Thread: High performance cars and young drivers

Originally Posted by p38arover

We have that here already. One can't even drive an old Land Rover County V8 yet one can drive a Holden V6 with a bigger engine and much more power. But the authorities have ruled V8 = bad.

Personally, I'm against the limits on what new drivers can drive.

I should have clarified. In Ireland and the UK, you're restricted to engine capacity, not just the number of cylinders the engine has. And as Jonno pointed out, you're less likely to have your mates in the back seat egging you on if you're driving a Mark II Escort, than you are if you're driving a 4.0l V8.

Due to the fact that I've lived in a few countries, I've had the good fortune (??) to have sat my test five times (Ireland, USA (twice), South Africa, Georgia and Australia), and the varying standards leave a lot to be desired. Ten minutes driving round a country block (a field) in the States got me my license to drive anything smaller than a rigid truck, and surprisingly, Australia wasn't much better. Ireland, as backwards as it is at times, applied a far stricter test, and encompassed things such as roadside safety, mechanical repairs, wet weather driving, night driving, etc, etc. So yes, driver training is certainly important, however a 17 year old is a 17 year old wherever you are in the world, and putting them behind the wheel of a fast car before they've had time to master a skillset behind the wheel of a slow car is asking for trouble, IMHO.

So would those bans include Diesel V8s too?

Easo

Darwin awards. Pat

banning big horsepower is not the answer, after all it was only a scoobydoo, an idiot is going to crash just as fast in an excell. i drove a 500rwhp supercharged 304 in a vk commodore round on my p's for 3 years and am still here despite spending a lot of time on highways doing over 250kph. its the simple matter of how and when you drive fast that is the major cause of crashes, along with driver training. me personally, i grew up racing rally cars so getting used to 200kph on the dirt makes doing it on the bitumen easy. that being said with learning on closed rally courses gave you a lot more respect for how dangerous cars can be when you get it wrong. these kids today get no training on how to control a car properly before they are given a license, they also keep the mentality of "i can drive, just look how good i do it on the playstation" driver training is the only thing that will save lives, you can crash a smart car and die just as easily as a 500hp turbo skyline.

Originally Posted by wanglemoose

i drove a 500rwhp supercharged 304 in a vk commodore round on my p's for 3 years and am still here despite spending a lot of time on highways doing over 250kph.

"I drove like a lunatic on the highway and didn't kill myself or anyone else" isn't a defence for allowing it to happen in the first place, any more than "I have a fully auto M4 and *I* haven't shot up a school" is a defense against gun control in the US. Fact is, if you were hitting the highways at 250+kph, you were *lucky* you didn't kill someone, no more, no less. And the person sitting behind the wheel of a 1.4l Astra won't have the capacity to do something that foolish.

you can crash a smart car and die just as easily as a 500hp turbo skyline.

If I'm behind the wheel of the car that's going to get hit head on, I'd prefer the oncoming idiot to be behind the wheel of a smart car, rather than a 500hp turbo skyline.... maybe that's just me.

Originally Posted by PAT303

Darwin awards. Pat

I doubt the power factor would matter in some cases. - just to validate Pats comment..

'Come on mate, it's New Year's Eve'

DateJanuary 2, 2013 - 7:40AM

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Tammy Mills

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You're 16, you're driving a car around a roundabout the wrong way and police pull you over with a blood-alcohol limit of almost three times the legal limit.
And your first response to police?
“Come on mate. It's New Year's Eve.”
This is what a teenager allegedly told police early yesterday after he was pulled over in Wodonga with three teenage mates in the car, The Border Mail reports.
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It was one case among a litany of stupid behaviour on the roads during new-year celebrations, including a P-plater in Bright who blew .204 and an Albury youth, 15, allegedly driving while two friends were in the tray of a utility.
Wodonga police Sergeant Wal Larkin said police had received several reports of an erratic driver in Wodonga about 6am.
The Mitsubishi Sigma was seen driving the wrong way around the roundabout at the intersection of Melrose Drive and Melbourne Road.
Sergeant Larkin said police had pulled the car over and found the teenager who was driving had three passengers, aged either 18 or 19.
He said the driver was “noticeably intoxicated” and a breath test had returned a reading of .141.
Sergeant Larkin said the unlicensed teenager in the unregistered car had asked to be let off saying: “Come on mate, it's New Year's Eve”.
Sergeant Larkin was not impressed.
“It's frustrating because of the level of his intoxication and the risks of injury or worse for other innocent road users was extreme,” Sergeant Larkin said.
The teenager will be charged on summons with exceeding the prescribed concentration of alcohol, unlicensed driving, driving an unregistered car and disobeying road signs.
Bright police intercepted a teenager driving with more than four times the legal blood alcohol limit.
Leading Senior Constable Mick Guiney said police had seen the 18-year-old tourist, who only got his P-plate licence four months ago, doing a burn-out in Gavin Street.
The teenager's breath test returned a reading of .204.
“That gives a new meaning to the words bloody idiot,” Leading Senior Constable said.
The teenager's car was impounded for 30 days and he will be charged with exceeding the prescribed concentration of alcohol and possibly dangerous driving.
The Border Mail



Read more: 'Come on mate, it's New Year's Eve'

Originally Posted by wanglemoose

driver training is the only thing that will save lives

I believe that there is some evidence that driver education has the potential to save more lives than driver training.

I'm pretty sure more drivers are killed because of an inappropriate attitude than are killed because of lack of ability.

I've been teaching driving for the last 2&1/2 years. There have been a few attitudes that have come up regularly:

1) I can drive and don't need lessons. (Maybe, but any monkey can move a car around - few people can do it safely.)
2) I need a licence and it shouldn't be so hard. (It should be harder as it's probably the one thing that most people do that requires such a high skill level.)

But my favourite comes from just about anyone who's had a licence for a long time: "I'm a good driver. I've been driving for years." So I'll say, "Okay, let's go for a pretend test and see how good you are." Then they always panic and say, "No no no no no no no no not needed!" So I'll just say that if they're that good, they don't need to worry, but not a one has taken up the challenge. I love it, it just cracks me up.

I don't need to teach that much for someone to get through their test, and it's still way above what most licensed drivers are capable of.

It sounds like the Irish are way ahead with this. A far higher standard is needed, and advanced training should be easily available if someone wants it, but the biggest problem is that driving is not taken seriously and is seen as more as a sort of recreation.

Nobody walks into a flying school and demands a licence right away and complains about how it should be easier!