By and large it's a lot better than the A 25 (particularly since the limit on most of the A 25 came down to 30 or 40 and cameras went on it - I once came round it before the M25 existed with a twin-cam FIAT with only the second choke on the twin-choke weber working - which was most entertaining) or going from say Shorne Kent to Aldenham Herts before there was an M25, rat-running through Dagenham - although I did get that down to 55 minutes one dark night...

Once upon a time at 2 am the fastest way from the M1 to the A2 was down the Edgware Road, Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square (because it's a pfaff getting from Embankment to Southwark Bridge), Southwark Bridge, Elephant, Old Kent Road. My late father once much impressed me by getting a Vauxhall Cresta Estate over 90 down Park Lane... Don't even ask the speed we cleared Blackheath...