Morgan Cars in Dubai as it used to be

Morgan Cars have been in Dubai since the late 1960s. First cars were imported by Byron Greene Founder of Oilfield Supplies.
Dr Brian Dennison imported a Morgan V8 in the early seventies. Morgan pictured was imported around 1976.

UAE in 1970s did not have many roads suitable for Morgan Cars! Aluminium bodywork, 3.5 inches of ground clearance and no air conditioning meant finding a long smooth road to keep cool!

Favourite drive was from Old Dubai to the new Hilton Hotel in Fujeirah. An early Friday morning start, a flat out drive through the mountains to the East Coast followed by breakfast at the Hilton Hotel then a leisurely drive home.
That drive came to a halt when Sharjah Police installed road humps nearly six inches high. With only 3.5 inches of ground clearance the Morgan could not get over the road hump so it meant turning the Morgan around and heading home for breakfast.

The Morgan often attracted Police's interest! Policemen would stop the car on the road with the excuse the Morgan was breaking the speed limit (when it wasn't).
After looking at all the car's paperwork the real reason became apparent. "Where did you get this car?" was the next question followed by a detailed examination of the car, particularly the engine.
The Morgan never collected a speeding ticket!

This particular Morgan was supplied with a Fiat 1600 cc engine. Morgan used Ford engines but Ford was on the Israeli Boycott List so their products could not be imported into Dubai. Morgan offered the Fiat engine as an alternative

This Morgan was right hand drive (it's the passenger you can see in the photo). In Old Dubai it was legal to import a right hand drive and use it on the road. But in the late 1980s right hand drive cars were banned for safety reasons although the real reason may have been the increasing availability of right hand drive cars from Japan impacting on local car dealers.
The Morgan eventually made its way back to UK.