2-4-6-8 Motorway

I’ve written some words in celebration of the motorway, on recently relaunched car website Motortorque, which is a fine site for petrol-heads everywhere. The piece is inspired by the recent BBC Four documentary The Secret Life of the Motorway, which sounds like the most boring three-part series ever but really wasn’t.

When the Preston bypass opened day-trippers flocked to it, keen to drive the route as fast as possible. The excellent BBC Four documentary The Secret Life of the Motorway featured a man who completed the journey from one end to the other in an Austin Healey, at an average speed of 83mph.

The majority of drivers at the time didn’t have such speed at their fingertips, however. The folly of taking the tin pot cars of the 1950s and 60s for a high-speed spin on the motorway was made obvious when the first 74-mile southern section of the M1 opened in 1959.

Hillman Minxes were exploding along the entire route, while the popular Morris Oxford MO – which had a top speed of around 70mph – was getting a sound thrashing by over-zealous owners putting pedal to the metal. Stan Holland, an AA patrol man of the time, says there were 13,000 breakdowns in the M1´s first year of opening, including a Rolls Royce, which “blew up like a tea kettle”.

Back then, motorway driving was new, exciting and incredibly dangerous. Initially, there was no speed limit. There were also no barriers between the carriageways - meaning it was relatively common to see drivers performing a U-turn over the central reservation if they missed their junction. Others simply lost control and headed over the verge at full speed into oncoming traffic.

More at the Motortorque site.

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