The south-east of England has been blessed with some picturesque countryside, but truly top driving routes are few and far between.
One notable exception is the A272, which winds its way from Winchester in Hampshire to Heathfield in East Sussex, taking in the South Downs National Park and skirting the High Weald.
Thanks to other major routes taking most of the strain, the A272 has never needed to be heavily upgraded, escaping the dual-carriageway fate of many great roads and offering the sort of drive that turns back the clock to when some of our classic cars were new.
Get up early in the morning and you will be treated to 86 miles of twisting and turning A-road perfectly suited to sporting classics, with lovely rolling countryside and myriad attractions just a short hop away, including Goodwood, Petworth and Midhurst (the drive to Goodwood on the B2146 and B2141 isn’t to be missed, either).
The A272 and its surrounding countryside are so enchanting – at least compared with other south of England stretches – that it prompted Dutchman Pieter Boogaart to write an entire book about it, A272 – An Ode to a Road, which since its first publication in 2000 has become something of a cult classic.
