P-Plater Vehicle Restrictions Under Fire
26 Sep, 2007
52 Comments 
The recently introduced P-Plater laws which prohibit young drivers from driving supercharged, turbocharged, V8+ or modified vehicles in QLD and Victoria have come under some considerable scrutiny.
In another attempt by the State governments to simply cover-up a much more complicated problem of rising P-Plater accidents, the blanket restrictions have caused a massive headache for the car industry.
So far the NSW, QLD and VIC transport authorities have all failed to produce any sort of evidence linking the blacklisted vehicles to higher accident rates amongst P-platers.
Not to worry though, frustration is not just limited to P-Platers and car enthusiasts, GoAuto reports the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Andrew McKellar has put his weight behind the move to pressure the Victorian government to reconsider the bans.
“To be banning vehicles on the basis that they constitute some sort of safety risk to young drivers when in fact, quite the contrary, we are talking about brands with some of the best safety track records going around, just highlights the ludicrous nature of the regulations,” Mr McKellar told GoAuto.
Just to point out an example before we continue, the new laws have banned all supercharged C-class Mercedes-Benz vehicles, even though most produce minimal power (as low as 105kW!), but provide five-star safety rating for passengers and pedestrians, however cars like the Holden Barina, which manage a dismal two-star safety rating are presented as a safer choice.
The P-plater vehicle restrictions, which have also found their way to Queensland recently, were designed to stop young and inexperienced drivers from getting behind the wheel of performance cars.
The problem, of course, is that not all turbo and supercharged cars are performance cars, in QLD and Victoria the only vehicles that transport authorities have officially excluded from the supercharged/turbocharged blacklist is the entire range of cars from Smart, the Daihatsu Copen and Suzuki’s long forgotten Cappucino.
Unfortunately, that leaves the likes of Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot, to name a few, in a bad situation.
Peugeot’s 206 CC Turbo (110kW), the new 1.4-litre twin-charged Volkswagen Golf GT (125kW), Audi’s 1.8-litre turbo A4 (120kW) etc, are all banned due to forced induction.
However, in Queensland, cars such as the 3.5-litre Holden VE Commodore (180kW), 4.0-litre Ford Falcon (190kW), Volkswagen’s 3.2-litre AWD performance car, the Golf R32 and any other naturally aspirated vehicle below 200kW is allowed!
In Victoria, the previous laws allowed for a maximum of 125kW of power per ton, and this appeared to be a well thought out plan, however cars such as Subaru’s trouble-making Impreza WRX managed to slip through (~120kW per tonne) and Victorian Police had a hard time working out which cars were banned.
Nonetheless, under the old laws cars such as Honda’s roadrocket, the S2000, was kept at bay, but not any more!
VicRoads website says the old laws will continue for current P-platers, but all young drivers that have been licensed since July this year will come under the new laws. Meaning a 17-year P1 plater can get behind the wheel of a 176kW Honda S2000, but not a 110kW Peugeot!
Apart from the blanket restrictions on V8+/Turbo/Supercharged/Modified vehicles, the following are also banned for young drivers in Victoria.
| Make | Model | Release Year/s | Cylinders |
| BMW | M | 1998 | 6 |
| BMW | M3 | 1994 - 2004 | 6 |
| BMW | M5 | 1990 | 6 |
| BMW | Z4 | 2006 onwards | 6 |
| Nissan | 350Z | 2002 onwards | V6 |
| Honda | NSX 2 Door Coupe | 1991 – 2002 | V6 |
| Porsche | 911 | 1993 - 2006 | 6 |
| Porsche | Boxster | 1999 - 2006 | 6 |
| Porsche | Cayman | 2006 onwards | 6 |
| Mercedes Benz | SLK 350 | 2004 onwards | V6 |
| Mercedes Benz | C350 | 2005 onwards | V6 |
| Mercedes Benz | C36 | 1995 | 6 |
The list appears very incomplete with many high performance naturally aspirated vehicles, such as the Honda S2000, BMW Z3, Volkswagen Golf R32, Audi Quattro 3.2-litre AWD missing.
Let’s put the argument in some simple hard facts, the 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbo Audi A4 gets from 0-100km/h in 8.6 seconds while its performance orientated brother, the 3.2-litre V6 Quattro AWD (naturally aspirated), does the same run in 7.2 seconds, which one would you ban?
The 1.4-litre twin-charged Volkswagen Golf GT does the dash in 7.9 seconds while the performance prepared Golf R32 beats it by 1.7 seconds!
Surely no one at VicRoads or QLD Transport actually bothered to look this up! Obviously if it’s a turbo or supercharged, it means it goes fast… and somehow leads to late night hooning activities… right?
The question still remains, when will transport authorities start training young drivers and introducing mandatory advanced driving courses instead of simply putting blanket bans on a whole list of cars and installing more and more speed cameras?
Instead, transport authorities have bad-mouthed driver training courses as producing over-confident drivers that are more accident prone, despite all evidence to the contrary.
What really needs to be done, is the introduction of mandatory advanced driver training for all new drivers and a five-year re-licensing scheme to make sure the nation’s drivers are up to scratch with their driving skills.
Yes it’s expensive, but so is the human and financial cost of the nation’s rising road toll. As the new saying goes:
Don’t ban high performance cars, ban low performance drivers!
Think of it this way, when a learner undergoes a current driving test, a simple emergency braking procedure is not performed, so the first time a new driver experiences emergency braking is to avoid an accident, however it is a criteria of the driving test that the leaner perform a parallel or reverse park…
Now how many times have you practised a fire evacuation in your workplace, university or school and have had to actually use your experience to escape a fire? And how many times have you had to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident? They are just as important as each other, yet one is completely neglected.
Make sure you head over to GoAuto and read the rest of their report.
Alborz Fallah
Location: Home / Road Rules, Australian Car Industry News, Opinion / ...
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September 26th, 2007 at 3:10 am
What an absolute joke!
These people need to be held accountable for all the kids that die due to inadequote driver training and driving around in old bombs.
Speaking of which, how can they ban all these new and safe cars while many young drivers get around in a 20 year old car with bold tyres and without any safety!
Pathetic!
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September 26th, 2007 at 3:32 am
good write up, I just wish the politicians would fire the morons in charge and get things into gear.
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September 26th, 2007 at 7:33 am
The last 7 paragraphs are pretty much what I’ve been preaching for years.
I’ve only ever had a motorcycle license, having only recently got my drivers license. And I was shocked at how pitiful it was to get my license.
I was expecting to do a three point turn, a hill start (I was in a manual… is there any other way?), no roundabouts, no emergency braking, nothing really. I must have blanked out during the test or winged it.
The biggest thing that surprised me about the test was all I had to do was drive like a 90 year old who died the previous year :) I didn’t display any ability to emergency brake, how to detect a lockup and release the brakes and squeeze them on again. I didn’t get to display what to do on a wet road while turning a corner, losing the back or front OR both ends of the car into a slide.
No, this would be considered bad driving. But I’ve been driving and just before someone in front of me or in the lane next to me goes up the back end of the car in front of them, I see smoke, smoke, and more smoke. I guess ABS changed that, but my mates girlfriends new Corolla (MY2007) doesn’t have ABS, and in all honesty, I don’t get in the car with her if she’s the driver. I am unsure how she even got her license. I’ve been driving on a hwy on my motorcycle and had a Barina fly past me along Bulli Pass, pissing down with rain, they overtook me, aquaplaned into the land mass separating each side of Princess Hwy. Did a 180° and slammed into the dirt/grass wall at 110km/h.
I wonder what skills the driver was using??? Where did they learn this great trick from? And to do it in one of the safest car on the road, you have to wonder…. how much do people value their own lives?
I have done my own advanced driver training because I know of how great a value it was when I road motorcycles. I learnt to be the ABS, the traction control, etc. And I carried a lot of those skills over to driving.
At the end of the day it won’t matter what car you drive. People who are just uneducated on how to drive (rather, how to pass your test) will be in trouble no matter what vehicle they’re in. Anything capable of over 30km/h will kill someone else or yourself and you don’t need a forced induction system to do that.
Whenever I see a bad driver, I try not to blame them…. I blame the system for allowing them the priviledge to get on our roads and act in such a manner that puts others in harms way with potentially fatal results. This has ZERO to do with the type of car you drive.
Steve
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September 26th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Why the money spent on these useless laws and ads being created is not spent on professional driver training in high schools is beyond me.
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September 26th, 2007 at 8:46 am
A very good show of how our political system really works in Australia…
A complete lack of any real thought has gone into these new laws, i have to say i’m happy i recieved my license well before this crap started to be enforced!
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September 26th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Isnt it obvious? They want to somehow ban all performance cars without banning the ability to drive falcons and commodores…
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September 26th, 2007 at 9:23 am
The funniest thing is that in vic and qld there is no annual road worthy check of vehicles either. So its alright for a 17 who just got their P’s to drive around in a 20 year old VL commodore with bald tyres and who else knows whats wrong with it but to drive a brand new golf GT twin-charged diesel with ABS, DSC, countless airbags & 20 extra years of impact protection development is considered “hooning”.
This is what happens when you get wannabe politicians, and not car enthusiasts or just motorists running these agencies. All these blanket bans are are knee jerk reactions to what the media hyped up to be a blow out of P-plate fatalities. All i keep hearing is how the P-plate road toll has risen in NSW in recent years. Of course it was going to rise. YOU HAVE YOUR P’S FOR 3 YEARS INSTEAD OF 1. There is 3 times as many p-platers on the road so logic tells you there is going to be more p-plate fatalities. The interesting thing is the road toll hasnt increased by 3, but by less than 2 and that was b4 these stupid blanket bans came in.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I notice there are no Toyotas in the banned list.
They were going to put Aurion, but it didn’t last long enough for P platers to drive it anywhere.
My solution to the p plate problem is to ban all cars except Camry.
Then teens wouldn’t die from a crash, they would die from boredom.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Mayve you should open your eyes then, a Toyota Supra for example is banned. But I agree if there were less Commodores and Falcons on the road the toll would go down, they seem to be the ones ALWAYS on the news for crashing. Poor RWD dynamics I assume.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:16 am
What an irresponsible article. And I am a P Plater!
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Are you kidding Nick? Im nearly off my greens, so it doesnt effect me… and I think the new restrictions are a joke. You cant drive something like a WRX which has a 5 star safety rating, 4 star pedestrian rating and most of all stability, traction and EBD but you can drive a Holden Barina with a 2 star safety rating and I doubt it has stability or even traction… forgetting how young people are forced to drive around in older vehicles which dont even have ABS or airbags let alone the more modern gagdgets. You cant implement blanket restrictions like this, driver education would have had a larger impact… and in NSW where I live the road toll HAS NO CHANGED since the introduction of restrictions on powerful cars a coupla years back. Would have thought other states would take note of this, but as highlighted, its not about saving lives its about politicians self interest.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:29 am
this is just crap i want 2 drive a Mercedes Benz C180 Kompressor sports coupe but i cant even though its a a 4 cylinder
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:37 am
The reason there is more Falcons & Commodores (mainly commodores) is the fact there is a lot more of them on our roads than any other car and are very cheap for a 2nd hand car. and most young drivers dont like to drive around in toyotas cos they’re boring.
There is no way you could ban the garden variety models of Falcon or commodores because they are still the main vehicles family’s drive around in so banning 6 cyl falcons and commodores is pretty much banning 50% of all cars on the road.
The BEST way of reducing the road toll is TEACHING people how to handle a vehicle in different situations. Take them to a advanced driving course where they can feel what a car is like in wet, dry or gravel surfaces, then get them to experience how to avoid an accident and handle the car.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:39 am
At the end of the day it all comes down to bad policy. Who cares what the make of the car is, if it’s driven stupidly, then even modest power can result on serious accidents. Steve, Glen, I can’t agree with you more, the solution is better safety technology and better driver training. However we’re all preaching to the converted, this policy is more about 1) easy policing & 2) making nice headlines.
A more common-sense approach would be to supply a list of ‘excluded’ cars, work together with the auto industry & enthusiast groups to define this list of excluded vehicles. That way the police who are doing the all the hard work don’t need to know what engine configurations a car has, they need only know if it’s a black-listed model.
Turbo-kit for a Barina anyone?
- DBP
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Why do young people need a big family car though Glen? Especially when I know in NSW at least, they have restrictions on passengers at night now! I think the fact that there are lots on the road contributes, but there are alot of other cars on the road to.. yet 9/10 its a Commodore or Falcon involved in a crash where reckless driving occured. I personally think RWD has something to do with it, you have to know what your doing with RWD… in FWD its alittle less forgiving. Ban RWDs LOL! Tbh I think this would have more effect then banning safer high performance cars.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Mistake, should read : FWD alittle MORE forgiving.
But Im getting this off topic so Im leaving this, I menioned by thoughts… NSW shows bans on performance vehicles has NO effect on the toll.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I agree these new laws are ridiculous. When i went for my first driving lesson, the instructor just handed me the keys and said “lets go”. I was quite shocked as he didn’t even ask me about my prior driving experiences and didn’t bother to explain the basics of driving. I was just lucky that i already knew how to drive since i lived on a farm. Getting my license was a piece of cake. The government is wasting money on these laws and advertising. I’d rather see the money being used on professional driver training, which actually teaches people HOW TO DRIVE.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Baji,
You’ve hit the core of the issue just like Steve did before. A driving test consists of, can you park, can you sit between the white lines, can you dinf the indicator. OK, you’re all safe to drive! Unfortunately this model of testing only prepares young drivers for quiet suburban driving, there is nothing that enforces drivers to learn about emergency situations, driving on poorly made roads, how to avoid accidents or read driver behaviour.
But, we do live in the era of knee-jerk policy ;o)
- DBP
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:49 am
CORRECTION:
dinf = find
;o)
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September 26th, 2007 at 11:19 am
If they wanted to put in place tighter restrictions, they should have used the old 125kw/tonne law, but lower the amount of power to perhaps 105kw/tonne.
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September 26th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Myke that would have come close to banning a whole heap of cars!
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September 26th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Will maybe not as strict as 105kw/tonne, perhaps 115kw/120kw.
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September 26th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Its floored whatever way you try to restrict it…. simply you cant try to ban cars because as shown by this article its floored, not to mention as Ive said in NSW no reduction in young driver road toll after a few years of the restrictions in place. Harder tests and driver education are the only way.
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September 26th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Paul: *correction: flawed
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September 26th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Ok quickly Paul, most new drivers dont need a family car but a falcon or commodore can be bought quite cheaply and parts, service and insurance are cheap the only downside is fuel cost but if driven sensibly there is no reason why its only a minor increase.
Yes RWD is less forgiving than FWD ( i got what you meant) but the biggest reason there’s more accidents involving falcons or commodores is just because of sheer numbers. And also most hoons (not enthusiasts but morons) drive commodores more than anything else and these are the vast minority which have the vast majority of accidents realting to excessive speed, but i believe no matter what car they were in they would still have as many accidents. And its these guys that are causing the problem for the p-platers now.
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September 26th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I don’t believe placing limits like this on drivers will make one iota of difference. As many have said improving driver training would be a far better solution.
The fact of the matter is even an incredibly underpowered car is capable of reaching speeds where it can kill the occupants or others on the road. It is about time politicians started dealing with the real problem - Driver Training.
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September 26th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Pfft
Every second accident I see is a P plater in a V8 or Turbo. And many of them take innocent vitims with them. Seems like an obvious law to me. Maybe just include some exclusions for the low powered turbos.
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September 26th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
TOYOTA PAUL IS RIGHT AND I SAID THIS WEEKS AGO… DRIVER DEFENSIVE COURSES AND HARDER TESTS AGREE WITH; BUT… ALSO LIMIT WHAT TYPE OF CAR THEY CAN USE AS MANY P PLATERS HERE STRUT AROUND LIKE SEASONED PETER BROCKS AND MANY ACCIDENTS WITNESSED!
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September 26th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Just wanna let you all know that, Daewoo has won their first group comparison test in the world. By wearing Holden badge, Australia’s most prestige Holden-owned independent magazine has give Holden/Daewoo Epica/Tosca the nod over Camry(the biggest selling car in US and Sebring(the company used to be own by Mercedes). Congratulations to Holden and Daewoo for supplying Australia the refinest, most reliabe, safest cars.
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September 26th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I think the bottom line is that all cars are capable of speeds of at least 110km/h - the only difference being a performance car will have the agility to match its speed.
The most ironic part in regards to these restrictions is that I was after an AWD Turbo as my first car, which had about 120kW and more grip than you could poke a stick at. Now due to restrictions I drive a Ute with 150kW and the slipperiest rear end you have ever seen.
Don’t think I have ever mentioned it here, but I believe keep the bans on Red-P’s, then if a driver graduates to their Green’s without losing any points, then they can have the bans lifted. This provides an incentive to drive safely for the first year, and rewards them with the right to buy a performance car after they have a years worth of independent driving experience under their belts.
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September 26th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Im surprised P-Platers can afford a V8 ETC ?
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September 26th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Motorsportbabesau said”Every second accident I see is a P plater in a V8 or Turbo. And many of them take innocent victims with them. Seems like an obvious law to me. Maybe just include some exclusions for the low powered turbos. ”
What a stupid comment ! What are you thinking? ????????
That only a V8 or Big Turbo Car is going to kill or hurt a P plater ? What about the fact if you have an accident doing only 80 clicks straight into a wall even with a 5 star safety rating car {V8 ,Turbo,or your 1.6 litre Getz you probably drive} your chances of dying are pretty good.
Driver training is essential for young drivers not banning them from horsepower. Those that have a speed fetish will always get around it anyway ,most Police have no idea what their looking at when they lift the bonnet ?
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September 26th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
A high performance car is actually safer than any standard car. Better tyres, bigger brakes, better suspension and handling. Ban the slow drivers driving around in Camrys! They are so annoying driving 20km/h under the speed limit. Especially the old farts.
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September 26th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
It is a good point to say that many accidents have VERY LITTLE to do with the power output of the vehicle. Often its speeding (which is possible in ANY car but yes is easier in a high powered car). Find out how many have lost licenses in cars that are still ok to drive now, VS commos (V6) etc … heaps! nothing to do with the cars ability to accelerate really.
The most annoying thing bout this new law is that it covers the pre july 07 p-platers in that the new penalty applies (3 points and upto $1100 fine). I think that is plain dirty! How do you pull the carpet out from under people like that? Lets say joe over here is aware that if he is caught driving his overpowered car his penalty is $100. Now hes a decent driver and assumes it unlikely he’ll get caught out and at most a few times so whats a few hundred over the course of a few years. NOW after having bought his car, government decides lets look proactive and change the law under this fella, all of a sudden this JOE is in danger of a hefty fine and loosing 3 points (and depending on circumstance, possibly his license). Now if joe knew this prior to buying his car, im sure he wouldnt have bought it!!
So do they plan to reimburse all the existing p-platers that will now have to sell their cars?? how is this fair? people will lose money! young kids that have worked for ages to get this money, and now … goverment screws em over.
AND WHERE THE HELL WAS ALL THIS ADVERTISED!!! I DONT SEE IT ON THE ADD BREAK!!
**”"NEW PENANLTIES IN PLACE 3 POINT AND UP TO $1100 FINE STARTING JULY 07 FOR ALL P-PLATERS”"**
SO MANY ARE DRIVING AROUND OUT THERE UNAWARE THEY ARE IN THIS DANGER AND IF SOMEONE HAS 2POINTS LEFT THEY STAND TO LOSE THEIR LICENSE!!
Lastly though since when do new laws/penalty apply to existing licenses? It is always in place for NEW licensees only. Yet an exception was made this time, and in my opinion for one reason, there is revenue to be made !!!
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September 26th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
i strongly feel that any P plater that loses his/her licence should start their probational period over again.
so if they lose their licence 18 months after having their licence then the 3 years should start again
i agree bob it is cars such as VS commys that young people are killing themselves in. the power those models have is plenty to upset a young kid racing or just plain thinking they have more ability than michael schumacher
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September 26th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Politicians & law makers are struggling to tackle the issue of cars in inexperienced hands.An enormous leap in power outputs & efficiency of delivery over the last 10-15 years has occurred.Compare 1980 58kw 1.9l 1X Toyota (Starfire4)to 1992 100kw 2.2l AWD Liberty.The latter is comparitively fast & powerful.Would rather see a P PLATE in the latter,it is a no brainer.
Todays fast car bears no comparison to the above & anyone who has one will test it.The inexperienced is more likely to test its limits somewhere inappropriate,negating any real or perceived safety or handling margins.
The kind of driver training I suspect is being talked about,advanced as against lower risk techniques,has limited value on its own.How to stop from 150km/h might frighten some but to a 17-18 year old it is likely to be a great thrill.Weaving around witches hats again can reinforce in some the idea that I have great reflexes & I can do anything.The high speed manouver requires a lot of real estate,something you don’t have on increasingly crowded roads.A combination of these techniques can work together.Avoiding the situation where you may need to slam on the brakes(a big no no with no ABS)by measuring distance,speed,conditions combined with reaction times& vehicle capabilities is really where the difference between life & death is realised.It is not just P plates that don’t realise this.
P’S are just glorified L’S & the L’S really never come off.
The complacent,selfish driver behind the wheel of anything is the real problem.Burnley tunnel disaster caused by one on the mobile phone,TEXTING killed a cyclist on the Geelong Rd,KERANG level crossing (I think I can beat the train)& the group of cyclists who ran the red knocked over & killed an elderly pedestrian.
All “mature” adults.Not one ‘P’ plater.It shows our road/car culture as being pretty stuffed.
But who would condone I’m off my L’s therefore I can get behind 300kw’s tomorrow?If it causes anguish for the car industry too bad.Can’t they feed off the 23+ age group?
Can see the anomolies between vehicles banned. VW1.4GT & R32 don’t have the young hoon image but XR8,Nissan GTR ETC does.But nothing in the laws to stop P Plate getting into an early aged XR6 in poor condition.Potent but what about the rest of it.
At the same time OLD HOON can be just as dumb.
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September 26th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Proud Daewoo Kalos owner must have Holden Daewoo tattoo on his balls.
What are you some sleazy salesman from some dealership?
Never seen such a stupid irrelevent entry.UTTER crap.
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September 26th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Proud Daewoo Kalos Owner > (YOUR KIDDING)
OH MY GOD THIS HAS TO BE JOKE RIGHT, JUST NOT CRICKET AT ALL, MUST BE THE FIRST AND ONLY PROUD OWNER IN AUS..
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October 3rd, 2007 at 8:15 am
These laws are ridiculous, to be put simply they dont stop anyhting, i am a P plater just going into second year and i have driven Skyline GTR’s twin turbo 400 RWKW cars, my own car, a Holden VS clubsport V8, 5.8L how do i get away with it? oh its simple put a V6 adge on the holden… or a GT badge on a GTR skyline, police dont even check yet alone anyone, most of my friends have tried this too and have been driving for ages like this, dont see any fatalities yet and theres about 10 of us, its not the cars, its definately the drivers some of these “performance” cars have more than ample safety features and in some cases are safer than some of the non banned cars. Im just furious that i need my car and that my parents have to sell our cars to buy stupid new cars that meet new laws that arnt any safer just because i need to get to work, and in the end what is the point? i work to earn a living and my living is now to pay off a new car that quite frankly doesnt make me feel safer or more confident infact it bothers me because im soo used to our previous cars, the reality being that these laws are murder to p platers everywhere, they cause hassel and nothing else, there are so many accidents on the roads, look how many people drive, look how many idiots there are out there that arn’t p platers how come they don’t have any laws preventing them from driving certain cars against them? Ohhh thats right they have the expierience! that must mean all non p plater collisions must definately be by accident, or maybe the driver just had a bad day? I know i have ranted and realy havnt had my argument clearly put out but you can see the frustration here in most p platers, these laws are Bull@!#$
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October 3rd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Even a 1.5L Starlet will have no problem getting to 150kph+, it just takes longer to get there. Young people just like to go fast and enjoy thrills.
Much safer to do it in a performance car that is built for the purpose.
And what is to stop them just doing internal work to their motors anyway? A cop would never know. Get a 4L falcon or commo etc and fit some cams, headwork etc, and it will go quite nicely.
Better to concentrate on driver training, so they can safely drive & control the car they have. EDUCATE, NOT LEGISLATE!
Instead, the government only seems to listen to the crying mothers of kids that should have never been behind in the first place, instead of the average driver who has more sense. Surely there is some way we can vote on this, and make driver training replace this idiotic V8 and turbo ban?
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October 3rd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
What, so I can’t drive an F-250 because it has a V8? I can drive a Falcon XT, that can beat an F-250. Who ever made up these laws don’t know their cars verry well.
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October 3rd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
My point exactly. The government are total fuckheads, yeah i agree with the learner thing but how are they gonna tell that you have done up your falcon. For example bigger exhaust aint the only thing you can do to a car to make them go faster. Valve kits, timing kits, bigger injecter, better crank and cam shafts, bigger pistons, port and polished head, high performance piston rings etc. So when I heard about these laws i was pissed off to start with but now I just laugh at how stupid the queensland goverementis. QUEENSLAND COPS you all no the Rodney Rude song!!!LOL.
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October 3rd, 2007 at 4:36 pm
What disturbs me about loss of control accidents is that a huge number are caused by aged drivers and whereas a young driver may cause an accident through inadequate training or poorly developed skills they normally appreciate after the fact that they were in fact the cause of the accident. My better half works in motor insurance and she often tells me of caees where on older driver has had an accident and damaged 3 or 4 parked cars is a carpark and had to get their own car towed only to find out that on checking the drivers insurance record they were involved in very similar accidents on often more than one previous occasion with the excuse that the car refused to stop or “my foot slipped” I think after pushing one car parked with the handbrake on and in park onto two others that any competent , nay, able bodied driver would have worked out their foot was on the accellerator. These accidents are ofetn reported as collisions instead ofthe insurance companies nother category “loss of control”. The statistics they use to show younger drivers as more dangerous are skewed by the poor reporting of older drivers accidents. Often, even though a car must not be towed until police attend and accident in NSW because collisions occur in private carparks the center manager or other person manages to get everything cleared up without this happening additionally covering the statistics and allowing incompetent drivers to continue putting pedestrians lives at risk, just imagine if one of the drivers of these parked cars were getting into or out of their cars at the time of the collision.
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October 7th, 2007 at 10:36 am
THE STATS BELOW WERE LIFTED FROM TAC VIC in 2006
It is obvious that there is more than one vulnerable age group.The big surprise is the 30-49 age group,it has a lot to do with demographics,plenty out there fall into this age group.Other factors?Complacency,I’m a good driver,have been driving for years.I am never at fault.Sound familiar?Then the death rate dives for the 50-70 age group.
AGE GROUP NO.OF DEATHS PROPORTION OF DEATHS
0 to 4 3 0.9%
5 to 15 11 3.3%
16 to 17 16 4.7%
18 to 20 29 8.6%
21 to 25 35 10.4%
26 to 29 29 8.6%
30 to 39 61 18.1%
40 to 49 48 14.2%
50 to 59 32 9.5%
60 to 69 23 6.8%
70+ 50 14.8%
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October 12th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Hi,
My parents drive a Nissan Patrol - 4.8L V8 petrol engine. It has i think like 185Kw of power but weighs like a disgusting 3 tonnes - can i drive this without an exemption form?
Thanks
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January 12th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Wendy…
I think I read something very similar on the AP just the other day….
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February 3rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I got a great idea that would solve everything. Let us p-platers drive anything… Let the stupid p-platers to kill them selves if they want to and let the good p-platers to drive safely. PROBLEM SOLVED! No stupid dumb rules ok.
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February 3rd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Tommy. the thing is there are a number of idiot P platers who take part in street races.. which; more than 90% of the time end up in an accident usually as a result of them losing control [high performance car v low performance driver]
The worst part about this is that 90% of the time these morons are able to walk away from the car-nage whilst the innocent third party [who got collected by the p plater as he shot through a red light] often ends up with serious injuries/disabled or dead.
Therefore; because the govt can’t legislate against stupidity.. they have no other option but to impose general restrictions on all P Platers. its just another case of the minority ruining it for the majority.. get used to it
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April 11th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
rather than investing time and money into creating bs laws that dont help anyone why not let the new drivers drive any roadworthy passanger vehicle and give them only 3 demerit points while they are on p plates? im not sure on the other states, but in victoria a speeding infringment of around 7-10 kms over the limit would result in one point lost.. if they did something deliberately stupid it would result in loss of licence immediately, which is enough to make anyone rethink doing the same thing after catching public transport for 3 months.. i think its unreasonable to punish young responsible people for the sole reason they ‘might’ do something wrong because they fall into a certain demographic
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April 14th, 2008 at 1:11 am
well the greedy parliament people can suck my dick. give us troublesome laws on car importations. they just trying to make us buy aussie cars and interests rate will keep raising
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April 17th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
…………….they can suck my dick too, Maxi
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April 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
ive got a holden vl turbo stock as a rock and i am banned to drive it… wats the point.. the new laws are not only wrong but also a waste of time.. i got fined for speeding in my parents camry.. a car accident can happen in anyfing..
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