and spacious. The only incident we had with the car was when were traveling from Sarab to Sarain our car hit a rock on the road under construction and cut a hole in the oil pan. My uncle had a Shahin model and he helped us to bring a mechanic from Sarab and fix the hole temporarily. I do not understand why it was decided to stop the production of Arya and Shahin in Iran. It was a grave mistake to replace them with Paykan which was the worst car ever for Iran. Very bad choice. My dad sold the car and bought a Chevrolet Nova that used to be assembled and sold in Iran prior to the 1979 revolution.
One summer afternoon, I, my brother and cousin stole my dad’s white Arya car parked on the poultry farm while my dad was taking a nap. We were teenagers at that time. We knew how to drive forward, three easy gears: first is down, second up and third down again. But we did not know how to set the gear in reverse. Every time we tried, we could hear a grinding sound telling it was not right. So, we had to get off and push the car back and forth to turn around. We were having a good time in the back roads near the farm. We did dare driving on the main road where the trucks were. As we were taking a ride at a time, we saw our dad walking toward us with a belt in his hand from a far distance. We stopped the car on the road, two of us ran away and I was the only one frozen. He got to me beat me a couple of times, threw me in the car and we drove back to the farm. For weeks, I stayed away from him and did not dare talking to him. I did not drive the car until I got my drivers license at 17. Then I could drive the car. The maximum speed on the dashboard was 200 Km. We drove the car 120 Km. That was one of the fastest cars in the country in those days.
I lived in Iran from 1969 to 1978. As you stated the Shahin was the base model. The Aria was a bit more luxurious with vinyl roofs. The Aria still had the 3 speed manual. No A/C in the Aria though.
Around 1970-1971 the new “3300 Automatic” was offered. It had as described an automatic transmission, green tinted windows, and A/C.
The engines were quite potent. The brakes were terrible. Those cars would never stop on a straight line.
The factory was located on the Karaj road and quite small. They also produced the excellent Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
In 1974, GM took over the factory assembling Opel Commodores (Royale 2500, 2800) and the Chevrolet Novas, Cadillac Sevilles, and Buicks Apollos around 1976 (CKD).