The News Thread

[Letchy]

Originally Posted by bird

Was hoping to subliminally insert Nazi views into people but you caught me out

[Rossco]

You can't train maturity/responsibility into a 17 year old period, some have it - some don't.

Next best thing is to blunten the weapon, lower the power to weight of what they can drive....Fine it may still do 180 (but probably not without a 30 knot tailwind), but it will take much longer to get there.....The thrill & sensation of power is reduced & the need to show someone 'how quick' your car is just isn't there either.

I don't think there's many of us 'old farts' here that could have purchased a sub 6 second 0-100 car for ~ $10k when we were 17. Let alone afford to tweak our first car to make 30% more power than stock with a quick flash tune as the technology simply wasn't available.

For the first 6 months of my license (1991) I drove my mums Mitsi colt, I saved $400 & bought a fiat 128 1.3L coupe that I drove - repaired- drove- repeat- for 2 years. I then moved on to my love affair with Mazda Rotaries starting with a 13b powered RX-4 sedan when I was 20.....About this time the first WRX Impreza was released here for just over $40,000.

Move forward nearly 20 years & the power output of cars available for 17 year olds is huge in comparison, there are many more road users today (population up by about 500,000 from 20 years ago) & even your mums old v6 Magna has more balls than what was financially viable to most of the old fart brigade when we were on P's (most of my mates were driving cars like Gemini's, Corolla's, Laser's & Escorts).

The problem is that a 17 year old today - is still the same 17 year old from 20 years ago- 6 feet tall & bullet proof - combined with more powerful cars of today, youthful exuberance & the same lack of understanding of the consequences of their actions. It's simply a recipe for disaster - unfortunately demonstrated repeatedly over the last few years.

I'm no angel myself, I've done stupid shit in cars - Some that have taught me to respect the road, my cars, other road users & that it's a privilege to hold a driver's license.

I drive a relatively high powered car & know that I can exceed the state speed limit with little more than a squeeze of my right foot.... It's all about a little self control, time & place - pan or track.

[Shez]

I think training is the key, but not just vehicle training. Have training sessions over say 4 weeks, that show all the photos and footage taken from fatal crashes. Repeatedly. Show them a baby that has been flung from a car, show them a mother who's head is 50 meters from her body, show it all. Show the vehicles. Show the charred remains. It may or may not work, but at least it is giving them more of a chance to see consequences and maybe just flash a bad image in their head the next time they want to give it a squirt.

[SJTWRC]

I think at high school they are starting to do this shez. My sister is currently doing her 'keys for life' training and in class they showed footage of fatal crash reports showing the gory of it and I can see it has had the correct effect on my sis. Hopefully majority of the class got it too.

[Shez]

Originally Posted by SJTWRC

I think at high school they are starting to do this shez. My sister is currently doing her 'keys for life' training and in class they showed footage of fatal crash reports showing the gory of it and I can see it has had the correct effect on my sis. Hopefully majority of the class got it too.

I am glad they are doing this, and I hope every school adopts something like this if they don't already.

The footage would be very disturbing. But if it keeps us all safe, that is a good thing. We are burying too many of our children. It should be the other way around.

[blackwrxwagon]

As per facebook - 99% of people on this forum would have done something similarily stupid, whether it be a skid or putting doing 80% over the speed limit. Yes he's a muppet for getting caught and doing it , but fwy at 4am would have to be the best place to do it short of barbs.

Some people both on here and on the facebook Perth-wrx page need to remember what it was like to be a teenager - and get the fuck off their high horse.

[teejay]

The double standards amaze me.

[TROLLEY]

Originally Posted by Rossco

Fine it may still do 180 (but probably not without a 30 knot tailwind), but it will take much longer to get there.....The thrill & sensation of power is reduced & the need to show someone 'how quick' your car is just isn't there either.

Exactly. It's like wanking without any visual stimulation. Not quite the same...

[Rossco]

Originally Posted by blackwrxwagon

As per facebook - 99% of people on this forum would have done something similarily stupid, whether it be a skid or putting doing 80% over the speed limit. Yes he's a muppet for getting caught and doing it , but fwy at 4am would have to be the best place to do it short of barbs.

Some people both on here and on the facebook Perth-wrx page need to remember what it was like to be a teenager - and get the fuck off their high horse.

Point missed entirely, not singling you out, you made some valid points....I'm not on a high horse, here's some facts that you can't ignore:

When I was a teenager a high powered car was an '89 vl 5 litre....It made a whopping 122kw (9.5 0-100) in stock trim & the VL turbo made 150kw (7.8 0-100) stock.....Both weighing in just shy of 1400KG.....Even a VS v6 has more power (147KW 8.9 0-100) than the Vl V8.........And neither were cheap enough for teenagers to buy back in say 1995. (I'm not Holden bashing but using them to clarify my point)

A stock $8k (at todays used price) 94 wrx makes 155kw (7.4 0-100) with a dry weight of 1225 kg.... and it only takes $1k to make 20-30% more power. So for a total of about $9k you have a car that is much quicker than vehicles that P plater's had access to 5-10 years ago at the same age/experience level.

You can't argue that todays cheap used cars aren't in another league power to weight wise & there lies a big part of the problem.

Higher stock power + same in experienced young drivers = bad outcomes.

Todays P platers can arrive at the scene of an accident much faster than the majority of P platers from the pre-2000's, it's that simple.

The original topic was young people being caught 80+ kays over the limit & that's simply a stupid risk..... But the bigger issue is readily available high power for low $$ v's inexperience.

Lower the available power & reduce their risk. It works in most other states so why not here?

How many times do you hear about a young fella losing it on the freeway in their later model commodore, falcon etc ? Way too often.

I'm just stating my opinion in this open forum........ feel free to rant at me

[Jordiee]

i've had my wrx since I was on my L's
so that's 3 years now

I haven't lost my license or been even close,
most demerits i've accrued in one fine is 2 (10-19km's over) and that was on albany highway through the built up area where i thought the limit was 50

but i see so many fuckwits in turbo cars and v8's my age and up, that same image of some faggot staring at you with their cap on backwards and arm out the window while they put their pos commonwhore, gtst or whatever shitbox they're driving sideways is burned into my retinas due to the sheer amount of times i've seen it happen