jonathan100

To be honest i think it all depends on the person behinde the wheel. I had an evo 4rs by the time i was 21 and (toutch wood) never got near to stacking it. I'm not saying i didn't put my foot down from time to time but i never realy felt the need to show off to my mates. i knew the car was fookin quick and i could put my foot down when ever i wanted so i just didnt feel the need to drive like a prat. you can put a 30 year old in a 1ltr corsa who wants to show off to his mates and he will crash the same as a 17 year old would. My point is a car is only as fast as your right foot! it's the driver not the car that is in controle

Criss

Im 22 and one of my mates is 24 and drives like a lunatic.
He has 6points and only a 1.2 car.
I drove like a **** in my 1.2, well I used to redline 1st gear and play trolly bowling in a carpark at night

Now I have my scoobydoo I feel no need to plant my right foot (Unless im showing the corsa attatched to my rear a few dipped clutch flames )

I feel like im more respected on the road as the public acknowledge im driving safely (the lolipop lady loves me)
I feel far safer, my passengers say im a safer driver too.

Only thing that will annoy people is my loud music!

Its just one of those things, you know you hear bat out of hell on the radio, your in your work van, the radio goes full. I drive with mine on quite loud but it isnt that loud outside the car.

Leslie

Interesting points about driving Criss. All the racing drivers I knew used to drive very carefully on the public roads too. We got all the kicks we needed on the track. The performance of my well tweaked classic STi used to make me feel the same as you.

Les

RayC

I've done a number of training exercises, from both sides of the fence, the body and mind needs to be conditioned in how to act in an emergency, however, the mind set of the trainee has to be correct, otherwise you just unleash a person onto the roads who's confidence overtakes their ability and the inevitable accident could be much worse.

power restrictions may work, but you can still speed in the wrong place, i would expect most crashes are not on motorways so power restrictions will not work effectivly, misjuding corners on A/B roads while showing off to mates is likely and this will be compounded by the brakes/suspension on your average corsa not being meant for limit handling, i know small hatchbacks when in a tank slapper are almost impossible to catch once provoked.

better solution is occupant restrictions, one passenger only unless with direct family, i.e child can drive mum and dad and sister about but not 3 mates.

time restrictions, 9.30 curfew.

license restriction, not allowed to drive in dark until completed a night time course

not allowed onto motorway until completed course

P plate to stay on for 2 years after test pass, PN for night PM for motorway PMN for all etc so police can see easily

Big_Dan531

being only 19 im still quite young when i first passed my test i had a 1.1 fiesta with a union jack bonnet i used to think i was the boll*ks i i used to drive way to fast i was forever hitting curbs or going round a round about and just slidding i had a couple of near misses. i then bought a 1.6 escort which was a fairly quick car for a 17 year which was full of fiberglass, body kit etc and and resprayed did look ok but again i used to drive like a lunatics trying to show off and keep up with faster cars by red lining it every where trying to drive like the people of the fast and the furious and since then i have had a few crappy cars just to get to work small engine 1.1s and 1.3s and agian used to drive crazy my dad always used to try and show me how to drive it properly but i never listened i always knew best

i have now bought a scooby turbo 2000 now im 19 but i have grown up more since having the high powerd car then i did the whole time i had my other cars

and i think it is down to what a few peple have said is that people with small powerd cars drive like nutters becasue the cars are not so fast they cannot appreciate and learn to respect the power as their cars do not have so they have to driveo n the limit to try and catch up which always ends up with someone getting hurt because they exceed that limit

so i think resticting to smaller cars would not really help as people would just drive more crazy to try and keep up with bigger cars and would just cause more crashes i think courses should be put in place to show people how to drive car properly and how to handle them also there shoud be some more track days availble so people can take there smaller engined cars and have a good blast round a track instead of on the streets i know me and my m8s would have loved to have that in my area but there is nothing but this will never happen in this day and age because of all the health and safety regulations and people wanting to banish all young drivers with nice cars completly.

what RAYC is saying sounds more like what needs to happen i also think that the driving test is a bit easy i know it was sound a bit big headed but i thought it didnt now really show me how to use the car just how to park it and how to drive in a straight line looking in all the mirrors
danny
19 young and stupid