When it comes to cars, each country tends to develop its own unique tuner culture. Americans love their muscle cars and lifted trucks, Australians specialize in rorty V8 sedans, and Japan pioneered the turbocharged sports car. Over in Iran, though? There’s a bit of a movement centered around the wonderful Peugeot 405 and, in particular, with a style that’s not common almost anywhere else.
We first explored the Iranian connection with the tasteful French sedan a couple of years ago. Having first entered production in France in 1987, an Iranian factory was established in 1992. Fast forward to 2023, and the Peugeot 405 was still effectively in production as the Peugeot PARS. Produced by Middle Eastern automaker Iran Khodro, it was effectively the same old car with updated engines and a front end of the later Peugeot 406. The model line finally came to an end in the middle of last year amidst increased competition from more modern Chinese vehicles.
As you might imagine, there are a great many Peugeot 405s in Iran after 32 long years in production. With the model so ubiquitous in the Middle Eastern nation, it’s become a rich part of the local car culture, tuners and modders included.
It is nearly impossible to find high-resolution footage of the car scene in Iran, particularly outside of short clips of vertical video. This video gives us a great look at what’s going on over there—particularly where Peugeots are concerned.
Local Context
This past week, I spoke to Shayan. He happened across our previous coverage, and as an Iranian local, reached out to give me the scoop from the ground. “To be honest, we in Iran really like the Peugeot 405,” he told me. “Even though it has been 37 years since this car entered Iran, all young and middle-aged people are interested in this car.” He was then kind enough to provide me with a sampling of car content from his side of the world.
As with any Western car, certain trims and models are more prized than others. With the Peugeot 405, it’s the GLX that stands out from the crowd. “[It’s] a very beautiful version of the 405 that was produced in Iran with the XU9 and XU7 L3 engines,” Shayan explains. They’re a particularly desired engine for modification, but the GLX is also a nice trim in other regards, too. “This car from 2010 to 2013 has the same normal dashboard but in cream color, which is the most popular in the Iranian market.”
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Is a French sedan Iran’s favorite tuner car?
As a guide, the XU7 L3 is a 1.8-liter inline-four engine with an eight-valve head, capable of delivering 100 hp and 112 pound-feet of torque. It’s not a lot, but like so many car enthusiasts around the world, the Iranian set have learned to work with the hardware on offer. Typical mods include upgraded intake manifolds, pod filters, and exhausts, which net mild but noticeable power gains. More serious tuners go even further with turbos and nitrous oxide kits, with Shayan noting one example running the latter pushing up to 700 horsepower in an extreme state of tune. Overall, though, it’s a scene focused on making more power than stock rather than outright dyno queen numbers.
Beyond the GLX, the later Pars ELX is also popular amongst the enthusiast set. It boasts the later 8-valve, 1.9-liter XUM engine, also from Peugeot. It offered 105 horsepower and 114 pound-feet of torque, and has proven similarly tunable with aftermarket parts. It’s a popular engine swap, too, featuring regularly in Instagram posts from Iran regarding the 405.
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Stock, you might expect an Iranian Peugeot 405 or Pars to hit 118 mph (190 km/h) at full tilt. That was the official specification before the last models went out of production, but a lot more is possible. “Mother Iran, we have reached a speed of 260 km/h (161 mph) with this car!” Shayan told me with pride.
Indeed, top speed runs seem to be popular amongst Iran’s Peugeot fans. Head over to the right section of Instagram, and you’ll find endless videos of tuned 405s crossing the double metric ton (200 km/h, 124 mph).
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Top speed runs are commonly posted to Instagram by accounts that chronicle the scene. Many reference the 405 GLX and the Pars ELX, which featured the most desirable engines.
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Iran’s Peugeot enthusiasts get up to all the usual tuner stuff—cone intakes, engine swaps, and flashy head units abound in cars of the street racing set. The only thing largely missing is paint and panel work— most examples appear to get around looking fairly standard from the outside. The visual juxtaposition is strange, almost like a fleet of taxis went ham.
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You don’t see a lot of Peugeot 405s at American drag strips.
What intrigued me most, though, were photos of various Peugeot 405s with the rear end jacked way up high. Its customary across the West and Japan to lower a modified car, but things are a little different in the Islamic Republic. “In Iran, on the contrary, instead of making a car sporty with low height, they make them sporty with high height, which is also a long story,” Shayan explained.
As it turns out, the look has its roots in smuggling. “In fact, smugglers choose this car because of its high speed, and to prevent the rear of the car from hitting the ground… they raise the rear so that it is at a normal height when loaded,” Shayan explains. But, as much as it had a functional purpose, it also just became a visual trend among the enthusiast set. “In this sense, people also do this for looks.” You might think that jacking up the back of the car is a detriment to handling, and to an extent, that would be the case. Still, I was able to view one video I can’t repost here of a smuggler hitting 200 km/h (124 mph) in such a car—though it was riding pretty flat with 1.5 tons of payload in the back.
The trick is that some owners achieve this stance with the aid of air suspension. This allows the car to be jacked up at the rear for looks, while set at a regular level ride for driving around. It’s just like what the stance kids are doing, but with a different end goal in mind. Indeed, you’ll spot some of these owners swapping between the jacked-up Iranian look and a more traditional slammed stance on the regular.
You can fit a lot in a 405 if you have a singular goal.
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One innovative owner has apparently fitted their 405 with a system for dispensing caltrops to delay anyone tailing the vehicle.
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You can go to a car meet in Iran and expect to see a ton of noisy 405s.
The 405s of Iran are as varied and unique as their owners, though some trends do prevail. The strip of teal-blue trim around the body is particularly popular amongst the scene, as is the characteristic tail-up look. Other trends are similar to what you’d see in other worldwide scenes—pod filters, flashy stereos, and louder exhausts. There’s also a unique name for these vehicles, too. “Inside Iran, we call these [modified] vehicles fighter jets,” Shayan tells me.
Shayan was also kind enough to show me his own car. It’s a tastefully modified 405 GLX. It looks sharp in silver, it’s got the nice lighter interior, and it’s jacked at the back as all the best are. He’s also swapped out the manifold and headers to give the car a little more thrust. Aside from the stance, though, it keeps a largely stock look on the exterior—relatively common amongst modified 405 builds in Iran.
It looks largely stock from the exterior, as is common in the Iranian scene. Credit: Shayan, supplied
What truly amazed me was the wealth and depth of Iran’s tuner culture. It’s out there on the Internet, except it’s hidden from the mainstream Western view. It’s obscured by the fact that few of us can read Arabic hashtags or think to type ‘Peugeot 405 Iran’ into a search box on a regular basis. Had Shayan not brought this scene to my attention, I might not have known it existed.
Of course, political realities mean that you’re not going to see Western journalists and YouTubers covering the Iranian scene any time soon. We have to go without with cliche epic drone shots and superlative yelling as sliding 405s streak past the cameras in 4K. But that’s not entirely a bad thing. It means we learn about the culture from the people immersed in it—people like Shayan, who are going to the meets and documenting what it’s really like to be a part of it.
It’s no surprise the Peugeot 405 became a tuner darling in the Middle East. The simple fact is that it was a hugely relevant and important car in that country. It’s easy to think of Iran as some far-off country outside of the regular car scene, but it’s a burgeoning nation of 90 million people. A great many Iranians consider themselves car enthusiasts, and they’ve fallen in love with the hundreds of thousands of Peugeot 405s and Pars that were sold in their country over the years. These things racked up sales in the five and even six figures, year after year—so it’s no surprise they’re a cornerstone of the Iranian motoring culture.
Wherever there are people and cars, there will eventually be car enthusiasts. It doesn’t matter what you give them—be it Minis, Civics, or, indeed, Peugeots—and they’ll tweak them, mod them, and push them to the limits. The Iranian car scene is, of course, inaccessible and difficult to parse for most of us. There’s a huge language barrier, a few oceans in the way, and limited cultural exchange between our countries and theirs. And yet, it’s so obvious that the Iranian car scene is not so dissimilar from our own—appreciating all the joys that gasoline and rubber have to offer. It’s a beautiful thing.
Image credits: Shayan (supplied), Under Night Club via YouTube screenshot
Persian is written using the Arabic script, but it’s not related to Arabic; it’s an indo-european language. So no “Arabic hashtags” but “Persian hashtags”.
They had two versions of the 405 in Iran. The normal one, and the RWD Peugeot Roa, which is a 405 body sat atop the chasssis of a Khodro Paykan – otherwise known as a Hillman Hunter.
https://driventowrite.com/2020/03/04/body-swopping-peugeot-paykan-renault-5-iran-history/
https://driventowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/dtw-iran-peugeot-405rd-004-autoliens-fr.jpg
In my head, my first thought was to joke that the rear end was jacked to account for weight when smuggling weapons (though, with all the sanctions, I’m sure anything would do). Funny to learn that’s what it was.
Somewhat has the late 70s – early 90s vibe on RWD American ‘muscle’ coupes: Air shocks, plus sized fat white lettered tires, loud exhaust.
I used to call them BTLP (big tire low performance) as most never upgraded the engine or change the numerically low gear ratio to spice it up.
The overload-focused rear suspension on a 405 is such a cool thing to see. Gives some very fun Mad Max vibes.
The use of air suspension on the tuner builds with that setup parallels how Dodge Ram trucks now offer rear air suspension to maintain ride comfort unladen while still being able to air up for big payloads.
Awesome story, love to read about local tuner culture like this!
I had a Mercedes W123 station wagon with the auto-leveling rear suspension. The little rod that connected the rear end to the leveling actuator broke and my car sat just like that. It was funny for a bit.
Our 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL had the same issue with rear hydropneumatic suspension.
What, no LS swaps?
Fascinating stuff and cool to learn about other car cultures! The lifted rear coming from smugglers makes me think of the beginnings of nascar and hot rods coming from bootlegging in the US.
So, they are in heat?
It’s nice to see the raised rear stance is back… in a foreign country on bizarrely different cars for it. As a muscle car guy, I was (and still am) pretty infatuated with getting just the right kind of stance that balances an aggressive look with a complete inability to take a curve.
My Olds had a set of air shocks on it when I first got it. They were pretty fun because I could change the ride height in the back by sticking an air pump on a nozzle in my rear bumper. Of course they failed pretty quickly. My Oldsmobile guru taught me a great trick tho. Instead of air shocks, go to stock shock absorbers, then use coil springs for a 1968 Vista Cruiser wagon instead of a Cutlass. Permanent, reliable ride height and still a very effective rear suspension. Plus the sky’s the limit for rear tires with no rubbing on the fenders.
Hell yeah brother! Sounds like the hooch runners of early NASCAR!
That’s pretty cool! Thanks to Shayan for reaching out because we never would have known about this otherwise.
Anyone else wonder about the whiteish smoke from the car next to the flaming mini truck in the first video? I was thinking head gasket at first, but perhaps just over fueled and I’m watching on a phone?
Excuse my ignorance, but what’s a pod filter? The things I don’t know…
I think it’s like a Keurig machine mounted in the back seat.
This article just goes to show that people of all nations can share in the universal pastime of fucking up our rides.
The Ayatollah Squat aka The Persian Pump aka Tehran When Parked
Very rad – loved knowing the history behind the ride height.
I once had a driver in the region who told me that Crown Vics were prized in the Mideast for exactly that – their large trunk capacity, incredible durability, ease of repair made them the desert version of a millennium falcon.
So jacked up Peugeots are the Iranian equivalent of the ‘shine runners who built NASCAR? When do they start racing on big ovals?