The Sunday morning Karak run, properly planned

If you hire something quick for a weekend and only drive it in Saturday afternoon traffic, you have wasted the weekend. The Sunday morning run out to Bentong and back is the drive that makes people book again, and it is almost entirely a question of what time you leave.

The timing, which is the whole thing

Be moving before 7am. At that hour the Karak Highway is quiet, the air is still cool enough to have the windows down, and the road is yours as far as Bentong. By 9.30am the weekend traffic has found it, by 10.30am the lorries have, and by then it is a slow, hot, frustrating road with nothing to recommend it.

The other half of the argument for an early start is that you are home by eleven. The whole drive fits into the part of Sunday nobody was using, and the rest of the day is untouched.

The route

1. Out of KL on the Karak Highway (E8). If you are coming from PJ or Subang, the NKVE to the MRR2 is the cleanest way to pick it up.
2. Through the Genting Sempah tunnel and down the far side — this is the good part, and the surface is generally excellent.
3. Exit for Bentong and stop. Breakfast, coffee, and let the brakes cool while you do.
4. Back the same way, or extend to Raub if you have made an even earlier start than you meant to.

What to actually watch for

• Surface changes on the older sections, particularly on the climb. The grip is inconsistent in a way that matters more in the wet.
• Drainage channels cut across the road at intervals on some of the side roads up to Genting. In a low car these will find your front lip.
• Lorries in the left lane on the climb, moving much slower than everything else. Assume one is around every blind right-hander.
• Monkeys near the Genting turn-offs. They are entirely unbothered by traffic and completely willing to sit in the road.
• Afternoon storms build fast up there. If you are still out at two and the sky has gone dark, come down before it starts, not during.

Which car

This road rewards a car that is engaging at moderate speed over one that is fast in a straight line. A 718 Cayman or Boxster is close to perfect for it. The Civic Type R is the value answer and genuinely one of the best cars for the job. A GT-R will do it very quickly and tell you less about it.

If you are in a Huracán or an Aventador, go, but go gently on the tighter hairpins — the cars are wide, the road was not built with them in mind, and there is no version of this drive that is improved by hurrying that section.

Before you set off

Tell us if a hill run is the plan and we will make sure the tyres, fluids and Touch 'n Go are all sorted before the car reaches you. You do not need permission for Genting or Bentong on most of the fleet — it is a normal use of the car — but it is worth us knowing.