A Suffolk man is flying the flag for the Queen’s platinum jubilee - by decking out his 1960s Austin Healey 3000 in the national emblem.
Woodbridge car enthusiast Stuart Shand has decorated the vintage motor in the red, white and blue of the Union flag in preparation for a trip to the Costa Del Sol in Spain for his grandmother Joan Shand’s 93rd birthday, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.
Surprisingly, the intricate design only took Mr Shand 36 hours to complete, using vinyl wrapping which he described as "essentially like putting an Airfix sticker on it".
He sought advice from a friend who does ‘car wrapping’ professionally, as well as obtaining information from videos on the social media site YouTube.
He will be setting off for the one month holiday this Monday and getting the Eurostar from Folkestone to France before driving down through the Alps and Pyrenees.
“Unfortunately, my grandmother’s birthday meant that I was going to be out of the UK for the jubilee weekend so I decided to cover the car in the Union flag, just to have a little bit of a laugh on the way down.
“The Austin Healey is a British icon in itself in terms of a classic car and what better nod to the Queen for her 70 years on the throne than to put the number ‘70’ on the side of the car,” Mr Shand said.
The chief commercial officer at Artificial Intelligence firm IBEX used marking tape to create the outline of the flag around the car before adding in the colours.
His uncle Geoffrey Shand will be joining him for the 5,000km journey, which will have a British theme throughout, including a stop off at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Bordeaux.
“The car always draws some attention everywhere that it goes and to have it covered in the flag, I hope that it will make people smile and laugh if they are on road trips and there are always other British people abroad.
“I hope the French and Spanish also enjoy not only seeing the car, but also the celebrations of the Queen’s jubilee,” he added.
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