Source: Gulf News.

In 2018, while researching for a book he was writing about the automobiles of Sheikh Zayed to coincide with the Year of Zayed, Mohammad Luqman Ali Khan was flipping through books in the UAE's national archives when he came across an old photo of a Rolls Royce Phantom being unloaded onto the shores of Arabia.

“As a motoring researcher, the initial questions that came to mind were, whose car was this? Is it still around? And where is it now? “These questions triggered my mission to locate the car,” Mohammad, 44, originally from Hyderabad, India, told Gulf News.

It was only until cross-referencing the chassis number with the Rolls Royce records office in London however that he discovered just how important a vehicle it was to the history of the UAE. Records stated that the car was showcased at the 1965 Earl’s Court Motor Show in London, and then delivered in 1966 to the then Ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

After using the car for around six months, Sheikh Shakhbut stepped down after ruling for 38 years and the car was passed onto his successor and younger brother, the UAE’s Founding Father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. 

it was reportedly used by the Founding Father during his inauguration as Abu Dhabi Ruler and later UAE President, and it even ferried James Treadwell, the first British Ambassador to the UAE, to a ceremony on the day the UAE was formerly established on December 2, 1971. Other important passengers included none other than Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit in 1979.