Today Tonight - Monday 9th Sept

[PJKJ]

Originally posted by DLuded

i too question the 500KW godzilla. anyway all those guys were way too confident. and the intro said that the hoons couldn't even pass "a simple driving test", a simple driving test to me would be a license test, and im sure that most poeple out there would have failed the test aswell. it was funny though to see the 200sx driver just floor it out of most corners and lose all control.

I didnt watch the whole thing, but i agree with Deluded that quiet a few ppl other than performance car drivers would fail a test like that.. Also like some-one else said in this thread how about the fords and holdens I didnt see one of those guys going through the tests.....Ohhh the IMPORT drivers MUST be the only hoons out their, what a joke.. All i saw was another biased story by another A Current affairs Show...And once again the import drivers being put in a bad light

Sorry for the rant

Cheers

Richmond

[gtrken]

Those three guys should have been smarter and realise they were going to be set up.

Would any sane person do doughnuts etc if they were told that this will be a slot on safe drivers on Current Despair.

More than likely was told to go onto the pan ,have some fun and the camera guys will give them some private footage which they then used for the article.

As for the incar, I bet Luff egged them on and told them to push it past there limits.

As for Ian Luff, outspoken critic and showman, PFFFT, anything to get his mug on TV.

Ken

[Pva_Glue]

damm I misssed anyone recorded it?

can I have look? Please?

from reding other post I think they got set up by TV people...

cheers

Joe

[ix9]

Dammit! I missed it!!

Was flicking through channels while watching neighbours (yes, only for Holly valance!) and it said "Next.... driving test.."

and i thought they meant "next show" not, next segment! Arrgh!

Someone got a DivX of it ?? pls ??

[ix9]

This just In:

I found some linkage on the MidnightCruise eGroup in perth... thanks to whoever encoded it!

This is a copy of the eastern states aired segment...

Enjoy

http://www.eftel.com/~mdignam/aussie_hoons.avi

[akira]

They're legends in their own minds..... they should stick 2 driving taxis

If anyone sees them, make sure you laugh at them:D

[Leewah]

I am quite disturbed by the reputation which TodayTonight has now put on import drivers and have sent them the following email. I suggest that if people feel strong enough about how people perceive us import HPI vehicles, you also write to them and state how you feel.

---------------------------------------------

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in regards to your story on Monday 9 September regarding "The need for speed".

Not everyone who owns a Japanese sports car a hoon on the streets. You have painted us all in a bad light when it is simply a few irresponsible people giving the rest of us a bad name.

When I saw your footage of the cars doing 200km/h+ and the bike doing nearly 300km/h on public roads, I found that to be very disturbing and realise why you were doing the story in the first place.

The truth of the matter is that you have singled out 3 individuals who were overly confident in their driving skills and turned them into a stereotype which people will now associate with myself and fellow Japanese sports car drivers. I spend a lot of my leisure time around people who own Japanese sports cars, some stock, some modified and to this day, I have not seen any of these people break any more road rules than you would find an average person breaking on any given day.

I am also a partner in a business which works on modifying, servicing and upgrading Japanese sports cars and all of our customers are 'clean' members of society. Although they may drive very fast cars, none of them brag about their driving skills like the people you had doing the training course with Ian Luff. Those 'hoons' as you describe them are simply ****y people who are too arrogant for their own good. My friends, business partners and associates spend time in this interest circle for the simple fact that we find these cars interesting and have visions of improving our cars from standard form, whether it be visibly or performance wise.

I am also questioning whether you made a mistake when you stated that the man who drove the Nissan Skyline 'Godzilla' (assuming it was a GTR) had 500 kilowatts. Are you sure you didn't mean 500 horsepower. Very few road registered cars in this country have that kind of power. I only know of one of these cars in Victoria. Although my car doesn't quite have 500 kilowatts, it has been on a dynometer and measured 360 kilowatts at the wheels. After estimating drivetrain loss, we came to the conclusion that I had 470 kilowatts at the engine. 500 kilowatts although obtainable costs a lot of money and man hours to achieve. It is not something that all high performance sports cars would have.

The only times I have really given my car a flat out push was at Calder Park drag strip during one of their legal off street drag meets.

I believe that it is a good idea to encourage driver training for people with high performance cars and there are many places in Victoria which people can partake in training courses such as the Jim Murcott Driving School and DECA training days. Maybe if you publicised this kind of training, not so many people would be having accidents due to lack of experience and training.

---------------------------------------------

[Nexus_SiX]

I should be careful not knowing the exact "test" But it does look extremly easy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying i have perfect control but from what i saw from the footage all mistakes were due to excessive speed.

Go slower, no cones hit

Does the test ask you to be over your limits? If so what sorta test is it?

As mentioned in earlier posts, the only failure i could see was the over-confidence of the "person" (loosest possible description ) driving..

2ndly - Re: the WRX

My God!, Rubber that thin (expensive) and he still does burn outs for the sake of it!?!?

[Roy]

A couple of the tests that Luff put me thru were:

1. Slalom, with a 180 deg turn at the bottom before returning to the garage. This was the tests that they were making a mess of, in the instance of the 200SX almost hitting the wall.

2. Wet weather change in direction and braking, @>85km/h. I didnt see any sign of this test on Today Tonight, it however was the most daunting as the witches hats were very tight and with a wet road the test entailed a lane change to the left then immediately back to the right before jumping on the breaks before you run out of road. The cars move around a bit, but by the end of it i was going into the test on 100km/hr

3. Go to whoa, with a chicane in the middle, and another 180 deg turn at the bottom before returning and stopping in the garage.

On the day i attended i saw only a couple out of control slides, which came from people competing against not only one another but the clock.

Learning the limits of the car in the wet/dry and drivers limits was the point of the day. The drivers seemd to be reasonably in tune with what a car and driver can and cant do. There werent any clueless loses like those i witnessed on Today Tonight.

And i suppose thats my point these guys didnt really have any idea as to what the limits of their cars were OR more importantly their own limits, probably because they have never done a track/driver day. Really who can honestly say they have driven their car to the LIMITS on the road?

PS: If you ever have the opportunity to have Luff drive your car, be warned he canes the life out of the car, something i didnt enjoy seeing happen to my car. However the guy demonstrates incredible car control, i think the car was sideways on the rev limiter for 36 seconds flat thru a clover test.

[Duncan]

1st a cavaet - I've done advanced driving courses with both Luff and Findlay, and found the Findlay course to be far more professional.

Having said that, I caught up with Ian Luff at the UAS day on Sunday, we were talking about this segment. Ian's just in this for the promotion of advanced driving, he was not targeting import drivers - he said "just went to the local maccas and got some ppl from the carpark". Had there been a bunch of commonwhores waiting there it could have been a very different thread here "did you see those arrogant, dumb-arse commodore drivers?"

Ian is a driving enthusiast like most of us here, and an outspoken critic of revenue raising through speed cameras - his angle is that ppl should do courses through companys like his to improve their skills instead. Fair nuff. The sensationalisation (HUGE word that) is just to get the point across.

I think we should invite Today Tonight out to the next Eastern Creek drive day - lets tell em about wild drifitng sessions, then show em some quick laps by enthusiasts who know how to drive.

[Roy]

Thats a good idea. I have been bouncing emails off Motor Magazine and in particular Cameron McConville trying to arrange them to attend one of the days, bring along some CSV/HSV etc that they are road testing and also get driving tips from Cam and other driver/journalists.

Cant say ive had much luck.

I agree with what you say about Ian, drivers ed in school is what he is striving for! Good luck to him i have nothing against people earning a living. (Just dont kill my car)

[1GTR2GO]

Maybe I am wrong on this but aren't all three of those cars Australian released models. i.e I don't know that TT were targeting grey import drivers.

[Leewah]

1GTR2GO,

I see your point, but also why do they take 3 morons in Jap cars and not also chuck an Aus car in the mix. Eg. A 300 Kw GTS. Not the easiest of cars to tame as it is RWD and has a considerable amount of power. Also the weight of the car doesn't help when sideways action is involved.

[ex-static]

That letter is perfect leewah, I was going to do something similar after I watched the story. I'm just too lazy

Let me know if you get a response back.. maybe we should try and organise something to TT on the Import Enthusiast, rather than the 'Maccas Boyz'

I also think that if you grabbed a handful of commie drivers and did the same thing, it would be an even worse result.

It just annoys me that now we will be targeted not just from police but other drivers on the road thinking we are hoons.

[riggaP]

Originally posted by ex-static  

Let me know if you get a response back.. maybe we should try and organise something to TT on the Import Enthusiast, rather than the 'Maccas Boyz'  

I also think that if you grabbed a handful of commie drivers and did the same thing, it would be an even worse result.  

It just annoys me that now we will be targeted not just from police but other drivers on the road thinking we are hoons.  

Couldnt have said it better myself :uh-huh:

I remember seeing a similar thing on ACA or TT AGES ago. Some dumb muzza who owned a 425ci (cant remember the exact size) V8 charger and cliamed that he could control his car perfectly at 300+km/h.... I think not. Micky Schu or Peter Brock maybe, but not Mr Muz at 1 Dik-ed St. He couldnt even get a commo around witches hats at 60km/h.

Those people were chosen with the intention of generating a negative image towards HP cars... and they succeeded. Its just very frustrating!

[Roy]

I think it was more about making young drivers out to be idiots, not so much the cars.

I think Duncan mentioned Luff was only out to increase the exposure to his company, not out to burn import drivers, i agree.

At the end of the day most non car people i know couldnt tell the difference between a Paseo and a Skyline, and that stock 200SX was pretty bland. I believe any problems arising from police etc will still come from age, not so much car.

PS- I must be one of the lucky ones, ive racked up around 55000kms in 18 months and have not been hassled by Police once, only ever pulled over for a breath analysers , (i was only wearig underwear @2am but thats another story.) Before that another Skyline and same story.

[2rismo]

it has been on a dynometer and measured 360 kilowatts at the wheels

dynomometer no?

Cheers.

[red900ss]

Originally posted by Duncan

I think we should invite Today Tonight out to the next Eastern Creek drive day - lets tell em about wild drifitng sessions, then show em some quick laps by enthusiasts who know how to drive.

I was thinking that exact thing Duncan. Give them a taste of their own medicine. Talk it up like we're a bunch of loonies and then show them what really goes on (though we probably lock Pete in someones boot while the cameras are there ).

Roy, it aint that hard is it. Just the attitude.

[fatz]

i would fit nicely in one of those tt shows(im overweight)

give us a chance redd i promiss ill be good(i would have had some class and done reverse donuts)

what have we learn from this program.. sorry i have to generalise here but basically "keep all dum fat lebs with powerfull cars of the street"

if that coment offended anyone good cause that was the idea

just jokes hahahahahahaahahahaha lol

pete

[inark]

hahaha fatz.

missed the show... my gf told me about it.. made me cringe cause i knew what was going to happen... oh well... i dont care... id love to take one of those courses once my cars all setup and insured and ready to go