Underground Meet 3: Car enthusiasts shake off pandemic blues

Burnouts, screeching tires, rumbling exhausts, backfires and the smell of burnt octane and tires – these are everything car enthusiasts have been missing since the pandemic, big car meets had come to a halt ever since. However, putting an end to the dry spell, Auto Rebellion, a Bangladesh based automotive group, organised their 'Underground Meet 3' on Saturday, 7 January. The meet was to bring together car enthusiasts from all over the country, and it did just that.  

Presented by Subaru Bangladesh, the meet took place at the second basement of Jamuna Future Park's parking lot. Underground meets have become quite popular worldwide, especially after the release of  'Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift', where they featured similar meets. Auto Rebellion took inspiration from such events.

Bangladesh's car community is quite obsessed with the JDM cars (Japanese Domestic Models), and Auto Rebellion's endeavour was nothing short of what one would expect to find in Tokyo or any other South Asian country.

As visitors, this was by far the biggest meet we have been to – so big that for the first time ever, we couldn't manage to see all the cars at the event.

 "Auto Rebellion was established as the 'network for all Automotive Enthusiasts' and through it we aim to bring all members of the car community in one place," said Rezwanul Ahmed Sakib, one of the admins of Auto Rebellion. "For that, we had to host the biggest car meet that ever took place in Bangladesh."

Auto Rebellion is the biggest active car community of Bangladesh with over 23,000 members in their official Facebook group. Established in 2014, the automotive community, and digital publisher of automotive content, was known to host annual car meets at CEMs Motor Show at International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB) until 2017.

After which, the group has hosted the Auto Rebellion Underground Meet in 2019 and 2020. Three years later and a pandemic later, the platform held the third car meet and this was undoubtedly the first proper car meet since 2020.

Popular Japanese tuner cars from the 90s and 2000s – such as Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, Subaru STI, Toyota Celica, Toyota Supra, Toyota MR-2, Toyota Levin and Trueno, Mazda RX7 and Honda Civic Type R – were present at the event.

In fact, this was the first ever locally hosted car meet which had all three generations of the Toyota Supra under one roof.

There were also multiple Nissan GT-R R35s, a 2020 Honda NSX, A Nissan R34 GT-T and Silvia. The event even included the country's only Nissan R34 GT-R, a car which embodies the pinnacle of Japanese automotive engineering amongst JDM fans.

At the other side of the venue were the European exotics such as the Audi R8, multiple Porsche Boxsters and Caymans, a single Porsche Boxster 911 GTS Targa, a Porsche Taycan, Lotus Exige S and Mercedes CLAs.

There was even a single left hand drive Hennessey tuned Chevrolet Camaro, and the iconic Bumblebee themed yellow Camaro from the American side.

The group's diecast section, called Mini Rebellion, also had a stall at the event. In collaboration with members of Diecast Collectors of Bangladesh, another scale model collectors group, Mini Rebellion showcased many unique diecasts and rare miniature models.

One of the most interesting experiences at the event was seeing many of the scale models and the actual cars present at the same time – a scene which is quite rare for Bangladesh.

The title sponsor, Subaru Bangladesh, had various Subaru models displayed at the venue including a 2022 Subaru STI S208, limited to 450 units worldwide. Other sponsors included Turaag Active, Buy Here Now, AsroTex, Motor Corporation, MotoGazi, Pakelo Lubricants, Beg Autos and Speed Fire Automobiles.