Any nice W London drives / b-roads?

[Ayrton4ever]

it's beyond belief how stessful it is to drive a fast car in central london these days and how frustrating it is you cannot put your foot down anywhere without fear unless you have a v good idea about where cams are, unmarked police likely etc etc, and I dont mean in built up areas with pedestrians etc but some nice str8 stretches etc - I just feel i am being watched by big bro all the time

Can anyone recommend any nice bits near west london, eg any b-roads with nice stretches or nice bends not much traffic, not heavily build up, no pedestrians, no cams and the like, OK I am asking too much I know...any tips anyway!?

cheers

[ironictwist]

I dont think such a place exists in London. Sounds like the sort of thing you want is a little bit south/north/west of you. Take a trip out of the capital this weekend me thinks.

[quyen]

You could try joining one of the Hoons below:

Dunstable Sunday 23/3/08
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Kent Sunday 30/3/08
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

It's only a short trip from London and it has got to be a blast leaving London at sunrise with mostly empty roads.

[hman]

The harefield/ rickmansworth/ sarrat /grove run

leave london on the a40 towards uxbridge,
come off at the uxbridge junction and turn right onto Swakeleys road,
2nd small r/bout turn left onto Breakspear Road South,
begin blatting,
carry on onto Breakspear road North,
arrive in Harefield,
turn right onto rickmansworth road,
follow onto harefield road,

boring couple of miles now..

turn left onto small d/carriageway to batchworth roundabout,
turn left onto a404 towards amersham, straight over next r/bout.
right turn at rickmansworth station roundabout (a412),
then left at next r/bout towards croxley green and watford (a412), beware 30mph camera!,

Gets good again now

then 1st exit at next r/bout onto The green,
follow this into little green lane,
left onto rousebarn lane,
follow this onto redhall lane,
turn right onto sarratt road,
follow to deadmans ash lane,
turn right onto bottom lane,
turn left onto toms hill,
then first right onto old house lane,
turn right onto langleybury lane,
turn left onto grove mill lane.

Turn left onto hempstead road to go home on m25 at next r/bout or turn left to go towards watford if you have to take the mrs shopping after your blatting to make up for your outrageous driving.

NOTE: dont do the part which starts with "the green" on a Thursday evening as there is a bike night at The cricketers (sarratt) and you will not be popular for ragging a car around the lanes when the bikes are around - there is also a very much increased cop presence on Thursday night for obvious reasons

Alternatively if you feel like venturing further,

carry onto the A41 to aylesbury,
pick up the ring road come off at the a413 and blattttttttt! all the way to buckingham - great road!

Edited by hman on Friday 7th March 09:23

Edited by hman on Friday 7th March 09:25

[Ayrton4ever]

quyen said:

You could try joining one of the Hoons below:

Dunstable Sunday 23/3/08
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Kent Sunday 30/3/08
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

It's only a short trip from London and it has got to be a blast leaving London at sunrise with mostly empty roads.

cheers guys
quyen, unfortunately(?!) I will be around france over easter but maybe I'll join the 30th one

[DavidCane]

Okay, loving the route instructions as I live in Edgware so Sarrat is a just a short run away but I have a question.

Is there any software which I can plan that route on and then export it to my TomTom as a pre-planned route?

DC

edit: Found it, a program called TYRE listed on the opentom website. It allows you to create routes with Google Earth or Google Maps, then export to TomTom. Guess what I'm doing this weekend

Edited by DavidCane on Thursday 13th March 17:27

[hman]

let me know how you get on, careful though some of those sarrat roads are tight for blatting

[mav 1]

hman said:

The harefield/ rickmansworth/ sarrat /grove run

leave london on the a40 towards uxbridge,
come off at the uxbridge junction and turn right onto Swakeleys road,
2nd small r/bout turn left onto Breakspear Road South,
begin blatting,
carry on onto Breakspear road North,
arrive in Harefield,
turn right onto rickmansworth road,
follow onto harefield road,

boring couple of miles now..

turn left onto small d/carriageway to batchworth roundabout,
turn left onto a404 towards amersham, straight over next r/bout.
right turn at rickmansworth station roundabout (a412),
then left at next r/bout towards croxley green and watford (a412), beware 30mph camera!,

Gets good again now

then 1st exit at next r/bout onto The green,
follow this into little green lane,
left onto rousebarn lane,
follow this onto redhall lane,
turn right onto sarratt road,
follow to deadmans ash lane,
turn right onto bottom lane,
turn left onto toms hill,
then first right onto old house lane,
turn right onto langleybury lane,
turn left onto grove mill lane.

Turn left onto hempstead road to go home on m25 at next r/bout or turn left to go towards watford if you have to take the mrs shopping after your blatting to make up for your outrageous driving.

NOTE: dont do the part which starts with "the green" on a Thursday evening as there is a bike night at The cricketers (sarratt) and you will not be popular for ragging a car around the lanes when the bikes are around - there is also a very much increased cop presence on Thursday night for obvious reasons

Alternatively if you feel like venturing further,

carry onto the A41 to aylesbury,
pick up the ring road come off at the a413 and blattttttttt! all the way to buckingham - great road!

Edited by hman on Friday 7th March 09:23

Edited by hman on Friday 7th March 09:25

I just did this route - some great roads (for London), and not too much traffic about on a Saturday afternoon. The Little Green Lane part is interesting - more of a track with potholes - but the TVR survived even with its poor ground clearance and it's not a very long bit of road.

Thanks hman.

Any other suggestion for North/West London would be great.

Mav.

Edited by mav 1 on Saturday 12th April 18:28

[DavidCane]

Check out the hertfordshire roads thread. There are some really good suggestions in there a few mins drive from South Mimms, around the Hitchin area.

[Vauxcrayzee]

Move North. You really are pissing in the wind!



This is 30 minutes from several major cities like Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds.

[Chris71]

Vauxcrayzee said:

Move North. You really are pissing in the wind!

Or south or west. Just anywhere other than further east into London...

As soon as you approach the perimeter of the M25 and better still leave it all together the roads improve! I haevn't tried it out yet (the car is still kept elswhere...) but one just north of London is the B158 from Potters Bar to Hertford. The mid section of that is supposed to be very good and it's 5 minutes from the M25.

Certainly where I used to live in Essex you can get some truly great roads, just 45 minutes train ride from Liverpool Street.

[DavidCane]

Chris71 said:

Vauxcrayzee said:

but one just north of London is the B158 from Potters Bar to Hertford. The mid section of that is supposed to be very good and it's 5 minutes from the M25.

I did this again on Saturday, but it's covered in mud at the moment. I don't know if there have been roadworks of if there's a quarry nearby, but if there's any rain this road will be lethal for blatting. Hopefully it'll get cleaned soon somehow.

[Fondue]

Vauxcrayzee said:

Move North. You really are pissing in the wind!



This is 30 minutes from several major cities like Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds.

That looks like the hill up from Castleton - great roads near there! I used to love the long stretch from Sparrowpit to Castleton past the old quarry.

[cwoodsie2]

The area bounded by the M25, M4, M40 and A404 has some cracking roads in it. Some cameras dotted about but some great country roads around Cliveden down to Slough, around Marlow and the back lanes from Wycombe down to Maidenhead and the M4

[Mustang Baz]

A283 and A286 down through Surrey into W Sussex. 30 mins from Richmond/Wimbledon to get off the A3 just past Guildford and then you are on some smashing roads. Early morning best though - rammed by mid morning at the weekend