DURING my visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this month for the season-ending Formula One race, I ran into a very special tour guide at the landmark Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
Bader Al Jabri can tell you how big the carpet is at the mosque, when it was made, and how many hours went into weaving together its intricate patterns.
He can also take a souped-up Ford Fiesta and send it barrelling across gravel, sand and dirt at speeds of up to 200km per hour.
Bader, still only 23, has been making headlines in the prestigious World Rally Championship (WRC), where he came in third for Team Abu Dhabi at the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International in Wales last month.
Bader is part of a growing breed of young Emiratis who are embracing motorsports - thanks to government funding from the oil-rich nation that already has locally-sponsored teams in speed events like Formula One Air Racing and F1 Powerboat.
The next step, is to put an Emirati car on the starting grid of an F1 race.
Closer to home, Malaysia has been abuzz over the last few weeks, following news that a Malaysian F1 team - led by AirAsia supremo Tony Fernandes - will be making their F1 bow next season.
The question begs to be asked: can Singapore do what the Emirates and our neighbours have done?
The signs look promising.
The Changi Motorsports Hub, due in 2011, is set to provide a round-the-clock training ground for budding Singapore race car drivers.
There is also plenty of existing talent - Melvin Choo, for instance, is set to compete in the prestigious Super GT in Japan next year.
With a Formula One race here that has already become iconic, it is perhaps time to look at a Singapore F1 team as a possibility - not just a pipe dream.
For sure, there are plenty of stumbling blocks, the biggest of which is the prohibitive cost of running an F1 outfit. Teams fork out hundreds of millions of dollars each year, a price that carmakers like Honda, BMW, and now Toyota, are unwilling to pay.
The Republic's previous motorsport team venture - the A1GP Team Singapore - met its demise two years ago due to infighting and financial woes.
But motorsports offers a unique vehicle for the Republic - few other sports can combine tourism exposure along with sporting prestige.
And with government funding already behind a motorsport revival here, there's no reason why we can't extend that to talent development and partner major corporations to put an F1 or WRC team on the start line.
If Bader can do it, so can a Singaporean.