Hey it's a slow news week so why not put another article in about street racing or 'hoons' with their highly modified cars. They were racing for pinks, yo.

I think the only time you actually can KNOW what happened is when you saw it first hand, if you didn't then you cannot really believe what the media feed us. This applies for not just articles and stories of this nature, but just about anything. Once news happens the media will put their spin on it, work out how it will work for them to get more interest from their target demographic and then run the story.

It's time for the RTA to smarten up, and become proactive in driver training and other methods to improve younger driver skills and training. They need to do this before there is a huge public outcry over something which is so simple to fix. It seems to me that once everyone is off their P's and over 25 that they forget that they were once young and were learning to drive too.

Hey you know what the media's like. Why let the truth get in the way of a good story? The more random false negative adjectives they can throw in, the more effective their smear campaign against P-Platers is.

I'll be a P-Plater in a couple of weeks, but I've already booked and paid for an Advanced Driving Course and a Skidpan session. Both of which should be mandatory and both of which would significantly help the current problem of under 25's killing themselves.

As much as it pains me to say it, I do think it is a good idea that we limit P Platers from owning forced induction engines or cars over 8 cylinders, it's fair enough, we don't yet have the ability nor experience to appropriately handle such vehicles in every day road situations. But driver education is paramount... the quicker you scare the little dickheads away from buying riced up NA Silvia's that they think they have the ability to drift; the better.

In short, I blame The Fast and The Furious lol. All 3 of em!

It pains me to say this, but you really can’t trust anything you read in newspapers or on television in a 100% complete “take it on face value” trust sense. The Fairfax papers have sunk to the tabloid level that Rupert Murdoch’s fish-wrappers have occupied for so long. Reading the Daily Telegraph is a great way to get a one-sided, imbalanced and sensationalist view of current events without learning anything other than that the editor is a whore who “sold out” telling balanced views on current events to bolster company bottom lines (I understand, it is a business, but it’d be nice to have balanced, honest reporting).

This is more than just talking about a car crash, as well. In particular, a lot of spin is put into what is fed to journos about economics as well as national and international affairs, meaning the journo’s role is to correct the story so it sits on it’s own merits (free of and without PR spin). This is normally nigh on impossible with the time deadlines and word counts. So what you end up with is a newspaper full of stories that have been twisted and turned by each party trying to get their angle across to the journalist.

The recent federal election was a great example of this with each side emphasising snippets of the full story to try and get their point across. Its not that they’re telling outright lies in the papers, but it is just that they’re telling their version of the truth. For instance, if you didn’t know anything about cars, the sight of a lowered S13 on rims and with a loud exhaust would probably be a heavily modified vehicle, wouldn’t it? I mean, it is a modified car, right? Just that it is not a 600kW GT-R.

Really, this comes back to the fact that newspaper editors, like television producers, having worked out that sensationalism sells. It gets the public riled up into one of those pathetically smug torch-burning sessions where a whole bunch of head-up-their-arse do-gooders feel compelled to write into the paper all fired up, talking on a subject they know nothing about and generally just feeling good about themselves while ranting about Centrelink bludgers/immigrants/hoons/etc.

To me, these easily led sheep who pride themselves on being more intelligent than your average labourer and wallow in their self-satisfaction of being in the “moral majority” are one of the worst kinds of moronic pond scum currently infecting this country. Sure, we’ve got rapists, terrorists, molesters, drug dealers, thugs, murderers and the like out there as well, but these people are in the same class as them. The difference is that they don’t physically rape you: they do it mentally, raping your intelligence.

While you’ve got those easily led pieces of vaginal discharge out there tutt-tutting whoever is in the cross-hairs this week, the editors of newspapers won’t change a damn thing. They’re in business and are being driven by publishers to make a buck. Unfortunately, balanced and fair reporting of current events normally loses out to raking in the cash and we end up in the current sticky situation. And don’t even get me started on Today Tonight/A Current Affair/Sixty Minutes…

Marv out…

another p plater racing...who cares what it was driving....when are they going to learn......

but nuko will an advanced driving course stop you from street racing or speeding? i have done one but still did stupid things in my car and on my  bike

XoN wrote:

Good point. You can do all the driving courses you want, but if you don't have the self discipline and restraint to not get excited every time someone revs at you at the lights, then the problem still exists.

Probably a good thing I have a stock NA EJ22 then ay, so even if I did want to (and I wouldn't... I can restrain myself to quiet roads, track days or some other safe area), I basically wouldn't be able to. And no one would want to race me cos my car looks like a POS anyways

As for doing stupid things... Well I'm sure all of us can attest to having done some... it's a fact of life and, that's just our nature as male car enthusiasts. Hell even I have by going 200kph on my L's, but in saying that it was in a fairly controlled situation along a 7km straight section of road west of Warwick and only at my dad's urgings to go faster (I was sh1tting myself at 150, had only had L's for a week at the time).

I think as my dad saw it, it was a controlled situation and he was teaching me to drive... not teaching me how to pass a driving exam like every other driving instructor out there does. Knowing how to pass your driving exam and knowing how to drive are two completely different things.

I'd rather have the ability and appropriate skills to be able to control a car at speed than not. So if ever I am to speed (it's a given... we all speed from time to time, don't deny it lol) at least I'll have appropriate skills and somewhat more of a better chance if s**t was to go wrong. That and my car is hardly capable of speed anyways hahaha.

But I fancy owning a B4 in years to come and by then I'll be even more well versed and capable of handling the power of that car.

As for myself now... as it stands I'd actually say that I'm a pretty boring person when it comes to driving... I don't really speed at all, for starters I don't want to Jeopardise my learners by getting caught speeding a few weeks out from my license test and even then when I pass the test, I wouldn't have the money (or the points) to pay for a speeding fine. And thus I wouldn't speed and I don't.

Ok I've pretty much lost where I was going with this cos of like 8 interruptions, but you get the general gist lol.

Every K over ain't a killer, it's a thriller (in controlled circumstances)... that's my motto anyways.

Why is it that when we compare death tolls from ten years ago, some blindingly obvious reasons are overlooked?

The population increase seems to not factor into how many people die on the road? The fact that there are a lot more cars on the road has nothing to do with it? The simple fact that there are more roads, clearly means nothing? The same cars that were driving ten years ago, with ten year old safety devices, have all been crushed into cubes haven't they?

People die. It's sad, but it happens.

XX, have you just crawled out from under your rock?

This type of "Journalism" is the reason I'm harrased for having a car that is louder than stock.

Marv- Can you hijack T.V everyday from 4:30pm to 9:00pm. And bash some sense into the rest of our nation?
You echoed my sentiments exactly. Almost word for word.

Nuko- It seems like young drivers like our selves are few and far between, Admittedly I've done some seriously moronic things, and have been way too lucky, but if anything I'm wiser for my experience.
And the fact that you where "S**ting yourself" at those speeds is a good thing, and i dare say it was the point your old man was trying to make.

alexxx wrote:

thats probably the dumbest thing i've ever heard. who the hell who put an L Plater at the wheel of a car doing 200kmph?

edit: AND EVEN ONLY HAVING LICENCE FOR A COUPLE WEEKS.

his dad?

XXB4XX wrote:

his dad?

rhetorical question smartarse!

horse and cart didnt have brakes or airbags Kosti..

you old old old man.. (dirty old man that is)

XXB4XX wrote:

horse and cart didnt have brakes or airbags Kosti..
you old old old man.. (dirty old man that is)

Hehehehe, yeah, nothing like true horse power, that was the day, but now we talk about kilowatts

Just a quick sentiment... I was under the impression that having an L plate on your car meant you were learning to drive. Does driving not also include learning how to control a car at high speeds (yes it was a very high speed... but the idea worked because I have no great desire to go that fast again in a hurry). From what I gather, when ya on ya L's and LEARNING how to drive, it would seem appropriate that you learn all facets of driving instead of just simply enough to pass ya license test.

In hindsight yes it does sound like a rather dumb thing to do. But further more if you look into it and take a look at my dads extensive motor racing and driver education experience you can sorta begin to come to understand why he'd rather have me experience it with him in the car with me?

Note also, under dad's guidance I'd also been driving for a few months prior to ascertaining my learners... so it's not as if I was a completely inexperience person behind the wheel doing stupidly high speeds!