Legendary driving roads

Four legendary passes strung between limestone cathedrals, the definitive alpine day.

Forty-eight numbered hairpins stacked like a staircase into the sky.

Gardesana corniche tunnels, then a climb into olive terraces above the water.

Lavender, limestone gorges and the finest sustained GT road in France.

Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean across seventeen alpine cols.

Furka takes about fifty five minutes end to end, longer if you stop at the Belvédère, and it is open from roughly June to October depending on snow clearance. It is not dangerous if driven with sense, the road is wide and immaculately surfaced, but the drop below the Belvédère hairpin is real and the weather can close in fast above 2,000 metres.

Granite, reservoirs and a surface that flatters every car.

Austria's cathedral road, thirty-six corners to a glacier. Allow around an hour and forty minutes for the 48 km toll route without stops, longer with the Edelweißspitze detour, and plan a half day if you want to actually enjoy the viewpoints. The road is a toll road open May to October, closing overnight and completely once the first proper snow arrives.

The A4069, Britain's most photogenic set of hairpins.

Empty single-track, sea lochs and the Bealach na Bà.

Ceaușescu's folly: a road built for no reason but drama. The full 151 km crossing takes about three hours without stops, closer to a full day with photo stops and lunch at Bâlea Lac. It is open only from roughly late June to late October, sometimes shorter, and is closed completely in winter because the pass holds snow into early summer.

Big Sur: cliff, bridge, ocean, repeat, southbound only.

Surf coast sweepers, rainforest and the Twelve Apostles.

Japan's most famous driver's toll road, with Fuji as backdrop.

The most photographed coast road in the world, and still worth it if you drive it at dawn.

Vineyard ridges, cypress avenues and a rhythm that suits a classic more than a supercar.

The Monte Carlo Rally's night stage, and still the best test of a small quick car in Europe.

Europe's deepest canyon, driven twice, once along each rim.

Built for the view rather than the shortest line, and the finest surface in Europe.

Eleven hairpins under a waterfall, a ferry across the fjord, then the climb to Dalsnibba.

Eight bridges hopping across the open Atlantic, and one of them appears to end in the sky.

The A397 climbs out of the Costa del Sol into empty limestone country, and never lets up.

A ridge road through spruce forest, engineered in the 1930s and still beautifully surfaced.

Britain's most alpine road, then a coast road that most people never bother to finish.

A hundred and forty five kilometres of cliff, redwood and Pacific, best driven southbound.

Beech forest, a glacial valley, a rough hewn tunnel and then a fjord at the end of it.

Scotland's answer to Route 66: an 830 kilometre loop from Inverness to the far north and back again.