A pale green coupe from the seventies climbs an empty mountain road before sunrise, tail lamps red, ridges fading into blue haze

Hessa Al Tunaiji

Up before the sun, home before the heat.

(a.) built

(b.) driven

A coupe from 1974, bought new by my uncle and kept under a tarp for twenty years. Four summers of evenings in a rented garage brought it back, lower and lighter, on fifteen-inch steel wheels and its first paint. It is driven, never trailered, and it has not missed a Friday since.

The coupe small on a bend of the mountain road before sunrise, headlamps on, ridges fading into haze — 05:48, the hairpins

The coupe parked on gravel at the top of the road, the low sun behind it on the ridge, its shadow long — 06:12, the top

The coupe's front wheel and door beside a mud-brick wall, dappled by sun through date palms — 07:05, Khatt

I keep aircraft flying for a living and one coupe running for the rest of it. Every photograph here is of that car, on the mountain above Ras Al Khaimah.

For prints, features or a slow Friday drive, write to hello@hessaaltunaiji.example. More from the road, most Fridays, on Instagram. I answer within a day.

The build

2.0-litre four, rebuilt, twin carbs
A five-speed gearbox from a later car
Coilovers, 40 mm lower than stock
Four-piston calipers at the front
15-inch black steel wheels, wider tyres
Seats re-covered in the original check