Where to take your little deuce coupe

Five fun routes for devotees of the zig and zag

By Nathan Cobb, Globe Staff

Route 23 How can you not like a road on which a sign immediately announces "Free Manure?" [continued] Route 116 This is another woodsy hilltown highway, where there are few other cars and the strongest come-on is for Cold Soda. [continued] Route 2 The Mohawk Trail has fallen on hard times, with abandoned motels and cabins dotting the landscape. [continued] Route 112 Woe be to anyone who drives this White Mountain National Forest highway in autumn, for they shall encounter the leaf peepers. [continued] Route 100 Only on Route 100 could you drive 20 miles into Vermont from Massachusetts and still be two miles from the Bay State. [continued]

Those of us who drive sportscars tend to view New England's roads a bit differently than the rest of you. While you might prefer a six-lane interstate, we'll take a two-lane backroad. While you might choose a highway with an assortment of roadside attractions, we want a route where nothing happens except the road itself. While you might prefer straight, we like crooked.

In other words, we want a blacktop roller coaster: plenty of curves and dips, with an occasional straightaway where we can test our muscle. Not that we'd break the speed limit, mind you. Never.

In order to find the best such roads hereabouts, we solicited opinions from the likes of the Massachusetts Miata Car Club and the Porsche Club of America Northeast Division. Then we slipped behind the wheel of our own two-seater to visit five highly recommended roads covering nearly 250 miles.

One of the things that makes our kind of road, incidentally, is the absence of other cars. This means we usually search for highways that are tourist-free zones, which in turn means we wander through places that aren't always picturesque. Sometimes we're looking at a rundown mobile home rather than a postcard vista.

But the road's the thing, isn't it? So put the top down and enter a world where "Sharp Curve Ahead" is a welcome sight.

Nathan Cobb is a member of the Globe staff.

Published in the Boston Globe Calendar's 1999 Wandering New England issue.