By car type
The roads that justify a proper chassis. Ranked on driving quality first, with surface, sightlines and corner density doing the heavy lifting.
A sports car wants the thing everything else finds difficult. Corner after corner, a surface that holds, and enough sightline to see the exit before you commit.
This list is ranked almost entirely on our driving score, which weights corner quality, surface and flow rather than scenery. Where a road is famous but frequently congested, it drops.
Checked by the Drivers Atlas desk
Scored and written by the Drivers Atlas editorial desk, drawing on driven routes across the UK and Europe, mapping data and member road reports. Rankings combine the Atlas driving and scenery scores with a fit score written specifically for sports cars. How we score roads.
Last reviewed 13 May 2026
The criteria
Pushed up the list
Pushed down, or worth avoiding
Ranked
01 · Romania
Ceausescu's mountain folly, the most photographed hairpin stack in Europe.
90 km · 55.9 mi · Fit score 10.4 / 10
02 · United Kingdom
Britain's highest road climbs via hairpins to a wild moonscape pass above Applecross.
18.5 km · 11.5 mi · Fit score 10.3 / 10
03 · Italy
Eighty four hairpins stacked above the treeline make this Europe's most theatrical mountain pass.
49 km · 30.4 mi · Fit score 10.3 / 10
04 · Germany
The Green Hell loops through Eifel forest with 73 legendary corners open to the public.
21 km · 13 mi · Fit score 10.2 / 10
05 · Norway
Eleven hairpins claw up a sheer valley wall beneath waterfalls and the Trolltindene peaks.
20 km · 12.4 mi · Fit score 10.1 / 10
06 · Switzerland
A cobbled historic switchback climb that predates the modern Gotthard highway entirely.
13 km · 8.1 mi · Fit score 10.0 / 10
07 · Spain
A driver's icon that loops through a knotted 270 degree hairpin down to the cove.
12 km · 7.5 mi · Fit score 10.0 / 10
08 · Norway
Twenty seven hairpins drop 900 metres to the head of the Lysefjord.
30 km · 18.6 mi · Fit score 10.0 / 10
09 · Turkey
Thirteen stacked hairpins on a cliff face make this one of the world's scariest roads.
106 km · 65.9 mi · Fit score 10.0 / 10
10 · United States
Swaths of switchbacks climb to 3337 metres past alpine lakes and snowfields.
109 km · 67.7 mi · Fit score 10.0 / 10
11 · Italy
Twenty nine hairpins climb to a wide open saddle ringed by the jagged Cinque Torri.
17 km · 10.6 mi · Fit score 10.0 / 10
12 · United Kingdom
A ribbon of hairpins climbing a bare Welsh moorland made famous by Top Gear.
19 km · 11.8 mi · Fit score 10.0 / 10
13 · France
Hairpins through larch forest give way to the lunar Casse Deserte, a surreal high altitude finale.
33 km · 20.5 mi · Fit score 9.9 / 10
14 · Italy
A cliffside ribbon of hairpins clinging above turquoise water and pastel towns.
50 km · 31.1 mi · Fit score 9.9 / 10
15 · Norway
Hairpins spiral down to the Geirangerfjord past waterfalls with names like the Seven Sisters.
106 km · 65.9 mi · Fit score 9.9 / 10
16 · Morocco
A stack of orange hairpins climbs out of a red rock gorge into empty highland.
63 km · 39.1 mi · Fit score 9.9 / 10
17 · New Zealand
New Zealand's highest sealed road with a hairpin stack above the Cardrona valley.
70 km · 43.5 mi · Fit score 9.9 / 10
18 · Switzerland
Bond film hairpins skirt the Rhone Glacier on this high, exposed Alpine crossing.
16 km · 9.9 mi · Fit score 9.8 / 10
19 · Italy
Twenty eight numbered hairpins climb to the highest paved point of the Dolomites road network.
13 km · 8.1 mi · Fit score 9.8 / 10
20 · Chile
Forty numbered hairpins climb from the capital straight into the high Andes.
57 km · 35.4 mi · Fit score 9.8 / 10
21 · France
Cliff cut hairpins and cirque views link two valleys via the dramatic Litor shelf.
30 km · 18.6 mi · Fit score 9.8 / 10
22 · Austria
Austria's grandest high alpine road climbs to Franz Josefs Hohe beneath the country's tallest peak.
48 km · 29.8 mi · Fit score 9.7 / 10
23 · Japan
Forty eight lettered hairpins climb to Lake Chuzenji, one way in each direction.
16 km · 9.9 mi · Fit score 9.7 / 10
24 · Croatia
A wild Velebit crossing of endless hairpins between the Zrmanja canyon and the sea.
33 km · 20.5 mi · Fit score 9.7 / 10
Before you go
Set them cold before you leave rather than warm at a service station. It is the single cheapest improvement you can make to how a car feels on a mountain road.
Repeated alpine descents boil old fluid. If it has been more than two years, change it before you go rather than after you have a soft pedal.
Several Austrian and Swiss regions run noise cameras and motorcycle bans that also apply to loud cars. Fines are substantial and enforcement is real.
Common questions
By our driving score, the Dolomite pass sequence around Gardena, Sella and Pordoi is hard to beat for corner density, with the Col de Turini and the Furka Susten Grimsel loop close behind.
Rarely on the passes themselves, which are graded for coaches. The risk is at hotel entrances, ferry ramps and village speed humps, not on the road.
Other cars