THE CAR’S THE STAR AS THE UAE CELEBRATES
▶ Garages in Abu Dhabi are flat out as Emirati drivers decorate their rides before National Day
It is a National Day tradition for residents to express their love of the UAE on their vehicles.
The seven emirates will be a sea of green, white, red and black for the 47th celebration of the UAE’s Foundation on Sunday and revved up residents have been pulling out all the stops.
Decorating cars with decals featuring the national colours and images of UAE Rulers has become a major part of the festivities in recent years, especially for those showing off their vehicles at parades on Yas Island and the Corniche in Abu Dhabi.
This year is no different, with motorists going crazy for National Day at the capital’s car decorating strip in Mussaffah.
Some arrived at the garages with a specific design in mind, while others came in groups to discuss what cool look to go for. Two young Emiratis even turned up with a falcon in hand.
“We take the falcon with us everywhere; he never leaves our side,” said Obaid Mansour, 17, who turned up with cousin Ahmad Al Mazrouei.
The pair took the gyr shaheen falcon named Azzam and one of their family’s camels to National Day festivities at Al Nahda National School for Girls before hitting the shop, where they were decorating their car to take part in a parade in Liwa.
On one side of the shop an Emirati closely watched the work on his vehicle, which was covered with images of Sheikh Zayed, the Founding Father, the President, Sheikh Khalifa, and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
“Every year I change the design,” said Rashid Al Muhairbi, 42, whose birthday coincides with National Day on December 2. “And I always display this sentence: ‘My joy is two joys – the day my country united and my birthday.”
Every year he celebrates with his friends after fireworks light up the sky to close the parade at the Corniche.
“They bring me a cake and gifts and we celebrate at the wave-breaker,” Mr Al Muhairbi said.
Mohammed Rafiq, a graphic designer at Grand Plus car accessories’ shop, was busy on the computer, customising the font for the sentence Mr Al Muhairbi ordered.
“We have a collection of logos and slogans the customer can choose from, or sometimes they bring a design from the internet and I implement it here on the computer,” Mr Rafiq said.
So far his business had decorated about 50 cars and from previous years’ experience he expected that number to double by Sunday.
Outside the garage, three Emirati students debated the size of the flag they would paste on their Audi. They were taking measurements and buying decals for a car decorating contest at Khalifa University.
“We have to buy the decals and take them to campus, where all the teams will decorate their cars, said Mohammed Al Dhali, 20, a chemical engineering student.
“The team with the best design wins. They said we could only have a budget of Dh100, so all teams decorate with equal resources.”
Deyaa Al Zobi, owner of Super Style car’ shop, said National Day decal trends changed over the years.
“Previously customers mostly focused on pictures of Sheikh Zayed, but for a few years they have been requesting pictures of Sheikh Khalifa and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed as well.”
He pointed to a poster that showed Sheikh Mohamed saluting with two soldiers holding the UAE flag on top of a tank in the background.
“This is the latest poster introduced this year,” Mr Al Zobi said.
Back in the Gold Plus shop, two young men decided “to do something different” and scale down their car decoration this year.
They put an A4-sized profile picture of Sheikh Mohamed on the left-hand corner of the front windscreen, and a black-and-white image of Sheikh Zayed on the car’s tyre cover.
We have logos and slogans the customer can choose from, or sometimes they bring a design from the internet MOHAMMED RAFIQ Graphic designer