They fled Iran, leaving the cars behind...

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You may have come across pictures of car collections in the Middle East for which even the word lavish does not describe things best. Oh yes, there are some eccentrics in this world with several of them hailing from the East!

How about the collection of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, better known as the Shah of Iran, who reigned from 1941 to 1979? As a matter of fact it was 39 years ago today that the Shah had to flee his country with the opposition finding he became too free of mind. And so the Pahlavis had to leave their beloved belongings behind, not in the last place cars. They amassed quite a few of them over the years. 

The Shah was famously given a Bugatti T57 with body by Van Vooren as a wedding gift by the French government in 1939. As he famously had the first Maserati 5000 GT bodied by Touring after the War and a Lambo Miura SVJ delivered to his place in Switzerland on knobbly tyres later... These cars were sold later-on. But there were more. All of the Shah's cars that remained in Iran - now called the country’s National Car Museum – are said to have been untouched since 1979. The collection shows some real oddities. The ubiquitous Mercedes 600 (a whole fleet of them) and several Rolls-Royces Phantom as well as another Miura, a Bizzarrini GT and Ferrari 500 Superfast plus several more Italian stallions. But the gems are what looks like a Mercedes Autobahnkurier, what is believed to be the only Panther Lazer, a Ghia-bodied Chrysler and a unique car built for the Crown prince Reva Pahlavi by Mercedes, Porsche and Volkswagen - together!

As the last heir to the Imperial State of Iran, Reva, was given cars at an age when you and I were perhaps given a kick scooter. Reva is still going strong, but it seems he makes no claim to the cars in his native country. After having left Iran, his father the Shah spent his days in Europe and the US  but died in Egypt in July 1980. Quite a lot more pictures of his late car collection can be found here.

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture Reginald Davis / Imapress)

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