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Archive for September, 2014

Road Responsibility: Why Does It Seem Illegal?

I don’t know about you, but does it seem, in the light of Megan’s wonderful contributions recently, that the ability of people to take responsibility for their actions has decreased to the point that it’s almost illegal to be seen as doing so? Road rage is here and it’s here to stay. Yet there really are no reasons why it should be, BUT it’s also too easy to understand why road rage exists, given some of the truly awesomely garbage antics that are meant to be examples of driving, that we see on our roads daily. When a driver’s error (or two or five…) are pointed out, instead of a “yeah, sorry mate, you’re right, I shouldn’t have cut across three lanes to end up in front of you before slamming on the brakes so you almost hit me whilst I was texting”, you’re met with a torrent of abuse that would make a drill sergeant blush. Hang on, I’ve been driving correctly, doing nothing wrong, except for maybe listening to the radio station I swore I’d never listen to again but it’s MY fault that your driving standards are so bad that even Helen Keller could do a better job? In her sleep?

So what IS it that has people cursing you instead of acknowledging their error? What is it that’s gone wrong in society that to be seen doing the right thing is now the wrong thing? Driving a car really isn’t that hard, especially with the (to my mind) overwhelming push to automate almost every aspect of driving. Hop in, press the Start button, move a short, stubby lever to D and that’s about it. So why is it so hard to indicate, to slow down and stop for a red light, to go the right way in a shopping centre car park, to stop and check for traffic at an intersection rather than hammering through? And why is it so hard to acknowledge that doing those is wrong when someone says so?6b1265f16c3d63fb64ee9ed35a487122

A common response from our illmannered brethren is “You a cop mate? If you’re not a cop, why don’t you f##k off?” So, in order to be seen to be doing the right thing, a good driver pointing out a bad driver’s errors also has to be a cop? Does that also mean that you have to be a cop to pull a dog off another dog or a child? Does that mean you have to be a cop to shake your head at someone shoplifting? No, you don’t and to think so is absurd. responsibility2

In the world of motoring, we come across some things which baffle us; why we seem to get a string of red lights, for example, or why road designers insist on making roundabouts too big for buses to use properly. These are, generally, pretty easy to deal with, in the greater scheme of things. But why someone thinks it IS perfectly ok to stand on the brake pedal in front of you after cutting in front, only for you to see there was, in fact, nothing of front of them, and when you toot your horn in perfectly understandable human frustration you get  thrown a barrage of verbal bricks, is one of life’s current imponderables. And, in the interest of fairness, it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, you’re a driver of a car, a 1500 kilogram potential weapon. If you’ve done something wrong and it’s pointed out, it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, you’re a crap driver.

It’s not illegal to take responsibility for your crap actions on the road, do what Megan so correctly suggests here at point 6: http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/home/calm-the-farm-avoiding-road-rage/ so if doing the right thing is too hard, if using indicators is too hard, if driving without your iFone headphones plugged into your ears (stupid, given you have a radio with inputs in your car!), if admitting you’re wrong is too hard then, please, do the rest of us a favour and hand your license in. It’s illegal to drive badly but it’s not illegal to be told you have been.

Have a great day.keep-calm-and-learn-to-drive-properly http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/sms-finance-express-zaimy-na-kartu.html

The New Mazda MX-5: Genius Evolved

One of the biggest bits of news in the car world over the past few weeks has been the launch of the new Mazda MX-5. We’ve been teased with little bits of information for a long while now, and Mazda have been pretty secretive, as you’d expect, as to what we can look forward to. Now however, the cat is out the bag, and boy does it look good.

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The original car, launched to great acclaim in 1989, caused us to rethink the traditional two seater roadster. Gone were the days of poorly maintained, unreliable British roadsters from the likes of MG and Austin – here was a modern, Japanese, technologically advanced and most importantly reliable sports car that was cheap and accessible to the masses. It brought a new way of thinking in the sports car world – and subsequent versions have been by far and away the best selling cars of their type. It’s easy to see, therefore, how exciting the launch of a new MX-5 is for fans of both the brands and petrolheads in general.

It’s clear that the main design cues from the original MX-5 have been retained. We’re now in the car’s 4th incarnation and there’s a lot to be said by the way it looks. Fantastic lines, great curves and a thoroughly modern approach.

Top line figures for the new mx5 look distinctly promising, and although the engine options are unconfirmed we’re likely to have Mazda’s newest SKYACTIV engine technology and two examples producing 1.5L and 2.0L at 135 and 160 horsepower respecitvely. This should be more than enough – seeing as the car looks set to weigh much less than the outgoing model.

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We can expect to see more of the car on Australian shores in the second half of 2015. If the last versions are anything to go by, and if it drives as well, this is likely to be hugely popular. It’s got a lot to live up to, but I think we can all agree this is a particularly exciting car to look forward to. http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/turbozaim-zaimy-online-bez-otkazov.html

Bad Driving Habits That Press Your Buttons

In my last post, I discussed road rage and how to avoid it.  Now, in any discussion of road rage, there are two sides to the story, if not more.  For nearly every incident of road rage (but not all of them), there has probably been a bad driving habit that has triggered it.

Some things really press other people’s buttons more than others.  The ultimate way to avoid road rage, therefore, is to avoid these bad habits.  Recently, I came across a survey from the UK that listed the ten most annoying driving habits that get other drivers steaming hot under the collar.  I’m not sure how many of these ones are just as annoying here Down Under but most of them will be.

So it’s confession time. How many of these bad habits, presented in ascending order of annoyance, have you been guilty of?

10 Red light jumping. This either refers to that person who believes that the orange light means “speed up so you can get to the other side before the light turns red” or the person who knows that the light is going to turn green any second now and starts inching forward while the opposing light is still orange. Or else it’s both of these habits.  Can anyone else see the major crash in the making here?

9 Being slow at traffic lights.  This is the reverse of the person who inches forward before the light changes. This person has been quietly chilling out at the traffic lights while waiting for the green light and is now away with the pixies.  Hopefully, they haven’t been trying to check their phone while waiting.  The honk of a horn behind them is what jerks them back into the real world in a flurry of acceleration and gear changing.

driver ed 48 Hesitant or tentative driving.  OK, this is my bad habit, so I’m more likely to forgive it in others.  Put it down to years of being a cyclist and to downsizing from my responsive automatic big engined Ford Falcon to a smaller engined and rather elderly manual Nissan ute that is a bit slower getting off the mark.  Hesitation is also a hallmark of half the people on L and P plates (the other half are way overconfident).  Getting angry at nervous drivers, yelling abuse at them and the like is only going to make them more nervous.  This strikes me as a situation where patience is called for – but I’m biased!

7 Overtaking on the left.  In most cases, this is illegal, unless there are multiple lanes (e.g. on a one-way street, in places where there are “vehicles with more than one passenger” lanes or bike lanes).  It does happen when there is someone driving a snail in the fast lane on the right.

brakelight6 Sudden braking, especially at traffic lights.  This usually gives the driver behind the heebie-jeebies.  However, I can’t help viewing this “bad habit” in the context of Habit 10 and Habit 2.  What’s more, we all know that there are situations where sudden braking has to be done – and sometimes, the car can do it for us.  If someone brakes suddenly at the traffic lights, give them the benefit of the doubt: they might be able to see a fire engine with lights and sirens going coming that you can’t.

5 Using the flush median as an extra driving lane.  OK, if you need to turn right and there’s a flush median provided, you need to go there.  But if you’re just using it to overtake other drivers… don’t.

Keep Left Unless Overtaking

4 Dangerous overtaking.  You know the person – the one that overtakes you and is about to overtake the car in front of you but then realises that there’s a B-train coming the other way so he/she cuts in between you and the car in front of you, forcing you to bang on the brakes to avoid rear-ending them.

3 Not indicating or indicating incorrectly.  This would actually be at the top of my list and is the reason why I’m tentative at roundabouts – you never know if that nut indicating left at the roundabout is actually going to go straight through or if the person who looks like they’re coming straight through in the opposite direction to you is going to turn right at the last moment.

2 Tailgating.  The flip side of Habit 6 and possibly Habit 7.  Intimidates and annoys people, and if they have to bang on the brakes because a cat runs across the road, you’re going to ram them and the insurance company will probably consider you to be at fault.

1 Texting while driving. You may think that texting while driving only affects one person, but it’s usually the cause of people failing to look before they enter an intersection, indicating late (or not at all) or being slow at the green lights.

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So did this UK survey miss anything?  What presses your buttons?

Happy driving,

Megan

  http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/viva-dengi-credit.html

Classic Cars: HDT VK "Blue Meanie".

VK Blue MeanieA certain bank has a singer reciting the refrain “Three Little Letters”. There’s three little letters that resonate with fans of Australian motorsport; they are H D T, Holden Dealer Team. The origin of this goes back to the late 1960s, with the legendary Harry Firth putting together a team of star racing drivers. Amongst them was a young bloke by the name of Peter Geoffrey Brock.Fast forward to the late 1970s and Holden have released their new car, called Commodore. The first model was the VB, followed by the VC, in 1980. As part of a deal  organised by Brock in order to get solid finanical backing, he’d agreed to put his name to smartened up versions of the VC and thus was HDT SV (Special Vehicles) born.

In 1984, the VK Commodore was released; marketed as a world class car, it became the basis for what has become, possibly, the most famous car from the HDT factory. Australia had moved to follow the international Group A motorsport classification and Brock’s magic wand was about to be waved over the VK. A process called homologation was in place, effectively a way of showing that cars that could be raced were to be sold to the public and not specifically developed just for racing;  with 500 needing to be sold the HDT team swung into action. The venerable Holden 5.0L (308 cubic inches) was, under Group A regulations, destroked to 304ci (4987cc), a body kit was bolted on, consisting of a deep front air dam, side skirts, huge rear spoiler, “letterbox” grille and silver or white painted aero wheels with the car itself based on the SS model available. The engine pumped out a decent, at the time, 196kW and had  a massive 418Nm of torque at a usable 3600 revs, breathing through a HDT specific cold air intake and a Rochester 4 barrel carbie mounted on a port matched intake manifold. Power was put down through the rear tyres VK Group Avia a four speed M21 manual transmission and single plate dry clutch however a five speed was optional. Bridgestone supplied the rubber, their Potenza 225/50s on those luscious 16 inch diameter wheels and the car rode on the tried and proven McPherson struts/Panhard rod suspension. Stopping power was provided courtesy of the 281mm discs, vented at the front. The colour that would be the seed for the car’s now legendary status, Formula Blue, coated the VK’s flanks and close to thirty years after it was released, still looks fantastic. SS Group A decals, complete with the Brock signature, were placed on the front quarter panels and badges were placed inside confirming that your car was, indeed, one of the (in this case) 502 built.

Performance was considerable; with a body weighing just 1340 kilograms, first gear would see 87 km/h on the clock, on the way to 100 km/h in just seven seconds. The grunt of the 4.9L would ultimately propel the slippery beast through to a top speed of 215 km/h and cover the standing 400m in a then rocket like (for a non racing car) 15 seconds. The price for all of this performance? There was a premium over the standard car, to be sure, at a lick under $22000, plus aircon was a $1035 option… but it’s the car that has firmly implanted the HDT SV name into the Australian automotive consciousness. After Brock died in that terrible crash in 2006, his good mate, Peter Champion, bought the HDT SV business and continues to build excitement, including the VE Commodore based “Blue Meanie”.VE Blue Meanie http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/webbankir-online-zaim-na-kartu.html