Stelvio Pass

[scott1205]

Before my trip I was really looking forward to completing the Stelvio Pass, mainly due to the fact Top Gear voted it the best driving road in the world, however I have to say I was little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, this this is a good road, and you definitely need to tick it off your bucket list if you are into Euro tripping. However I wouldn’t say it was the best road in the world... Not even close.

The biggest problem I found with the road is one of the reason the road is so famous, the number of hairpins, there is no flow! After the first 20 hairpins I was bored and hoped for some faster sweeping corners. The pass is also very narrow so you are very aware of the possibility of oncoming cars and in places the road surface is not ideal.

The final point I wanted to highlight for anyone else that was planning to do this road was the cyclists. This is always something you need to look out for when alpine driving, however of some reason it was very bad on this road, they were 4/5 a breadth in some places taking up the complete road, really had to watch out for them!

I completed the road from Spondigna to Bormio however if I was to it again I would make sure to do it in the other direction as I believe it would be a much better drive.

You can get some really good photos on the hairpins though J

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[Advikaz]

Yep

Known many people go there and say "alright if you like hairpins". It's also a bit of a sh*t to get to iirc.

The mountain roads through Switzerland are much, much better.

 

[alistairolsen]

The pass down the other side of the mountain is better IMHO, Stelvio is too tight.
Umbrail/Furka/Grimsel are all good.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

More powerslides required! (I probably wouldn't have done any either in an E92..)

Looks quite tight in places although I can't work out if that's your camera or not. Something like a Caterham would be epic there, but the 2000 mile drive to get there probably wouldn't be as epic...

 

[alistairolsen]

More powerslides required! (I probably wouldn't have done any either in an E92..)

Looks quite tight in places although I can't work out if that's your camera or not. Something like a Caterham would be epic there, but the 2000 mile drive to get there probably wouldn't be as epic...

Theres too many cyclists, VW busses etc to risk that and its so tight some cars wind up doing three point turns for the odd bend. I dont really get why TG thought it was so good. The other side on the other hand is well sighted mostly second to third gear hoonery

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Theres too many cyclists, VW busses etc to risk that and its so tight some cars wind up doing three point turns for the odd bend. I dont really get why TG thought it was so good. The other side on the other hand is well sighted mostly second to third gear hoonery

It looks pretty in pictures that's probably why.

And to be fair, in the cars they were in doing standing starts 30 times in a row doesn't sound too bad. In a 172 going up hill however...

 

[Ian_182]

I would love to do that on my bike. Deffo one for the bucket list.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Weather was crap when I did Stelvio unfortunately. I quite enjoyed it still.

I thought Dolomite road was better personally.

 

[-Jamie-]

So many better pass's to actually drive. Stelvio only attracts people due to TG

 

[DrR]

Closed when I went

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

So many better pass's to actually drive. Stelvio only attracts people due to TG

I saw a website that names quite a lot of 'good driving roads' in Scotland. One of them was a 120 mile long B road lol.

 

[-Jamie-]

Scotland has loads, The better ones are those that arnt well known as well :wink:

 

[Ian_182]

I really like the look of this for driving

 

[scott1205]

Yep

Known many people go there and say "alright if you like hairpins". It's also a bit of a sh*t to get to iirc.

The mountain roads through Switzerland are much, much better.

Yes it’s a little out the way but it wasn’t too bad for us because we done this on the way back from Venice. We stayed in a little village called Vernagt the night before. It has a beautiful little lake if anyone is looking for a place to stay I would highly recommend it.

More powerslides required! (I probably wouldn't have done any either in an E92..)

Looks quite tight in places although I can't work out if that's your camera or not. Something like a Caterham would be epic there, but the 2000 mile drive to get there probably wouldn't be as epic...

I do normally like to have some little slides when I feel I can get away with it, but like already said above, the Hairpins are just too tight and you can’t see if anything is coming the other way. The fluela pass was good for that, I have posted a video of that pass previously if you are interested.

Scotland has loads, The better ones are those that arnt well known as well :wink:

I agree with you about the roads in Scotland, they are great! Me and my friends have drove a lot of Scotland with being from Newcastle, I love the old Military road near Ballater (I Think it’s the A939) and any of the roads around Glencoe.


Personally though I think Switzerland has the best roads, they are just always silky smooth no matter how remote they are!

 

[...]

Done stelvio , its the god for the lotus nuts because an elise was once driven on it during development .
Most alpine passes are an utter s**t in honesty , and not what i call satisfying .

For me , driving Mulholldand in a quick car was far better , but boy did it smell hot at the end .



and then there are those (top gear presenters) who can lay a line of rubber from one end to the other !! (to be fair its much longer than they show as it goes all the way from the top of LA to malibu