DAILY MAIL
2 June 2014
The perfect road trip is America’s Route 66, with Queen on the radio and Holly Willoughby in the front seat (but women would prefer David Beckham) T
he perfect road trip would involve driving down America’s Route 66 and listening to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, with Holly Willoughby and David Beckham as driving companions. But our driving nightmare would be to have former star of The Apprentice Katie Hopkins in the front seat with us.
On the road: America’s Route 66 was voted the road trip Britons would most like to take In fact, when asked to name their best driving songs, nine out of 10 of the top 10 were from the 1970s and 1980s, with Queen taking both first and second place, with Don’t Stop Me Now and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Meatloaf, Journey, The Eagles and Abba also made it on to the list, with the only recent song being Kings of Leon’s Sex On Fire, which took seventh place.
TOP ROAD TRIP COMPANIONS
1. Holly Willoughby
2. David Beckham
3. Daniel Craig
4. Kate Middleton
5. Boris Johnson
WORST ROAD TRIP COMPANIONS
1. Katie Hopkins
2. Bruce Forsyth
3. Boris Johnson
4. Nigel Farage
5. Harry Styles
The survey, conducted by Mini to celebrate its new car, also found that America’s historic Route 66, which crosses the country from Chicago to Santa Monica, in California, was the road trip Britons most wanted to take, followed by the winding roads of Italy’s Amalfi Coast.
TOP 10 DRIVING SONGS
1. Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
2. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
3. Bat Out of Hell – Meatloaf
4. Don’t sSop Believin’ – Journey
5. Dancing Queen – Abba
6. Hotel California – The Eagles
7. Sex on Fire – Kings of Leon
8. Walking on Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves
9. Driving Home for Christmas – Chris Rea
10. I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) – The Proclaimers
Queen was named the nation’s favourite artist overall to play in the car (with 16 per cent of votes), having beaten the likes of Michael Jackson (9 per cent), Fleetwood Mac (8 per cent) and Meatloaf (6 per cent) in the national poll. Their 1978 hit ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ was voted best driving song with a quarter of the votes, and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ claimed number two with 21 per cent of the votes. Londoners favoured Michael Jackson while Scottish respondents voted for Fleetwood Mac and Geordies preferred to play Meatloaf.
ITV’s Holly Willoughby topped the poll as the person we would most like to invite on our fantasy road trip, beating off competition form Kate Middleton, David Beckham and Daniel Craig. David Beckham did however top the poll for women. Holly’s TV nemesis, Katie Hopkins, claimed top of the list for the ultimate nightmare car companion. Others on the nightmare list included Bruce Forsyth, UKIP party leader Nigel Farage and even One Direction’s Harry Styles. London Mayor Boris Johnson was listed as a nightmare driving companion overall, although Londoners voted him among their dream driving buddies.