Police escort pushes Bean and to the limit in UAE

The Birtle and the Bean crew found driving a vintage car as part of a police convoy under lights in Dubai’s rush hour is like skiing a complex slope at the outer edge of your ability.

The police officer stepped out of his car, lights flashing, on the hard shoulder just over the border of Abu Dhabi and fixed us with a steely gaze.

“Papers,” he said, indicating with his hand that we remove our red and white Saudi keffiyehs. “I am looking for two suspects.”

“Are they middle aged Australian men?” we asked through our anxious Arabic interpreter, Mohammed “Turbo” Ezzeldine, who had jumped out of the back-up truck to assist.

“No.”

“Are they driving a 100-year-old bright red vintage Bean sportscar?”

“No.”

It has not been unusual for the Bean car to attract the attention of the police, this time in the UAE. Picture: Matthew Benns

“It’s probably not them then,” Turbo pointed out in an exchange which resulted in 45 minutes sitting by the side of the road while the stone-faced officer checked up on the crazy Aussies driving from London to Melbourne via the United Arab Emirates.

It has not been unusual for the Bean car to attract the attention of the police during the recreation of Francis Birtle’s epic 1927 drive to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. In Egypt, one officer was overheard ringing his superior to say: “Sir, the Australian adventurers are here now.”

Matthew Benns, Warren Brown and the Bean outside the Sharjah Old Car Museum. Picture: Matthew Benns

In the UAE we were given a police escort to the Sharjah Old Car Museum, with patrol cars from different emirates picking us up as we crossed borders. The Dubai police Audi R8 supercar provided the biggest challenge for the Bean to keep up.

Driving a vintage car as part of a police convoy under lights in Dubai’s rush hour is like skiing a complex slope at the outer edge of your ability – it demands total concentration and leaves you exhilarated to be alive in the moment. Not to mention soaked in sweat and shaking with exhaustion.

At the museum, which houses the armour plated limousines of Sharjah’s ruling sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammad, Trevor Dean from Lane Cove in Sydney’s north strolled over to say hello.

“I have been following your adventures in The Daily Telegraph,” he said. “I am in town for a BMW conference and when I saw the car I couldn’t believe you were here. I love the headgear, you guys are crazy.”

The Bean in the United Arab Emirates. Pictures: Matthew Benns

Matthew Benns and Warren Brown in the United Arab Emirates., , Image: supplied/Matthew Benns

Back on the road, the thick early morning sea fog had been replaced by 47C searing desert sun. The heat from the Bean’s four-cylinder side valve engine punched through the plywood firewall and turned the cockpit of the car into a furnace.

At the Emirates Motorsports Organisation headquarters, chief executive Mahir Badri welcomed the Bean as an Australian example of a universal language shared by car lovers the world over.

“It fascinates me how you use your resources and time to send one single message,” he said.

“You are showing the world that what people say and fear about the Middle East is not accurate, here it is completely different,” Mr Badri said. “We need more peaceful messages like yours now than ever before.”

DONATE: Birtles and the Bean fundraiser for Royal Flying Doctor Service