Facing our worst fears (long) - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

Troutman · 11-30-2003, 07:36

Perhaps it is just that time of year, but I have been quietly hearing of one story after another recently involving E series drivers - in some cases Club members - driving irresponsibly on public roads. Stories involving women, children, police chases, accidents and injuries. Even though I am now just another Club member myself, I feel the issue warrants concern.

It is no secret that E series cars at this age are a very common choice among P platers. It is also well known that male drivers of this age - due to various psychological reasons - tend to be overconfident, fresh from their rebellious teenage years and feeling invincible. For me, it gets quite personal when a particular make of car - one that I have been promoting for years as a fun and cheap to modify project car - is suddenly a large scale weapon of death and destruction on the roads. The issue seems to apply equally to all E series cars, because while an ex-fleet hack EA GL would have the most dangerous stock suspension settings, it would also be the slowest, while the opposite is true of, say, an EL XR8.

Having said all that, I am happy to express a degree of understanding with these drivers. I enjoy the aggressive, loud nature of a modified E series Falcon. I find that to an extent, this very nature encourages hard driving, the desire to keep other cars honest at the traffic lights and the occasional bit of 'hoon' driving. My personal rule is that accelerating hard in a straight line - while respecting speed limits - is safe for as long as visibility is good. Anything that involves 'sideways' action is best saved for empty parking lots or other safe locations.

As much as any other guy, I occasionally get the urge to drive with no responsibility whatsoever... but I understand and control those dangerous emotions (which can be likened to alcohol in a way), and I know that I am not invincible regardless of how I may feel. Unfortunately, many others will not learn this lesson until they are attending the funeral of a child that they killed. Indeed, words are futile given that any preaching about risk and danger will be dismissed in the heat of the moment as far as a thrill-seeking dangerous driver is concerned... yet the tragedy of needless death is also beyond words.

The best solution that I found to the problem was encouraging legal drags. This offers a passably safe environment in which to push one's car to the limit, race, do burnouts, show off to a crowd... the whole lot. And yet, even this idea has not set the world on fire due to the costs associated with racing, travel time to places like Heathcote in Vic, and fear of being downtrodden by the usual assortment of 13 second Commodores. And frankly, I feel that many people have the attitude that if it is legal, it is not fun.

As President, I pushed for safety improvements within the Club, with the most recent being the introduction of CB radios as a standard part of our cruises. Organisation is on the rise. And yet, still these reports keep coming back to me.

It seems that eventually, there comes a time where we must all admit that the chaos on the roads, the stupidity of a destructive minority of Falcon drivers, and the relative apathy the governments on the issue, is simply outside of our control.

danege · 11-30-2003, 07:55

Well said!

hoon69 · 11-30-2003, 13:29

im starting the think im being used as a guinea pig here.
*winks*laughs*jks*
i hope not,cause what happened in the past is in the past and as life's experiences become good and bad ones you only learn from your mistakes,its all good to focus on the young but stats these days are over rated,25%of deaths are youth related so why is it the other 75% dont get any upgrade in the laws etc,im all good for doing stuff on the track and having the odd splurge etc,but not till my incident did i realise it,hoon i might be and a e series member i am,but im a better person from learning from my mistakes,and without mistakes you dont learn,and dont they say "your only young once?".

im all for paying for my mistake,and i only drive to what im comfortable with,and if ppl learned to not break the "comfort zone"maybe less lives would be lost on our roads..

i believe that ppl do things on the "spur of the moment"under a "adrenaline rush" and with them both combined it can be deadly..

whether your old,young,new car,old car,you should never just target ONE group of individuals im in the young group of so called "hoons" my name is a example that i am a "hoon" but in my many times of being a hoon,only once have a ever been unsafe and this one time has woken me up,to the point that maybe i should slow up and maybe i should do more track events etc,but at the same time the fact is we all do stuff on the "spur of the moment" it willalways be that ppl like it more just doing it when they "feel"and not waiting for it to happen like on the track etc..

i think your right ppl think you lose the "fun"when hitting the track and thats mainly cause ppl have adrenaline pumpin more knowing the could be caught doing it and that excites ppl more then any track could ever do.

side by side racing at high speed is 100% adrenaline rush public rd loud noise the thought of being caught its pure adrenaline,then you have the more i call it "mature racers"whom only leave it to the track and love the competition of racing that qtr track,now im all for this and agree "things belong on the track"but before the tracks were there these mature ppl did it like us young ppl do,and yet we are(young drivers)are branded hoons by the public and them,come one now i got stack of photos of the 50's-60's-70's-80's of cars racing public roads back then its was alot more unsafe we have air bags better cars more safer,yet they raced in more dangerous conditions we race in the same matter,yet we are bad HOONS,you cant be double sided this and they'll say "oh that was 20 years ago" i'll say whether it was 1 days or 50 yrs ago "you cant change the spots on a leopard".

ANARCHY:
HOON:
they are words which i look and describe me to the bone.
but if the public and police want us to be safe and responsible,they should be helping us deal with what we need to stop these activities not taking our cars,taking our licences,branding us for life as hoons..

now someone here must of heard my story and if so,you must know what i did i admitted i was silly i admit im at fault BUT as a responsible licence holder i am taking it on the chin,i wont complain about losing my licence i wont complain the cops are pricks etc,if your a believer that "rules are rules"then you cop the good with the bad and im ina case where i did the most silliest thing ever,and now willl regret it for a long time,but i will take this time to reflect on my responsibilitys as a licence holder to change my way,i wont be 100% a good driver but wont make the same mistake that put me in the crap im in now..

let me just say as far as the club and cb's go most of us qld members have them we use them alot when we are out n about,some dont have some but im sure we will all have ones soon and these are a sure way of keeping the safety of the group together,and keep us in a group..

and on this last note,i say i see more dangerous driving by the larger working community to and from work taking risks running lights,high speeds to get work on time etc then any young hoon on the road/s..,lets wiegh it up hoons normally in our parts qld go out thursday-saturday,yet the working community "HOON"to work break more road rules in one day then maybe your young hoon would in all them 3 days of cruising..so who should we really be targeting here?

juarez · 11-30-2003, 15:32

Well, I **** around a LOT (every single time I drive to / from uni, theres a little mountain road, it just wants to be driven hard

), never run into bad luck up there yet, but I probably could one day (wont really be my fault.. I keep to my lane, what will happen is some dickhead will come around, out on the wrong side of the road, as everyone seems to love to do.. and I'll be moving to fast for them to avoid... I guess we'd both be at fault). Apart from that, I am pretty sensible, and when I had my accident about 8 months ago, I was below the speed limit, and just didn't see the guy in my blind spot (I had checked a bit early, and merged into his lane after a few seconds..), so it wasn't really an example of bad driving, just a bit of bad luck.. so much for teaching me that hooning is bad, seeing as I wasn't at the time

I still believe that when you drive hard, you tend to concentrate a LOT more, so as long as you don't go over the limits of the car/road you'll be fine 99% of the time. I know I'll grow right out of the hooning around one day, and I'll just drive at the speedlimit, be cautious and drive safely all the time, but I'm gonna have some fun in the meantime :)

seano14 · 11-30-2003, 17:31

hooning is a big issue especially in the street i live in, in noosa. its classed as a main road, yet it goes straight through a residential area. due to the long almost straight nature of the road, we get alot of hoons here (mostly at night after 8pm. its common to see cars coming through here at over 150kph, you can hear them coming from a few km's away thats how loud, yet the coppers wont even put a speed camera here! not even for one night!!

even during the day we get speeders doing 80 or 90 (60 zone) and you know, all it takes is for a child or an elderly person crossing the road to get to the lawn bowls club, for everything to turn bad.

back2thefutura · 11-30-2003, 17:50

sorry but what was the point of this thread? am i missing something here?

MightyEFGhia · 11-30-2003, 22:24

Its an "editorial" comment for lack of a better word from Jack_Travis.... Its just a very nice way of saying "Please, stop driving like dickheads, and if you do, don't tell us, and don't do it near people"

Troutman · 12-01-2003, 03:42

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Chris.

hoon69, I believe I know the incident that you are talking about and please be assured it is by no means the only one that I was referring to. The sooner we learn our limits the better - it's just an unfortunate fact that for some, things turn ugly before they have learned. I wish there was more that we could do about it, but the matter is really in the hands of the government.

I agree there the youth can at times be over-represented, and the superior chassis dynamics of a new car mean nothing when it is being thrashed by some 30 year old trying to attend a business meeting on time. This is effectively the same group who mistreated and thrashed those fleet E series cars several years ago, and many are now in barely roadworthy condition.

But given that this overconfident, under-experienced youth group is the biggest issue as far as the club is concerned, I felt it would be a very constructive idea to encourage discussion and debate on the matter.

Drive safely

SmokedEB · 12-01-2003, 03:47

Whilst this is a good thread, and Jack is making a very good and important statement, i think he got bored and decided to get on ff and type something. Specially considering this thread was done a 2:30 in the morning.

Seriously, Jack is right, doing stupid things is risky, to both u and other, others which u may not have even considered.

thumpa · 12-01-2003, 04:18

I will agree with Jack on this, it really is stupid. I have mates who want to drift all the time and be stupid, for me thats when I get back in my car and drive in the opposite direction.

Well put Jack, its about time somthing was said!