A Pakistani auto repair shop employee working on a 1964 Volkswagen Beetle at a workshop in Rawalpindi. –

ISLAMABAD: In a country beset by militants and bombings, a cult website has fired Pakistani passion for classic cars and the freedom of the open road.

As Listed by Forbes as the fourth most dangerous country in the world, hitting the roads in the Pakistani outback is not a leisure activity that immediately springs to mind when talk switches to the nuclear-armed state of 167 million.

But in  a recent dinner in Islamabad, fans of the fast growing website devoted to all things auto swapped stories and laughed over jokes from their trips, speeding classic cars down deserted highways in bandit territory.

“Media images from Pakistan are always of suicide bombers everywhere and men carrying guns in cities and towns,” said Abdul Haseeb Awan an electrical engineer and businessman.

The outside world must also be shown images of people engaging in healthy interaction,” he said.

“It’s a question of mind over matter. We felt as safe as we do in Islamabad or any other city,” said Saqib Hafeez Mirza, freshly back from a six-day trip pounding 4,432 kilometres (2,770 miles) in a restored 1974 Toyota Corolla.

He drove from the cool hills of the capital Islamabad down south through the breadbasket of Pakistan, then through desert to Karachi, swinging southwest to the port city of Gwadar on the glittering Arabian Sea.

Mirza bubbles over about “unexplored pristine beaches” in Baluchistan on the border with Afghanistan and Iran, which is also notorious as an alleged bolthole for Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Omar.

“It was my uncle’s car. He passed away in 1976 at 43. Restoring it was very touching and full of memories, especially for my father and I know what this car means to him,” Mirza told AFP.

His family comes from Dera Ismail Khan, a flashpoint of sectarian violence where picnic spots and mountain valleys once popular with tourists are now subject to Taliban violence and army control.

But digging out vintage cars from junk yards, restoring them to their former glory and hitting the tarmac is a growing passion for enthusiasts tapping into the chat rooms of Pakistan’s busiest websites.

Not bad as a fan base for a specialist website in a country where the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan estimates that five million people are online.

Despite traditional clubs in major cities, Internet forums increasingly facilitate interaction and allow car enthusiasts to swap experiences.

After a lifetime restoring Volkswagen Beetles, Khalid Mehmood, 49, says his business today thrives on online recommendations.

A complete restoration might take three to five months and costs vary from 65,000 rupees (755 dollars) to 350,000 rupees (4,000 dollars), Mehmood told AFP, puffing on a cigarette in his workshop.

“I’ve always been a fan of VWs and the simplicity of the Beetle. It’s a car everyone can relate to,” said businessman Sameer Saeed, restoring a 1974 1303 Superbeetle and a 1978 Volkswagen 182 Thing.

Driving a Mitsubishi Pajero, he joined Mirza and other friends on the 650-kilometre coastal road heading out of Karachi along the Arabian Sea and into Baluchistan.

“The roads are safe to travel even in Baluchistan. I never feel concerned about security,” he said.