Sharing the Fantasy: Drive Dubai.(Column)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

This is one of the world's all-time great jobs. I tell you this not to gloat but as part of a mantra we share with our teenage sons as they figure out what they will do to pay for their own eggs, underwear and rent. Repeat after me: Spend your life doing something you like, since it's better than the alternative.

Driving interesting cars in exotic lands, meeting interesting people and sampling exotic food rank on the lists of all-time great tasks, and you can read about some of that in the McLaren SLR 722 and Maybach 62S tests from Dubai (page 20).

For the last half-decade, I've been fascinated with this United Arab Emirate and what it aims to accomplish. Tucked on the Persian Gulf, Dubai is not bestowed with oil riches the way other Middle Eastern countries have benefited from the petrochemical jackpot. It strives to be a tourism destination, a place for Europeans to come and enjoy themselves in the winter. It pursues its vision with intensity; 40 million date palms have been planted, and they, along with world-class golf courses and other greenery, are watered from massive desalination plants that supply 89 percent of the country's precious resource. Dubai boasts absolutes. It has the world's largest indoor ski ...