On the news this morning they were talking about the "DANGERS" of rear wheel drive cars that don't have stability control, traction control, or ABS. The law-makers are now talking about making the owners of older rear drive cars either update their cars or take them off the road!!
How, or can we fight this??
Bill
Greetings,
Well I would guess that if it was your local news, you are seeing the response of some overzealous politician or citizen who was viewing a "lack of traction event" on slick roads by a rear wheel drive car driven by someone who loves to Drift or is clueless about the risks.
The reality is that most performance cars with traction control and RWD have a disable switch for "performance driving mode" so even that isn't a realistic solution for enforcement. Someday , if you live in the snowbelt, you won't have the option of operating non- traction controlled vehicles in the inclement weather, even worse , all motor vehicles will have to be AWD or traction controlled without disable mode.
Our government will take away all our cares and worries, all we have to do is give them the power & tax money.
From the front lines of Automotive socialism,
Pintosopher
"They say there are strangers who threaten us,
Our immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness to danger us
In our theatres and bookstore shelves,
That those who know whats best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves"
-Geddy Lee
-Rush, Witch Hunt
Says a lot doesn't it? Especially considering it was written in 1981.
Sounds like they need to actually look at all the vehicles that wreck and put it in a percentage of 2wd 4wd fwd rwd awd and look at the numbers. Bet ya fwd would lead the pack. Why? because of that ive got abs and fwd or awd and traction control mentality and driving faster than they should or not paying as much attention. Most of us rwd people know better than to take off like we are at the dragstrip and then run 90 mph around the corner when the conditions warrant. Personal opinion here but if parents nowadays did like our parents did there wouldnt be quite as many dead teenagers. Most of them get a nice new fast and furious sportscar or musclecar and havent driven a lick and have no correcting skills whatsoever! Give them something not so dang powerful and great handling. When I was growing up we had go-karts in big grass fields learning how to "hang" it out there and learning that also taught how not to over-correct so much. Those precious "Fun" days playing on the karts actually taught us some good driving skills. I used to run wreckers and saw enough (You know what im talking about) that my 8 year old has already got his own stock 72 Pinto sedan to fix up and has driven it at the local school and my straight drive wagon with him in the drivers seat and me in the passengers seat. (Gotta love the E-brake setup! :lol: ) I want him to know as much as possible before he ever gets on the road. Just my 2 cents worth.
uh-oh, soapbox time.
It sickens me to death the automation of everything in our lives today. Instant this, automatic that, disposible everything.
People have become so complacent with things, they are used to being spoon-fed everything. It frightens me that a COMPUTER has more control over driving a car than a person does sometimes. They need to look at the DRIVERS of these cars. it's like saying guns kill people; last time I checked it took a finger and a brain to pull a trigger.
I love my rear wheel drives. I take pride in the fact that I drive something that takes some thought and attention. I believe it makes me a more alert and conscientious driver.
I'll step down now. thanks.
I LOVE the fact that my Pinto has no power steering, or brakes. It does exactly what I tell it to do, right wrong, or indifferent. My other car is the one of the last of the hi-po sports cars without electronic nannies. My Subaru SVX, while being AWD, and having ABS, is still controlled by steel springs, and rubber bushings. Again, it does what I say, when I say.
I've driven cars equipped with stability control. Notably a Caddy CTS. It felt so slow, while actually travelling faster in the same situations as my SVX. I felt like a driver could be tricked into an invincibility complex. That's NOT a good situation.
Now as to retrofitting an older car to have stability control, THAT opens a whole new can of worms. To calibrate it to the "Anycar" would invite disaster. Beyond that, if I fit tonewheels and pickups to my car, run wires into blind cubbies, and put a "Trac" light on the dash. What inspector will know the difference??
So what's the matter, these people do not know how to drive.....Somebody find a tall tree and short piece of r@#e......I mean come on what's next..Teach these idiots how to drive and maybe even think....BTW howabout our GREAT INNER CITY SCHOOLS with only a 50% Grad rate........No wonder why OBAMA is winning....As for smog laws go by the little town of Arwin CA , outside of Bakersfield , it should change the way you think about smog laws or at least your health.......I really do not like to see what I'm breathing....
Thanks for posting, see you again next April 1st.
Bill
Bill (and others), here is a link to SEMA' legislation & regulations page on their website. SEMA, (specialty equipment manufacturers association (was the speed equipment manufactureres asociation years ago)), is a large & effective auto aftermarket equipment industry organizatioon and lobbying organization.
They can help.
http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=60081
Quote from: 77turbopinto on April 02, 2008, 06:53:00 AM
Thanks for posting, see you again next April 1st.
Bill
lmao! :lol:
oh dear LOL
I've been had!
>:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( ................................................ :wow:
OK got me,Good one Bill.It's pathetic to say but with all the liberals in office it was believable.Hey blacksheep22,don't be upset with Bill,be mad at the politicians that made the joke possable.Where would we be without them :lol:
After riding with my 19 year old daughter, my 2 boys will not have a radio or be allowed to use a phone while driving. I may also take them to some sort of performance driving school to get the feel of how cars react. Drivers ed just teaches you to pass a test. Rear drive cars are not the problem, it is a lack of training. Read all the articles in AutoWeek about teen driving, those should be available on their website.
Tercin
Quote from: Tercin on April 04, 2008, 01:39:33 PM
After riding with my 19 year old daughter, my 2 boys will not have a radio or be allowed to use a phone while driving. I may also take them to some sort of performance driving school to get the feel of how cars react. Drivers ed just teaches you to pass a test. Rear drive cars are not the problem, it is a lack of training. Read all the articles in AutoWeek about teen driving, those should be available on their website.
Tercin
Just let them watch "The Fast and the Furious" and they should be pro drivers.... at least thats what most kids feel like.
Fortunately.... In the United States we are protected from ex-post-facto laws. That's why a 1909 Model T or Curved Dash Olds can't be banned from driving on public streets. The same as the government cant force pre 1955 vehicles to have turn signals.
they should make it illegal to scrap a pinto and maybe fox mustang's before it has been ran on a track for at least year so that some teen's can get some real driving lessons
in ernesty i think all people should go to somesort of School for Driving, i see alot of Idiots on the road and that scares me.
Ive done Bondurant's full course Schedule, as well as years of driving on dirt roads, i dont know everything mind you but i know how to drive, to use my signal and to wait and make sure that i have the room. Ive also learned to watch how people react, and or watch and try to predict what they might do and act accordingly to that. im not even 30 yet and i drive better than half the people here that are 40+ and all the teens ive seen driving shouldnt have a license. my 2 cents would be to send em all back to school to learn how to drive. the safer the car the worse the driver.
My friend had a 94 Auto Corvette. It had the traction control deal. He and I got in an argument about whose car was better. My "Primitive tech" 92 5.0 5-Speed LX Mustang "With no traction control or anti-lock brakes" or his super Vette that couldn't lose control due to high tech B.S. I told him all that "padding" made for a worse driver. He actually laughed in my face. Three weeks later he gave my friend (Female and hot) a demonstration of his bad butt Vetts power. It wouldn't peel out so he turned the traction control off did several burn outs, said good bye, pressed his foot heavily on the pedal as he left (Across a dip filled with water, turning left) as he did almost always when accelerating the Vette. Of course spun his tires, failed to realize what spinning Vette tires felt like, didn't back off in time and slid his then 1 year old car into a curb sideways at about 30 MPH. He was fine and my other friend and I collected some shattered pieces of his aluminum independent rear that was scattered around the scene and made a pendant for his necklace. He was not amused
:accident:
Quote from: 75bobcatv6 on May 19, 2008, 01:08:46 AM
in ernesty i think all people should go to somesort of School for Driving, i see alot of Idiots on the road and that scares me.
Ive done Bondurant's full course Schedule, as well as years of driving on dirt roads, i dont know everything mind you but i know how to drive, to use my signal and to wait and make sure that i have the room. Ive also learned to watch how people react, and or watch and try to predict what they might do and act accordingly to that.
very good points
Quote from: 75bobcatv6 on May 19, 2008, 01:08:46 AM
in ernesty i think all people should go to somesort of School for Driving, i see alot of Idiots on the road and that scares me.
Ive done Bondurant's full course Schedule, as well as years of driving on dirt roads, i dont know everything mind you but i know how to drive, to use my signal and to wait and make sure that i have the room. Ive also learned to watch how people react, and or watch and try to predict what they might do and act accordingly to that. im not even 30 yet and i drive better than half the people here that are 40+ and all the teens ive seen driving shouldnt have a license. my 2 cents would be to send em all back to school to learn how to drive. the safer the car the worse the driver.
mind you SRT im only 28
I do not know who made the first front wheel drive cars nor when but the most famous ones were the ones made by Cord in 1929 and again in 1936 and '37. There was no power steering in those days and the Cords sure needed it badly. They steered like a truck and did not handle well at all. A famous western movie star was driving his Cord phaeton in Oklahoma and hit a mud puddle and the car flipped over killing him. My point is that there was a time when rear wheel drive ruled and the front wheel drive cars were the exception and were not good handling at all. How times have changed! That Cord survived and was restored and spent many years in a Southern California collection. It still survives but I do not know where it is now.
Quote from: 75bobcatv6 on June 10, 2008, 04:28:01 PM
mind you SRT im only 28
makes those 'very good points' even better
Henry Kaiser tried to manufacture a front wheel drive car when he first started to make cars with Joe Frazer in 1946. The unit was manufactured by Borg Warner and was very noisy and would have required power steering which was almost unheard of in 1946. To make the unit functional was going to cost around a million dollars and add a lot of cost to the Kaiser car which was originally targeted to enter the low price field. Kaiser gave up on the front wheel drive idea and went with the conventional three speed Borg Warner transmission as used on the Frazer cars. I think that it was Oldsmobile in 1966 with the Toronado who finally made the front wheel drive idea work followed by Cadillac in 1967 on the El Dorado.
The first "modern" FWD was supposedly the Citroen Traction Avant back in the '30s. The first "even more modernly modern" FWD with transverse engine supposedly was the BMC Mini of the late '50s.
You are absolutely correct! I did not specify that I meant American manufacturers. The Citroen was the car that really started it all and was the idea for the Kaiser. Henry Kaiser owned a Citroen and liked the front wheel drive.