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Damian Reilly catches up with old timers in the cool cars on the Transemirates Rally - is a driving holiday in the UAE really a way to relax and unwind?

Motoring in the Emirates is famous for several things - speed and aggression mainly - but generally the country is not noted for the outstanding beauty of its quiet lanes and byways.

That's not to say there is not some great driving to be had here - the roads around Dibba, and towards Mussandam, offer some fantastic scenery, as does the road up to Jebel Hafeet. But most of the roads in the Emirates seem to be motorways upon which the meek cower in the slow lanes while the gung-ho plough with great velocity up the fast lanes, tailgating and flashing headlights at anything foolish enough to get in the way.

Jean Pierre, who looks about 60 and has recently sold his business in France, has the tell-tale wild eyes of a man who has spent too long on the roads in the UAE.

For that matter, so do I, having only minutes previously driven from Dubai to Fujairah to meet him over lunch at the Marriot's Al Aqah beach resort hotel. "It is not what I expected" he says, shaking his head and tutting at his elegant wife, who sits opposite him. "Next year I don't think I will come back. People here drive like maniacs, and we have these beautiful cars, but we are just going in a straight line all the time.

A lot of the time there is nothing to see. I think for driving in the Emirates you would be better off in a modern car, something more comfortable."

That morning Jean Pierre had made the 120km journey from Khasab to Fujairah - which is a very scenic drive on a road whose superb camber and undulating sweeping turns make for an exhilirating ride, and which is skirted by jagged mountainous terrain.

At the mention of it, he nods his head appreciatively, and adds that the driving in Mussandam the previous day had been very good, too, but still he does not look convinced by the experience he is having. Perhaps the mental scars of a three hour traffic jam on the Sharjah bypass at rush hour will take longer to heal. Jean Pierre is driving an old, and rather beautiful, MGA, his own.

He says the cost of taking part in the rally, once the price of shipping his car from France is factored in, is approximately $8000 euros per car, for the week.

Each car, and there are approaching 60 of them, is occupied by at least two people, normally a couple. In the morning they drive to somewhere pleasant for lunch, usually a hotel, and then they are free for the rest of the day. Every evening they have a party. I do not ask Jean Pierre if he takes his car keys to the parties, but I will admit I wonder.

This is probably as good a point as any to admit that the touring party of 60 cars very nearly became 59 at the fault of your correspondent.

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