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Archive for March, 2014

Should You Teach Your L-Plater To Drive?

driver ed 4It’s a scary moment in any parent’s life: the moment your teenager first gets their learner’s licence and you stick the L-plates on the car so you can set off on that first rather tentative drive around the block. It happened to us last week. It wasn’t as scary as it could have been. But that may have been because we were in the automatic Ford. Behind the wheel of my husband’s manual Nissan work ute things may well be different.

Not all teenagers are the same behind the wheel when they first get there. Some are tentative and nervous and just about freak out as soon as the needle creeps over 30. Others are the reverse and go at everything like a bull at a gate, making the hapless parent in the front seat long for a set of dual controls like a professional driving coach and sit there with their hand on the handbrake just in case. (Not for them the sort of “handbrake” you find in some of the new Infiniti models: it’s operated by the driver’s foot. However, most of us probably wouldn’t put a teenager behind the wheel of a luxury vehicle for the first drive just in case.) Others take it in their stride, especially if they’ve had a go behind the wheel in fields, riverbeds or just up and down the driveway.

The question has to be asked: should parents teach their children to drive? There are pros and cons to teaching your own teenager to drive, and you have to consider both.

On the con side, if a parent has bad driving habits, these will be passed on to the next generation (see the earlier post by one of my fellow-bloggers on this topic).  Driving teachers are able to pass on correct habits – well, at least they should.  What’s more, when parents teach teenagers to drive, things can get emotional the way they don’t get with a driving coach. The driving coach has only seen your teenager as a young person of 16 or so. You, however, can still remember seeing your kid as a four-year-old just about whizzing onto the road on a tricycle.  It cuts the other way, too, as your teenager might still be grumpy at you about some domestic issue when he/she gets behind the wheel. There’s no emotional baggage or contempt bred by familiarity with a driving coach.

Defensive driving courses are excellent, but they can backfire a little on nervous nellies. All that talk about how to get yourself out of a hairy situation can produce a sort of road paranoia, where every single other driver is perceived to be heartless monster who is out to Get You. Some of those road safety messages and stats might make a sensitive teenager too scared to get behind the wheel just in case.

On the other hand, a teenager can get a lot more practice in if parents take the opportunity to give their L-plater the wheel as often as possible. With a driving coach, there are bookings and budgets to consider. Few driving coaches offer night driving skills or long-haul driving skills, but handing your teenager the wheel for a shift while driving interstate will provide these opportunities. The other thing about teaching your teenager to drive is that it’s one of the few areas these days where parents can and do pass on skills to the next generation.  The flip side of that is that a know-it-all teenager is put in the position where they are forced to realise that they don’t know it all and that the olds actually do have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Car-KeysSo should you teach your L-plater to drive or should you leave it all up to the professionals?  I say yes, teach them, although a few lessons from a professional certainly wouldn’t do any harm.  Good, if anything.  I’d keep the following guidelines in mind, though:

  • Don’t make/let your teenager drive if either of you is in a snot.
  • Don’t micromanage every single metre of the drive or every single intersection. Give guidance only when you need to. This will change as time goes by as your teenager picks up more skills.
  • Do provide a variety of contexts for your teenager to drive in, rather than just handing him/her the wheel during the easy bits.
  • Do stay focussed, even if your teenager appears to be a confident driver.
  • Do be prepared with soothing words of encouragement for nervous drivers or a ready hand on the handbrake for the charging bulls.
  • Do teach good driving habits!

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F1: Red Bull Ragequit or Real Revelation?

I don’t think anyone really needs reminding that the glittering world of F1 recently returned to the world stage. The Melbourne circuit set the scene for a whole new era of Formula One. A whole new look. A whole new order generic cialis sound. Avid readers of my blog will be very much aware that I have never always been the biggest fan of F1, but this year I hoped the radical changes might breath some life back into the sport. Having watched the first race, I was pretty shocked to see that Grosjean for example managed to get himself a drive through penalty before the season had officially begun. Of the entire weekend, I have been most fascinated by the outrage and debate following the disqualification of Ricciardo from his excellent 2nd place finish. Most specifically, the reaction of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has definitely been a baffling one. In the aftermath of the Australian GP, Mateschitz has warned that he pull Red Bull out of F1 altogether. Is red Bull just in a strop since losing their dominance, or are they onto something here?

Tis the dawning of a new era for F1, a whole new look to a legendary championship

Tis the dawning of a new era for F1, a whole new look to a legendary championship

For those of you who are not clear on the full situation, Ricciardo finished the Australian GP in 2nd place (his highest ever finish in the sport), only to be disqualified around six hours after the race. The reason for this exclusion was an irregularity in the fuel flow system of the car. Mateschitz believes that the fuel flow sensor that was provided by the FIA, was giving inaccurate readings. Over the course of the race weekend, Red Bull had been plagued by technical problems with their car, explaining the early demise of Vettel in the race. Red Bull have of course appealed against the decision made by the FIA, and seek to prove that the fault lay with the FIA-provided sensor and not the fuel levels in the car. What has hurt Red Bull more than any other are the whispers of the word ‘cheating’ that have been used in conjunction with the team. Red Bull has influence across the world, and any word of underhand play would significantly damage their image and credibility, especially when it is in one of the most televised sports series in the world.

Lets look into this a little deeper shall we… Let the evidence present itself

Have Red Bull turned into a stroppy child?

Think about it, for the last few years Red Bull have become accustomed to being the top dogs in Formula One. Not only have they had the best car, but their wonder child has completely and utterly destroyed the competition, race after race, championship after championship. Whenever I found myself watching coverage of each race, whatever the story or result, they would interview Christian Horner, as if he had some crippling addiction to having his smug face on our television screens.

If we now fast forward to the start of 2014 where we see Red Bull failing massively to perform, plagued by hampering technical issues. Not only that, but their wonder child has to retire his car in the early stages of the race. Speaking of which, take a listen to the radio messages exchanged between Vettel and Red Bull when it was decided he was to retire; it genuinely sounded like Vettel was on the verge of tears. I will admit it is never nice to have to retire from a race, but to sound that emotionally distressed, come on.

Finally and most importantly, we have the decision to exclude Ricciardo from the result due to a fuel technicality. I have read sources that Red Bull had been aware of the problem prior to the race, so their reaction does now seem slightly defensive. It is almost like Red Bull feel as if they must win every race or they will throw a tantrum. Reminds me a lot of Fernando Alonso when he realised Hamilton was a better driver than him at McLaren.

When I hear that Mateschitz threatened to leave F1, it did give me a flashback to days gone by where I would be playing a racing video game, and would get so angry that things were not going my way that I threw the controller at the wall, vowing it was the game that was the problem not me and refusing to continue playing.

Mateschitz has been quoted as saying that his decision regarding the future of F1 and Red Bull has nothing to do with the financial costs or rewards, but the issue of ‘sportsmanship and political influence’. Could this just be a very technical evolution of the ‘throwing the controller at the wall, claiming the game doesn’t work properly’ strategy?

Do Red Bull have a point after all?

Having watched the first race, it does seem apparent that it is a whole new era with very similar problems. It took only a matter of laps before there was talk of fuel and tyre conservation. The overtaking was very much improved but was still severely lacking in comparison to other motorsport series around the world.

I understand that it is thrilling to both watch and drive cars that are operating on the edge of what is possible, but to have cars that struggle to even make race distance, that seems a bit far to me. And if Red Bulls’ claims are true, to exclude a car because of faulty machinery supplied by the race organisers themselves, that does seem a little unfair. This whole issue of politics has been somewhat of a problem in Formula One in recent years; the racing has been overtaken by tyre management, brand image, pit strategy and global domination. This global domination has reached a level where it is location location (tedious track) location. Singapore may indeed be a glittering beacon of flamboyance, but the race track that was built there is nothing short of diabolical.

The Australian fans may have been outraged at the Ricciardo decision, but at least they got to watch what was an amazing V8 Supercar support race. Imagine paying an outrageous number of your hard earned dollars to see a headline band, only for the support band to completely out-perform them. As great as it would be to see the smaller band doing so well, you would feel somewhat ripped off that you spent all that money for the headliners to be a total let down.

The true stars of the weekend. V8 powered brutes destroying all that lay before them

The true stars of the weekend. V8 powered brutes destroying all that lay before them. This is a Red Bull sponsored race project to be proud of. Image Credit: F1 Fanatic

What really drove the point home for me, was the fact that Bernie Ecclestone did not even show up to the race, having also made several comments about the horrific lack of noise from the new engines. I mean come on, high performance hyper race cars should rattle your very core, not sound like a swarm of lethargic bees. F1 without that characteristic noise is just pointless.

In my estimations, the decline of F1 is crowned by its own ruling emperor not even showing up to the race. But then again, Bernie’s comments about the noise are so fiendishly clever that I may almost let him off; by making these comments, Bernie is getting the media coverage that the F1 juggernaut survives on. The more people you get talking about it, the more people will probably end up watching it to find out for themselves.

Formula One is meant to be the premier race series in the world, but it needed a complete overhaul to try and rectify the very basic problems that should not exist in motorsport. Overtaking should be an assumed variable, not something that needs to be forced by boost buttons and extra horsepower.

Red Bull has fingers in almost every sporting pie that there is, from football to extreme sports to air shows to rallying. They are in every right to leave the sport if they feel that it has deteriorated to the point of certain death. If the ultimate sporting sponsor withdraws from the ‘ultimate’ motorsport, then said sport is in serious trouble.

But of course, I am writing this with Vettel having taken a strong 2nd place on the grid at Malaysia, so Red Bull may suddenly change their mind and everything be bright and beautiful again. And of course, the first thing I saw when Red Bull got their wonder child back to the top, Christian Horner filling my screen with his…face and his…words. Red Bull often do throw their toys out the car when they do not get everything they want, it is just something that we must get used to. In fact it may work in their favour, toys thrown out the car will make it lighter and therefore faster. See, not all bad! Unless they fail the weight checks then…

If I am to be totally honest, I think that Red Bull are still in shock now they are not top dogs anymore, and have not yet adjusted to playing catch up, whereas before they would be leading the way. It is no secret that F1 is a sport that does have its problems; but it does have its perks. It is worth seeing this new era through. As I always say, people called Darwin and his theory of evolution stupid when he first published it.

Time is but a mysterious mistress with the power to mould the fabric of culture. Or something.

All I ask Red Bull: don’t throw the controller at the wall, just hit pause, take a deep breath, and press on. A little bit of determination never hurt anyone.

Keep Driving People!

Follow me on Twitter @lewisglynn69

Peace and Love!

 

 

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Driver Education: Does it/should it work?

Think back to when you started to learn to drive. Where was it? How did you do it? Manual or automatic? Who taught you? For me, it was the mid late 1980’s, in my home town of Perth and was done (then) through a driving school and with the emphasis on a holistic approach. It wasn’t simply sit in, strap in, ignition on and go, I was taught about getting settled before I started. Seat position, rear vision mirror, side mirrors, handbrake on (if it was a manual), that kind of thing. I was taught about indication, using headlights, observing the road ahead of me and not just the car in front. I was also taught to drive a manual, therefore becoming involved in the driving experience, not merely a steerer. All this, in an age where the VL Commodore and XF Falcon were kings of the road, technology was having a CD radio cassette and speed cameras were a driver ed 4glint in the revenue raiser’s eye. Importantly, it wasn’t my parents that taught me, it was people that were trained to teach people how to utilise a car to the best of the driver’s ability and was intended to put safe drivers, not idiots, out on the roads.

Even then, there was no real encouragement to do follow up education, how to improve the weak spots of driving, take advantage of new information, learn about advances in car tech (Anti skid brake systems, airbags etc), it was pretty much a procession of: get learners, get lessons, get licence, go drive mum and dad’s car until you could buy your own (if mum and dad hadn’t already done so). Time moves on and slowly, slowly,  people wake up to the fact that people being taught to drive aren’t being taught that well anymore, or what they were taught was a long time ago and bad habits have crept in. Along the way governments became somewhat disinterested in proper driving education and found out that bad drivers make a great source of easy money. Drivers became less interested in being a good driver and more interested in simply getting from A to B. The emphasis became more of learning to pilot an automatic transmissioned car, not getting involved in what the car does. Technology upped the ante with extra airbags, stability and traction control, better ABS, climate controlled aircon and more with a focus on auto, auto, auto; auto headlights, auto wipers, keyless entry, but, seemingly, no progress on how to drive a car fitted with all of these.

Of recent years, state governments have offered different avenues for a person to obtain their driver’s license; in NSW they must complete a certain amount of hours with the assistance of a driver of at least five years experience (generally the long suffering parents) and, seemingly, with minimal real input from those that train people to drive properly. But how many bad habits are being passed down? No indication at corners or driver ed 1roundabouts or pulling into/out of a stop roadside? No headlights on when it’s dark or raining? iPod earphones in, ignoring a perfectly usable radio? It goes further than that when it comes to truly bad driving habits. Thankfully, against the tide, there are those that believe Australia needs better driver education post gaining a license. One of those is Phil Brock. If you think that surname is familiar, you’d be right. Apart from being the brother of the late Peter Brock, he’s been a racecar driver and firmly believes that governments need to provide further driver training, plus, back off on the spin telling us about how less people have died on our roads or have not, allegedly, been injured: Deaths: in 2000 it was 1,761, in 2009 it was 1,543.
Seriously injured: in 2000 it was 26,694, in 2009 it was 34,116. Seriously injured with high threat to life: in 2000 it was 6,911, in 2009 it was 8,798. Pretty simple maths, the death toll declined by 218, but the overall serious injury rose by 9,309.
So, we have a total of 42,914 people seriously injured on our roads in one year, and rising, yet the Government tells us it’s heading in the right direction?

But, as Phil notes: “Apparently research PROVES that driver education is pointless, that it has no benefit to lessening the road toll at all.
Also, car accidents are not caused by bad driving, unless there is a outside influence such as alcohol, drugs etc.” Yet, there’s this: “
Recently we had a phone call from a mother thanking us for saving her daughter’s life. Her daughter was in an incident whlie driving on a highway and stated that our Defensive Driving Course saved her and her friends life by using the techniques she learnt in the course. As a small business passionate about its work, this is the kind of thing we love to hear about.” That was a course provided by a third party of which he has no involvement yet that information was passed to him due to his concern about driver standards and the lack of government committment to help people improve their ability on the road.

In NSW, there was a person, involved in the former Roads and Traffic Authority at a high level, that metaphorically laid his life on the line to say that driver education didn’t work, that all it would do would be to have drivers go out and try and find the limits of what they’ve been taught. Thankfully, that person no longer has any sway and this way of thinking is no longer the overriding command. Ian Luff, former racer himself, father of V8 Supercar driver Warren and a well known promoter of driver education and safety, is another one of those that believes training saves lives. His courses are run with a touch of humour here and there, sprinkled liberally with catchphrases but with a deadly serious driver ed 2underlying message. It’s also the name of his hugely successful business, Drive to Survive. Ian points out the usage of ABS and how the right application of the brake pedal with an ABS fitted car, in conjunction with stability control, road observation and a change of driver attitude can go a whole lot further to saving a life or more than no training. Something as simple as having the side window fully raised or fully retracted, instead of half way, where a sideways impact can violently move the head to the side, directly placing the neck right on top of the hardened glass edge. Being observant whilst driving; here, Ian shows some not so pretty pictures of cars windscreen deep into a truck’s rear, at just the right height for the front seat passengers to literally lose their head, thanks to a driver simply not paying attention or playing with an electronic device. Ian also explains that, although understanding the financial aspect of buying an older, cheaper car for your children, the engineering aspect comes into play with chassis design, crumple zones and such. This is clearly identified by a video which shows two cars, one modern and the other of an eighties vintage, being pushed at high speed into a concrete block as part of a crash study. The result for the older car is not pretty. Yet, as Ian explains, if a driver was taught properly, the chance of a crash (there is NO such thing as an accident) can be minimised. Note that word minimised. There are instances where a crash has happened and has been unavoidable.

When it comes to training and education, there’s pretty simple examples of where this works when it comes to road vehicles: every single racing car driver worldwide. (driver ed 3http://www.carsguide.com.au/news-and-reviews/car-news/lowndes_backs_driver_training   as one example) How’s that, you ask? Simple: imagine yourself in a racecar, without any education or training as to the capability of that vehicle. Think of how easy it might be to stall it on start up, how the brake setup will stop you harder and more efficiently than your road car, how much more grippier the tyres are, how much extra speed you can carry into a turn, how easy it is to completely stuff it up and crash because you’ve had no training. As business development manager at Drive to Survive, Stewart Nicholls says: “ If education doesn’t work then let’s close all the schools and universities now.” It’s a fair point; in just about every single position of employment world wide there is training. Further to that, there’s ongoing training. A pilot isn’t simply taught to fly a Cessna then unleashed upon the public by flying, untrained, a 747. A surgeon simply doesn’t pick up a sharp knife and hack away to pull out your inflamed appendix. There’s the initial training and then there’s more, yet when it comes to something most of us take for granted, but costs the country billions of dollars in hospital costs, medical bills and rehabilitation after a crash, to say that it’s a bad thing driver education and training is akin to saying it’s ok to climb Mt Everest with no clothes on. Vehicle dealerships of certain brands include driver training as part of the sale package, knowing it’ll be better, not worse, to do so. The naysayers point out research, government feedback that “point towards further driver education being ineffective”. The problem with that statement are the innumerable drivers that are better drivers because of further driver education and training. Quite simply, if you believe you’re a good driver and need no further training, go and do a course. You’ll be horrified at how bad you are, how little you’ve improved since you got your license sometime last century and grateful to find out that the rose coloured glasses finally got that much needed clean.

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The Noise about the F1 Noise

f1 carsThose who like to follow the news from the motorsport world will doubtless have heard about the furore about what they won’t be hearing. Yes, folks, there have been a bunch of new regulations introduced that have seen the engines making not quite the same noise as they used to, as there’s been a rev limit put on the 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrids: 15,000 instead of the 18,000 of last year.

To judge by what some commentators have been saying, you’d think that the new F1s were dead silent. Wrong. However, they do sound very different. If you remember back to your high school physics days, you might recall that the more frequently something vibrates, the higher the note it produces. The rate of revs sets up vibrations in the air, which creates sound waves. The old sort of engine produced more vibrations, so you got that higher pitched note. The new ones have a deeper tone.

Personally, I like this. One of the two things I have always disliked about F1 motor racing is the sound. The “scream” of the engine beloved of some always reminded me either of a very whiny toddler or a mosquito beside a microphone. It put my teeth on edge.  Trackside at an F1 meet to me was reminiscent of something from Dante’s Inferno: all vile fumes and hideous incessant screaming noises.

The new noise, however, isn’t as hellish. Decibel-wise, it’s the same as it used to be, but the note is a lot more tolerable. The race cars sound more like aeroplanes than oversized wasps. Let’s face it: deep notes in a powerful engine are always lovely to listen to. It’s one of the things that makes a Jaguar a Jaguar (and, for those who like two wheels, it’s one of the key characteristics of Harley-Davidsons and Triumphs).

Apparently, the moves have been introduced as a way of making F1 racing slightly more eco-friendly and sustainable, as these new engines use a tad less petrol than the old ones. This is something I’m in favour of as well, as my other main objection to F1 has been the fact that it does chew through a lot of petrol just to whizz around a circular racetrack at high speed. There is only a limited amount of crude oil on the planet and while motor racing is a lot of fun, it’s good that they’re using a smaller share. Means that there’ll be a shade more for the ambulances.

The manufacturers are liking the move, with Renault and Honda (with McLaren) apparently getting back into the F1 act. Given the way that what happens on the racetrack eventually trickles down into the production cars that you and I drive to work or the school run, this is a good thing. It should mean that we’ll get better, more efficient hybrids on the roads. Eventually.

For those who haven’t heard the difference, you can hear it at this very popular video (from Melbourne, no less!). Note the lack of earmuffs in the 2014 footage. http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi.html