The owner of this intriguing confection is none other than Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan - and he's no ordinary billionaire. As a high-profile member of the United Arab Emirates royal family, the man known as the Rainbow Sheikh once paid to have a series of canals that spelled out his first name carved into an island located off the Abu Dhabi coast.
But this vast SUV (called the Dhabiyan) is far from his only car. Indeed, it's just the latest in a long line of vehicles in his personal collection that also doubles as the country’s national car museum and recently Autocar paid it a visit.
Considering the sheikh's net worth is in the vicinity of $20 billion (£15 billion), you might expect a building full of rare, powerful supercars. However, there are none to be found and the museum is all the more fascinating to visit because of it. It’s an eclectic collection of oddities peppered by stellar examples of 1980s tuning. Join us for a virtual tour of one of the most mystifying car collections in the world:The Emirates National Auto Museum is located in a pyramid-shaped building that’s about an hour away from downtown Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. After leaving the city, getting there is a matter of following the long, straight roads that cross the desert. You know you’ve arrived when you see a gigantic replica of a Land Rover Series III that effortlessly dwarfs a Nissan Patrol.The second house-sized car parked outside of the museum is a replica of a Willys Jeep complete with a shovel and an axe mounted on the driver’s side of the body. It rarely moves but it’s drivable from a seat hidden behind the grille. At 21ft tall it's four times bigger than an actual Willys and it's certified by Guinness as the largest Jeep replica in the world.The Rainbow Sheikh has a soft spot for odd, obscure and underappreciated vehicles and he frequently makes his wildest dreams a reality. This is evident before you walk in: there is a Mercedes-Benz W116 turned into a monster truck parked in front of the museum. It was developed and built to be used but it hasn’t turned a wheel in quite some time.It's Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan’s fascination with the colors of the rainbow earned him the nickname Rainbow Sheikh. Many of the cars in his collection consequently wear rainbow accents, including this R107-generation Mercedes-Benz SL. Every part that’s chromed on a standard SL has been gold-plated on this example and the flag ports indicate it was driven in parades and special events.Hamburg-based tuner Styling Garage converted this 1983 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC into a tuner’s dream come true during the 1980s. The work carried out included widening the wheel arches, adding custom bumpers on both ends and installing a pair of gullwing doors.
