Iran is the new market for British motoring classics

For decades, Iran’s reverence of the British motor car was expressed in mass output of imitation Hillman Hunters, rebranded as the Peykan, before obsolescence caused production to be halted.

Now, an Iranian motor manufacturer is going several streets upmarket to pay homage to another classic UK make: the Rolls-Royce.

Aryaman Motors, a Tehran-based company specialising in reproducing classic cars, is marketing replica vehicles based on the original design of the earliest Rolls- Royce models.

The cars are hand-built from scratch to recreate the bodywork and hallmarks of models produced in Britain about 100 years ago.

Inside, they are fitted with modern specifications such as air conditioning, orthopaedic seats and even CD players, fridges and televisions if customers request them. Hi-tech soundproofing reduces the noise of the 2.5l engine.

Aryaman Motors began producing the cars after receiving an order from Saad Abad Palace museum in north Tehran for a remake of the 1919 Silver Ghost model once owned by Reza Shah, the monarch who ruled Iran for two decades until the second world war.