It's one of Coventry and Warwickshire's best-known roads.

The A45 runs from Birmingham past the NEC and the M42, then bypasses Coventry and Rugby where it briefly merges with the M45 until it continues into Northamptonshire.

Before the M6 was built, the A45 was the main route from the Midlands to the ports of East Anglia.

With so much traffic and history, it's no surprise there are lots of stories, memories and opinions.

With that in mind here's eight random things you'll probably think about as you drive along the route.

1. You can't believe the state of Crazy Daisy's

The site of former nightclub Crazy Daisy's on the A45 near Stretton on Dunsmore, pictured in 2011 after the premises - last used as the Goji restaurant but empty for three years - burned down in an arson attack
The site of former nightclub Crazy Daisy's

It might be a mass of fire-damaged roof timbers, broken windows and crumbling walls now, but back in the late 1990s Crazy Daisy's was one of THE most popular dance clubs in the country.

Hundreds of clubbers with questionable clothes and hairstyles turned up every Friday and Saturday night to dance the night away in an old pub in the middle of nowhere between Coventry and Rugby.

Whether your dance move of choice was the funky chicken; big fish, little fish, cardboard box; or just a spot of good old-fashioned shelf-stacking, many friendships were formed - and perhaps millions more brain cells lost - in a fug of dry ice, cigarette smoke and laser beams.

2. You wonder what that monument is at Stretton

Members of the Great War Society commemorate the anniversary of the start of the Gallipoli campaign at the war memorial in Stretton-on-Dunsmore

It's as high as a house and there's always a wreath of poppies at the base.

You want to know more, but you're late for work or dinner, so you'll park up next time and take a proper look. But you never do.

The obelisk was in fact built on the spot where King George V inspected 19,000 troops as they prepared to set off for Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915.

Within months most would be dead or wounded, as were those sent to replace them.

In fact, the monument is only part of the memorial.

During the winter of 1920-21, two miles of the avenue that had flanked London Road was replanted in the soldiers' honour.

3. You're doing 60, but a police car will overtake you

There you are doing 60mph. You know it's 60mph because the cruise control says so.

Then a police car comes bombing past - WITHOUT its blue lights or sirens on! If it was an emergency they'd have the blues and twos on, right?

Arrrghhh it makes you so angry! Why are they exempt from the speed limit?

You just want to chase after them and make a citizen's arrest, or just a good old-fashioned finger-wagging telling off.

Rant over.

4. You wished you'd had a fry-up at Bob's Cafe

The famed Bob's Cafe on the A45 is set to remain boarded-up and derelict as plans to improve the site head for refusal.
The former Bob's Cafe on the A45 is now a car dealership

There's a shiny new car dealership there now, but for years it was known as Bob's Cafe.

You know, that place that had the random dinosaur slide in the car park just past the Stretton island.

Quite why parents would take their kids to a cafe full of hairy truckers is debatable, but the place was famous for its greasy spoons for years.

It closed in 1996 and was in a state of disrepair for years until it was recently refurbished by Guest Cars & Commercials.

Now there's nothing quite like it for miles around.

5. Tollbar Island still fills you with dread

The A45 near Tollbar island
Approaching Tollbar Island in Coventry

The name Tollbar became a byword for traffic jams.

Whether you were approaching from Rugby, Coventry, Binley Woods or Baginton, you'd get caught up in a steering wheel-gripping, blood pressure-rising, road rage-inducing bottleneck.

Then THOSE roadworks happened and everything was going to be OK, right? Wrong.

Driving in from Rugby and all seems well. Then you turn the corner at the top of 'speed camera hill' at Ryton and you see the long line of brake lights ahead. Dammit!

6. You wonder if all those traffic lights are REALLY necessary

'Malfunction Junction' at Canley

If there was a world record for the most traffic lights in one place, this would win, surely.

Even the most seasoned driver must feel some trepidation heading towards this dizzying mess of red, amber and green in Canley.

And the confusion doesn't stop there.

If you're travelling towards Coventry from Birmingham and you want to turn right into Tile Hill Lane, you have to go, left, right, right again, then right again and then left.

7. You hate anyone looking at cars at the Porsche garage

There you are trundling along in your trusty old family car, and there's someone looking at a £60,000 Porsche at the garage in Allesley.

How dare they rub your nose in the fact the car alone is TWICE your annual salary.

Feelings of insecurity and inferiority begin to creep in - I bet people find them incredibly attractive. I bet they're really happy. If only I'd listened more at school and gone into a different profession.

But you're a much nicer person, probably, so that's all that matters.

8. You know someone will hit the brakes near Allesley

It's a case of when, not if.

We've boiled this down to three reasons:

Firstly, they're trying to avoid a ticket from the speed camera positioned there.

Secondly, they're slowing down a bit to late to turn into Oak Lane.

Or thirdly, they're convinced the white van usually parked on the grassy verge at the entrance of Oak Lane will pull out any second.




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