P-plate restrictions discussed

[s130]

Nice to see a bit of action happening around here.

As far as I am aware, there is a restriction as to how powerful a car a P Plater can drive, atleast in Victoria, although nobody seems to enforece it. I always thought that P Platers werent allowed to drive cars that had more than 125kW per tonne (8:1).

Having said that, its not always power that kills people. Behaviour and "heroness" are part of it to.

[MickieB]

Yeah sorry that was jsut the one point i wanted to discuss

But i agreed with everything the "german dude" said. I drive a mitsubishi mirage atm, and it's got $^!# all power. But i tell you what it's more than enough for me. I've crashed my parents brand new XR6 cause i couldn't take the power, and i'm not afraid to admit it, i put my foot down like i can in my mirage and next thing i know i've fishied down the road and straight through a garden bed.

The power thing is a big one

[Murph]

Mind you though, you can still do 150km/h in even the shittiest of $^!# boxes.

If you can afford a Z, you can afford a Defensive Driving course! They're a couple of hundred bucks.. come on. If you feel you don't want to part with that much - simple! Just tell your parents what you'd like for your birthday. I bet they'll LOVE to buy you it.

I can barely afford the zed! No spare $ around here. Doing heaps of work on it at the moment (including rebuilding the motor) which will be setting me back a bit over a grand or so, then I will have replaced just about every single part in the bastard. That'll clean out all the money I have atm, then rego and insurance are due soon which will eat up my tax refund. So hopefully smooth sailing from there on, so a few $ to spare (yeah I'm kidding myself I know ).

[1 Bravo 6]

Well, now, MickieB,

If I have to stand corrected then I will do so as I admit that my knowledge and experience of overseas service is rather out of date however, you won't find a front line Viet Nam Veteran who was younger than nineteen when he went over there. I was 20.

As for the German Autobahn, BOY, when they have a prang, they PRANG !!!!!! And at those excessive speeds how much of a chance do the car's ocupants have ????

So far on this thread there have been a lot of very good suggestions made on how to improve drivers' skills. One suggestion was to limit the power to weight ratio of a car driven by a newby. Reasonable, but unlikely to curb the death toll. I personally know of instances where fatal accidents have occurred at 60kph. Big trees and brick walls don't have much give in them.

Also, bear in mind that any changes in licensing and/or driving regulations have to be acceptable to the driving public in general. To do otherwise would be political suicide and no politician is likely to put his head on the political chopping block.

So, should P platers have to suffer stricter restrictions ??????????????

If by doing so, one life is saved, a very definite YES.

Rick.

:ogre: :ogre: :ogre:

[Gee]

I think safety in modern cars has a lot to do with it. The fact that Toyota recently stopped airbags as an option on the Echo is clearly a backward step. Perhaps if the government grew some balls and said, "Right, by 2006 every new car in Australia has to have 2 airbags, by 2007 it has to have 4 and 2008 6 airbags", but we wouldn't want to offend companies that despite massive government funding and a bouyant economy still can't crack a profit in Australia would we?

I always figured that we should let the "grey imports" flood in, a la New Zealand. Would you buy a sh*tbox 15 year old corolla (or whatever) for a few grand when you could buy one only a couple of years old with all the modern safety features for the same price? It'd get all the crap off the street in no time. Sure, we'd kill the local car industry, but at least there wouldn't be millions of dollars directed toward supporting an industry going bust. I hope there are no unionists on this website or I'm gonna be in the centre of a flame war!

[MickieB]

I think that although it might not save a lot, having horsepower restrictions is an achievable goal.

But i agree with Gee. Most P-platers have the shittiest cars, cause it's too dear to get decent ones with decent safety features.

One guy on 60 minutes suggested computers that do speed limiters for each road you're on, which i don't think is such a bad idea. Stops speeding altogether.

[240znz]

I always figured that we should let the "grey imports" flood in, a la New Zealand. Would you buy a sh*tbox 15 year old corolla (or whatever) for a few grand when you could buy one only a couple of years old with all the modern safety features for the same price?

Biggest problem I feel that New Zealanders face on the road is crappy imports from Japan. There is a huge problem with odometers being wound back. Is that better than Hillman Hunters and Holden Cameras???

You can get a drivers license at 16 here. Go out and buy a Skyline/EVO/WRX for under $NZ10000 (albeit knackered) and drive yourself into a coffin. It is too easy to get a loan from a car dealer at huge interest but teenagers do it. All about peer pressure.

I'm all for restricting power outputs on cars for under 20's. Much like how the UK restricts new motorcycle riders, max cc=125 and they fit restricters on the carbs...so they can't go too fast.

[Murph]

One guy on 60 minutes suggested computers that do speed limiters for each road you're on, which i don't think is such a bad idea. Stops speeding altogether.

There are a few major flaws with such a system that will mean it's highly unlikely we will see anything like it. Firstly the cost of installing such a system in each car and also for the infrastructure to support it. Secondly I see this as being a big safety issue. There are some situations where it's the safer option to exceed the speed limit, for example when overtaking. Other such situations also arise in daily driving too.

Besides, such a system would be pretty easy to defeat should you want to.

[1 Bravo 6]

As I said before, people can be killed at 60kph so a speed limiter won't help.

What would you limit the speed to ??? 80kph ?? that seems like a nice, safe speed for a newby. He/she can then get out onto the open highway and cause a lot of frustrated drivers to take unnecessesary risks when overtaking.

How many among us have the knowledge themselves or know someone who could disconnect the speed limiter ?? It would be done.

However, it would be worth a try. It just MIGHT save a life.

No matter what regulations and laws are put in place; no matter what restrictions are placed on cars and the drivers; no matter how much training is undertaken, young drivers will continue to kill and maim themselves, their passengers and people in other cars. Whether by peer pressure, lack of skill, lack of training, showing off, arrogance, bravado and just plain stupidity, they WILL find a way.

Rick.

[Tommo560]

hi guys,

i am new so just aa hello to everyone out there.

i am 16 as of about 1 week ago and i have jsut purchased with my dad a competition spec datto 260, which i am yet to drive on an open road because the power scares me.

anyway in my opinion i think what 1 brave 6 and datto-zed, drivers need not only to be taught but trained. it is this exact philoshophy that my parents have implied that i am getting about 1hr training per month at barbagallo raceway (perth) by the wascc preseident and that i am to complete driver training and defensive driving courses before i get my p plates. i feel that it is mostly bravado, peer presure, over confidence and not concentrating that is getting people killed and it is no coincidence that i only have a 2 seater car.

Tom.

[1 Bravo 6]

G'Day there Tom,

Welcome to the club mate.

Take the time to visit all the technical forums---you might be surprised at what you'll find and, if you need to know ANYTHING about Zeds, you only need to ask. SOMEONE will know the answer. The blokes on this site are only to happy to share their knowledge and experience.

We already have a few members who are sand gropers. I guess we can put up with another one

I give your parents top marks mate. It's a bloody shame there aren't more who give their kids as much chance of survival on the bitumen battlefield.

Rick.

[Gav240z]

Guess what guys, Just yesterday I did an advanced driving course at Calder Park. I had so much fun I would recommend it hands down Datto Zed. You will not regret it i learnt so much I didn't know about how to brake correctly and best seating position. We did all sorts of stuff from braking in wet conditions at 65 - 75 -85 and 100km/h then we did stuff like chicanes which i had a ball in the Z. We also did some courses mapped out with cones slalom? We had an egg and spoon race where we had a small tub with a tennis ball and had to complete the course as quick as possible without the ball falling out. I won that one in our group .

I won a couple of events in our group and the Z impressed a few of the guys there. Even with the antique Z brakes I won the even where we had to pass through some chicanes quickly then speed up along a straight and brake again into a set of cones they called the garage.

It all comes into how you brake at the end so lower performance cars had the same advantage.

I've told my mum I want my sister and younger brother to do it also. As it really means the difference between life and death and can really help.