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Why I love...KNOCKHILL
Autocar UK
|August 13, 2025
Amid a sea of better-appreciated and well-appointed UK race tracks, Knockhill has a knack for holding its own. It is Scotland's only FIA-approved track and is notorious for its narrow, complicated and steeply undulating twists and turns – and this coming weekend, it will host the seventh round of this season's BTCC. I can't wait.
I think of it as the UK's Laguna Seca: one of its corners, Duffus Dip, has a sharp downward gradient much like the Californian track's Corkscrew. If you've never driven on it before, you will begin each lap with blind faith before negotiating the steep, unforgiving kerbs and tight turns that can make or break victory.
It has taken a while to get here. Back in the early 1970s, a sheep farmer called Tom Kinnaird had a bold vision for a race track – and a digger in his shed. He carved out what would become Scotland's answer to the Nürburgring or Spa-Francorchamps, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. The circuit complex would be made up of old farm service roads and a disused mineral railway that closed in the early 1950s.
This story is from the August 13, 2025 edition of Autocar UK.
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