[SoYank]

Road conditions are comparable to US roads up to a point. There are different classes of roadway: Motorway, A-roads, B-roads, and lesser roads.

The motorway, like the M25 around London is up to the standards of the US Interstate. They generally are dual-carriageway or divided highway, quite often with more than two lanes each direction and are limited access as the Interstate.

The A-roads are like the US highways, i.e., US-301 in the east, US-101 in the west and the more travelled state roads. As in the states they are usually single carriageway, i.e., one lane each direction, but can be dual-carriageway. The condition is bit below what you'd expect a state roads to be. Alot of it depends on the traffic level and how they are maintained.

A B-road is comparable to a less used state or county road. As such they don't get resurfaced nearly as often as they need to be. The main bit about them is you need to watch very carefully while driving on them because the houses here are sometime right next to the road; there may be a stone wall around a field that suddenly becomes the wall of a house for 30 feet and then turns back into a stone wall. This usually occurs at a bend in the road.

Lesser roads could be compared to those in rural America that don't have high traffic. Yes, they're paved but sometimes just barely. Some are less than 4 meters across.

It's been 20 years since I was travelling the roads in Ireland but do remember those in Connemarra (sp?) were horribly full of potholes, probably because of the peat bogs.

I don't have the sport package so I really can't answer that aspect.

From the looks of it you plan to get a diesel. Diesel costs a couple of pence more per litre than petrol but gets better mileage. Will it be left or righthand drive?

Bone up on the road signs and traffic laws when you get here. They are much different than what is over there.

Hope this helps. Look forward to you join us all here, too.

Cheers,