Travel, great driving routes in UK and Europe

[Richard65]

This is a long shot but I wondered if anyone can recommend a book of great drives or routes in UK or Europe I can give as a present to a friend who loves driving? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[00slk]

The internet would be the best place, if you type in great driving road books, it should get you started if you have no replies here.

 

[sausage]

Apologies, this is a resource, not a book you can give as a present, but your friend will likely find it very helpful.

http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/993/skyetour/skye2012.htm

This is an excellent write up by a friend of a tour we went on. It includes downloadable route files for Garmin/TomTom with waypoints so that your sat nav doesn't try and take you off the amazing routes that the writer spent months researching and planning. I think the NC500 was just about to be released, but we were before that and also I think to be honest this route is better in some ways than the NC500. I might be doing this trip again in the next few weeks if my SL350 (2009) purchase goes well.

From his main page there are similar write ups, route files for other locations as well with some truly excellent routes picking out Europe's best roads. This is truly a good resource for roadtrippers.

 

[Wighty]

Stelvio pass and the Grossglockner (spelling) in Italy and Austria , plenty of others in between .

 

[Rob7seven]

Stelvio pass and the Grossglockner (spelling) in Italy and Austria , plenty of others in between .
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I agree on the Grossglockner, but less enthusiastic about the Stelvio, in fact quite a lot less. We've done both twice, and while the scenery on the Stelvio is great, as a driving road it's terrible. Top Gear, the real one with Jezza & co, voted the Stelvio a great driving road, maybe the best, but I wonder if they ever really went there, or were confusing it with something like the Futa. They claimed to have driven it in I think, a Lamborghini and two similar conveyances, but I honestly can't believe any of their cars would have managed the journey, lack of ground clearance would have killed their cars. The road is narrow, on the southern side it's well potholed and generally badly maintained, sheer unbarriered drops, and the hairpins! So tight that reversing and two bites are needed on some, and there's an narrow unlit tunnel on the southern side that you have to pray on entering that you don't meet anything coming the other way. It was a few years ago, but our first Stelvio trip was in a Saab turbo in absolutely torrential rain, the road was like a river, and massive wheelspin from the inside wheel on each hairpin, the tight side of the hairpins must be almost a 45 degree slope. Cars have improved since then of course, especially with turbo lag and traction control, and three years later in an Alfa 159, we had an easier journey, a vastly better chassis, but this time it was snowing heavily in early September, about two inches on the ground at the top, interesting. The northern side which we think of as Austrian, is much more driveable, more open hairpins and a far better surface. The Grossglockner road is no problem at all, though the tolls aren't cheap. Pre WW2 it was used as a hillclimb course, much of the top end was just gravel surfaced, imagine that in a Mercedes W125 or a 6 litre Auto Union. There's a small motor sport museum at the top, though disappointingly, almost all about motorcycles, with swastikas Photoshopped out on all the photos of course.

We had glorious weather on both Grossglockner trips, and maybe the Stelvio would have impressed more if it had been dry and the sun had appeared. The reason for our Stelvio trips wasn't really the journey though, but to visit one of our all time favourite hotels on the northern side, the Bella Vista in Trafoi, owned and run for many years by multiple Olympic ski gold medallist Gustaf Thöni. My photo depicts Frau Rob7 posing with Frau Thöni. Their daughter and son in law learned English at language schools in Bournemouth, in the most scenic part of the Alps, they only wanted to talk to us about Dorset.

 

[Craiglxviii]

The Stelvio in good weather is glorious with utterly spectacular views, but utterly terrifying. As you say, it’s the unbarriered thousand-foot-plus drops and mental adverse camber that affect one’s sensibilities! Last time we did it was as a family, all seatbelts off and instruction to bail out if the traction failed!

 

[Wighty]

I agree on the Grossglockner, but less enthusiastic about the Stelvio, in fact quite a lot less. We've done both twice, and while the scenery on the Stelvio is great, as a driving road it's terrible. Top Gear, the real one with Jezza & co, voted the Stelvio a great driving road, maybe the best, but I wonder if they ever really went there, or were confusing it with something like the Futa. They claimed to have driven it in I think, a Lamborghini and two similar conveyances, but I honestly can't believe any of their cars would have managed the journey, lack of ground clearance would have killed their cars. The road is narrow, on the southern side it's well potholed and generally badly maintained, sheer unbarriered drops, and the hairpins! So tight that reversing and two bites are needed on some, and there's an narrow unlit tunnel on the southern side that you have to pray on entering that you don't meet anything coming the other way. It was a few years ago, but our first Stelvio trip was in a Saab turbo in absolutely torrential rain, the road was like a river, and massive wheelspin from the inside wheel on each hairpin, the tight side of the hairpins must be almost a 45 degree slope. Cars have improved since then of course, especially with turbo lag and traction control, and three years later in an Alfa 159, we had an easier journey, a vastly better chassis, but this time it was snowing heavily in early September, about two inches on the ground at the top, interesting. The northern side which we think of as Austrian, is much more driveable, more open hairpins and a far better surface. The Grossglockner road is no problem at all, though the tolls aren't cheap. Pre WW2 it was used as a hillclimb course, much of the top end was just gravel surfaced, imagine that in a Mercedes W125 or a 6 litre Auto Union. There's a small motor sport museum at the top, though disappointingly, almost all about motorcycles, with swastikas Photoshopped out on all the photos of course.

We had glorious weather on both Grossglockner trips, and maybe the Stelvio would have impressed more if it had been dry and the sun had appeared. The reason for our Stelvio trips wasn't really the journey though, but to visit one of our all time favourite hotels on the northern side, the Bella Vista in Trafoi, owned and run for many years by multiple Olympic ski gold medallist Gustaf Thöni. My photo depicts Frau Rob7 posing with Frau Thöni. Their daughter and son in law learned English at language schools in Bournemouth, in the most scenic part of the Alps, they only wanted to talk to us about Dorset.

View attachment 69372

I hear you buddy , I did the grossglockner twice in the same day , to max up the entrance fee . It was a gorgeous drive and pretty relaxing , the Stelvio was an edge of your seat driving challenge which was the most exciting thing I’ve done behind a wheel .

 

[Rob7seven]

I hear you buddy , I did the grossglockner twice in the same day , to max up the entrance fee . It was a gorgeous drive and pretty relaxing , the Stelvio was an edge of your seat driving challenge which was the most exciting thing I’ve done behind a wheel .

The Grossglockner is on average, only open for about half the year, the time can vary between 130 and 250 days, all depending on the weather of course. I loved this tough-looking little contrivance, it's one of a number that clear snow whenever needed.



The view from just below the restaurant area at the summit, showing a few of the sometimes maniac bikers, these three don't seem to have got into their stride yet, or maybe they're three of the more sensible ones. The gravel bit at the bottom of the photo is just a footpath, but it's what the whole of the upper road part was like before it was properly surfaced, I think the job was only completed some time in the late 1950s



Like I said, pre WW2, brave men used to race really powerful cars on this road, the gravel surface didn't deter them. This is Hans Hermann some time in 1939, on his way to winning that year's Deutsche Bergmeisterschaft, the German hillclimb championship, in sub-zero temperatures. His car is a Mercedes W125, 8 inline cylinders, 5.6 litres, and almost 600 hp in full race trim, but considerably detuned for events of this kind.



This photo is copied from Chris Nixon's book Racing the Silver Arrows, long out of print but a fascinating read, full of great photos like this one.

 

[sausage]

You'll see a lot of those roads on our tour video - it's actually quite a good one and did get picked up by some of the motor press.