Who was/has been a HOON

[weeds]

a few threads discussing it.......

must admit i was i hoon in my late teens, 17yo, V8 HQ panel van cut down into a ute, fri/sat night drags out near the airport, burn outs/line lockies in the industrial estate, top speed down appy straight, spend the weekend polishing the cars for dean st runs, had my car confiscated for 4 weeks (and this was way before hooning laws 1989, but i was in no position to question my boss)

must admit looking back now it was quite silly and dangerous at times/most of the time, grew out of it pretty quick when i nearly lost my licence in 91, at the tender age of 21 i gave up V8 and brought a 4wd. wouldn't have change a thing cause that was us......

out of here

[hiline]

i liked to hoon around when i first got my licence

but not much of a hoon as such.........

the odd burnout and maybe some speeding

i must confess to buying a V12 Jag when i was 19,man that thing used to go fast
i remember one night by myself doing 240K's done the freeway

[rmp]

These days a hoon is anyone booked for speeding.

In my view, a real hoon is an irresponsible driver which may or may not involve excessive speeding. For example those idiots lighting up the tyres not far away from my house. Driving to scare other people, intentionally or not. Hanging the back end out around rounadbouts intentionally. Racing on the streets, that sort of thing.

For me a hoon also had to endanger, scare or worry other people. A few boys doing what boys do far from anyone else is quite different to playing V8 Supercars around the suburbs.

Hoonery isn't just speed, it's an attitude.

[Bigbjorn]

Originally a hoon was a man who lived off the earnings of prostitution. "Hooning off her" was a classic use.

Next the word came to refer to anti-social teenage louts in the period after the terms bodgie and widgie fell into disuse. These were usually the groups that hung around late night hamburger shops and milk bars. No connection then with motor vehicles other than some of the group may have had vehicles.

Nowadays it seems to refer to anyone of any age who uses a motor vehicle in a manner not approved of by police, politicians, and bureaucrats.

[Fusion]

I was a hoon ( could still be one ) . 18-19 years of age with a 400hp commodore that required 2 to 3 sets of rear tyres a week . would also go through $150 of fuel a week ( petrol was 85c ) .

Building another commodore now so may not have grown out of it just yet !

[WhiteD3]

Call me boring but I was never a hoon. Loved my cars too much to treat them badly. Had mates who were hoons and I found travelling with them scary as their opinions of their driving skills didn't match reality.

[ashman]

I'm still a hoon, I think being 51 now I would out grow it but I still like fast cars into fast motorcycles and right into fast and powerfull dirt bike, but one thing I have learned is when you have to get this out of your system is I do my hooning by myself and away from anyone, don't involve anyone and if my kids see me do somethink silly I explan to them what could happen if I made a mistake, I have had some close encounters over the years and lost a few friends as well, but I think it has made me a better driver and more into the safety side of things now as well the safety gear you have these days is so much better than 35 years ago...

Ashley

[CraigE]

It depends what you deem a hoon. There are just too many definitions of a hoon these days. While I could be defined as a hoon in my young days, I was not one of these people that did burnouts all over town and high speed through town and never ever drove under the influence. We used to go to old mine car parks (closed) and do burnouts, deserted dirt roads to do drifties. Have been guilty of speeding but picked time and places, not just anywhere. Of course reving V8s and chirpies etc, but never cut loose in town. Also drag raced on public roads, but not condoning it, it was reasonablly safe stretch of road with vehicles posted either end of the 2km straight stretch that at the time did not get much traffic with radio comms for us to shut anything down if any traffic was approaching and from either end you could see traffic approcahing from 4kms. No facilities for doing any of this within 600kms. Drivers were not allowed or supposed to drink. Police even tolerated it to a fair extent.
Then there is stuff we did in dirt bikes, mostly off road, but under the definition widely used today would be hooning.
Then there is what we all do now in 4X4s, if we are going to be realistic then that is hooning too, just because you are off road and in a 4X4 does not make it any different.
I still love speed, burnouts etc but refrain from it most of the time and would generally only do a burnout on private property. Kids are going to pretty much do it regardless what we say, so I would rather make sure they did it in as much as practicable a safer environment if possible.
The biggest issue I see these days is not the burnout but the high speed burnout / drift that gets out of control on public roads.
To show I am not just a hoon we actually reported and had a car impounded when a idiot in a SS VE came out behind us and just launched, burnout marks for 200m off the side of the road in dirt (dark area if someone was on the footpath/verge there is no way he would have been able to see them and they would be dead), back on again etc. We were doing 60kms and had 150m gap and even with the burnout he caught us before finishing the burnout and he would have been 25 plus.
I think where it should come into play is if it is defined as dangerous driving (and the real definition, even though I know just doing a chirpie you can be booked as dangerous driving). Even drink and drug driving and this is the biggest combined issue and is eveident in most accidents like the serious one last week.

[cookiesa]

Bit boring but another one who has never been in to "hooning". Lost several friends in to gum trees before I started driving, The trees always won. I was more interested in diesel 4x4's... not enough go to spin the wheels in those lol

[robzilla]

been in a car club since i was 18, do all my hooning around Sandown, Philip Island, Winton and motorkhana's at DECA
much more fun on a track when you're not looking out for cameras, police...pedestrians