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Robb Report MAY 2007, VOLUME XXXI, NUMBER 5
FEATURES Desert Storm Dubai, a land where anything seems possibble, was a fitting stage for Mercedes-Benz to introduce he McLaren SLR 722, a supercar with surreal qualities. BY PAUL DEAN Eye on the Tiger India’s royalty once believed that it was good kuck to kill 108 tigers in a lifetime. Now a visitor to the country would be lucky to see just one of the big cats. However, a safari-camp company that originated in Africa plans to increase those odds. BY SCOTT GOETZ Nomads in No-Man’s-Land Darwin described Chilean Patagonia as “the uttermost part of the earth.“ The region has changed little since Darwin’s day, but it is far more accessible to Nomads of the Sea’s passengers than it was to the crew of the Beaglem which did not have a helicopter on board.
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Leisure At the Madison Club, if you miss an en easy shot on the 16th, you can order a shot or two before teeing off on the 17th. The on-course bar is one of the many surprises ypu will find at this Discovery Land Co. golf community in La Quinta, Calif. BY GREGORY ANDERSON
The Collector At the Madison Club, if you miss an en easy shot on the 16th, you can order a shot or two before teeing off on the 17th. The on-course bar is one of the many surprises ypu will find at this Discovery Land Co. golf community in La Quinta, Calif. BY GREGORY ANDERSON
Style As it nears its centenary, menswear maker Ermenegildo Zegna continues to expand its offerings and change with the times, BY WILLIAM KISSEL
FrontRunners A speedboat that flies like a sports car, pen modeled after a Bently, track time in a stable of supercars
Robb Gallery Autos 67, Boating 70, Watches 72, Sports 74, Antiques 76, Home 78, Art 80, Travel 82, Vacation homes 84.
26 Contributor 28 From the Editors 218 Classifieds 221 Register of Advertisers
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Beasts on the Road and in the Bush Senior correspondent Paul Dean was “Danger is my Middle Name,“ shocked to see just how much Dubai jokes senior correspondent Jack had changed since he last visited the Smith, who writes about his close Midle Eastern emirate 15 years ago. encounters with Hippos, Chimps, “At one point during his previous trip and three climbing lions in Uganda there], I was driving through town in in “blessing in disguise” (page 140). a ‘76 Cadillac convertible. I came to a “Theres nothing sugarcoated about stop at a traffic light and look up to see Uganda,“ he says. “Part of the apwe had pulled up next to a man riding a peal of it is that its really as pristine came. Now “he says with a laugh“, “I’m a palce as there is in Africa“. It is in a Maybach pulling up next to someuntouched. But Uganda is a risk one driving a ferrari F430.“ managers nightmare. In a way, that Dean writes about the new sounds overwrought and exaggerMaybach 62S (“a more especial mayated, but it really isn’t it.” bach,“ page 112) in a slide bar to his The locals, however, apfeature on Mercedes benz’s McLarin peared unfazed by many of the risk, SLR722 (“desert storm, “ page 102). including sharing the same nieghMike Nolan. “I never enjoy fishing, even Like Dubai, the especial edition 722 also borhood as the king of beasts. “It as a child, because I found it boring,” surprise Dean. He thought that it would just amaze me that the people and he says. “After many decades, I discovbe a kinder, gentler Mclarin. “It remains the lions seem to coexist,“ Smith’s er that was still the case.“ It was, until a little rough around the edges for me,“ says. “That was sort of surreal.“ he went on an angling adventure with says Dean of 650 HP, $480,000 super the tour company Nomads of the Seas, car. “I had high hopes for the Mclarin SOUTH of Uganda, across lake which employs its 150-ft expedition that it wopuld a little more of a daily victoria, is Tanzania, where contirYacht as a lodge and base of operation driver, a little more civilized.“ It is not, buting editor Jill Newman toured in the most remote parts of Patagonia. and therein lies its appeal. at Tanzanite mine and visited with Nolan describe his trip in “Nomads in If not more civilized, Dubai cerofficial from the mining company No-mans-land” (page 128). “The thing tainly has become more cosmopolitan TanzaniteOne for the feature “singthat made even the fishing interesting in the last 15 years. “This is an intriguing the blues“ (page 166). “There’s was the palces where you were doing ing place with probably more questions still a lot of confusion,“ she says, it,“ he says. than answer,“ Dean says. “But its someregarding the rarity of exceptional Nolan’s weeklong journey along bodys dream, somebodys vission, and it examples of Tanzanite and the relathe Chilean coast took palce in early is definitely somebodys brave attempt to tively low prices affixed to them. February, meaning he spent a certain create an economy and create a culture But she also believes that the value sunday fly fishing instead of football and a society.“ Then the British expat, of Tanzanite will increaes dramatiwatching. “We didn’t find out who won who now lives in Arizona, adds, “so long cally in the near future. “People the super bowl until wednesday“ he as theres a Britain-where you freeze for want to express their individuality, says. “For three days, I think I was one 8 months of the year-there will always so I think people continue to look human bieng aside from the people on be a Dubai.“ something that;s not common.“ aboard the ship. So you do get the feeling in a remote are, because you are“.
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