High performance cars and young drivers

A lot of todays problems,violence,motor accidents,and general road behavior is the result of 30+ years of parents and teachers telling children that they can do nothing wrong and that they have "Rights" well those children have grown up with the attude "I know everything,can do anything,because it is my right" some grow up to become good and outstanding adults,some ratbags.

Way back when I was young (my daughter used to boast,"My Daddy used to feed the Dinosaurs") my first car was an old 34 Ford V8 Tourer,tranverse springs,6 volt electrics,canvas top,mechanical cable brakes,andhand/vacuum wipers :eek:
and it would do 80mph (130?kph) wooden frame body with tin nailed on, seatbelt only existed in aircraft,bent a few mudguards,went through a couple of front fences :( but I survived,yes, there was less traffic and it flowed slower,but the braking and handling of most vehicles was poor,but having to pay for repairs to the car and what I hit sure taught one to be carefull or how to be poor.


I think that the current license testing could be improved upon with re-testing at 12 months and end of "P's" here in Qld if you pass your test "P's" allow you to do highway speed 100/110 but I note that some interstate vehicles have "P's" with limited (80) in small circles in the corner,in built up areas it is a good idea,but on the highway it slows traffic flow,frustrates other drivers,but the problems manifest themselves when new drivers encounter heavy rain/storms,they either slow right down and block traffic or continue at high speed unaware of the reduced tyre grip on the road.


rant over that is my 2c


cheers

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Originally Posted by wanglemoose

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.

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Yes you can die in either, but the Smart is unlikely to be sideways drifting on a suburban street at 100kph, loose it and hit some poor kid on the footpath or run into someones house. I had and built a Subaru W.R.X. with 230kw at all four wheels. In real life performance it would eat most V8's around. We used to drive it at combined car club meetings. I soon got very tired of kids in baseball caps attempting to race me at every set of lights on an almost daily occurrence. I eventual sold it to a person I believed had a brain in his head only to be informed the the nut case that bought it had it confiscated and lost his license for driving the thing at 200kph on a main road.

Allan

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Originally Posted by Allan

Yes you can die in either, but the Smart is unlikely to be sideways drifting on a suburban street at 100kph, loose it and hit some poor kid on the footpath or run into someones house. I had and built a Subaru W.R.X. with 230kw at all four wheels. In real life performance it would eat most V8's around. We used to drive it at combined car club meeting. I soon got very tired of kids in baseball caps attempting to race me at every set of lights on an almost daily occurrence. I eventual sold it to a person I believed had a brain in his head only to be informed the the nut case that bought it had it confiscated and lost had his license for driving the thing at 200kph on a main road.

Allan

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the point i was trying to make between the smart car and the 500hp skyline is that if you put the same driver in both that they are still going to try do the same stupid things.

Have you ever attempted to drift a Smart:D:D?

Allan

Let kids be kids......when I was a kid I had a tricked up V8 HQ Ute and had plenty if scary moments and probably left a lot of older people at the time grumbling hoon under their breath.....

not saying what I did was right or wrong it's just how I rolled when I was 17......

The question is how the situation can be improved without the dogooders come with a stupid laws :(
Someone is going to say that there is no need for a high performance car in a city were 70% of the driving is done @ 50 to 60 kph and the maximum speed outside that area is 110 kph :(

Realistically the situation can't be improved. The accident rate is already pretty low (in my opinion) and real improvements could only be made by extensive driver education to correct attitudes. That just won't happen because of the costs involved.

After going through getting the eldest offspring to log book hours, I would have to say that the importance of education and good driver attitude can't be overstated enough.

I also find the V8, turbo bans for P platers generally rather poorly thought out, given old V8’s are very underpowered compared to today's average car and an increasing number of modern cars have small engines with turbos and modest power outputs to meet emission and ecomomy targets. Far better to have a kw/tonne limit i think and perhaps set it a falcon/commodore 6 figure.

Steve

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Originally Posted by Chucaro

The question is how the situation can be improved without the dogooders come with a stupid laws :(
Someone is going to say that there is no need for a high performance car in a city were 70% of the driving is done @ 50 to 60 kph and the maximum speed outside that area is 110 kph :(

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Its not the cars. The braking distance, Tyre choice, handling, stability and traction control on a high performance vehicles makes these vehicles far better at speed than your run of the mill vehicle. The problem is that in the 60's and 70's 17-21 year old could not afford vehicles this quick. I just dont think they should be able to buy one whille on P plates. Would you let you 17 year old son/daughter buy a tricked out Skyline G.T.

Allan

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Originally Posted by UncleHo

A lot of todays problems,violence,motor accidents,and general road behavior is the result of 30+ years of parents and teachers telling children that they can do nothing wrong and that they have "Rights" well those children have grown up with the attude "I know everything,can do anything,because it is my right" some grow up to become good and outstanding adults,some ratbags.

Way back when I was young (my daughter used to boast,"My Daddy used to feed the Dinosaurs") my first car was an old 34 Ford V8 Tourer,tranverse springs,6 volt electrics,canvas top,mechanical cable brakes,andhand/vacuum wipers :eek:
and it would do 80mph (130?kph) wooden frame body with tin nailed on, seatbelt only existed in aircraft,bent a few mudguards,went through a couple of front fences :( but I survived,yes, there was less traffic and it flowed slower,but the braking and handling of most vehicles was poor,but having to pay for repairs to the car and what I hit sure taught one to be carefull or how to be poor.


I think that the current license testing could be improved upon with re-testing at 12 months and end of "P's" here in Qld if you pass your test "P's" allow you to do highway speed 100/110 but I note that some interstate vehicles have "P's" with limited (80) in small circles in the corner,in built up areas it is a good idea,but on the highway it slows traffic flow,frustrates other drivers,but the problems manifest themselves when new drivers encounter heavy rain/storms,they either slow right down and block traffic or continue at high speed unaware of the reduced tyre grip on the road.


rant over that is my 2c


cheers

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I'm thinking this post has most of the right stuff in it. Our kids seem to have been taught all the wrong stuff when it comes to attitude and thier "Rights".

Also, yes when we were kids, we had enough respect to muck around out where no one else would be hurt if and when it all went pair shaped. We never had passengers, and yes, of course our cars didn't have the power back then. But we still gave our cars and ourselves a worry at times :eek2:

Someone earlier also mentioned that our kids now a days, didn't have dad teaching them bad habits,, that there's more "lessons etc,,, your right, now they've got any ****** who'll let them behind the wheel of a car teaching them. 120 hours prerequisite is a lot of time, and I've seen what would be considered as "the blind leading the blind" when it comes to teachers. How can someone just off his her P's be let instruct a learner. There are no rules on this issue, so mates will teach mates,, it's wrong.

There should be some kind of aptitude test first, to see if you have the right attitude to even allowed behind a wheel of a car, as well as more proffesional driver response training.