Was: Re: Audi = stupid? ....plus WRX drive Is: Teenager First Car

[DeWitt Harrison]

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:57:56 -0500 Brendan <mailinglist at endosquid.com>
wrote:

> On Friday 18 January 2008, Steve Marinello wrote:
> > Huw Powell wrote:
> > > Steve Marinello wrote:
> > >> ...except that unexciting can also = never really learning how to
> > >> drive = VERY unsafe in dynamic, real world situations
> > >
> > > Why does a car have to be "exciting" for one to learn how to drive
> > > properly?  I don't see that your conclusion follows from your premise.
> > >
> > > Reminds me of the 12/23 one year I came upon two teenagers in one of
> > > their mom's BMW.  The skid marks went all the way up a hill in the
> > > wrong lane, back to the right, to the car which was all tangled up in
> > > trees.
> > >
> > > (Luckily they were mostly just shaken up)
> > >
> > > It's hard to do that in a "boring" car.
> >
> > I disagree.  I think it's easier to have happen in a boring car that
> > you're trying to push.  It might not feel as exciting in the boring car,
>
> You've already set up a straw-man here.
> Drivers shouldn't push a car until they know how to push a car...If the
kid
> doesn't meet that criteria, get him a bike and a helmet and keep him from
> pushing his car into my lane.

Sorry for belaboring this thread but a news article in today's paper
impelled me to.

Here along the Front Range of Colorado, many WRXs get rapped around
signal poles by testosterone poisoned young laddies. There was one such
event just last night on a city street in Louisville, CO. Three folks, aged
21 to 23,
died. Police estimated (stuck speedo?) that the car was traveling at 105 mph
when it hit the pole sideways and disintegrated. Car and body parts were
scattered over a long swath of the roadway. The tow truck operator
probably wished he had a bucket loader.

Judgment is not really sufficiently ripened until mid to late twenties,
imho,
to experiment much with high speed on the street. I know all of us lead-foot
folk have to acquire experience somehow but sliding sideways in a slow
Volvo teaches plenty about car control with much less risk than does a
monster car which tends to give those young racers excessive confidence
and crazy velocities.

Parents would do well by their youngsters to not aid and abet the
recklessness
that springs from providing a  high performance car. Additionally, a junior
hot-shoe is likely to bring much better judgment to bear if he has used his
own hard
earned cash to purchase that WRX than he would if the car was a birthday or
graduation present. ("Mom, the car has full wheel drive so its safer and,
besides,
if I don't get a WRX, all the other kids will think my parents are dirt poor
and
they'll all laugh at me.") I know, in some neighborhoods, most of the kids
drive Porches. Resist anyway!

DeWitt Harrison

Type 44 for fun and projects