If you get bored easily then I suggest moving on to another thread 
….
So who is right, Clarkson or Catchpole 
Pierre and I, the Easter European chapter of Exiges.com, finally had the chance to meet up and check out the journalists claims. Ok, so officially we are both ex-Exigers in my Elise SC and his Evora.
Our rendezvous was at the services near the Hungarian / Romanian border at 7pm on Friday, it was great to finally meet up with Pierre, according to my wife, one of my virtual Lotus friends. Accompanying Pierre was his brave girlfriend Victoria. I brought along my American friend Mike who’s also working in Slovakia, he’s never sat in a Lotus before. Crossing the border to Romania was a bit slow, no traffic but they were confused when presented with a British, US, Swiss and Hungarian passport and two British cars. There was a steady flow of crashed cars coming into Romania on trailers, it appears to be the salvage yard of Europe.
Our satnavs had some conflicting ideas on the best directions, after some delays through towns, overtaking 3000 trucks and swerving to avoid different sizes of roadkill stay dogs we finally arrived at the hotel in Sibiu at a very late 4am local time. This was already turning into a proper expedition of a road trip! Still fuelled on espressos and adrenaline it was a short nights sleep.
When we awoke we were blessed with sunny blue skies and the stunning view of the mountains. Topped up with breakfast and fuel we had a short drive before we arrived at the start of the Transfaragasan, not that you would know as you approach on a small country lane. We stopped to double check we were really at the right place.
The action starts right from the valley with back to back hairpins climbing through the forest. As you pass the lower cable car station the views open up and you see the monster trail of switchbacks up above. Traction levels varied due to the quantity of cow dung on the road which was an early warning for the herd of beef on the road up ahead.
It turned out that the Elise SC and Evora are very well matched for pace and we made good progress to the top of the pass. When you arrive at the top it is chaos, bikes and cars parked everywhere and market traders selling local tat. It’s essential to stop though and take a look back down to the amazing road you’ve just driven. 
After driving through the rock tunnel you come out at the top of the other valley and start the descent. The hairpins are a bit more open on this side but the obstacles increase with plenty of large beasts. Pierre said he was looking for a few more horses in his Evora 
Once at the bottom of the valley the road twists, seemingly endlessly, along the lake side before arriving at the impressive dam. So that was the Transfaragasan highway, the best driving road in the world? Well its very good, the views are stunning, but lets see what else we can find round here.
To connect with the next part of our plan, the Transalpina, it looked like a simple traverse of the map. In reality this section took a long 4 hours. At one point we literally ran out of road, the bridge on the satnav…wasn’t there anymore! Just a few cones and a big gap. 
The next challenge was a gravel section of roadworks that was rather ‘undulating’. We couldn’t even get the Evora onto the gravel without risk of grounding so we sat and thought while several Dacia’s cheerfully bounced past us. 
Thankfully a very nice blonde Romanian lady stopped and said ‘turn round and follow me’, disappointingly she was only taking us to the next passable road but it was a very kind gesture.
Not much further along the satnav sent us off piste again, we ended up on a gravel farm track at crawling pace, luckily it was going the right way and we made it back to the planned route. It’s a good job we are ex-Exigers as a front splitter would not have survived this tour!
This central area of Romania definitely appeared less affluent than the border towns. We saw plenty of interesting sights including these motorhomes 
Finally we reached the place we were looking for, Novaci, the start of the DN67C, TheTransalpina Highway. EVO magazine rated this as better than the TransF so we were keen to get moving, more so because it was already 6pm and we had 3 hours of daylight left. The Transalpina has been unpaved until work started in 2009 to make it a modern highway. The first section from Novaci is surreal and sensational, a series of sweeping turns and hairpins on brand new tarmac with concrete walls on the outside of the turns, it’s like an motorsport bobsleigh run. I ascended it in a lively manner, full credit to Mike sat in the passenger seat for being so chilled. Whoever built this new road loves driving! It’s a masterpiece. When we arrived at the top Pierre and I were ecstatic. 
It was clear that this road was already surpassing the TransF by a long way.
However when we turned round we noticed that in the distance was another mountain with a neat ribbon of tarmac ascending into the clouds. We had only just done the first section! Now the road was more open and exposed, with pristine new tarmac but a 1ft drop off the verge either side…and 1000m of nothing below that . We proceeded with a bit more respect. We climbed so high that we drove into cloud, when we emerged at 2000m we had a spectacular cloud inversion below us.
After plenty of snap shots we had a sharp hairpin descent to the col then a twisty traverse along the side of the next mountain before ascending to the highest point of 2150m. Based on the aray of tat the two resident hardy hawkers were trying to sell from wooden huts we were definitely at the top
By this time the sun was low and we decided to get a wriggle on. More pristine tarmac twisties flowed down from the summit across open mountain sides. Lower down the road enters the forest but not before having to brake for the local residents of a farm hut.
The next section was awesome. Similar to the start of the route there were flowing smooth hairpins with concrete walls. I really gave it the beans this time and took advantage of the Elises nimble handling. To spice it up there were trees randomly felled across the road with a car size gap sawn from the middle section of them to blast through I was in rally heaven.
We took a short break at the crossroads in the valley bottom and some time to calm down and check the map. We had a decision to make, 1 hour of light left, take the main road or go north on the less well travelled next section of the Transalpina? So we entered the East African Safari! The first 300m was gravel again but once we got round the bend we were rewarded with another super smooth section of totally deserted tarmac through the forest. I have never driven anything quite so amazing before. 
Forget Angelsey, Nurburgring, EVO triangle… I went ahead on what I can only describe as a 40km deserted special stage through an unpopulated forest. Then we swopped over and Pierre had the lead. I was really enjoying sharing the trip with Pierre, we were always going at a strong pace, very evenly matched but with no stupidity or risk to others, full respect to him for that. 
Finally the fun came abruptly to an end, the road ran out again. We crept through a gravel quarry, again not very Exige friendly
We found more tarmac but it was starting to get dark now. After we passed the hydro dam we found MORE perfect new tarmac twisties along the valley bottom through a canyon. The S2 lights were better than I expected and we kept the hoof down. Finally we came to civilisation, Saturday night is clearly party night in Sugag, it was 10pm and they were off to a good start in the street.
Back on the main roads we pushed north. Mike and I surrendered at midnight and found a hotel in Cluj, I was completely knackered. 
Pierre must be nocturnal and he pushed on another 3 hours back to the Hungarian border! He was motivated not to miss the mother outlaws birthday lunch in Budapest the next day
I think you get the idea that we enjoyed the trip. I’ve done a few trips over the years and plenty of motorsport but this was one epic adventure. An awesome route plan (thanks Pierre), my own car (not a rental), sunny weather and brilliant company. Looking from the outside Mike commented on the way home as to how amazing is it that you can meet someone through the exiges website that lives somewhere in the world near you but you have never met, you meet up, have the drive of your life and a fabulous crac . This was also Mikes first time driving a Lotus and on some challenging roads, he did brilliantly , I can picture Exiges.com expanding to Pittsburgh in the future.
Which was the fastest car, the Elise SC or Evora? Neither, it’s the Romanian Passat diesel estates, equipped with radar for overtaking on blind bends and crests. You need to keep your eyes open for the tossers.
Depending on Mikes video editing, and legal advice 
there may be some video clips to follow.
So back to the original question, which is the best driving road in the world? I will let Pierre answer that.
