Are High Performance Cars Dead?

[Iconic Bionic]

  On 15/02/2010 at 9:26 AM, craiginmackay said:

I didn't realise you were a greeny worried about the poor trees! I suppose you believe that burning off to lessen the ferocity of bush fires is also not a good thing?

Actually Yes. They were there first and when we get rid of them all what are we spose to wipe our bums with??

While I agree with you that the government isn't there to fix everything, I believe that this is an area that they do need to fix, rather than taking the easy ( and incorrect) solution, in this case banning anything that is classed as semi powerful.

So far just cheap talk from the source

I didn't actually mean we should remove trees or power poles either. Just install engineering solutions to prevent one from hitting these objects. Hitting a tree at 60kph will have an undesirable outcome because our bodies aren't designed to come to a sudden stop at that speed. So speeding isn't the evil menace that you have been brainwashed into thinking it is either. If it were, surely guys like Valentino Rossi or Mark Webber would all be dead.

Then we should also have the governemtn fennce off the entire nations coastline. That will prevent many drownings and fisherman getting swept away. And associating race car drivers on race tracks in race cars with every day drivers on public roads is beyond words

What would be nice, would be for the government to make the roads safer by using some of the billions extorted from the Australian public from fuel excise, registations and over zealous speed enforcement by installing appropriately made roads with nice wide shoulders complete with barricading to prevent cars from leaving the road, rather than just banning powerful cars. At present in many parts of the country, a shoulder half the width of the car and then nothing but a 3 mtr drop into a ditch or an 80 year old gum tree is all there is to stop you.

Easily done if you want 4 laned freeways that are a 100metres long

Its easy to say that people shouldn't speed or fall asleep. What an easy, simple solution. Brilliant really! Unfortunately, we are dealing with humans and not robots, its a lot harder to prevent it. Most people who live in remote locations have had the 'micro sleep' experience at least once, but no one sets out to do that, just like you don't mean to fall asleep in front of the TV. All they want to do is get home safely to their families.

And your solution is to say nothing at all. No public education. Just nothing

One minute you are feeling fine, the next you cant remember parts of your trip or you suddenly become conscious and realise you are drifting off the road. Perhaps living in a metro area ( I'm assuming you do), you have never had this experience, or if you do feel a bit tired there is plenty of places that you can pull off the road and rest up.

that's not the case over the majority of roads that cover the vat distances around our country though. The busy HWY that I travel every week out to work consists two narrow lanes cut through forest with almost no shoulder (around 1mtr along most of it) and probably 3 safe pull off places that includes the small towns that the road runs through) to pull up over a 150klm piece of road.

Then do something about it. Lobby your local memeber, notify your local council or state road authority. Express and bring your concerns up as here is full of generally deaf and uncaring ears.

If I get tired on the way to or from work, it is usually at least 20 minutes to get to somewhere suitable to pull over. Not ideal, yet it is one of the most highly used country highways in QLD. It also has claimed its fair share of lives over the years. How do you suppose we stop the carnage on this road? Just not speed and if you think over the next 2 hours, on the way to work you may get tired, just don't go to work? Oh, and take a bit of responsibilty for myself rather than blaming the sub standard road networks once you get out of a 50klm radius of the capital cities. Its not the governments fault that they are in this condition, right!

that's right, its not the governments fault you fell asleep and hit a tree, or drove at warp speed and hit the same tree. Lets blame the government and the roads cause that's easier then ppl saying they farked up.

Definately post of the year.

I.B.

Edited 18/02/10 08:47 AM by Iconic Bionic

[will-82]

the problem is rudd wants to be the person who saves the world, but needs to realise how little he matters

I just really hope we arnt silly enough to elect the idiot again

[pharkit]

  On 15/02/2010 at 1:03 PM, SPIKO said:

My friend I have been around the world 5 times, if you believe that you are going to find a better Country, and more democracy else where you are kidding yourself... Just because a country doesn't book you for speeding, or you can drive a top fueler on the street, this alone does not make them democratic LOL... Believe me when I tell you that you are blessed to be living in Australia in these difficult times, that however doesn't meen that it cannot be improved upon..

Good call.

Sometimes it pays to stop complaining and focusing on the negative and appreciate what's good about our country. It's true the issues we have here are nothing compared to most of the world. The cops/RTA here are still greedier than most other countries (except maybe India where they will stop you and accuse you of doing something you didnt do until you pay them off), but overall life here is pretty damn good and you wouldnt trade our problems for those of other countries for anything.

[Guest XR09]

IB has it so right. Ha ha only cause I agree with him.

Performance cars will never die. the Goverments in their wisdom might try and put them out of the reach of every day Joe. To try and stop the ridiculous amount of carnage on our roads. No other reason.

But it's just too easy to get around the laws. Look at what we can do to our taxis.

And internationaly I can never see it happening.

We kill ourselves the way we do because we fark up. Paint it any colour you want. But mostly it's down to lack of respect and focus. If we drove as if our lives depended on it, then it would not be such an issue.

That does not mean crawling along either. You can go at a reasonable pace quite safely.

[Craig.]

  On 19/02/2010 at 8:47 PM, XR09 said:

We kill ourselves the way we do because we fark up. Paint it any colour you want. But mostly it's down to lack of respect and focus. If we drove as if our lives depended on it, then it would not be such an issue.

That does not mean crawling along either. You can go at a reasonable pace quite safely.

I agree whole heartedley.

The problem is that the government don't agree with you on your last point. They want you to go slower than a reasonable pace in most instances. Why?

Because they have designed the licensing system to allow people with no driving ability to get a license. While that means that most people can obtain a licence to drive to work, etc, the trade off for this is that you don't get to drive as fast as you you may choose to on any given stretch of road, if you were given the option of picking what you think is a reasonable cruising speed taking into account the conditions, etc. They then lighten your bank account if they catch you trying to cruise at what you might consider a perfectly decent speed for those conditions.

Whats more, they have worked out that it works out better financially for them if they do nothing in the way of upgrades to the road system, or even drop speed limits in some cases rather than improve the roads. The priorities regarding our roads are all wrong, yet the government has the gall to carry on about the road toll! Only because they think that this is what we want to hear though.

[Iconic Bionic]

  On 20/02/2010 at 10:48 AM, craiginmackay said:

Whats more, they have worked out that it works out better financially for them if they do nothing in the way of upgrades to the road system, or even drop speed limits in some cases rather than improve the roads. The priorities regarding our roads are all wrong, yet the government has the gall to carry on about the road toll! Only because they think that this is what we want to hear though.

This paragraph I agree wholeheartedly because it is very true. Most 90kph speed zones in NSW are no longer safe to do that speed, due to the road degradation and cost/benefit analysis applied. It is far cheaper and also life saving to reduce the speed limit. There are many former 90Kph areas that are now 70Kph.

I look at it as save a buck and make a buck. They save tonnes on repairs and upgrades but make a fortune on caught out drivers. Especially when a flash for cash goes up.

I.B.

Edited 22/02/10 05:41 AM by Iconic Bionic

[Craig.]

I disagree strongly with this kind of road policy though, where I get the feeling you think it might not be a bad thing?

If the the government was a private business then I can see the logic, but it isn't and it really shouldn't be in the make money at all costs mode, when we pay all of these taxes in the hope of imrpovements being made to infrastructure. These types of road maintenance policies may ( or may not) save lives due to the lowering of the speed limit, but upgrading the same stretch of road or upgrading the licencing system are also likely to have the same life saving benefits without us all having to go slower than ever.

After all, our cars are better equipped than they ever have been to travel at higher speeds and protect us in the event of a crash. Isn't it just a little bit silly to have to travel slower on any given stretch of road in an FG, than your dad would have 35 years ago in an old HQ or XA? That is, unless revenue is the main goal here of course!

[Dillz]

Since I sold the T I haven't got a single speeding fine...

[Rootster]

while we are on this topic....Can someone please explain...

While on our trip to coffs...You have a multi lane freeway...with a speed limit of 80-100km..New road... no pot holes.. ...We took the inland road to taylors arm single lane...To the pub with no beer...Speed limit 100km...wtf...We were on a spirited drive and struggled to reach that speed in sections..pot holes uneven repairs..road was a mess....What Who determines the speed limit on roads...

....even 80km on that road would of been a handful for most drivers....

So the way I see it ..not many people travell that road so just make it 100km...but on the freeway we'll fark the drivers with continuous speed limit changes...It will only take a momentary lapse...Miss one sign..and the boys in blue are there....nailing your arse for doing a speed...

Which is allowed on a inland goat track called a road..And you tell us this isn't revenue collecting..

Edited 22/02/10 07:33 AM by Rootster

[Guest XR09]

Speed limits and where cameras go are decided on by a, District speed committee". I believe, in most states.

And yep it's a joke. NSW has four years to finish the Pacific Hwy and no money to pay for it.

So now you have to.