Detour #233: Across the New Forest in a silent classic, UK
It’s good to take your foot off the pedal once in a while. To slow down and take in the surroundings instead of watching them rush by in a blur, and a drive across the New Forest will force you to do just that.
In the forest itself the speed limit is a wildlife-friendly 40 mph and, while that might be a tad frustrating to drivers of modern high-performance cars, it feels just right in the Silent Classics Fiat 500 that I’m driving.
With its almost comically noisy two-cylinder engine replaced by an electric motor, the little 500 lives up to its maker’s moniker pretty well. It’s a cold but sunny winter’s morning, so I’ve wrapped up in layers and opened the full-length canvas roof, and the whoosh of the wind is the only sound to behold.
My route begins just outside the Dorset market town of Shaftesbury and will take me pretty much due east to Beaulieu, home of the National Motor Museum, a trip of less than 50 miles. Silent Classics say they’ve managed to get 120 miles out of the car’s 21 kWh batteries, but on a chilly day like today that’s probably optimistic.
Replacing the internal combustion engine is a 44 kW electric motor, which is about twice as powerful and the conversion only adds 80 kg to the car’s weight. The result is amusingly brisk acceleration, after a brief initial hesitation to preserve the transmission from being overloaded with torque. There are no gear changes to worry about, just push the original shifter forwards or backwards to choose your direction of travel.
There’s a modern digital dashboard and a couple of switches for heating and regenerative braking, but otherwise all is original inside and out. It’s somehow both cramped and airy, with loads of light coming in, but a slightly contorted, long-arm-short-leg driving position.
The big wood-rimmed steering wheel gets its first major use on the B3081 from Cann Common. Otherwise known as Zig-Zag Hill, this is officially Britain’s Bendiest Road and strings together a quick series of switchbacks to climb rapidly through the woods and out to reveal impressive views of the rolling hills.
It’s a lovely, undulating drive with sweeping vistas that drops down into a tree tunnel leading to Ringwood, the gateway to the New Forest itself.
A quick flit on the A31 dual carriageway and then it’s off across an open expanse of moorland where the New Forest’s trademark ponies graze without a care. Cue occasional emergency stops to ensure nobody goes to the glue factory.
I skirt the village of Burley, taking Lyndhurst Road through the forest’s edge and then detour south on Rhinefield Ornamental Drive. It is indeed rather ornate, winding through the woods, with the canopy above still clinging to its colourful autumn leaves.
Brockenhurst is the New Forest’s largest village and has been declared Britain’s Most Beautiful Place to Live. Admittedly the claim was made by a local estate agent, but they have a point. It’s very picturesque, with Whitefield Moor home to plenty of ponies, deer, donkeys and cows, who act as if they own the place.
The B3055 crosses Beaulieu Heath and then the B3054 leads into Beaulieu itself. Lord Montagu founded his motor museum in 1952 to attract visitors to the estate and help pay for its upkeep. “Without it, my life would have been very different and I doubt whether I would have been able to remain as owner and occupier of my ancestral home,” he admitted.
It’s a fabulous museum, preserving the history of the motor car. In a sense, by future-proofing the Fiat 500 with electric power, that’s what Silent Classics is doing as well.