What They Didn’t Teach At Driving School
More years ago than I really like to think about, I got a few lessons from a professional driving instructor before I went and sat the practical driving test for my licence. To this day, I’m really, really good at three-point turns, which was the main skill that my lessons covered – as far as I can remember; it was quite a few years ago.
Driving schools and “proper” driving courses are usually great at covering the basic skills of driving – road rules, use of gears, use of brakes, watching out for hazards, changing lanes and so forth. This is the sort of driver education most of us think about when the topic of training young drivers comes up. A few of us also think about the track-based courses, where you get to practice handling a car in a “risky” situation in a comparatively safe place. They’ve certainly got their merits, if you’re lucky enough to have access and/or the funds to attend one of these courses.
The Ford River Rouge Complex
Ford in Australia is, unfortunately, dying. It has received a mortal wound and is going through the process of twitching and groaning before ultimately giving up the ghost, more’s the pity. However, the same can’t be said of Ford in other parts of the world. So to cheer all my fellow Ford fans up, here’s a bit of info about one of the oldest and possibly largest Ford factories: the Ford River Rouge Complex in Detroit, founded in 1917, which started manufacturing Model Ts since the late 1920s and still at work churning out Fords today.
The Ford River Rouge Complex, often just known as “The Rouge”, has been called one of the wonders of the industrial world and “a city without residents”. It’s got its own transport system – right from the beginning, it had 100 miles of railroad track and its own internal bus system as well as its own electricity generators. It was a completely self-sufficient factory: raw materials came in at one end and finished cars came out of the other. Even the plastic parts originally came from soybean derived oils grown in Ford-owned fields and the rubber came from a Ford-owned plantation in Brazil. Today, it’s not quite as self-sufficient or as big, but it’s still pretty impressive. It covers 600 acres and employs over 6000 people.
Easter and the roads.
When it comes to public holidays, they’re much more visible when it comes to a police presence and news of fatal accidents. Yet there’s no real reason as to why these should be, as there are no real reasons why people should die on the roads. At the time of writing there’s been close to ten lives lost, large single vehicle and single person crashes. Yet, on a 600 kilometre round trip to north on Newcastle, NSW, covering Good Friday and Saturday, the amount of truly and utterly pathetic, dangerous driving I witnessed begs the question of why weren’t there more crashes? This includes a woman in her white LandRover Discover 4, travelling at 150 km/h, tail gating and failing to indicate in packed traffic. There was the young lass in her bright mauve Toyota Yaris with the words “Hahaha you just been passed by a girl” proudly stickered to the back window….except she was doing 90 in a 110 kmh zone, sitting in the right lane with two kilometres of traffic behind her and having angry drivers pass her on her left…
Police presence? Yes, plenty sitting in their usual spots and certainly not helping traffic flow at the twin servos on the M1, forcing speeds down to 40 kmh or so, whilst plenty of other drivers continued to fail to adhere to the basics of driving. State and federal roads ministers continually bleat about road safety, yet wonder why there’s increased public backlash when more and more speed cameras are rolled out. Driver safety and education groups shake their heads in disbelief yet more and more drivers get away with such as: failing to indicate, running amber and red lights, not giving sufficient lighting to a vehicle. Here’s the wording about indicating straight from the NSW Government Legislation website:
Classic Cars: Jaguar E-Type.
In the automotive world it’s not uncommon to have a design regarded as a classic. Ferrari’s 248, Holden’s 48-215, Ford’s GT40, Aston Martin’s DB5 and Jaguar’s evergreen E-Type. Enzo Ferrari called the E-Type “the most beautiful car ever made.” Controversial due to its phallic styling, especially when painted red, its immensely long bonnet in comparison to its compact cabin gives it proportions at odds to its handling. A svelte, curvaceous car, it’s still regarded as outstandingly beautiful over fifty years later. Spread over three distinct series, the Series 1 was released, initially intended as an export market item only, in March of 1961. Early models came fitted with Jag’s stalwart 3.8L six cylinder, fitted with the beautiful triple SU carbies, pumping 198kW and 325 Nm of torque. Towards the end of 1964, just as The Beatles really began their climb to stardom, the 3.8L was ditched and replaced with the torquier 4.2L, up to 384Nm. Chrome bumper strips, a small air intake, glass covered headlights and centrally mounted exhaust tips give it away externally, whilst the interior looked almost the same between the two. Another external ID was the difference in badging with the 3.8L showing simply “Jaguar” whereas the 4.2L had “Jaguar 4.2 Litre E-Type”. Tyres were laughably skinny by today’s standard, finishing off with high profile 185 rubber on 15 inch wire 
wheels. A 2+2 version was also made available in 1966, being slightly longer and with a different roofline as well. Underneath at the rear was Jaguar’s now famed independent rear suspension. Production of the S1 concluded in 1968
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