Is motoring better today than in bygone eras?

We drove into Camden yesterday afternoon & had a cop car in front of us.

Last weekend, coming back from Campbelltown, we were stopped for a RBT, after passing a cop on the other side of the road who had just pulled over someone for speeding. So they are definitely around our area. :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by p38arover

Apart from the coppers who we call to come to work, I haven't seen a cop car on the road in nearly a month (except all the ones in the cop shop next door to work - but they aren't out and about anyway). Oh, I drive to/from work in the Blue Mountains (about 17km each way)

Cops really are as rare as hen's teeth. That's why I don't worry about being pulled up for speeding. The cops that are out and about are on general duties and too damn busy, anyway.

The cops are no longer parked (and haven't been for years) in the little hidey-holes they used to frequent. OH&S rules, I guess.

---

There are too many people who have no idia how to drive

Too many revenue cameras

Too many stupid rules, (and if you drive a heavy vehicle its even worse)

The motorest in NSW is treated as a cash cow for the grubbyment

And as for being pulled over for no reason just to blow in a bag, take a

drug sample or a fatuge test well thats just not right...

Tony

Give me a 60's to early 70's pommy sports car


Find me a new car that will meet my requirements and I will buy it.

It must NOT have

airbags
traction control
ICE
Bluetooth
cruisecontrol
climate control
an exhaust not lower than 80db at full noise
Seats that are too comfortable
7 seat capability
a rev limiter
computer controlled engine management
plastic panels


It must have

A set of triple side draft webers
The ability to remove the roof for nice spring mornings
A real polished wood dash
Not too many instruments to clutter the dashboard
The ability to oversteer when pushed way too far but the aility too handle reasonably well (read crap by todays sterile standards) when required
An exhaust note that when combined with a dishwasher, local pub on a very windy road with a takeaway curry house next door, a laundry service and ironfree clothes would remove the need for a woman in a mans life.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Well, I think it was more fun then. The cars required a great more skill and concentration to drive fast.

yes, but most of them did not go anywhere near as fast!

The roads were nothing like as good as today, even the ones we then thought were good roads.

Yes. I drive today on roads that have had no work done since the seventies (there still are a few) and think "This is what we thought was a good road?". Round here for example the big improvement was sealing the main highway in the mid seventies, and we thought we had it made - only two level crossings in the fifty kilometres to town instead of six. But thinking about it there have been steady improvements ever since - smoothing corners, improved grades, edge lines, wider bitumen, better safety barriers etc. But on the other hand there is probably twenty times the traffic including B-doubles.

In NSW most roads outside built-up areas were unrestricted, meaning there was no arbitrary speed limit. .........

The road toll, based on number of registered vehicles and distances travelled, in the early-mid sixties was horrific by todays standard. A number of things have contributed to the improvement in this. Seat belts the big one, collapsible steering columns another. The steering column was regularly referred to as "the spear aimed at the driver's heart". Better brakes, better tyres, better crash resistance of cars, better roads, better emergency medicine, all played their part.

Right - the actual number of deaths is less than it was in 1970, despite vast increases in the number of cars and their average mileage. The two big improvements have been seat belts and random breath testing. While safety improvements in cars have greatly reduced injuries and deaths when there is an accident, none of these has been near as significant as simply fitting (and using) seat belts. And in any case, the reduction of accidents from less drink driving and better roads has been much more effective at reducing overall deaths and injuries. Improved brakes and tyres have contributed but their effect has been offset by much higher average speeds. Fifty years ago a Holden weighing a bit over a tonne and carrying six people was considered relatively high powered with less than half the power that would be thought underpowered for a four seater the same mass today.

In spite of the almost exponential improvement in cars and roads, I cannot travel Brisbane-Sydney any quicker today than I could in around 1963-67 when I was involved in buying used cars in Sydney for sale in Brisbane. Twelve hours was the benchmark and this is about what you can do it in today with speed limits, speed cameras, & highway patrol. We had a lot of fun driving the New England Highway overnight and trying to cruise the underpowered drum braked retread shod beaters from the auctions almost at the top speed of many types. I did bring a Chev Camaro327 with drum brakes up in 8 3/4 hours one night. This jigger was good for an indicated 120mph cruise. Another night I got a higly modified Plymouth Belvedere loose on a gentle bend somewhere over 100mph and it took a good 1/2 mile of road to get it tucked back in and pointing straight. I had a passenger that night and he was very, very, quiet for a good while afterwards.

---

You are right that, for example, Sydney-Brisbane is slower than it was fifty years ago, and the same goes for probably most major routes.

John

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dobbo

Give me a 60's to early 70's pommy sports car


Find me a new car that will meet my requirements and I will buy it.

It must NOT have

airbags
traction control
ICE
Bluetooth
cruisecontrol
climate control
an exhaust not lower than 80db at full noise
Seats that are too comfortable
7 seat capability
a rev limiter
computer controlled engine management
plastic panels


It must have

A set of triple side draft webers
The ability to remove the roof for nice spring mornings
A real polished wood dash
Not too many instruments to clutter the dashboard
The ability to oversteer when pushed way too far but the aility too handle reasonably well (read crap by todays sterile standards) when required
An exhaust note that when combined with a dishwasher, local pub on a very windy road with a takeaway curry house next door, a laundry service and ironfree clothes would remove the need for a woman in a mans life.

---

"E" Type Jag?

JD, I clean forgot about the great reduction in drink driving. This has been a major life saver. What younger drivers don't know is that this took a concerted campaign of enforcement, punishment, and publicity to bring about a complete change in community attitude. Pre breathalyser (1968 in Qld.) a significant percentage of drivers saw no wrong in getting an absolute skinful and driving afterwards. I once heard a Sergeant of
Police expound that you had to be pretty p+++ed before you couldn't drive a motor car. Another copper I knew then, a Senior Constable at the time, refused to arrest a drink driver unless ordered by a superior. His reasoning being that he drank and drove and didn't see anything wrong with that. An Qld Inspector of Police who is a good customer of mine (model engineering) tells me that there are very few high readings over 0.15 nowadays but plenty around the 0.05-0.08 indicating a general awareness not to drink too much and drive. He says that pre RBT high readings of 0.15 to 0.3 and higher were quite common.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dobbo

Give me a 60's to early 70's pommy sports car


Find me a new car that will meet my requirements and I will buy it.

It must NOT have

airbags
traction control
ICE
Bluetooth
cruisecontrol
climate control
an exhaust not lower than 80db at full noise
Seats that are too comfortable
7 seat capability
a rev limiter
computer controlled engine management
plastic panels


It must have

A set of triple side draft webers
The ability to remove the roof for nice spring mornings
A real polished wood dash
Not too many instruments to clutter the dashboard
The ability to oversteer when pushed way too far but the aility too handle reasonably well (read crap by todays sterile standards) when required
An exhaust note that when combined with a dishwasher, local pub on a very windy road with a takeaway curry house next door, a laundry service and ironfree clothes would remove the need for a woman in a mans life.

---

Healey 3000?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rangier Rover

"E" Type Jag?

---

You know what they say about blokes driving cars with big bonnets don't you?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by haggisbasher

Healey 3000?

---

A Healey would be on my list, honestly though I think a Triumph TR6 would do me just fine.

I passionately love driving, here in the territory it was much better dring 20 years ago as the roads were all new and you could drive pretty safely at the speed the car was capable of - read no open speed limits.

I can still vividly remember cracking 250kph in my bosses flash V8 ford driving from Katherine to Darwin to deliver a southern manager to the air port on time, boss sent me as he knew my driving skills were up to it.

I'm older reflexs are slower, eyes aint what they were. more southern tourists that refuse to drive over 80kph on a 130 kph road limit. more traffic allround. But the sound of a V8 with the windows down wind blowing everywhere, or the throb and sound of the harley, will always get my blood running.

as far as new cars against old cars, new are definately safer, do they look better well I guess that is subjective.

Blythe

No douibt cars are more reliable now and if travelling a long distance to get from A to B, then the moderner the beterrer. (new usages of english being invented for Ron's benefit). The appeal of older cars was always that you were more a part of the environment - ie with a quarter vent window you could smell the countryside, rather than watching it from a climate controlled silent cabin like a movie going past.

It's a bit like asking "Do you prefer driving a Defender or a LandCruiser". No contest really.