LONDON: Britain’s motoring passion shows no sign of cooling despite some of the tightest road restrictions in the world.

Indeed, it is booming, with one BBC TV motoring show a best-seller around the globe.

With speed cameras, congestion zones, whopping fuel taxes, endless road works, bus lanes and parking restrictions, driving in Britain can sometimes be as much fun as pulling a tooth.

Despite all this it seems the desire to enjoy the open road has not gone away.

“We’re definitely a nation of petrol-heads,” Emma Parker-Bowles, motoring correspondent for The Sun newspaper, said. “No matter how much we’re persecuted, we’re pretty resilient about it.

“Nothing’s going to get us out of our cars,” said Parker-Bowles, a niece of Prince Charles’s wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. “There’s not even an appealing alternative — our public transport is not very encouraging.” Indeed, there is much to stop British drivers from enjoying themselves.

British petrol prices are at record highs, said the Automobile Association.

Britain has the fourth-highest prices out of 23 European Union countries, at 104.3 pence per litre — of which 63.2 per cent is tax — and easily the highest diesel prices at 109.2 pence per litre, the AA said.

More than 6,000 speed cameras line the roads.

The congestion charge zone in central London, which costs eight pounds to enter, doubled in size last year and other cities may follow.

“Everything is geared to getting as much money out of the motorist as possible,” said Matt Robinson, editor of Performance Tuner motoring magazine.

“We’ve got speed cameras which everyone knows are just cash cows, we pay a premium over the European versions of cars because ours are right-hand drive and we pay enormous road tax.

“Britain is a very small land mass with 60 million-odd people on it, so our roads are extremely congested. As a result there is less freedom for the British motorist.” But car-savvy Brits are still getting the thrill of the road through swerving round the restrictions, including fine-tuning their cars.

“A lot of the time it’s not really about the top speed, it’s about how fast you can get from nought to 60 mph,” said Parker-Bowles.

“The grunt it’s got when burning people up at the lights, things that are perfectly legal but you can still enjoy.”

Perhaps the restrictions placed on motoring fun in Britain make trying to have some all the more appealing.

The British public is fascinated with the car and we are at the forefront of car enthusiasm, said Robinson.

“The joy of motoring is just having freedom and the open road. The fact that enjoyment is difficult to get makes it all the more rewarding where you can find those moments where you’re on a wonderful road in a fantastic car.

“Because it is difficult to get in Britain we do search it out more.”

With petrol duty to rise by two pence per litre in April and few encouraging signs for car enthusiasts, how much more punishment Britain’s drivers can take is open to question.

The cost of motoring “is draining family budgets and consumer spending power to a degree no one could have envisaged this time last year,” said Paul Watters, head of AA Public Affairs.—AFP