Features
Back to Library >
Driving on the Isle of Man
1 year ago
Driving on the Isle of Man is a high-speed rollercoaster thrill
With a clear road ahead and a car that is more than happy to be driven that quickly, you soon settle down, adjusting to the new norm, free from numbers. Rather like the autobahn, it’s not that you always want to be going as fast as you can, it’s just glorious to be able to make progress and not have to worry about the numbers. You know whether the car is underneath you, stable or skittish. You know how quickly you can stop.
You can be doing 120mph somewhere in one car and be much safer than doing 30mph somewhere else in another. It’s all about context. There are still rules to obey, they’re just more complex in their definition, more elastic in their boundaries once the strict governance of a set speed is removed. There is arguably more thought required to determine right from wrong.
But the effort is worth it. Worth it for the fabulous feeling of hearing an unshackled flat-six or V12 stretch out for its yowling redline again and again. An octane-fuelled orchestra filling up a valley or rebounding off rock faces or drifting over the purple heather of a moorland. The controlled environment of a circuit is great, but for me it’s not a patch on driving on a road with all the extra colour and complication that brings.
"The Tourist Trophy’s A18 Snaefell mountain road is incredible and unmissable but despite being a relatively small rock there are a surprising number of other great roads on the island. Most are in the middle, just to the west of the A18"
One of my most cherished memories is a sunset run across the Mountain road from The Gooseneck to Creg-ny-Baa in a Lamborghini Aventador SV. Rush hour traffic had receded, wisps of cloud were wreathing the higher sections of road and the sky was a rich mix of pinks, mauves, blues and a lava-like orange. The dark red slice of Sant’Agata running free along the mountain mile and balanced on part throttle round the four corners of the Verandah was everything you dream about.
It’s why I love rallying; one of the ultimate expressions of that road race feeling now that the true Mille Miglia or Targa Florio no longer exist. And if you want to discover more than just the TT course on the Isle of Man then you’d do well to seek out some of the stages used on the Manx Rally. The Tourist Trophy’s A18 Snaefell mountain road is incredible and unmissable but despite being a relatively small rock – just 33 miles long and 13 miles wide – there are a surprising number of other great roads on the island. Most are in the middle, just to the west of the A18, but the south, beyond Foxdale, also has some lovely stretches that feel a bit like snippets of Yorkshire or the Cairngorms.
"Hopefully the Isle of Man will continue to be an oasis of trust and freedom in the Irish Sea. Every time I go I get goosebumps as I arrive – the same sort of tingles of anticipation that I feel when I arrive in Nürburg or hear a whistle and the distant, angry engine note of the first rally car approaching down a stage"
I’ve often wondered whether it would be possible to turn back the clock and roll out truly derestricted speed limits to the rest of the United Kingdom again. Perhaps some of the current national speed limit signs would have to be replaced with 60mph signs, leaving only the very remotest roads to be truly free from any cap. And maybe you would need a special licence, one that came with the threat of more severe punishment if you were caught abusing the privilege and driving over 60mph without due care and attention.
Interestingly, on the Isle of Man new drivers must have an ‘R’ plate affixed to their car for the first 12 months and they’re not permitted to drive faster than 50mph anywhere. The Manx prison system also has a reputation for being somewhat more Dickensian in ambiance than that of the mainland. I suspect that’s no longer true since the Victorian penitentiary in Douglas was replaced by a more modern building in Jurby, but nonetheless the stories are passed down and the reputation remains alive enough to make some think twice before doing anything likely to land them behind bars.
It won’t happen, of course. A mile a minute will remain the legal upper limit on the sort of roads we love to drive in the rest of the UK. But hopefully the Isle of Man will continue to be an oasis of trust and freedom in the Irish Sea. Every time I go I get goosebumps as I arrive – the same sort of tingles of anticipation that I feel when I arrive in Nürburg or hear a whistle and the distant, angry engine note of the first rally car approaching down a stage. It’s a special atmosphere.
And I’ll happily continue to greet the fairies every time I go, just in case it is they who are preserving freedom, in more ways than one.
