B4494 / A338 / B4100 Donnington / Wantage / Donnington

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Rate this road

1 - One of the best, go and try it
4
80%
2 - Always worth a detour if you are in the area
0
No votes
3 - Worth trying
1
20%
4 - Not worth trying
0
No votes
5 - Avoid it
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 5

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spokey
Joined: Fri 20 Feb, 2004 11:11
Posts: 4586

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Location: The Big Smoke

B4494 / A338 / B4100 Donnington / Wantage / Donnington

Post by spokey »

Submitted by: Pingu

How I found it: It's on the way home :D .

Useful tips: The B4494 is one of the best roads I have driven. When going towards Wantage, you get to the top of the Ridgeway and can see for miles.

Going North, the descent off the Ridgeway is testing as you exit a long straight avenue of trees, over a brow, then go round a sweeping blind lefthander. Then follows a blind sweeping left, followed by a sweeping right with very good visibility (only obscured by the bushes on the inside of the corner). The visibility of the rest of the road for about a mile as you descend around the blind left allows time for any cars hidden in the dip to make themselves visible before taking the right hander the way a right hander should be taken :twisted: . The speed gathered on the descent can be carried into the plateau on top of the Ridgeway and through the fast chicanes, which have excellent visibility. Another sweeping downhill, similar to the first is followed by the descent into Wantage.

Going South, the climb out of Wantage is up a straight 1 in 7 hill for about half a mile, followed by the Ridgeway with the open sweeping bends and fast chicanes, before reaching the first of the two climbs up the sweeping left handers. Care needs to be taken as these corners are blind as the bushes hide any cars coming down the hill. Ideally, the corner would be taken starting on the wrong side of the road, but this can't always be done. The right hander at the top of the hill is blind and followed by a dip which is sometimes taken airborne by the unwary.

The rest of the drive is a joy. The roads are all of reasonable quality. There are no speed cameras. The whole loop takes about 30 minutes. It is a very scenic drive, and there is the possible to cut across the hill from the A338 to the B4494, going past Lambourne with all the horse training areas.

Where it is: Just off J13 of the M4

Estimated distance: 32 miles

Image
Last edited by spokey on Tue 13 Mar, 2007 15:20, edited 1 time in total.
Ciao,
Spokey
jackal on PH wrote:i love your profile... an endless pornographic paroxysm of the letters BMW

do you actually like driving at all or are cars to you just a manifestation of some sort of pathological mother complex ?
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spokey
Joined: Fri 20 Feb, 2004 11:11
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Post by spokey »

I did this road as part of my Berkshire Hunt cruise last year. It is FANTASTIC!! :bow :drive
Ciao,
Spokey
jackal on PH wrote:i love your profile... an endless pornographic paroxysm of the letters BMW

do you actually like driving at all or are cars to you just a manifestation of some sort of pathological mother complex ?
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smartypants
Joined: Tue 09 Jan, 2007 12:15
Posts: 1210

  Other roadster
Location: Bracknell

Post by smartypants »

Not far from me! I may have been on that road actually..... I will try it sometime soon for sure :D
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spokey
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Post by spokey »

smartypants wrote:I will try it sometime soon for sure :D
If I lived out that way, I'd run that road ragged. :twisted:
Ciao,
Spokey
jackal on PH wrote:i love your profile... an endless pornographic paroxysm of the letters BMW

do you actually like driving at all or are cars to you just a manifestation of some sort of pathological mother complex ?
garyw
Joined: Fri 07 Nov, 2003 22:29
Posts: 2644

  Porsche

Post by garyw »

I did this route with some of the Porsche guys, it was a bit of a mental day, not sure I'd run it with them again..
However a really great route :twisted:

garyw
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spokey
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Post by spokey »

garyw wrote:I did this route with some of the Porsche guys, it was a bit of a mental day, not sure I'd run it with them again..
What, did they go over 35, Gary?
Ciao,
Spokey
jackal on PH wrote:i love your profile... an endless pornographic paroxysm of the letters BMW

do you actually like driving at all or are cars to you just a manifestation of some sort of pathological mother complex ?
garyw
Joined: Fri 07 Nov, 2003 22:29
Posts: 2644

  Porsche

Post by garyw »

We actually crept under two figures at some points :shock: :shock: :shock:

I started second from the back, we lost the rear car after 10 minutes and I was then the last car.. the guy in front of me had a similar idea and we decided to enjoy the road safely and distance ourselves from the lead pack, however we did receive quite a few hand shakes and requests of if we wanted a coffee :wink:
Not the best day ever, we did see the white horse on the hill though :P

garyw
madbrummie
Joined: Mon 14 Jan, 2008 09:51
Posts: 47

  Z4 roadster 2.2i

Post by madbrummie »

The 338 was excellent, i was heading down to Andover at New Year and got bored on the A34 so hopped off, put the roof down and went for it down this road, absolutely fab!!!
Dukeman
Joined: Thu 05 Nov, 2009 13:11
Posts: 10

  Z4 roadster 3.0i
Location: Andover

Post by Dukeman »

Great roads :D I use it often on the Duke, not seen any Zeds when I've been on it though, the main dodgy bit is past that pub restraunt where you can easily get cars pulling in/out so take it easy past there.
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pingu
Joined: Fri 30 Apr, 2004 16:01
Posts: 3412

  M roadster S50

Post by pingu »

Post deleted
Pingu
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Hard Top
Joined: Sun 17 Jan, 2010 23:16
Posts: 1239

  Z3 roadster 1.9
Location: Netherlands

Post by Hard Top »

:puzzle: :?

HT
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pingu
Joined: Fri 30 Apr, 2004 16:01
Posts: 3412

  M roadster S50

Post by pingu »

Hard Top wrote::puzzle: :?

HT
I looked at the thread and the image in the Spokey post was missing. So I logged into my villagephotos account and repasted the image in a new post.

I then looked at Spokey's post and the image was back, so I deleted my post.

:dunce:
Pingu
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