The problem with boyracers

[PGNUTA]

Time for a rant!

I heard on the radio this morning here in Nelson that someone is looking for a witness to an accident the other day andin their words...  

Presenter - "between a boyracer in a purple / red car and a nice family style Pajero"
Co Presenter- "Sounds like i know who's side you're taking"
Presenter - "Err..  yeah"

It's just this sort of shit that causes problems.  As far as i have seen, when boy racers are driving around alone normally they are some of the safest drivers around.  As qiklude said the other day.  "I think that the only people that actually indicate on the roads are boyracers".  There wasnt a problem until the media got hold of the boyracer situation and started blowing it out of all proportion.

There was one incident i remember when a boy racer car was negotiating one of those rediculously high speed bumps and some lady in a 4x4 rammed into the back of it.  She had had a few too many drinks but that was beside the point, it was the boy racers fault for driving dangerously. -insert sarcasm here-

One of the problems with our roads is that they are wasting money on stupid stuff like speed bumps in car parks that are so rediculously high that even police cars have problems getting over them.  They should be spending the money on fixing our roads instead.  They are leaving the pot holes, corigations, bumps, dips, etc there and making the road even worse by adding more bumps.  This doesn't slow old granny down in her 1990 1.5l carbied corolla because she just flies over the speed bumps with no regard to the state of her car.  Some fool is going to buy that car in a few years when she dies and then wonder why they have to replace the shocks.  

So at the end of the day you have the boy racers driving around slowly and carefully because they dont want to damage they body kits (i've been there), the old ladies flying over speed bumps endangering anybody within a five mile radius, Drunk women in 4x4's ramming up and rear end of boy racers on speed bumps, police cars bellyed on speed bumps.  And the government, media and general public still thinks that boy racers are the problem.

The government in New Zealand thinks that they are going to wipe out the boy racer problem by making it more difficult for them to be boy racers.  They are currently in the process of trying to impose rediculous rules and regulations like...  "A vehicle way not be fitted with an engine other than the exact model it was fitted with from the manufacturer"

And this one's a doozy...
http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/consultation/vehicle-equipment/submission-form.html
Note the section of exhausts.

I can tell them one thing.  They are not going to wipe out boy racers, even after dead and buried there will still be boy racers (probably in those cool flying cars).  All they can do is try and make it more tolerable for everyone by giving the boy racers somewhere to do their stuff and try and keep it off the roads as much as possible.  The problem with this is...

A couple of years ago myself and a couple of friends formed an organisation dedicated to building and maintaining one such venue.  A burnout pad for lack of a better description.  The project didn't go ahead for these reasons.  

-The police and council saying "I don't think so..."
-OSH and ACC adding their 2c
-The public saying "Not in my back yard" and "Why encourage them"

They just refuse to acknowledge the fact that they are not going to stop the problem and they might as well get it off the streets into a safe environment.

Well that's my 2c, i'll add more later when i've calmed down a bit.

I'd like to see some other peoples views (for and against boy racers)

[doggystyle]

to right bro theyre just using the term "boy racer" to label anyone who slightly misuses a vehicle i remember last year in christchurch an incident involving a young guy who was speeding somewere down moorhouse ave, caused some sort of accident and was instantly labelled a boy racer?? i mean how do u class a boy racer anyway is turbo3 gonna be a boy racer with his modded t2, does it come buy the amount of pimples youve got or how much youve spent on your car can a guy driving a 2ltr diesel van be a boyracer, are you a boy racer if u drive a modded pre 75 car or what, anyway the nz govt is just using boyracers as the scapegoats for everyother idiot driver on the road, i reckon  they shound have an attention span test because its the people who dont concetrate who cause all the crashes... thats my bit id say more but i cant type fast enough...word

[QikLude]

good rant there dude

You should email it to the editor in the paper?
let your voice be heard!

I like to be called a car enthuiast and not a boy racer, but again, i have a very mod'd jap car and am youngish (going on 24) so does that mean i fit the name?!?!

On the flip side there are some stupid "kids" out there who need to calm down a bit and stop doing stupid things. I dont think all of the boyracers are what i would call saints.

How about the councils trying to help the situation with the police and providing clubs? track days? a track  :'(
skid pad or whater would help!

Ive seen things like doggystyle said as well...
young guy had an acident, owell he MUST be a boyracer!?! WTF!!!

grrrr... must go before start yelling!  >:(

Jw

[AnimaLector]

well I have to say that here in Australia we get the same sort of thing.  I'm almost 21 and have had a motorbike and 2 cars, Never had a speeding ticket, my most recent car has been the RX7 and I've had it for almost 2 years now.  I have been pulled up by police once just for a spot check of the car and a licence check other than that it's only been the occasional random breath test.

There is a lot of police harrassment for people who own performance cars however I'm not big into the cruising scene so I guess I miss most of the action (thankfully).

I think if the youngsters around who do give the rest of us a bad name realise that they're ruining it for everyone this problem will slowly ease quite a bit.  I agree 100% about the track days etc.. Willowbank Raceway here in Brisbane often do street meets where people can run their performance cars.. it's a good start!

There should be more of it supported everywhere..

Andy

[Turbo3]

Yo guys,

As doggystyle rightly said, I'm likely to be one of the oldest "boy racers" ever seen in Chch. It's a stupid term that instanlty gets people aggrivated!!  >:(
It's a bit the same as bikers vs bikies. A group of enthusiasts who are passionate about their hobbies should not be confused with a bunch of idiots out to cause trouble! I think the bike scene is getting better now though. Phil who's the manager of the turbo place that's done the work on my car is a keen biker. He's had many Harley's including his current twin turbo'd RHB51 beast he built. He know's a lot of bikers and bikies who seem to respect each other for sharing a similar machine and don't want the public associating the bike with aggro behaviour. This is what's lacking in the car scene. The "boy racer" if you can even use that label is usually someone with a clapt out piece of shit who's trying to pretend it's fast or in some way worthy of respect. If they can't draw attention through outstanding qualities of the car, they'll get themselves noticed in another way, usually by being assholes on the road!
I've quite often been annoyed at how SLOW the so called boy racers go at night. I know they're just cruisin' to let everyone see how hot their cars look, but 35k's can hardly give them any "racer" status.
Our main newpaper today has an article about the whole deal, stating it's usually the hangers on or "wannabe's" that cause the problems, not the guys who take pride in their rides!
Maybe club affiliation is a good way to go. If you have a half decent ride, you'll probably belong to a club anyway. If any member of a club brings disrespect to that club, the other members would not be impressed and the organisers would probably throw them out. If the clubs stood up to say "hey, all of our members are responsible road users" then maybe the public would change their tune a bit.

Cheers,
Pete

[MUnity]

On a simular note, has anyone been watching "Search for Australia's Worst Drivers" or whatever it's actually called?

For those in NZ (and others), they take about eight people and in controlled conditions, test their 'skill'.

It's hard to believe anyone can drive that badly. It took one of them 20mins to reverse out of a car space, and must have hit the adjacent vehicles once per minute in the process. Needless to say, their on road abilities are just as dismal.

How can these people even have licences? Makes "driving without a license" seem redundant.

Seriously makes want to fit surveilance cameras to my cars.

[Smithy]

Yeah that show is so fake...the people are hopeless.

Like this twat that apparently only goes forwards.

Like, they know they are being tested in a secure environment yet they swear and carry on about the situation their in.

hopeless people...they had to change tyre, top up oil and water...this chick eventuall found the dipstick, then stick it in the oil topup hole into the rocker cover...
toped up the water into the window washer water suplly, somewhen else didnt check the oil juast tipped another FIVE LITRES into the top.

One tried to take the wheel off, doin the bolts without jacking it up...

[PGNUTA]

Now in my twisted mind i would see that as another example of the media assuming that we are all idiots and that we enjoy watching other people acting as idiots on the screen.  I think that the media have a lot to answer for in perticular they must be pulled up on their biased reporting.  It's a shame that everyone is so addicted to TV that they will take it as gospel if it came from a legitimate news source.

All in all i think that the media have alot to answer for.

[MUnity]

I don't know, if these types of shows show people how bad some people are, and encourage them to take extra care on the roads, then it's not a bad thing.

[Smithy]

I race EVERYwhere
T believe life itself is a race, and if your dont have slick race moves you'll get overtaken and left behind.
Guys..., I also live my life Qtr Mile at a time all minute thirty of it.

No, really, I like to drive as well as my T2 can go, but its no way worth the drama and trouble that comes with
driving like a spazwit.  i cant afford to have the car off road for weeks if i prang, I cant afford someone else repairs either, and i definetley dont want the legal hassles with the police.
But most of all i could never bring myself to possibly harm my GF.   Its intersting psychologically that we drive with higher limits than grandad in his Daiwoo Nubira with little thought of our lives but those of others are more considered....for me anyway.

Drove at 150 in my T2 month or so ago, felt totally safe me and my GF.
Went  130 in my old MorrisMinor (Datto 1400) , and wished I hadnt, it felt so unsure of the car and kept having thoughts of tyre blowouts sragging us down into a ditch, flipping us into on coming traffic.

ouch.

[doggystyle]

yeh well i drove my t2 as fast as i could as well but i knew the limits it had but i didnt do stupid move sother than the go fast bit but that was on the open road on roads i no like the back of my hand round town maybe a bit fast but i was ever vigilant i think they need to start with way harder licensing rules and practical test passes also make diving without a license extreimly expesive get the idiots off the road and the nannas an some women drivers (not to be sexist but the amount of women drivers that amaze me buy not crashing) ive noticed that alot of people in melbourne have angry horn syndrome an by the way everyone from chch.. melbourne exactly the same they just have an extra lane... oh and hook turns and they dont give way to the right which is weird..... out