FEATURED
road
b660
After many months, an update of the Featured
Road really has been long overdue. This time, I chose not to
stray as far from home as the last two times. New Year's Day
was the perfect chance to make my way from South London to Cambridgeshire
for a look at the B660 between Ramsey St. Mary's and Bedford.
This road was recommended by Car Magazine as a a worthwhile
visit, so off I went.
Being New Year's Day, the roads were blessed
with very little traffic. At almost any other time I'd be discouraged
from travelling up this way, simply because I have to drive
right through London (from Camberwell, south of the river) whereupon
I slowly yet very surely loose the will to live. Such a slog
usually takes all the joy out of the drive. Central London is
just not for cars.
Some fantastic medium-speed bends could be found here.
However on 1 January there are no such concerns
during the morning, and in about 90 minutes I was well into
the Cambridgeshire countryside. Unlike the Southwest of England,
much of the East is less dramatic in its topography, which means
plenty of level, cultivated spaces and roads that gently bob
along between fields and villages. Many of the roads are open
and quite fast in places, but if I'm honest, not terribly interesting
at sane velocities. The mostly easy corners and gradients were
punctuated with occasional 90-degree, second-gear corners where
the road had to tip-toe around parcels of private land.
Open and fast, with almost no traffic.
There were a few other highlights here and
there, but over the length of the B660 itself the really interesting
sections never consisted of more than two or three medium-speed
bends, loosely connected, before everything calmed down again
for a while. My guess is that, if you're a sport bike rider
or the owner of a fairly powerful car who enjoys a good speed
rush, B660 would get more interesting.
One great addition to the trip was my TomTom
Go satnav gizmo, which gave me a heads-up of some of the more
interesting sequences, and really helped get me to some of my
scheduled routes without getting lost. It also gave me plenty
of warnings about 'accident black spots' and the like. Although
being vigilant behind the wheel is the best way to avoid trouble,
it's nice to know about these sites in advance (and their GATSO
sentries) before you actually get to them.
A short break, and a chance to snap some pics.
Aside from the road itself, there wasn't much
to look at when not pressing on, and the overcast January sky
didn't really compliment what scarce scenery there was, either.
That said, the village of Kimbolton was a decidedly pleasant
distraction, and would probably make a nice place to stop for
a bite to eat or simply get out and stroll around.
For anyone who's coming down the A1 and needs
a bit of a pick-me-up, the B660 will do nicely. But drivers
of quicker cars will have even more fun.
Even on this damp day, some good times were had.
By G Morgan
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