Antique Cars Museum, Pakistan’s first and only online car museum held its 4th Annual Show at the historic and majestic Frere hall in Karachi.
Speaking on the occasion, Shoaib Qureshy, Founder Antique Cars Museum said that, “Interestingly, we don’t have any classic car museum in Pakistan so such a show helps create a one-day real life museum display for people to enjoy. If we can somehow get government or private sector support with space, we would love to make Pakistan’s first physical car museum in Karachi for people to enjoy it all year round”.
“My objective through the Pakistan’s first online Antique Cars Museum which I founded 4 years ago was to showcase on a single platform the great historic and globally priceless antique cars that we have in Pakistan so that the world can also see that we are no lesser than in any other part of the world. Also I wanted to show the Pakistani love for these automotive treasures and how our passionate antique car collectors take care of these cars and preserve them despite the huge challenges that we face here,” said Shoaib Qureshy.
It was a free for public event and people of all ages and segments of society came in huge numbers to see these wonderful antique cars that you don’t see every day on the roads of Pakistan.
There were 110 antique cars on display with the youngest being 20 years old and the oldest one 102 years old. These included some of the historic antique cars of the country as well; 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost of Nawab of Bahawalpur that was used by Sir Lord Mountbatten and Quaid-e-Azam on 14th August 1947 to go to the Governor House to sign the Independence declaration and the 1952 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine that was in the use of Major General Iskandar Mirza, the First President of Pakistan.
There were two exactly 100-year old cars also on display which are amongst the few oldest cars of Pakistan; the 1926 Chevrolet Superior and the 1926 Austin Seven Chummy which gave people a feel for how cars were a century ago. Also on display were some very rare cars like the 1941 Cadillac Sedanette Coupe. The only other such car was owned by Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah which was his first car as the Governor General of Pakistan, the 1947 Cadillac Limousine that is on public display at his Karachi mausoleum.
Then the truly vintage 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith and the 1956 Austin Princess Limousine also stood out at the show because of their imposing presence. There was an amazing display of the timeless younger classics like the Ford Mustangs, Porsche, Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, Mercedes, BMW, Aston Martin, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Corvette, Camaro, Austin Mini, MG, VW, Toyota, Datsun, Suzuki, Willys and you name it and it was there.
This show would have not been possible to execute in this grandness and free for public without the support of all our sponsors. Also a big thanks to all the antique car collectors who displayed their wonderful cars to make this show a big success.
tanvir@dubainewsweek.com
