A Cross Country Pakistan adventure in a 1922 Amilcar

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A 1922 Amilcar is not what you see that often when one drives in Pakistan. But last month, there was one driving from Khyber to Karachi in the K2K Cross Country Rally. Shahzeb Ul Haq Malik is the proud owner and driver of this Amilcar C4 and reports from the event:

"Michni Post towards Landi Kotal is located in Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan and the Afghan border called Torkham. It is certainly not an area where a 1922 Amilcar C4 would have been driven even back in the golden days. Well, history was written as my Amilcar made its debut rally run starting from Bala Hisar Forte in Peshawar on the morning of 24th of November 2017. Passing the famous Bab-e-Khyber (Khyber Gate) towards Khyber Pass and eventually climbing up the mountains to historic Michni post of Khyber Rifles.
The lunch was hosted in an Army officers mess after the traditional Khattak dance with swords by many men dressed in traditional dress Shalwar Qamez. The Amilcar reached back to Peshawar before sunset with the other post-war classic cars; around 40 in total. However, the oldest and only pre-war car being the Amilcar followed by a much modern 1955 Chevrolet bel air than a 1960 Austin Healey 3000, 1969 MGB-GT, Ford Mustangs, 1960s Rolls Royce, BMW 2002 etc. 

Everyone was surprised to see this cyclecar pace around with the post-war classics and by the day end, it was able to win true love from every participant.
The following day there was a car show in Peshawar and headlines were made after which the drive to Islamabad began on the Motorway M-1. Modern vehicles drive here at 120 KM and Amilcar was not far behind with the average of 70 KM carrying three passengers and reaching without any major glitch. Other than fixing a couple of loose electric connections and cleaning the magneto point at one time. This feat of about 370 KM in total in two days astonished everyone including myself, as I dared for the adventure without being able to run for more than 50 km on this particular car since I acquired it and completed the preservation process.
The following stage of the rally was from Islamabad- Lahore - Bahalwalpur - Gambat and finally reaching Karachi where the rally ended. The Amilcar was partly driven and partly carried for the remaining journey. As a couple of days in the rally were lost due to strikes resulting in longer distances/day requiring more speeds to cover the segments. Amilcar successfully completed the last leg of the rally on its wheels on the evening of 1st December.
The following day I drove it to the landmarks of Mizar-e-Qaid (grave of the founder of Pakistan) and Clifton Sea View in Karachi, the day was filled with appreciation for Amilcar as it stood next to the 1912 Fire Tender 'Dennis' with the historical Ferrer Hall which has its roof painted by the famous Pakistani Painter Sadequain.

All this was after a very uncertain start, as I had 3 blisters on my hand from cranking the car just a night before the rally; as the car wouldn’t start.
I could only troubleshoot the actual problem a few minutes before the start of the rally. as I was blaming either the spark plugs or the carburettor for backfiring and missing. But in actual it was a faulty point in my magneto + coil setup that I cleaned as the last thing to try.
Literally, I was the last one to leave the rally start point while the venue looked like a ghost town as everyone moved out, I had to chase others after few min but after that, it was a drastically different and more positive story as you read above and just glory right to the finish line."

Words and photos by Shahzeb Ul Haq Malik

      

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