Fan of Tarmac

This is on the A68, somewhere North West of Darlington, before the road crosses the A69 between Newcastle and Carlisle. I heard some guys on the TV ask each other, sarcastically, what their favourite A-road is. Naturally, being a Sunday Driver and a fan of Partridge, this got me thinking, especially as they came up with some lacklustre contenders, A303 the relative highlight. The A68 - especially the cross-border stretch beyond the A69 toward Jedburgh - is in my top three.

My vote goes to it for stretching vistas of forest, fields and oft heavy skies; long straights reminiscent of and overlaid onto the old Roman Dere Street that ran from York into Scotland; short, tight bends that arrive in the dark with little or no forewarning, all of them unique in their camber, peaks and troughs, mixed tarmac and occasional horror. Scotland symbolises adventure and isolation for me, this route in does it's bit to maintain the romantic notion.

The car is a new Jag XF - 3.0 V6 with many bells and whistles adorning it's aluminium chassis, multi-link suspension and techy bits inside and out. The car drives good. In my limited experience I have found that the bones underpinning this, the baby XE, and the new F-Pace x-over, is the best tuned chassis of any road focussed car I've driven. The multi-link set up on the rear is well technically documented, and that technology lends itself to words like supple, slinky, poised and confident. On balance, some of my colleagues disagree with the damping strategy striving to compete on-level with the Germans, instead of pursuing a more floaty ride - that mostly now resigned to memories of the same famous British brands 20 years ago. It's definitely not Audi-harsh and besides, I once drove a Bentley Mulsanne Turbo which rode like that but turned it's wheels and propelled it's mass like a rocket ship. It scared the shit out of me, trying to wrestle what felt like an old war ship round an island at the top of the Scotswood road once I'd already reached an inappropriate speed. Perhaps don't form any opinions on vehicle ride around my childish lust for pressing the loud pedal just now.

 These last three pictures were taken with my 20mm prime lens - f2.8, ISO100 with exposure between 8 and 20 seconds. I took multilayer shots but couldn't match the starry sky with unbleached headlamps - and looking now I reckon I could have if I'd decreased the aperture. Every day is a school day.

This is another go at a composite picture, this time with originals taken at different points. The lens is a 50mm Canon f1.4.