supertouring

In a couple of weeks time I will have the pleasure of driving from London to Manchester without the additional baggage of wife and kids, so I thought, why not enjoy the drive. I therefore want to take in as many great roads as I can between the two locations, avoiding all motorways, city centres and speed cameras. Time and distance unimportant for the journey. Anyone got any ideas?

Lets start by heading out of London in a northerly direction.

Scooby96

try theaa.com - route planner (you can choose to avoid motorways) not sure you can avoid the scameras though

supertouring

I was looking for more personal recommendations, well know great driving roads etc. Route planners just do A to B, shortest or quickest. I want A to B, most fun!

Jza

Not sure of the exact roads - but get off the M1 near sheffield and make your way to Glossop (A67) - nice roads - then hook up to Manc

Jza

Leslie

Its a real nuisance being slowed down by the wife isn't it. Such a relief to drive by yourself so you can fill your boots with Scooby performance. I know just how you feel.

Les

uksti

<suit on>

just drive to the border crossing near Oxford and make sure you tell your insurance company you're driving abroad...

<running.......>

pblakeway

il second the glossop way, fantastic roads

Scooby96

uksti - dont get it???

Krade

dont forget to take into account optimax stations

list of optimax on your route

Tony_W

M1 to Donnington turn off.

Take A500 for a couple of miles.
Turn off onto A roads heading North.
Follow these up the back bone of the country to Manchester.

Had to do it once 'cause both M6 and M1 were blocked higher up.
Good fun even at night in the rain, not knowing where I was really going!

wannabeScooby

Snake pass from Sheffield to Manchester, great road if you dont get stuck behind a lorry!
Some decent roads from Leicester to Sheffield aswell but dont know the numbers. Let us know how it goes!

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

uksti means that the north starts at oxon (border patrols)
LMAO
Hence the insurance bit.But he forgot about the passport and jabs and malaria tablets and foreign maps and boiled sweets and portable electricty and food and...

<i'm running now as well>

supertouring

I live the manchester end, and work (occaisonally) in the London end so am more interested in finding roads in the southern end of the country. Snake pass etc I know well, and was only there last night - but it was a little busy.

Arn't there some great Roman roads running up the country somewhere, straight and fast? Where are these? (Don't say M1!)

Edcase

From London head up the M11.

Come off at Junction 8, towards Bishops Stortford, a120 then a10 towards Buntingford. At this point you pick up the fantastic A507, which twists and winds its way across to Junction 13 on the M1.

Stay on the M1 northbound until Junction 31 (boring, I know) and then take the a 57 into and through Sheffield. At this point you will be at the start of the infamous snake pass, which cuts its way through the heart of the Peak District. This is one of the best roads in the UK, and is known for taking the lives of motorbike rider's week in week out. Keep your wits about you. It is also extremely beautiful, although you won't care about that when you get there

This, presuming you don't just turn around and do it again like I did the first time, brings you out in glossup, then onto the M67 into Manchester, where I can assure you be counting the seconds until it's time to leave. The corners flow much better heading back towards Sheffield, but be very wary as there are some extremely fast downhill corners on the way back.

Shark

For a good balance of speed (of journey not flat out speed if you know what I mean) and fun driving we go -

M1 to Chesterfield, J29
A617 to Chesterfield - very fast DC and never seen a cop
A619 to Baslow, beautiful country.
A623 to Chapel-en-le-Firth.
A6 to Stockport and Manchester.

The fun roads are between Chesterfield and Chapel-en-le-Firth. Gets us there in just under 3 hours normaly, and I enjoy the fun bit.

Still, next time it's in her new Rav4 D4D, bring on the chip

David

PS - Avoid M6 J4 to J11, we used to go that way

Shark

Sorry for being a prat and not reading your first post fully, I will leave mine there for info and make a note to self to not just read the title !

David

mj

shark - saw the most hideous accident ever on this rd..

me& a mate in a van coming up the slip rd off the MI, 5 series BMW , come howling round from behind - screams down said rd...

About a mile or two down the road ( long sweeping left hand bend ) we see mr BMW driver getting out of his car and stagger across the other carriageway, where his car and the remains of a mini metro now sit.

This guy in his big german tank looked nothing more than shaken,shocked etc, the person in what was left of the metro could not be seen anymore - we didn't stop and we were trying not to rubberneck - but when you see something like that its hard not to.

anyway, on a brighter note the route as suggested abouve is good but its caravan and 40T wagons city, the only good sight is the twisted spire in chestefield, you can see it from the first ISLAND - come off a junction before at 28 and follow this - some mega views and roads... I have enjoyed many a hairy moment...



[Edited by mj - 8/14/2003 10:05:02 PM]

mj

Alternatevley, if speed is your thing, M1 J24a, A50 to -, M6 to junction 17, through Holmes chapel to the A34, straight into town.
whereabouts in manchester are you going?

douglasb

No. No. No. No. No.

Not through Holmes Chapel and A34. That takes you through Alderley Edge and the f*****g 4x4 f******g school run mummys and f*****g 4x4 incompetent drivers. Yeah, they really need off-road capabilities to take the kids to school.

Getting through Alderley Edge between 08.15 - 09.15 or 15.30 - 16.30 is a major pain due to f*****g Chelsea Tractors being parked incompetenly and driven equally incompetently. They could collect the kids in a Nissan Micra and still fit them all in and get them home on time.

Stick to the advice about the Peak District routes. After all, the Police wouldn't bother patrolling them with helicopters if the roads weren't fun?

Doug

supertouring

Thanks for all your ideas, I will check out the map. I also found a few "Great Road" threads also, so will add these to the route where possible, but most seem to be either local to me (Cat&Fiddle, Snake Pass) or in Scotland (maybe I should get a job up there!).

I actually live near Macc, so am planning to come over the Peaks to finish off, Alderly would be the last place I would drive through.