[Agent Smith]

Any of you NorCal drivers have any favorite spots for great IS driving? Hwy 17 to Santa Cruz, Hwy 9, I-80 to Tahoe? What bay area backroads are you tearing up?

Agent Smith Out looking for the perfect road...

 

[S38]

May favorite early Saturday run is Hwy 17 to Bear Creek (the overpass at Lexington); exit and go up the hill (cool, tight, shaded turns); when you reach Skyline go straight and stay on Bear Creek; initially it is mostly 2cnd gear stuff then it opens up to some nice 3rd gear corners, real smooth and wide; slow down as it flattens out (there are houses and driveways); it intersects with Highway 9, turn right and head back towards Skyline on H9; awesome road for those that know it; when you get to Skyline again you can go straight if you live in San Jose or left and along Skyline if you live on the Peninsula. It will give your car a workout and if you do it early, no bikes or traffic. Make sure you take it easy in the shaded parts if there has been a heavy fog, it may still be damp.

Oh, if a white M5 comes up on your ass, please use the next turn out to get out of the way.


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S38
91 M5

 

[Agent Smith]

That sounds like a nice bit of a$$phalt. I'll check it out after I break my SBM in. 300 miles to go.

Oh yeah tomorrow is my Birthday - turning 32...it sure went by fast.

[This message has been edited by Agent Smith (edited October 19, 2000).]

 

[TEG]

Anything up to Skyline - hwy9, Hwy 84 (Woodside Road), PageMill road... Then anything down to hwy9 (LaHonda road, Hwy 84, Hwy9->17)... Watching the shadows come through the trees is really nice. It is most fun on my motorcycle though.

Also, the deserted roads near the reservoirs over the hills east of Fremont and east of Berkeley.

Various roads (including Montebello) in the hills west of Cuppertino...

 

[S38]

Yes, those roads are great also. Page Mill, a mere 2 miles from my house is a bit bumpy, so I tend to avoid it. Plus TONS of bicyclists.

84 is GREAT if you can get on it with no traffic. I went for a drive with new and old M5s and one car, a Cherokee, would simply not pull into a turn out. I thought our lead car was way too far off the guy. When we hit those straights by the beach it was a BMW train passing that car. We were flipped off by him, the biker on the other side and the farmer on the tractor next to the road.

As we approached that little town, I think I was doing about 95mph with an E39 M5 on my ass when my Valentine One went gonzo. I was on the brakes hard and grateful that the E39 has such good brakes.

The same group took another drive, which I missed, in the Wine Country and it was supposedly so speedy that some guys rounded tires off. They were on some near deserted roads. I still say you should take that kind of driving to the track but we all do it sometimes.

Check out the thread at the M5 board. Some pretty crazy driving.
http://www.bmwm5.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000648.html

 

[Agent Smith]

What about up in the wine country...how cool would that be in the Fall.

For a simply nice drive I think Monterey or Carmel would be great....imagine 7 Mile road...

[This message has been edited by Agent Smith (edited October 19, 2000).]

 

[YoungAgain]

Originally posted by S38:
Yes, those roads are great also. Page Mill, a mere 2 miles from my house is a bit bumpy, so I tend to avoid it. Plus TONS of bicyclists.

Just for the heck of it I go tearing up and down Page Mill to Skyline 3 or 4 times a week (it takes me about 13 1/2 minutes to do the 8.5 miles in either direction...if you observe the posted speed limits it should take you 25-30 minutes ^_^). Yep, in the daytime there are lots of cyclists, but towards the late evening there are none, and there's also very little auto traffic. Gotta be weary of deer though.

The best way to get to San Francisco from the mid-Peninsula has gotta be Page Mill up to Skyline, Skyline over to 84, 84 west to Hwy 1 and Hwy 1 into SF!

If you don't mind a little vertigo (big sheer drops with no guard rails), try the drive up to Mt. Hamilton from either direction.

By the way, has Hwy 9 reopened? The last time I tried it it was shut down.




[This message has been edited by YoungAgain (edited October 19, 2000).]