
01Section
A short motorway leg
From junction 1A to junction 8, the M40 ranks as one of the gentler motorways in the south. There's less freight on it than on the M1, and fewer commuters than the M4 gets. Apart from the approach at Denham, you can keep a steady speed the whole way along.
The exception is the cutting at Stokenchurch, where the motorway climbs through the Chilterns and traffic slows whenever there's heavy rain or low cloud. In winter, fog settles in that gap more often than the countryside around it would lead you to expect, and your chauffeur makes time for it instead of forcing a way through.
You leave the motorway for the city at junction 8, by Wheatley. From there the A40 carries on into Headington and past the London Road; getting from the slip road to the ring road takes ten minutes on a good morning, or twenty-five during the school run.









