Technical deserted road ..San Jose Ca. area

30 or so years ago I could have taken you to any number of places to test and tune in San Jose up to about Redwood City. Those days are gone I am afraid. You may try and get hooked up with the local clandestine street racers and see where they hook 'em up. maybe just hang out at the races and then go back when no one is around. Its a seedy bunch and you run the risk of getting locked up and fined but if you are doing test and tune on a public road you run that risk anyway.

 

sorry, there are no more back roads in the Bay Area. they have been banned just like empty lots.

 

Unfortunately, you won't find any roads in the city that aren't monitored....and because of that, semi-organized street racing in San Jose has been dormant for many years. The only street racing you'll see are 16 yr. olds dangerously duking it out in their parent's hondas on busy streets.....and those have generally ended in crashes and fatalities.
For any kind of test and tune, you'll have to get out of the city's limits. One place I used to go was on San Antonio Valley Rd (Ca. St. Route 130)....on the backside of Mt. Hamilton near Mines Rd. Lots of long straightaways and nothing but ranch land as far as the eye can see. That's all county sheriff country, so be careful......they tend to hide behind livestock and jump out when you least expect.

 

Yea I can remember open areas between the City and San Jose, by the '80s it was disappearing at least as far south as red Wood City and the last time I was home it was megapolis (megalopolis). You don't know if you changed cities unless you saw the sign.

@Ruben Duran I wasn't aware that there was no street racing in San Jose. That used to be a serious as pro racing and I didn't figure it would ever die.

 

Yup...been dead for awhile, pnb.....oh, you still hear about racing every now and then, but mostly it's because of accidents that claimed the lives of the driver, his passengers or some poor jogger getting in his nightly run. Just last week, a street race took the lives of three juveniles on E. Santa Clara and 22nd, just east of downtown. Because of stuff like that, the fuzz around hear don't dick around. Hell, you get hassled simply standing next to your car at a parking lot meet up. Times have changed indeed.

 

Long, long time ago we used Canada Rd. by Pulgas Temple for a quick blast. Don't know if that can still be done. If someone posted a great place for test and tune, that was deserted and near San Jose. It wouldn't be deserted long.

 

Hell, I thought Cali was full of old abandoned air strips. I guess 'progress' took care of that, huh?

 

Well I used to get hassled in San Jose for standing near my ride but it was for other reasons I am afraid, not because I was going racin'.

I rode out with a fella from Los Gatos to some street races one time he said in San Jose, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you where they were today. There was some serious racin goin on there, blown on fuel, cars that should have been running altered in about any venue across the nation. it was like a car movie. My friend said that those guys were pros just in a different atmosphere, they did make room for the street driven cars too and some of them were way more serious than I wanted to get. They stoll do it here but its as hard as joining a motor cycle club, you don't just show up and go racin.

I think you are correct, the Bay Area guys who want to get crazy and the other guys who monitor those guys. I think if I actually could name a place anymore I would do it via PM.

 

Some one mentioned Hwy 25 south out of Hollister there is very little traffic and a lot of straight a ways it runs all the way to San Miguel. I've driven it in my roadster a number of times with some club guys trying get in the 200 MPH club I ran my car to well over 110+ but didn't have the balls to keep up with the big dogs, last time we drove it the condition was good. just don't dodge the ground squirrel's they run across the road, better to hit them than a tree.

 

The old Morgan Hill airport would have been good. I made some touch and goes there in the 70s. Now a built up area. Big store there. I wounder if South County would let you use a taxi way? Doubt it.

 

I think that most of those old "abandoned air strips" are privately owned these days. Most of the time the owner will quote you insurance problems if you ask to use one. It may be the same problem with a privately owned public air strip too.

 

I wouldn't dismiss Moffet field without going over there and asking around. Military guys, NASA guys, they'd probably dig it. Heck you could probably do an 1/8 mile run inside Hanger One.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffett_Federal_Airfield

 

You do realize that Lockheed uses those runways to ship some really sensitive stuff, don't you? Security is pretty tight there. Yeah they are big wide open runways. Hardly ever used. Lots of people have had lots of ideas on how there could be a return on investment there. Government don't want to hear it. I guess guys still race on the Great Highway in the city on Saturday night. Might try there.

 

They do got some big assed hangers there. I got lost there one time trying to deliver a load of diesel to a road crew (I zigged when I should have zagged) met some really nice guys in jeeps and they helped me find my way out of the restricted area.

 

that would be great...that or morgan hill.........I live in new almaden

 

That sounds like around here...
And if you were in my area, and asked this question, NO WAY IN HELL would I post an answer on an open internet forum...Not that I would know of such a place....

 

I am old now. Even older than Beaner. So that is old. But when I was young, I once was arrested for street racing. The ticket read speed contest, over 100 mph in a 55 zone. They took me to jail. I met a whole new group of people I wouldn't have met otherwise. The whole deal wasn't that great. I would never want to do it again. So take that for what it's worth.

 

Not a chance locally. Gilroy, Morgan Hill all built up . Why not just haul it to the strip in Sacramento. The people around here are Far from car friendly.

 

Those peoples grand children are far worse than they were no doubt. I haven't been arrested in a long time and try to avoid it every chance I get.

In this brave new world that we live in you are far better off to try and meet the law half way.

 

My dad tested his AA/FA in the street in front of our house. At the far end was a cul-de-sac and only one cross street. I don't think he did more than a couple of good launch tests, and always at night, because that's when you got everything buttoned up on the engine, right?

I had a friend who raced bikes in his younger days and told me stories about test launches in front of his street. After the neighbors complained and they put in a speed bump right in front of his house, he would use that for a burnout bumper on his street bikes...at 1 AM.

 

I got along alright. What was disturbing to me was that the other guys who passed through, were comfortable with being there. They knew the jailers, knew the drill, were not pushing for bail. jail was as good a place to be as any, it seemed. Told me that now I was one of the bad guys. I didn't think so. Didn't even want to think about it.

 

When I lived in Petaluma we'd go next to the airport; straight, flat and you could see any headlights from the side roads. Course that T intersection at the end could catch you by surprise.

When I moved to San Francisco I'd have a buddy flag me when the side street was clear and launch up the street and through the stop sign and intersection. This was 10th and Balboa.

 

as they say 3 hots and a cot baby.

I got tossed in holding with a child molester in Oakland and he was proud of it. I was not comfortable with him at all and let him know it in no uncertain terms. Not the kind of people that you want to be associated with for sure.

I think the most fun ever in lockup was in Redwood City in the drunk tank. I am not sure why I ended up there, I was a sober as a judge (rare for the time period). I got arrested for J walking, well that and being rude about it, a life lesson for sure. I had to do traffic school and pay a fine. Never the less drunks can be a lot of fun when you're sober.

It is not a good way to be and I am not proud of ever being locked up at all. But it can be a life changing experience. I wonder if calfiornia still has felony speeding. The fellas that could become your friends if you didn't get probation would not be nearly as fun as the guys in the drunk tank.

 

You do realize that Google took over Moffet Field this year, don't you? All sorts of civilian use going on.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business...ging-moffett-field-and-its?source=infinite-up

 

Man...San Jose. Must have laid 2 feet of rubber there (2 feet DEEP!) in the years I raced, grandstanded, and 'tested' after builds and tunes...
We raced Coffin Road, [sinister name for a 'raceway'] Coffin was off Kifer, between Santa Clara and Sunnyvale...1 mile from Owen Corning Fiberglass. Coffin Rd. is gone now, gobbled up by Intel. My great grandfather's farm was right there, ran from Scott Blvd. to San Tomas Expressway (when STE was the creek behind their farm!)
All Silicon Valley now.

10th St. in San Jose was good any week night, (just past the fairgrounds) used that one from '57 thru '63.
7th St. (South) was pretty good, but for the diagonal railroad tracks that crossed. Lost my '50 Olds Coupe there (110 MPH) blew a front tire, poled it broadside. Lucky, just bruises.
1962, IBM opened up and their front entry drive was 4 lanes. Big drag racing there, for the time...
Friend Al held record there with his new 413 Dodge Long Ram...
Montague Expressway in Santa Clara was a good 'strip'...Had a set of stoplights we could use, run 1/4 mile (marked!) then slow for 1/8 mile, onramp onto 101 toward San Francisco.
Cops eventually followed the procession out of R&J drive in, hid out off the road...caught some of the 'less slick'.
Gosh, we used to do that a lot! Every night, 'til we got 'serious' and started running Fremont ('Baylands') Then we worked late in the shop, tooled down for coffee, and got ready for the big weekend at the strip. Kinda missed the impromptu 'Drag it out' on the late night streets, though...

 

Not too long ago, I saw some guys line up new M3, an Evo and an old Datsun 510 with a big turbo on 280 North near Redwood city on a Friday night around 10. They slowed down, stopped the fucking freeway, did their thing and ducked out on the next exit. Datsun smoked 'em. Street racing is alive and well. It's just off topic.

The problem with the Great Highway in SF is that all of the stoplights are for crosswalks. The chance of hitting a drunk/stoned late-night beach goer is a little high for my taste.

 

To tell you the truth, No I didn't. But I don't see how that means your going to get to do test runs there. What happened to Ames? last time I remember being there they were running the big wind tunnel and that thing did move the ground.

 

as the black helicopters take off and head towards central Wisconsin ....

 

I sent a PM- Don't need anyone knowing what's up,and ruining it for other guy's(not you guy's!) Plenty of places....I mentioned a couple real close to UD=
Just can't parade around and make an event of it! Gotta get busy/get gone......
Where there are "spots'', they are great,but,you just can't linger and take your time as an all day event.
It's get busy/get gone....... They are still around,and the tire marks are there to prove it.......

 

This may seem a bit odd, but have you asked a local cop? Explain what you want to do and how you can do it safely, asking if there may be a place where they can supervise your test?