so yesterday i was coming back from a sushi lunch in los altos and decided to go for a spin. i'd been wanting to drive calaveras but never got around to it, so i jumped on 237 and took calaveras all the way to the hills and continued until i hit the 680.

wow what a fun drive. at first i thought the street was a one way (both sides of the street were marked with white paint and there was no lane divider) but i saw an oncoming truck and realized i needed to keep to the right. at the part of the drive that overlooks the lake, there were a bunch of old sh*tty crxs or something gathered, taking pictures. they gave me that envious glare haha. continued on the drive, but their little caravan caught up to me since i wasn't trying to set any speed records (or go drifting off the edge of a cliff) and the leader passed me, spitting all this dirt in his wake on to my car. wasn't too happy about that and made sure none of the rest of his crew got close to passing me.

i started the drive with a quarter tank of gas from sunnyvale, and i'm not sure what's up with the g's gas sensor. shortly into it, i was one tick mark above empty . i took it easy on the gas, worried i might hit E on the road with no cell reception and no gas station around for miles. the weird thing is, when i got to the 680 junction, i was all the way back up to a quarter tank, maybe one tick below and when i got to a gas station by where i live, i got 17 gallons in the tank. i think the placement of the sensor is messed up, so that if you are driving up hill, it notes less gas than actually exists in the tank.

anyway, after that experience, i'm down for doing a caravan through calaveras. it's not the easiest drive and there are lots of places where you either risk it going around a corner fast hoping no one is coming in the opposite direction or you have to slow down a bunch to be safe. i love the big brakes on the '06. i erred on the side of safety but there was very very little traffic saturday afternoon @ 3pm. i think i encountered 4 cars coming in the opposite direction.

oh yeah, i finally got some clear corners on my ride and i'm going to install the aluminum pedals i got sometime this week.... then i get to do the stereo install of the PAC AAI-NIS2 for my ipod

 

Great story! I wish you'd caught up to that first CRX though, and ask them if they can still get replacement parts for their cars!

 

Nice write up!

Actually, I was kind of itching for a drive Sunday, and went up Calaveras around 6pm. Not too much traffic if I remember correctly. 1 car on the uphill and 1 car going down.

Normally I just take it for 5 miles, from Milpitas until the border of Alameda. I then loop around and go down.

I have to agree with you on the blind corners though. Better to err on the safe side, especially being out in the middle of no where. A caravan going up there would be nice though!

 

Great story. Someone set a date and let's do it!

 

I love the Calaveras drive. You see some great scenery and views. Plus it's only about 5 minutes from my house

 

How about this date? free food than a drive? Drove thru it this afternoon, bit trun off by it tho, cus there was only one lane most of the way was worry about the car coming from other direction, so I could not really open it up, doing only bout 40 most of the way, but it still cool drive tho.

2006 Dunlop Round Up in San Jose!!!

Sat. Feb 18th
12-4pm

LOCATION:
Skips Tire & Auto Center
1150 Blossom Hill Rd
San Jose, CA 95118

FREE BBQ, raffles, & WIN Dunlop Tires!!!

https://g35driver.com/forums/nor-cal-g/83762-round-up-feb-18-san-jose-ca.html

 

It is a great run. You should try it going up Sierra Road in San Jose and then cutting over(right turn) to old Calaveras. Thats the run we did in high school a bit longer but more to see. Enjoy!

 

Damn, I work that day.

 

if the weather's good i'm in. we could meet up, head over to this event and check it out, then head out for a drive.

 

You're correct; when you drive uphill, the gas sensor will always read lower than is in the tank. This happens because the gas in the tank is no longer level, but is slanted and the sensor is lower in the tank than it should be.

It's easy to imagine if you put 1/2 cup water into a measuring cup. Now tilt the cup back and see how much water is at the lowest measurement line - less than 1/2 cup for sure.

This is not a G35 issue, but a most car issue. Unless you measure at multiple points of the gas tank and average out the "height" to determine volume of gas remaining, you will get bad readings when not on flat ground.

 

Ummm...ever heard of sick leave? ...so who is down for some free food and drive? Quite of few 350Zs are going, even couple of bimmers so far ...come on now...

 

I'm in for the 18th. I need to go to an event and meet you guys. Only had the G for about 3 months now and need some G community friends.

Eitherway, Calaveras is fun, but so far nothing beats Mt. Hamilton. Call that road what you want, but back when I had my 2000 Celica GT-S, that road was a dream.

Also, that lake that you said you saw was the San Antonio Resovior... and just a little story on that lake, about 15 year back, a light prop plane crashed in the lake. The divers who went to locate and recover the plane came up out after finding the plane and were shocked.

You would expect them to say something like "damn, that guy never had a chance" or something like that, but instead they made the comment that "we have never seen fish so big in our lives...."

I used to fish there (even though it was illegal), but that just sparks your imagination on what they saw.

 

Yeah, the Mt. Hamilton is pretty insane, we had meet back in 03, we took drive up to there, it basicly is 50 miles of none stop u-trun, we might need to do that again some time soon.

 

For more great roads, check out http://www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm

 

Only I wish limeg35 does the meet on presidental weekend. Well, I wont make it.. but i want full report at my desk next day.