Epic driving roads
Tarmac worth the tank
Roads we've driven, roads we're saving up for, and roads the crew keeps sending in. Distances are approximate. Speed limits are not suggestions, but the corners are.
Home turf
Ontario and Quebec
Forks of the Credit Road
Caledon, Ontario · 45 min from Toronto
The hairpin above the river is the closest thing to a touge inside an hour of the city. Short, steep, tight, and busy with cyclists on weekends. Go at dawn on a weekday, run it twice, then have breakfast in Belfountain.
Highway 507, Buckhorn to Gooderham
Kawarthas, Ontario
The one people mean when they say "the Kawartha road." Rolling, cambered, lightly trafficked, granite on both sides. A rear-drive car with a good gearbox is the right tool. Watch for frost heaves early in the year and moose late in the day.
Highway 62 and 28, Bancroft loop
Hastings Highlands, Ontario
Bancroft is where a Paseo and a 1994 Integra went to become race cars, so the roads in have history. Long sweepers over the Canadian Shield, quiet towns, and gas stations that still sell 91 if you ask nicely.
Highway 60 through Algonquin
Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario
Not a fast road. A great one. The corridor through the park in the first week of October is the best colour you'll see from a driver's seat in this province. Fill up in Huntsville or Whitney, there's nothing in between.
Route 132, Gaspé Peninsula
Quebec
The loop around the Gaspé is the east's answer to the Pacific Coast Highway. Cliffs, fishing villages, the road hugging the St. Lawrence and then the gulf. Give it three days and bring a car you trust on a road with no shoulder.
Further out
Roads on the list
Cabot Trail
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Drive it counter-clockwise so the ocean is on your side. The stretch through the highlands between Pleasant Bay and Ingonish is the payoff. Best done in a car with a sunroof and a boot big enough for a cooler.
Icefields Parkway
Jasper to Lake Louise, Alberta
Nothing technical. Just glaciers on both sides for two hundred and thirty kilometres. The Land Cruiser's road, when it's ready.
Tail of the Dragon, US 129
Deals Gap, Tennessee and North Carolina
318 curves in 11 miles. Every one of them has been photographed by someone selling the photo. Go midweek, go early, and remember the guardrails have opinions about Integras.
Hakone Turnpike
Kanagawa, Japan
The toll road up the mountain from Odawara. Wide, smooth, fast, with Mt Fuji at the top if the weather agrees. This is the road in the magazines, and the Type R's spiritual home. Sunday morning at the Daikanzan lookout is a car show that nobody organised.
Irohazaka
Nikko, Tochigi, Japan
Forty-eight hairpins on two one-way roads, one up and one down. The downhill is the famous one. Nobody is drifting it anymore, but you'll understand the appeal by hairpin twelve.
Stelvio Pass
South Tyrol, Italy
Forty-eight switchbacks on the north side, up to 2,757 metres. Slow, loud, spectacular, and a very good reason to rent something small with a manual gearbox.
Sea to Sky Highway
Vancouver to Whistler, British Columbia
Ocean, then mountains, in a hundred and twenty kilometres. Busy, well policed, and still worth it for the views out of Squamish.
Community
Got a car, a road, or a rusty project? You're in.
JCru Moto is a crew of car people. Send us your builds, your favourite stretch of tarmac, or the thing in your garage that almost runs.