THE ROAD TO NOWHERE

The best worst-kept secret of Dubai? Jebel Jais, of course...

- Raunak Ajinkya

I was skeptical. Having been on the road for what felt like ages now, the landscape refused to relent to what was promised to me. The Maserati Quattroporte GTS loaner I was in, too, almost seemed to be voicing its displeasure at having to stick to Dubai’s infuriating speed limits. I’d been promised a divine road to drive on, and I’d been prepared.

The fuel tank readout on the instrument cluster was nudging past, rather satisfyingly, ‘F’, I had a bag of raspberry and mint water bottles (should really read what I’m buying more carefully...), and I was plenty early to avoid any traffic on the road. That’s about as much preparation that I could have done, really, and with each passing kilometre, this impending sense of doom kept growing within me. Don’t let this be another hoax, another failed exploration attempt at finding a road that’s worthy of the machine I’m in, I thought out loud to no one in particular.

That’s the thing, isn’t it? As someone who’s constantly in touching distance of cars that make me go weak in the knees, it pains me to realise that it just doesn’t matter at all unless I can find a piece of tarmac worthy of its inherent talent. Racetracks are an option, of course, but the feasibility of constantly rushing to even the one that’s closest to home (and it’s quite far away, mind), is ridiculous. So when it was mentioned that I could make this match while I was in Dubai, there was very little stopping me from picking up a loaner and driving right down.