My Grandparents lived local to Shaftesbury and would take us up and down Zig Zag hill as a treat! Still enjoy the occasional visit even now. Great vid!
Surely it is called Zig Zag hill whilst going up it, and Zag Zig hill going down ? Or is it vice versa ? What is the B road with the longest straight I wonder? The B2068 , Stone street, in Kent has a pretty long one. I guess arguements about kinks might then get in the way ....
Now owned by Mr Madonn... oh wait they divorced, Mr Guy Ritchie the guru of gangster films as Madonna and the locals hated each other with an ardent flame but he stayed behind.
In Yorkshire there is a road so steep that at the bottom there is a sign barring all trailers, caravans and artics. Took my grandson to Beamish from Scarborough and on the way back he fell off the rear seat on which he was asleep.
I live not far from Sutton Bank. I’m not a boy-racer, but it is fun to fly up at a reasonable pace. Usually, I drive towards it from Sutton-Under-Whitestone Cliff on an empty road, excitement building that I might get a clear run up it. Only to meet a lumbering truck doing 15mph just as I get to the bottom. Or someone trying to take the 25% incline switch-back in a high gear and grinding to a complete stop. 😢
There's a road to the West of Sheffield called the Strines road frequented by petrolheads which has about 4 really steep and sharp cornered dips. And a really old pub at the end called... The Strines Inn.
Purchased a 911 a coupe of years back from Gillingham which is just past Shaftesbury and had to take the Zig Zag Hill home back to Verwood, anyway gunned it up the hill in record time, great fun.
17yr old me in [my mother's] MG Metro learned all about under-steer on that hill back in the 80's - surface looks a lot better these days 😅. A loop past Compton Abbas and back down Spread Eagle Hill would really test the (not very good) brakes... good times!
was gonna suggest those two, along with Wrynose pass, in the same area as hard Knott. there's also that steep little clamber up onto the tops heading towards the Tann Hill pub...from the a66 side
Awesome video, don't know if it's in that boom that you are using for the new Great British road Journies series but the A379 Kingsbridge to Dartmouth road would make a cool video as well as it's very B road for an A road. Also thinking the road featured today would be a good hillclimb or rally stage.
Hi Jon,what can I say Er....Twisty some thing like that, this reminds me of the Hair Pin bends on the B5381 from Trefnant to St Asaph just off the A525 (Wrexham to Rhyl Road) in Denbighshire. But not as bad as the road your on in England, Happy travels mate,take care
Great video.... Nice slant so to speak on ""steep "" twisty roads... suggestion,, as in comments above HARD KNOT PASS LAKE DISTRICT, AND ROSEDALE CHIMNEY NORTH YORKSHIRE... Both claim to be the steepest roads in Britain.... but are they ...🤔... its your quest Jon to check em out.
Driven up the Nailsworth W, drove up quite a few twisty ones In Australia, mainly in the Dandenong Ranges, though Authurs seat road at Dromana most readily comes to mind, 8 Hairpin bends and 900 feet of elevation over about 2km distance, quite sure their are a few in Wales but can't think of any particular ones right now
In 2007 my job was driving cars and vans to various Manheim Auction Sites or their holding compounds. One was in Henstridge so I took several vehicles down Zig Zag hill. The Mini One was fun on the hill, the long wheel base Mercedes van was somewhat less amusing. One Monday I was off due to being stranded in Reading due to flooding and my car radiator having come down with a nasty case of splitting in two, a few days earlier, thus extending my weekend away for a mate’s birthday until I could get my car fixed on the Monday and thus get home, which was Southampton at the time. The next day I learned, had my car not decided to explosively install a twin-radiator system and I’d made it to work on Monday, the car I’d be taking down Zig Zag hill that day would have been an Impreza XRX, which one of the other drivers took great delight in telling me just how much fun it was to drive! 😫
The steepest hill that i know of is in Naphill, High Wycombe and the gradient is 14%. High Wycombe has many 10 to 14% gradients! Make a video on High Wycombe please!
I was about to get all huffy and upbraid you sir for not mentioning the second best thing about Zig Zag Hill. This being of course the prize of the breath taking views from the top of the ridge. Just about saved it with the outro.
@@robinwells8879 Ah ya poor unenlightened fella. Easy mistake to make! Until you've struggled up this ancient assault course in the shadows of its trees, possibly in grotty weather and then been met by the (literally) sunlit uplands of the sky high ridge and the view to the very four corners of the earth, you've missed out.
I'm glad the English have got imagination. The road up Box Hill in Surrey is also called Zig Zag Hill... (Edit: It's Zig Zag Road, apologies. Used to live nearby as well. Doh)
Came to the comments to say there's a road up Box Hill called the "Zig Zag". Note, there's no "Hill" in the name, it's "The Zig Zag". And the turns are steeper as is the drop off the side of the road.
Why would HGVs be needing to use a B road? Any deliveries to premises can be done by LGV's. B roads should never be used as a through route. Clue in the road numbering B not A.
@@tonys1636 how do you suggest 26 ton of bulk grain gets to and from farms, or 14 ton of compost gets to a village garden centre? You will also find B road classification will still contain a primary route, between 2 towns etc. an unclassified route is what you’ll find isn’t a through route, and 60% of UK roads fall in this category, meaning they’ll still be used by HGVs all the time. Please don’t tell us where we should and shouldn’t be going, we didn’t order this stuff we’re delivering.
@@tonys1636 It is a strange piece of road. Not far from the bottom of the hill is a "C" class road which Dorset Council prefers HGVs to use when travelling south from Shaftesbury to Blandford. They do this because the A350 running parallel around half a mile west causes many issues if two HGVs try to pass in one village, so they recommend HGVs use the A350 northbound and the C class road southbound. This is fine until the south bound route has issues leading the traffic to be routed via Zig-Zag! Zig-Zag is also a busy route for a wide number of villages in the area for farm and construction deliveries.
Oh brilliant!!!! I drove this road during an advanced driving course I was doing in a Honda Civic Type R EP3. I was so focused on the driving I could not remember where it was. You’ve just helped me out. Cheers from the guy that said hello to you when you were filming your M27 episode of Secrets of the motorway by the graffiti subway!
@@thisismyuniquestory Could be worse, you coulkd drive through Iwerne Minster or Melbury Abbas. I've gotten stuck when two lorries try to pass each other so many timees before they put the flashing caution lights up
@@PianoKwanMan You aren't considered a Dorset 'local' unless you've been stuck on that road, even with the signals. The Compton/Melbury road has better views and feels quicker, even if you get stuck in the valley at the lights.
I thought this was going to be The Zig Zag at Box Hill in Surrey. I drove Zig Zag Hill in my campervan last year while leaving a music festival at nearby Larmer Tree Gardens. It's pretty twisty!
I really wanted to have a go driving up here until I remembered I have a 1.6 litre Skoda Superb with about as much acceleration as uncle joe heading to the toilet after a curry 😂
Went though it on route somewhere once without knowing it was a thing. Just thinking WTF as driving though it, ''this bit of road is insane'' So looked back at route next day on streetview to see if was just imaginging it and saw it was an ''imfamous'' thing with a name I'd driven though.
I have great love for this road - but on a motorbike I’ve never quite got this bit right - maybe in the second 30 years of riding I’ll get it together 😂
I was dissappointed not to hear Matt Monro "On Days Like These" during the driving section at the end.. come to think of it, the Saab's no Lamborghini Miura either 🙂
Ah the joys of Zig Zag. The amount of times I drove up and down that stretch feeling like a rally driver. Living in the area it was always one of the joys of going to Win Green for Summer meet ups, kite flying and picnics.
There's the one at Box Hill in Surrey called the Zig Zag Road thats now infamous with cyclists since the 2012 Olympics. Has road humps on which kind of takes some of the fun out of ripping up it :-)
Have a look at Fish Hill, Broadway, John. Near the Broadway Nuclear Monitoring Post, with a lovely straight from the roundabout at the bottom up to the Fish Hill Picnic Area at the top. Fairly sure there's no dogging there...
Jon you need to have a drive up to Hartside, which used to be the site of Hartside cafe before it burned down. Its off the A69 in cumbria and you pass through Alston on the way, features lots of straights and zigzags like this, before getting to Penrith. Another one worth a visit is also the Hard Knott pass in the Lake District which I'm sure is the steepest road in England, (1/30 30% gradient). Lots of history and worth a visit. Albeit a bit of a treck for you I'm sure!
Mate i appreciate you've got a banging channel and a sexy car and that, but what you maybe should have gone for soundtrack wise is a few tunes that are Japanese inspired with some Italian influence with a bit of ninetDEJA VU, I'VE JUST BEEN IN THIS PLACE BEFORE HIGHER ON THE STREET AND I KNOW ITS MY TIME TO GO-OOOOO CALLING YOU AND THE SEARCH IS A MYSTERY, STANDING OB MY FEET, AND ITS SO HARD WHEN I TRY TO BE ME, YEAAAAAAHHHHHH
Didn’t know it existed until I followed the satnav home one winter night, and driving it in a classic BMW, even without a welded diff, certainly keeps you alert… 😂
Great video Jon. I love driving on roads like that - the twistier the better. Others to try if you’re up north…Hartside Pass (A686) east of Penrith towards Alston and Buttertubs Pass just north of Hawes in North Yorkshire 👍🏼😉
Flipping love the B3081 and The Zig Zag is a highlight. If I need to go to Bristol from home on the Isle of Wight, this is the route I use. On Zig Zags, please do give me a shout if you would like to film the unfeasibly steep Zig Zag Hill in Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight (or any of the other roads down here). I run a campsite and can organise discounted ferry tickets for you.
Driven it many times. I call it the rally stage. Great fun with no traffic around….not so fun when following large lorry up it. It really shows up the confident drivers or the ones that know the route and those that aren’t or don’t. I’ve seen poverty spec Ford Ka’s leave way more expensive & powerful cars way behind due to that. Also look up Porlock hill. 1 in 4 grade I believe. Only been up that once or twice. Seemed steep but cars have improved so much you probably wouldn’t notice it as much now. Other little gems. Blandford Dorset, the “old” Dorchester hill - the original A354. Now bypassed. The old road is now used to access housing estates.
LOL at the rusty BMW comment! Touge is pronounced 'Toe-geh' for future reference, sorry for being that pedant. Another road worth looking at is the A272 (if you haven't already) especially with the imminent opening of the new Caffeine and Machine...
Go up and down this every couple of years ... not ideal if your clutch is failing ... just saying! Have also been up and down one in N Yorkshire mentioned in comments! Hill up to Dundry from Bishopsworth, South Bristol is also "interesting" - just up the hill from us.
I saw this video when it came out. Today I went on road trip to Dorset, looked up at the upcoming road on the sat nav and thought what the hell !! As I hit the first hairpin........I remembered the video - lol
There's a road near Garstang in Lancashire with a less tight turn, 5thbut steeper gradient - 53.969481,-2.668377 (Cam Brown), there's a wiggle near a bridge due south of Abbeystead. I drove up it just after passing my test - quite hard to keep going in a car from the 70's!
In Luxembourg there's a wide sweeping road (N15 / N12) from Heiderscheid to the turn off for Esch-sur-Sûre with lovely views and great sounds from the tyres!
Not a great hill for drifting, there's offset camber and weird surface changes. On the uphill the lower hairpin is cambered inward and very very tight with a tall bank and narrow exit giving not much room for stylish drifts, you can powerslide at best but the camber will give you a lot of grip so you'll be mostly straight. The upper/mid hairpin camber spits you out into oncoming traffic without much visibility to set yourself up for a better line. On the downhill it's much the same but in reverse. Road surface is not great for tyre wear, will chunk your 5 year old linglongs. Would be a much better experience at night or with the road closed so you could set up your line in the on-coming lane. It is, however, an excellent road for grip.
The road from Langthwaite (where the original All creatures great and small was filmed) up to Booze is the steepest bendiest road I've ever seen. I lived in Booze for a while and it is something you have to get used to! It is incredibly narrow between houses at the bottom then snakes up as steep as a road can get for about 200 yards. It is something else! I've had to reverse down it. Yes, Booze is a real place! There is no "welcome to Booze" sign though, so please save yourself the trauma if you are a sign hunter... I have had to tell two extremely disappointed couples that it is non existent!
The Mickelham Bends , not the A24 bit, the side road behind Ryka's up to box Hill in Surrey are a bit tight and it's 734ft above sea level. Alas, all fun has been removed with speed humps
Winchelsea - Tanyard Lane into Ferry Hill (A259) has a cracking hair pin turn into an incline, not to mention the rest of the surrounding roads being nice for a drive
And if you like steep gradients with sharp curves, Porlock Hill in North Devon is worth a look. A few snaps of it in the last 90 seconds or so in here: th-cam.com/video/dD_-JmT_2vc/w-d-xo.html
I thought I had seen some twisty roads. Then I went to Sardinia. I was wrong. You literally have to do point turns down to calagonone and there’s no barriers and everyone drives like Italians.
My first experience of zig zag hill was on a dark, foggy, wet night in a corsa ‘c’, how I didn’t wipe it out I don’t know but there is a ‘pinch’ mark in the centre of the drivers seat to this day 😎
My Grandparents lived local to Shaftesbury and would take us up and down Zig Zag hill as a treat! Still enjoy the occasional visit even now. Great vid!
Surely it is called Zig Zag hill whilst going up it, and Zag Zig hill going down ? Or is it vice versa ?
What is the B road with the longest straight I wonder? The B2068 , Stone street, in Kent has a pretty long one. I guess arguements about kinks might then get in the way ....
@@zakelweyou can zig either way, up or down.
Great road on 2 wheels with lunch stop after at Compton Abbas airfield.
I wish I'd known about this when I was in the UK with my motorcycle. Still, 😂 have the Corkscrew Road, Montcute, in South Australia.
Secrets of the B3081. The old Royal Obsever Post at the the junction of the B3081 and Donhead Hollow plus Compton Abbas Airfield.
Now owned by Mr Madonn... oh wait they divorced, Mr Guy Ritchie the guru of gangster films as Madonna and the locals hated each other with an ardent flame but he stayed behind.
In Yorkshire there is a road so steep that at the bottom there is a sign barring all trailers, caravans and artics.
Took my grandson to Beamish from Scarborough and on the way back he fell off the rear seat on which he was asleep.
Sutton Bank on the A170?
If you think that is steep, try the Rosedale Chimney on the North York Moors.
I live not far from Sutton Bank. I’m not a boy-racer, but it is fun to fly up at a reasonable pace. Usually, I drive towards it from Sutton-Under-Whitestone Cliff on an empty road, excitement building that I might get a clear run up it. Only to meet a lumbering truck doing 15mph just as I get to the bottom. Or someone trying to take the 25% incline switch-back in a high gear and grinding to a complete stop. 😢
There's a road to the West of Sheffield called the Strines road frequented by petrolheads which has about 4 really steep and sharp cornered dips. And a really old pub at the end called... The Strines Inn.
@@Tobester1043it could also be birk brow on the A171
Also check out 'The W' in Nailsworth. Similar to Zig Zag, with a high speed down lane called "The ladder".
One of my favourite half mile stretches of asphalt!
Enjoyed this thanks. Some of the roads in Ireland used donkey tracks so mad to drive!
Love to drive this great bit of road with Rose Royce blaring out of the speakers. 'Zig Zag' from the Car wash soundtrack would hit the spot
Love the new subject matter and this has to be the best closing theme music yet.
Goyt Valley from Buxton to Whaley Bridge is a lovely twisty drive too and very scenic
My parents used to have a 2CV at one point… it was definitely fun going up/down zig zag in that as a kid - rural rollercoaster 😂
Seen in a few films that exact shot from above. I always wondered where it was so thank's for this 🙂
Purchased a 911 a coupe of years back from Gillingham which is just past Shaftesbury and had to take the Zig Zag Hill home back to Verwood, anyway gunned it up the hill in record time, great fun.
17yr old me in [my mother's] MG Metro learned all about under-steer on that hill back in the 80's - surface looks a lot better these days 😅. A loop past Compton Abbas and back down Spread Eagle Hill would really test the (not very good) brakes... good times!
I love this. Totally the opposite of a motorway, yet still a significant route.
Scotland's Bealach na Bà says, "Hold my Irn Bru."
This comment says "Translate to English" after it. Upon pressing, absolutely nothing changes... 😮
@@gaijintendo "Pass of the cattle"
That's a bit of a tough comparison. Maybe the Duke's Pass is fairer.
Been there, in fog, blooming scary.
Serpentine Road isn’t as fun to drive but is far twistier than all of these.
Great video. Have you been up Sutton Bank in Yorkshire or how about Hard Knott Pass in the Lake District?
was gonna suggest those two, along with Wrynose pass, in the same area as hard Knott. there's also that steep little clamber up onto the tops heading towards the Tann Hill pub...from the a66 side
Came to suggest the same…. Get yourself up north Jon, plenty of bendy highways and byways here!
Can't wait for the Devil's Staircase on the Tregaron to Abergwesyn road in Wales, or a trip over the Hardknot ad Wrynose passes in Cumbria.
Hardknot is terrifying but brilliant especially if you meet a local driving a transit coming the other way at high speed.
Another vote for Hardknot Pass, but wait till the weather's a bit better. Bala to Lake Vyrnwy (Wales obviously!) is also quite spectacular
Awesome video, don't know if it's in that boom that you are using for the new Great British road Journies series but the A379 Kingsbridge to Dartmouth road would make a cool video as well as it's very B road for an A road. Also thinking the road featured today would be a good hillclimb or rally stage.
Hi Jon,what can I say Er....Twisty some thing like that, this reminds me of the Hair Pin bends on the B5381 from Trefnant to St Asaph just off the A525 (Wrexham to Rhyl Road) in Denbighshire. But not as bad as the road your on in England, Happy travels mate,take care
Agreed "The Zig Zag" would be a better name
Used this road many times prefer going up than down
Great video.... Nice slant so to speak on ""steep "" twisty roads... suggestion,, as in comments above HARD KNOT PASS LAKE DISTRICT, AND ROSEDALE CHIMNEY NORTH YORKSHIRE... Both claim to be the steepest roads in Britain.... but are they ...🤔... its your quest Jon to check em out.
Done both many times, excellent fun.
Love this zig zag. Drive it daily 😂 even better in the car though ;)
The B4077 between Stanway and Ford is a good hill too. And Fish Hill on the A44 by Broadway is a good drive.
There’s another similar road. Just outside Nailsworth called the Ladder or the Nailsworth W. It’s blooming fab to drive, especially going up.
I immediately thought of the 'Nailsworth W' before I played this video! 🙂
@@TOMLINBISH I did as well, they both look very similar. I love driving them
Came here to say this!
Driven up the Nailsworth W, drove up quite a few twisty ones In Australia, mainly in the Dandenong Ranges, though Authurs seat road at Dromana most readily comes to mind, 8 Hairpin bends and 900 feet of elevation over about 2km distance, quite sure their are a few in Wales but can't think of any particular ones right now
In 2007 my job was driving cars and vans to various Manheim Auction Sites or their holding compounds. One was in Henstridge so I took several vehicles down Zig Zag hill. The Mini One was fun on the hill, the long wheel base Mercedes van was somewhat less amusing.
One Monday I was off due to being stranded in Reading due to flooding and my car radiator having come down with a nasty case of splitting in two, a few days earlier, thus extending my weekend away for a mate’s birthday until I could get my car fixed on the Monday and thus get home, which was Southampton at the time.
The next day I learned, had my car not decided to explosively install a twin-radiator system and I’d made it to work on Monday, the car I’d be taking down Zig Zag hill that day would have been an Impreza XRX, which one of the other drivers took great delight in telling me just how much fun it was to drive! 😫
WRX, even.
The steepest hill that i know of is in Naphill, High Wycombe and the gradient is 14%. High Wycombe has many 10 to 14% gradients! Make a video on High Wycombe please!
Checkout the B5417, Cheadle to Cotton section, part of it was a Hillclimb section in the early 1900's, it is near Alton Towers.
Not forgetting the B5053 down to Froghall and then upbank to Kingsley Holt.
Is a regular route for too....many years ago I also lived near to Box Hill with its Zig Zag road too.
Chattanooga, Tennessee, can really say "please hold my beer with our insane W Road going up Signal Mountain"
I was about to get all huffy and upbraid you sir for not mentioning the second best thing about Zig Zag Hill.
This being of course the prize of the breath taking views from the top of the ridge.
Just about saved it with the outro.
He mentioned all the fancy grass and stuff. What more do you want😂
@@robinwells8879
Ah ya poor unenlightened fella.
Easy mistake to make!
Until you've struggled up this ancient assault course in the shadows of its trees, possibly in grotty weather and then been met by the (literally) sunlit uplands of the sky high ridge and the view to the very four corners of the earth, you've missed out.
I'm glad the English have got imagination. The road up Box Hill in Surrey is also called Zig Zag Hill... (Edit: It's Zig Zag Road, apologies. Used to live nearby as well. Doh)
Came to the comments to say there's a road up Box Hill called the "Zig Zag". Note, there's no "Hill" in the name, it's "The Zig Zag". And the turns are steeper as is the drop off the side of the road.
@@axelBr1 Bother yes you're right, Google shows it as Zig Zag Road. :)
You should try Zig Zag Road on Box Hill, Surrey.
On that day, the Saab was put through its paces ! ♥
Bless it... it's put through it's paces every day :D
A close second has to be Pack Horse Hill at Crowdecote, near Buxton.
There’s a random hairpin in the middle of chantry, Ipswich - worth a check out, I’ve drifted there before
You should have tried it before it was resurfaced a few years ago - good fun on a motorcycle lol...
Awesome Video
Been up and down zigzag hill quite a few times in the 1970's when at Shaftesbury Grammer school on a Susuki TS100 motorbike
Great fun in a rigid lorry!😄
And downright silly in a bendy one.
A39 between Barnstaple and Hillsford Bridge is a fun one too
Why would HGVs be needing to use a B road? Any deliveries to premises can be done by LGV's. B roads should never be used as a through route. Clue in the road numbering B not A.
@@tonys1636 how do you suggest 26 ton of bulk grain gets to and from farms, or 14 ton of compost gets to a village garden centre? You will also find B road classification will still contain a primary route, between 2 towns etc. an unclassified route is what you’ll find isn’t a through route, and 60% of UK roads fall in this category, meaning they’ll still be used by HGVs all the time. Please don’t tell us where we should and shouldn’t be going, we didn’t order this stuff we’re delivering.
@@tonys1636 It is a strange piece of road. Not far from the bottom of the hill is a "C" class road which Dorset Council prefers HGVs to use when travelling south from Shaftesbury to Blandford. They do this because the A350 running parallel around half a mile west causes many issues if two HGVs try to pass in one village, so they recommend HGVs use the A350 northbound and the C class road southbound. This is fine until the south bound route has issues leading the traffic to be routed via Zig-Zag! Zig-Zag is also a busy route for a wide number of villages in the area for farm and construction deliveries.
Try kangaroo Valley in nsw ,vehicles have to do a three point turn on some corners,or the brown Mountain also nsw,government bend is tight as hell .
Call that a hill? Try Zig Zag Road in Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
That's a first gear job. It terrified me when I visited the IoW a few years ago. Not a good place for dodgy brakes.
Tight as Fuck?
Scotch corner then,
Oops thats already taken😅
Nae comments please
Am Scottish 🏴
Oh brilliant!!!! I drove this road during an advanced driving course I was doing in a Honda Civic Type R EP3. I was so focused on the driving I could not remember where it was. You’ve just helped me out. Cheers from the guy that said hello to you when you were filming your M27 episode of Secrets of the motorway by the graffiti subway!
You’re my hero I want to walk past Jon when he’s doing an intro or describing something to camera it would be freaking hilarious awesome 😊
Nice!
Retirement brought an almighty relief I may never have to drive that road again.
I've been up and down Zig-Zag Hill more times than I care to remember.
Me too, living in Bournemouth Christchurch, Poole from fifty years back, a lot of travelling North for work.
Not one happy experience
@@thisismyuniquestory Could be worse, you coulkd drive through Iwerne Minster or Melbury Abbas. I've gotten stuck when two lorries try to pass each other so many timees before they put the flashing caution lights up
@@PianoKwanMan You aren't considered a Dorset 'local' unless you've been stuck on that road, even with the signals. The Compton/Melbury road has better views and feels quicker, even if you get stuck in the valley at the lights.
Buxton to Macclesfield is one of the most challenging roads to drive and quite a few tight turns on that as well, worth a visit
The Cat and Fiddle at the top is a great place to stop too, just watch out with the weather as it spends a lot of time closed!
I thought this was going to be The Zig Zag at Box Hill in Surrey. I drove Zig Zag Hill in my campervan last year while leaving a music festival at nearby Larmer Tree Gardens. It's pretty twisty!
I really wanted to have a go driving up here until I remembered I have a 1.6 litre Skoda Superb with about as much acceleration as uncle joe heading to the toilet after a curry 😂
I throw my Clio RS around this on a regular basis. Top fun!
Highways looking at this, stroking their chin like "yes....yeeeees. This seems like a perfect motorway diversion."
There are quite a few minor roads, single track, in Wales like that.
Went though it on route somewhere once without knowing it was a thing. Just thinking WTF as driving though it, ''this bit of road is insane'' So looked back at route next day on streetview to see if was just imaginging it and saw it was an ''imfamous'' thing with a name I'd driven though.
Finally a road in your vids that I've driven that isn't a motorway!
Aw, I drive a BMW Z3 with a leaky roof and a cracked aftermarket front bumper. So close!
I have great love for this road - but on a motorbike I’ve never quite got this bit right - maybe in the second 30 years of riding I’ll get it together 😂
Wwest to east on the Hardknot pass is a corker!
No trains.... Hes gone back in the cupboard
Reading the title, I was expecting a vid about Box Hill
I was dissappointed not to hear Matt Monro "On Days Like These" during the driving section at the end.. come to think of it, the Saab's no Lamborghini Miura either 🙂
My thoughts exactly. Luckily enough for Jon though, there was no tunnel at the end surrounded by the Mafia
I want to drive that road. The tightest road near me is near Theale and there is a hairpin bend near Marlow.
Ah the joys of Zig Zag. The amount of times I drove up and down that stretch feeling like a rally driver. Living in the area it was always one of the joys of going to Win Green for Summer meet ups, kite flying and picnics.
Ziggy AND Zaggy, Ohhh....
That's not a road, it's a doctors signature.
There's the one at Box Hill in Surrey called the Zig Zag Road thats now infamous with cyclists since the 2012 Olympics. Has road humps on which kind of takes some of the fun out of ripping up it :-)
Have a look at Fish Hill, Broadway, John.
Near the Broadway Nuclear Monitoring Post, with a lovely straight from the roundabout at the bottom up to the Fish Hill Picnic Area at the top. Fairly sure there's no dogging there...
if your ever going to have a scottish holiday and do the Nort Coast 500 Would love to see a video on the history of the A9 wich is quite extensive!
Jon you need to have a drive up to Hartside, which used to be the site of Hartside cafe before it burned down. Its off the A69 in cumbria and you pass through Alston on the way, features lots of straights and zigzags like this, before getting to Penrith. Another one worth a visit is also the Hard Knott pass in the Lake District which I'm sure is the steepest road in England, (1/30 30% gradient). Lots of history and worth a visit. Albeit a bit of a treck for you I'm sure!
I have been watching your videos for quite some time and I can't believe you came to my local town just after I moved away 😮
No way you came down this way 😮, such an awesome road, so is the top road
There is another Zig Zag Down in Michelham Dorking off the A24.
Mate i appreciate you've got a banging channel and a sexy car and that, but what you maybe should have gone for soundtrack wise is a few tunes that are Japanese inspired with some Italian influence with a bit of ninetDEJA VU, I'VE JUST BEEN IN THIS PLACE BEFORE HIGHER ON THE STREET AND I KNOW ITS MY TIME TO GO-OOOOO CALLING YOU AND THE SEARCH IS A MYSTERY, STANDING OB MY FEET, AND ITS SO HARD WHEN I TRY TO BE ME, YEAAAAAAHHHHHH
I've ridden my motorbike up that hill 😱
Have another £10 for ya diesel bruv even though ya didnt do cockermouth in your amusing place names 👍✌
Turns out out some thieving little towrag has nicked my id so I coildnt actually that at time of posting 🙏
Didn’t know it existed until I followed the satnav home one winter night, and driving it in a classic BMW, even without a welded diff, certainly keeps you alert… 😂
Great video Jon. I love driving on roads like that - the twistier the better.
Others to try if you’re up north…Hartside Pass (A686) east of Penrith towards Alston and Buttertubs Pass just north of Hawes in North Yorkshire 👍🏼😉
Flipping love the B3081 and The Zig Zag is a highlight. If I need to go to Bristol from home on the Isle of Wight, this is the route I use.
On Zig Zags, please do give me a shout if you would like to film the unfeasibly steep Zig Zag Hill in Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight (or any of the other roads down here). I run a campsite and can organise discounted ferry tickets for you.
Driven it many times. I call it the rally stage.
Great fun with no traffic around….not so fun when following large lorry up it.
It really shows up the confident drivers or the ones that know the route and those that aren’t or don’t. I’ve seen poverty spec Ford Ka’s leave way more expensive & powerful cars way behind due to that.
Also look up Porlock hill. 1 in 4 grade I believe. Only been up that once or twice. Seemed steep but cars have improved so much you probably wouldn’t notice it as much now.
Other little gems.
Blandford Dorset, the “old” Dorchester hill - the original A354. Now bypassed. The old road is now used to access housing estates.
Auto shenanigans in Dorset, if we knew you was coming we would have jingled some cow bells on the bends for you.😂😂😂😐😂😂😂
You can never have enough cow bell...
LOL at the rusty BMW comment! Touge is pronounced 'Toe-geh' for future reference, sorry for being that pedant. Another road worth looking at is the A272 (if you haven't already) especially with the imminent opening of the new Caffeine and Machine...
Sorry Jon, It was I in the white van, who yelled out as you were filming Zig Zag Hill. Proof that your not a robot. Keep up the work
Go up and down this every couple of years ... not ideal if your clutch is failing ... just saying!
Have also been up and down one in N Yorkshire mentioned in comments!
Hill up to Dundry from Bishopsworth, South Bristol is also "interesting" - just up the hill from us.
I saw this video when it came out. Today I went on road trip to Dorset, looked up at the upcoming road on the sat nav and thought what the hell !! As I hit the first hairpin........I remembered the video - lol
There's a great hairpin bend on the A259 near Winchelsea in East Sussex.
With a hump back bridge on the run-up. 😁
Oh yes. Been up that a few times! Just don't get stuck behind a caravanner or a dump truck.
A259 at winchelsea been there I was a passenger on a coach tour
The A4136 between Monmouth and Staunton is pretty good too, especially downhill. Since I last used it, they've probably put a 30mph limit on it.
You need to visit the ‘corkscrew’ beside Foyers at Loch Ness… (and Foyers is ripe for mispronunciation)
I once had to reverse my Beetle to get round two of the hairpins on that one.
There's a road near Garstang in Lancashire with a less tight turn, 5thbut steeper gradient - 53.969481,-2.668377 (Cam Brown), there's a wiggle near a bridge due south of Abbeystead. I drove up it just after passing my test - quite hard to keep going in a car from the 70's!
In Luxembourg there's a wide sweeping road (N15 / N12) from Heiderscheid to the turn off for Esch-sur-Sûre with lovely views and great sounds from the tyres!
Not a great hill for drifting, there's offset camber and weird surface changes. On the uphill the lower hairpin is cambered inward and very very tight with a tall bank and narrow exit giving not much room for stylish drifts, you can powerslide at best but the camber will give you a lot of grip so you'll be mostly straight. The upper/mid hairpin camber spits you out into oncoming traffic without much visibility to set yourself up for a better line.
On the downhill it's much the same but in reverse. Road surface is not great for tyre wear, will chunk your 5 year old linglongs. Would be a much better experience at night or with the road closed so you could set up your line in the on-coming lane.
It is, however, an excellent road for grip.
The road from Langthwaite (where the original All creatures great and small was filmed) up to Booze is the steepest bendiest road I've ever seen.
I lived in Booze for a while and it is something you have to get used to!
It is incredibly narrow between houses at the bottom then snakes up as steep as a road can get for about 200 yards. It is something else!
I've had to reverse down it.
Yes, Booze is a real place! There is no "welcome to Booze" sign though, so please save yourself the trauma if you are a sign hunter... I have had to tell two extremely disappointed couples that it is non existent!
Well then try the Alpine Switchbacks on a two-up motorcycle fully loaded. I still have nightmares of 37 years ago.
The Mickelham Bends , not the A24 bit, the side road behind Ryka's up to box Hill in Surrey are a bit tight and it's 734ft above sea level. Alas, all fun has been removed with speed humps
Winchelsea - Tanyard Lane into Ferry Hill (A259) has a cracking hair pin turn into an incline, not to mention the rest of the surrounding roads being nice for a drive
Grew up in Hastings, know that bend well, but not a patch on Zigzag Hill. (Spike Milligan is buried in Winchelsea churchyard)
And if you like steep gradients with sharp curves, Porlock Hill in North Devon is worth a look. A few snaps of it in the last 90 seconds or so in here: th-cam.com/video/dD_-JmT_2vc/w-d-xo.html
While you're in Dorset, I presume we'll get another offensive place names video about Shitterton?
Or quench your thirst with a pint of piddle just a bit SW made from the river Piddle water in the pub in Piddletrenthide.
I thought I had seen some twisty roads. Then I went to Sardinia. I was wrong. You literally have to do point turns down to calagonone and there’s no barriers and everyone drives like Italians.
This man could make a 5 minute video about an old oak tree with no significance whatsoever and I’d watch it twice just for the puns 10/10 John
You'd enjoy the A821 (Duke's Pass) heading north from Aberfoyle.
Nah, that's a southern pansy road, you need to go to Scotland and try Bealach na Bà.Now that's a real twisty road.
that's a well nice road for an artic
My first experience of zig zag hill was on a dark, foggy, wet night in a corsa ‘c’, how I didn’t wipe it out I don’t know but there is a ‘pinch’ mark in the centre of the drivers seat to this day 😎