Searching for help with Australia and its carculture

[Gts25t Sweden]

Hi everyone!

I am working with a project about Australia and its carculture, and im looking for people who could tell me more about that subject. Me myself is very interested in cars, and ive had a skyline and now recently a supra mkiv tt. And up north in Sweden (where i live) these cars isnt as common as they seem to be down under.

I would be very happy if you guys could tell me as much as u can about people and their cars in Australia. Everything is useful for me.

Its questions like this that i want to get answered:

As far as i know, people take their driverslicenses at the age of 16. Do you have any restrictions when you start driving at that low age? (its 18 in sweden).

What cars is most poular among the young people. Which cars are most common, and how "normal" is it to have cars like skylines and supras and what kind of people have those cars?

Streetracing. Is it common with illegal streetraces, and how good is the police to stop it and so on?

I guess this is all for now, but im sure that i will come up with more questions further on.

//Carl, Sweden

[AzzurrA]

Answer to your first question: You are able to apply for a learners license at age 16 1/2. To drive on this license you have to have a fully licensed driver with you at all times. You have to hold this license for 6 months and then pass a Practical driving test at the end. If you pass that, you get issued with a 'P' or Provisional license. You have to hold this license for 3 consecutive years. The restrictions on this license are that you only have 4 demerit points (1/3 that of a full license) so basically if you get caught doing illegal stuff, you'll have your license taken away quicker than if you had an open license. The above holds true for Queensland anyway, not sure on other states laws.

The most popular car among young people here in Queensland would have to be a Holden Commodore (locally made car) as they are cheap enough that your average 17 - 18 year old can afford one. You see a few skylines around though, but they're usually owned by slightly older people (early to mid 20's). The import scene is getting larger here in Queensland, with more and more starting to show up, but again, its usually slightly older people who have them due to their price etc, so you don't see as many.

Streetracing is there, and always will be, but it has died down a bit in the last couple of years after new 'anti hoon' laws were introduced where if you were caught racing etc etc they take your car off you for 48 hours... if you're caught again you lose it for 3 months... if you're caught again after that you forfeit it to the crown.

Police use very heavy-handed tactics at times, such as defecting cars, hassling people purely because of the fact that they own a nice car, and alot of the time it is on people who haven't done anything wrong, so there is usually a very anti-police attitude amongst enthusiasts.

Anything else you wish to know?

[GTS_DUY]

In Canberra (the capital, no sorry, neither sydney nor melbourne are capitals of Australia), the age to get your "L" Plates as 15 and 9 months. This is attained through a series of short government theory tests, which can be done through school. People on L plates are restricted to driving with an adult on an open drivers licence. At 17, L platers can take either a logbook tests (series of 21 or so competencies which take about 5 x one hour lesson minium), or a one off drive with a government superviser. P plates are held for 3 years, which then you transfer to an open adults licence.

[Gts25t Sweden]

Thank you very much for the help!

Over here you get to drive with a person over 25 (which have had a driverslicence for 5 years) from the age of 16. And when you are 18 you can take the real licence yourself, but with 2 consecutive years when its easy to loose it.

Is it different ages depending on where you live to get the L plates?

And i have to ask a question about holden, that ive been wondering about a long time. I dont know if you have Opel over there, but all the holdens seems to have almost the same name as the opel cars. For example, opel also have a Commodore.. Is there any connection between these two brands?

And when the police is getting more heavy-handed as you said, is it getting more popular and common to race legally. Like 402m, race-tracks and so on?

I guess most people who want sportscars get them from Japan (even i do so), but how common is it with private-import of cars, or is it just companies that import them?

I have also heard about your law that the cars you import have to be 15(?) year old. Is that the way it is?

[elbee111]

Carl,

A quick (and I hope accurate) answer to Opel etc is that Holden, Opel and Vauxhall were basically the same car.

They were developed in a joint venture basis and used the same parts with the exception of certain body panels so the local product had a look pleasing to their own markets.

El Bee

[hippy]

imports are very common here ... u can't go for a drive without seeing one.. its because they're cheap and have lots of power ... generally the young "car enthusiasts" that own commodores own them cause they really can't afford an import or they dont' know much about imports so they just like what their fathers liked and i can say with all honesty that thats a fact!. Generally in my view you don't see many enthusiasts driving commodores unless they are the nice newer ones with ls1 engines etc ... and if you compare the price of those to a nice skyline ... the skyline/supra/180etc it is still alot cheaper, also cheaper to modify which goes hand in hand with imports. So therefore money is a big issue. Eg when WRX's first came out, who owned most of them?? it was the older people probably 40-50 with a mid life crises ... now who owns all the used ones?? its the younger people Also another car which the younger people like are things like lancers, and small cars like those and they seem to like to "do" them up, ie sound system and body kits, you see lots of that around, mainly because they are also quite cheap and insurance with imports are a big problem. but if you ask us which car is the most popular to enthusiasts? well it would have to be the skyline which pretty much has the whole package for the price and remember that price is important for younger people

[sammus]

To add:

In victoria (...melbourne) probationary drivers ('P platers', first 3 years of licence) have a power restriction.

No more than 125kw (170hp) per tonne (car weight)

and

No more than 3.5l (engine capacity) per tonne

Many break the rule...

```

are you in the swedish skyline club (www.skyline.se) ? i like that site even though i can't read it

[someonestolecc]

Just adding in regards to license that isn't mentioned is that (in NSW atleast) when you get your Learner license you have to be atleast 16 years of age. You must have held your L license for atleast 6 months before attempting the Probationary license (P) but you must be atleast 17 years of age. The rest is pretty much true I think recently there is 2 levels of P license but you will have to ask someone that is younger than me because I'm not too sure how it works.

After you finish your P you have the choice of a black normal license or a silver. The only difference is black is 1 year and silver is 3 years. Black has 4 points and silver has 12 (works out to be 4 a year). When you commit an offense and they demerit points from you, for the black you are returned your points 1 year from your LAST offence (not the actual offence) and the silver it's 3 years.

After 5 (i think) years of no tickets you are offered the 'gold' license which is the same as silver but is gold in colour.

In terms of car culture I think you have to be more specific as everyone has a different view on it.

I think it's largely determined by the type of person. Some people modify their cars because it's part of their ego/image/fashion. This is like chrome wheels on a silvia or lowering the car till it handles badly.

Some people love anything that comes from Japan so they will follow the trend there.

Some people will modify their cars as 'anything goes', as long as it's fast.

Some people live for the track and will rip out everything for weight reduction to get a better circuit/drag strip time.

Some people just love cars so will do what seems fun at the time.

I think it's similar the world over in terms of those arch-types, it's just that we may get them in different proportions here in Aus. Each state is probably quite different as well.

Common cars for young people is anything. I see from rich kids with P plates having done up latest model supra or r34 GTR, you also see the kids that aren't so rich buy the little $200 car old civic or corolla that looks like it's going to fall apart but gets them to work/uni till they can get something better. In terms of modifed cars I think young people are split into 3 main categories- the "high performance" imports, the holden commodore/ford falcon and corolla/laser/pulsar/civic categories.

Street racing depends on what you mean. I've never seen or been to any fast and furious styled place where people get on the walkie talkie and they close a whole street to have the races... (i'd love to so PM me if you do this ). On the other hand, it's common where people are to sit at the lights and race a person in another modified car (atleast I seem to see it a fair bit).

In terms of this I think the NSW government has recently changed some of the fines/penalties around this so it's bad to do burnouts, racing etc and I think you can have your car confiscated from you for doing this.

In NSW we also have the people who issue licenses (known as the Roads and Traffic Authority) who have inspectors who drive around to see if your car is legal - but living here for 10 years plus I've never seen one pulling anyone over (although I have seen a few).

Hope that helps - good luck with your research

[predator]

Australia has very poor driver training, and I think that is one of reasons for some of this heavyhandedness by the law. The government simply believes in punishing people for doing wrong, rather than better driver training and the like.

They have also realised that there is a massive amount of money to be made from fining people for breaking the laws, which in many people's eyes is not improving the driving skills.

Lots of terrible drivers!

[Gts25t Sweden]

Thank you very much everyone!!

I think i know pretty much now, but just tell me if you come up with something that i dont seem to know. Now im going to write all this down and see what i can do with it. Im going to sydney quite soon, so i guess i will get to see some nice cars over there.

About the driver training.. Here in sweden its the other way. Its very hard to get the license, but there is few cops around when you finally get it=)

And of course im a member of skyline.se, but it doesnt have that many members