When I discovered a packet of French Fancies within the Co-op diminished to 57p on account of their quickly approaching best-before date, I had feeling about this journey.

As properly I may need. Spoiler alert: Ireland is my new favorite driving vacation spot. How have I not pushed these roads earlier than? There’s all of the discuss of Scotland’s North Coast 500, of which I’ve pushed and ridden massive elements, batting off midges and taking in sensational views. But this, a part of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, tops it.

I feel this tops all different lengthy drives I’ve had too. I’ve pushed a Land Rover Defender to Portugal; taken a Honda NSX throughout Route 66; ridden a motorcycle to Berlin in a day; pushed the Pacific Coast Highway, the nationwide parks of Victoria, Australia, France’s most famous Cols, the most effective bits of Spain and Portugal, some unrestricted and closed roads on the Isle of Man… and but one night, for a stable, unstinting, unrelenting hour and a half, near my doorstep, comes simply among the finest drives I’ve ever had. In a Kia Picanto.

We just like the Picanto quite a bit right here at Autocar. And me greater than most of my colleagues. The Picanto and the Dacia Sandero sometimes vie for the title of the most affordable automobile on sale – not fairly as aggressively as two close by supermarkets undercutting one another on unleaded costs, however there’s some from side to side and ensuing delight.

At the second, it is benefit Picanto, at £13,665 versus £13,795 for the Sandero, likely to the annoyance of the great folks that the to its spaciousness as a result of ising in hurt; half a metropolis automobile – my desire, to drive, is the Kia.

That’s to not denigrate the Sandero, you perceive. I not too long ago drove one all over the world. See how I achieved this with out ever leaving the UK within the 6 April 2022 challenge.) But the Kia is, to my thoughts, extra enjoyable. More exact, extra agile, extra collectively, and but nonetheless simply refined sufficient for an extended journey.

This is how I come to seek out myself at Holyhead, Anglesey, on a sunny afternoon, ready for the three-and-a-half-ish-hour ferry journey to Dublin. I’ve already spent 4 hours and 240 miles on the wheel of the Picanto with no complaints.