A 3,000-Mile Road Trip; Surfing Moms of Byron Bay; Private-Jet-Setters

[A special delivery from the Vanity Fair Archive]( [View in your browser]( | [Update your preferences](newsletter=vf) [Vanity Fair's Cocktail Hour]( A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks May 31, 2021 [The Coast of Utopia]( [From the looks of Instagram, Courtney Adamo and the surfing mamas of Byron Bay are living the dream. Can it be real?]( [R E A D M O R E »]( [Road Trip!]( [Fueled by testosterone, alcohol, and God knows what else, the 200-odd drivers in the sixth annual Gumball 3000 raced their Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, and other assorted vehicles out of Paris on May 5, 2004, headed for Cannes via Madrid, Marbella, and Casablanca. The object: to drive as fast—and party as hard—as humanly possible. In the ensuing 3,000-mile melee of arrests, mangled cars, and shattered bones, George Gurley experiences the insane camaraderie of the Gumball, with playboys, jet-setters, and eccentrics of every stripe sharing a week of living dangerously.]( [R E A D M O R E »]( [The Ways of the Jet Cult]( [How the private jet became the singular fetish and status marker of the modern superrich.]( [R E A D M O R E »]( [The Riddle of Everest]( [Last May, 75 years after the disappearance of famed British climber George Mallory and his protégé, Sandy Irvine, five young Americans scaled the long-forbidden, corpse-strewn North Face of Mount Everest in search of answers to an enduring mystery: Was Mallory the first man to reach the summit? In the wake of the team’s amazing discovery, Bryan Burrough tells their story: the clues they followed, the breathtaking realization of what they’d found, and the new evidence of how an impetuous explorer may have met his icy death.]( [R E A D M O R E »]( [Dubai’s the Limit]( [In the Persian Gulf, on a not particularly oil-rich piece of desert about the size of Rhode Island, sits the Capitalist Dream on Steroids: Dubai. Expanding faster, taller, bigger than any other country on the planet, spawning schemes of impossible luxury such as Falconcity of Wonders, Sunny Mountain Ski Dome, and a man-made archipelago called the World, the emirate has become a juggernaut of tourism, finance, and Information Age business, where everything—crime, religion, terrorism—takes a backseat to profit. Encountering sheikhs, sex workers, and super-salesmen, Nick Tosches wraps his mind around Dubai’s instant future.]( [R E A D M O R E »]( Get on the list Subscribe to our Hollywood newsletter for your essential industry and awards-season news, every day. [Sign Up Now]( [(image) Condé Nast Spotlight | The breaking news and top stories everyone is talking about. All in one place. The most popular stories from Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, Architectural Digest and more. STAY INFORMED]( [Vanity Fair Logo](www.vanityfair.com) [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe](newsletter=vf) Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.