Best Elan Driving Roads in the UK

[trw99]

When you have finished fiddling with your Webers, deciding which tyres to fit and squeezing in your shiny new 5 speed box (no names, no pack drill, Alex!), what are the roads you really enjoy in your Elan?

I would define a good Elan road as being relatively free of traffic, good bends and surface and probably rural. The sort of road that, with the sun shining and the roof down, you grin away to yourself and feel as one with your car. I dare say we shall get a lot of nominations for roads in Scotland and Wales, so I'll start off with some English roads I have enjoyed.

Northamptonshire: B645 St Neots to Chelveston - Early on a Sunday morning this is an excellent drive. Sadly it is a red route and later in the day you have to beware of enforcers!

Essex: B1012/1010 South Woodham Ferrers to Burnham on Crouch - I do this road every weekend going to race my boat. Free of traffic it is a hoot, with the infamous 13 Burnham Bends to finish with

Sussex: B2146/2142 Petersfield to Mid Lavant - If you come off the A3 and take this route to Goodwood you will enjoy some wonderful hillclimbing, sweeping curves and one or two tricky bends

What roads do you enjoy in your Elan?

Tim

[gordont]

Any Scottish roads! from memory the west highlands are great driving country, or the east coast up towards Aberdeen - and Arbroath is a lovely spot for a picnic. Sorry I can't remember the A number.....

[pereirac]

Anybody up to try the B645 on a Sunday morning? I live neat St. Neots

Carl

[alexblack13]

Hi All, Tim...

One of my favourites in this country is the road from Perth up to Aberdeen Via A93 past the Glenshee ski slopes and visiting Braemar and Balmoral etc, and the run along royal deeside is nice all the way to Aberdeen (Keep out of!) If you fancy more of the same turn left and head up over the lecht on the A 939... (sking again!) and visit a few of the distilleries here n there. Just keep heading North!

If you are on the west coast heading North make sure you try the Cal'-Mac' ferry links to the various islands etc Go to Oban and Fortwilliam and make sure to drive up along loch ness. Brilliant roads and good stopping points.. Caledonian canal for EG. The locks en route are a great stop and the loch ness south road is a challenge..

The west coast roads are a definite. Just stay off the A9... Not brilliant due to the traffic and can be V dangerous..

Bit like a busmans hol's for me though as I am (or used to be) never off the roads doing 45 - 50 K mls / year. But..Enjoying my driving so much meant I developed a bad case of Alpine-itis. I've had my Bikes in nearly every European country. Did the best part of 800 mls once on my Pan European Honda in 1 day heading back to Zeebrugge for the ferry.. !

fantastic.. Almost talked myself into it!

AB.

[Bruce Crowthorne]

For a nice "loop" down south try A339 Basingstoke to Alton, then pick up the A32 from Alton to the "Meon Hut" (and try a coffee at Loomies at the junction) then the A272 to Winchester.
Bruce

[jono]

Well the best roads in England are up north of course

I am lucky enough to have this test track right on my doorstep (not me in the Mini BTW)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKPQoA8n ... re=related

In fact the whole of the A686 between Penrith and Hexham is a real Gem.

...forget the Cat and Fiddle, Snake Pass etc. this one has it all

[martinbrowning]

Have to say that the best roads are in Ulster - particularly the coast road up through the Glens of Antrim. Great views,little traffic and the sea just yards from the road edge.

Martin B

[alaric]

Nice one Jono. I drove that road in my old XR2 many years ago. Fantastic. Must be great in the elan.

Sean.

[alexblack13]

Great thread Tim. Isn't it good to see everyone promoting their areas and roads almost like a big invite?

I also have to agree with Martin about N Ireland... The run up the A2 and around the north Antrim coast is very special. Again this was one of my Favorites on the Bike..

Great choice.....

Think the Scottish roads have the edge though....

Some of the Scottish CL North east group are thinking of a trip over and I might just join them.

Alex...

[Jason1]

Essex: B1012/1010 South Woodham Ferrers to Burnham on Crouch - I do this road every weekend going to race my boat. Free of traffic it is a hoot, with the infamous 13 Burnham Bends to finish with

If you are looking for an Essex road; I used to live on the B1024 it sees a lot of classics and bikers as it is very rural and bendy. Start at Kelvedon Train station and head to Coggeshall, through Coggeshall over the A120 and up to Earls Colne. Then pick your way through Pebmarsh Rd up to Sudbury. Any of the back roads going north from Earls Colne to Sudbury are challenging so beware of the wildlife; I almost hade a stag through my windscreen once.

[Spyder fan]

From Tunbridge Wells (my home) to Pevensey Bay (my other home).

Take the A267 from Tunbridge Wells towards Frant, relatively quiet in the mornings as most people are headed in the opposite direction, carry on towards Mayfield it's a fast wide A road with little traffic and the good chance to overtake if there is any. Once at Mayfield there's a fast right then left hand bend on a road improvement that seems to last forever with plenty of room to slot a Lotus past lesser traffic (and scare the hell out of them ) while not endangering oncoming traffic. This ends with a nice roundabout that allows full use of the road width and opportunity to find the apex without losing much speed towards the next village of Five Ashes where you draw a breath to go 30mph to please the locals and also to admire the range of Porsches at Paragon Garage whilst remaining smug that you are driving the automotive equivalent of a Supermarne Spitfire (don't mention the war Thomas!). once past Five ashes you head towards the village of Heathfield but still following the A267 you turn off towards the village of Horam via the quaintly named Hamlet of Little London, unfortunately the road has been downgraded to 40mph at this point ( it used to be 60), but there is still the opportunity of pretending that your speedo is broken if there is no traffic, there are some lovely S bends that can be taken at good speed without frightening the horses or attracting the attention of the local constabulary. All too quickly the village of Horam aproaches and you are back to 30mph to negotiate the locals parking all over the place before heading on along a 60 mph stretch towards Hellingly (former local sanitarium) and the junction with the A22 at the Boship Hotel roundabout heading towards Eastbourne and the South Downs. Normally you will have had a great drive to this point, but just occasionally you will have been baulked by farm traffic, slow coaches in old rover 200's or the odd overloaded lorry that it's impossible to blast past safely, but from here the road becomes dual carriageway and you have the chance to blast past all these frustrations before coming upon 2 great roundabouts in 4 miles of fast road and the opportunity to make every sales rep or sales manager in their carlos fandango repmobile look a total idiot when they see the Lotus badge on an old car and think they can boost their testosterone level by showing you that their Vauxhall people carrier is actually quite fast. At the end of this stretch you have the opportunity of going straight on and visiting Eastbourne and driving up to Beachy Head to pose for photos, turning West to go towards Brighton and Goodwood, or doing as I do and heading East for Pevensey Bay where the Normans landed in 1066. The Normans headed a bit further East after landing and engaged in battle at Battle near Hastings where health and safety was clearly not taken seriously, apparently there were exclamations that you could take someones eye out if you were not careful when releasing all those arrows, the rest is history of course.

Total Journey time from TW to PB, 35 - 45 minutes depending on mood and traffic!

[elancoupe]

Perhaps many of you have already seen this.... In the March issue of MotorSport, Gordon Murray was asked "It's your last drive. One car, one road. What and Where?" His reply "Lotus Elan, Scottish Highlands."

[alexblack13]

There you go! The man's got taste don't you know..

Right that' s it I'm off... Now.. Where did I put that Gearbox?

Have fun Guys.. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Al' ....

[ardee_selby]

And.....for when the highland roads are jammed with sassenachs!

http://www.focusbiz.co.uk/elanvalley/index2.htm

http://www.elanvalley.org.uk/visiting-elan/

This is where I hope to end up!

(But from the archives (elan-archive-f16/the-elan-valley-t7269.html) I see that Jim (summerinmaine) is a Welshman....so no doubt I'll be meeting up with his old starters! Diolch y'n fawr, Jim )

Cheers - rd

[elansprint71]

Well the best roads in England are up north of course

I am lucky enough to have this test track right on my doorstep (not me in the Mini BTW)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKPQoA8n ... re=related

In fact the whole of the A686 between Penrith and Hexham is a real Gem.

...forget the Cat and Fiddle, Snake Pass etc. this one has it all

...and going the other way.. the "music" drops out after 3+ minutes. All is good until the super-bike slows things down at 7+ minutes. No idea what car it was but Elan would be quicker!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgBzgXecbAY&NR=1&feature=fvwp