When should I leave for the hospital?

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I'm 38+5 and live about 40 minutes away from the hospital. Wondering at what point I should set off for hospital ie time between contractions.
With ds1 I had a very long latent phase and was finally allowed to stay after a week of useless contractions!
So this time round I may have a more straightforward labour with more useful contractions and I just keep thinking when should I leave? Don't want to give birth in a vineyard on the way ( I live near Bordeaux!!) and it would freak out my DH no end :)

I think ring MW (do you have MW or OB?) when they get to toe-curling & go with their advice.

I have both! I read they can tell by the tone of your voice!!!

Yes, in the UK they want to be on the phone to you through a contraction so they can hear how it's going. If you can talk through it, they tell you not to go in yet, but roughly speaking they say 6-7 minutes apart, here. Especially if it's your second, they sort of trust that you know whether it's the real thing or not.

With DD1 I went into labour in hospital so didn't need to think about that part. With DD2 we got the GPs round to take care of DD1 about 2 hours after contractions started, which was partly because they started in the middle of the night. We left then for hospital (20 mins drive) and I was admitted with 8cm dilation.

When I rang labour ward earlier in the week. They aske where I was. I live around 10 minutes away from the hospital and they said to phone them again when I had three contractions in 10 minutes. I was currently having one every 5 minutes. Got to the stage they said to ring back and hour later.

If I had lived further away I guess they may have asked me to go in when I first rang.

I also live about 40 minutes from the hospital - I rang up first when my waters broke (no contractions at that point). Got told to eat something and go back to bed.

Rang them back when I was having contractions that varied between every 5 minutes and non-stop. And couldn't talk through them! Went in after that phonecall.

Thatust have been an interesting journey Visualise - how did you cope with such fast contractions in the car?

Both times it was when I couldn't talk through a contraction, and dh had to speak on my behalf.
Although, with dd1, they said I was 1cm dilated and wanted to send me back home, as I was probably be there til lunch time, and it was 1am. I refused, and 3 hours later dd1 arrived. Felt rather smug at that one, but with dd2 I was 8cm dilated by the time mw faffed about looking up there, and she arrived 2 hours later, with a mw trying to panic with baby's shoulders may get stuck being a big baby my eye, she flew out like dd1.

I just kept screaming haha! I did have a TENS machine, but I couldn't hold on to it properly while in the car so it wasn't much help :) I just tried to keep my focus on the road, luckily it was a Sunday so the windy county roads were pretty empty. It was a bit of a blur, but because I had 3-5 contractions with no break, and then a 3-7 minute break sometimes, I managed. I did try to breath through them.

Panting, apparently, can slow down ctx temporarily. Worth a try?

I did pant actually. And shouted 'I'm going to poooooo!!' quite a bit too :)

Once we arrived at the MLU, and I was checked (only 2cms!), I got into the pool and had some gas and air. That really helped, and slowed my contractions down, and I stopped having several in a row with no break. After a couple of hours of that, they began to ramp up again, so I got out, got back in, got back out, and 5 hours after that first check, baby appeared.

Just seen my OB and she said come in after you've had regular contractions for 2 hours. And to call the midwife as and when I need to. So the countdown is on - two weeks til due date!
Thanks for all your replies. I will try and remember to pant :)