General Auto Chat

Discussion in 'Cars, Motorcycles, Boats, Airplanes Talk' started by Maxvla, Sep 26, 2015.

  1. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Money. Our highway police are like girl scouts, only instead of selling cookies, they are handing out speeding tickets. In Indianapolis the speed limit was 65 or 55, even on the big 12 lane freeway. People did 70 or 80, sometimes even more. That's a biiiig ticket, possibly an impound and a licence revocation. Aka, money.
     
  2. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    The Autobahn incident rates also comes with driver's Ed adequate to it.

    In order to promote making people able to drive easily that's - generally though not everywhere - quite lax in the USA.

    Conditions vary of course, but deaths per 100k vehicles is roughly comparable between Western countries.

    Infrastructure on deferred maintenance the world over. Speed limits are lower in the USA but broadly comparable. Age of rolling stock is roughly equal.

    With that in mind:

    Switzerland is 3.something, Germany and Italy are 6.something, USA is over 14.

    So USAutobann would need to come with considerable tightening in regulation on driver ed. Cue reeeeeee about infringed liberties.

    Also, the amount of true unregulated Autobahn is actually rather small compared to the total highway network.
     
  3. lagadu

    lagadu Facebook Friend

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    While it's true that the stretches with no speed limit in Germany are few, with the notable exception of Switzerland, there's little speed limit enforcement in Europe in my experience, which includes having lived all over it. Sure, a significant amount of people keep to the limit but there's always people going over that and nobody cares. Sometimes there are static speed cameras in the vicinity of cities but that's mostly it.
     
  4. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Plenty of speeding traps over here, and highways being toll - so they know your average speed and can and will fine you based on that.

    5% overspeed is no fine - hence everyone driving 135 GPS in a 130 zone, which comes out at 140 instrument.
    40 over (25 miles) and you say bye bye to your license for months.

    Also the license has a point system here, is that present in the US? You can only screw around so much before you say bye to your license for a variable time depending on what caused you to lose points.
     
  5. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Yes we have points. You can pay more to not get points up to a certain point.
     
  6. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Ah, no option of that sort here.

    How many do you get?

    Here the license has 20, minor shit like no seat belt is 1 off, speeding ramps pretty fast from 2 to 10.
     
  7. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Every state is different, but in Michigan you get a max of 12 points before your license is revoked. Points can fall off after an amount of time. We don't get points for no seat belt, just a $65 fine.
     
  8. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Interesting.

    Here if you have 20 or more on your license you get 2 bonus good boy points every 2 years without an infraction, up to 30 max, but if you go below 20 that's it, only way it can go is down, you have to take a road safety course with practical exam to get them back.
     
  9. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Ah, see we start at 0 points and gain them for infractions.
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Americans can't handle it. California doesn't even test highway driving, parallel parking, or coming to sudden stop from 25MPH (some other states do). Heck, most folks driving slow don't stay in the right lane, even in Texas. In California, the right lane is sometimes faster! At least it was on a business trip from Calabasas to San Diego where I pretty much had a clear shot in the right lane during the night. The point is, German drivers are better drivers. It's cultural (they are more rule bound) and also part of their strict testing and high fees in obtaining a driver's license.

    If we had an American Autobahn, there would be horrific accidents from dumb shit, not just speeding. Heck, there are horrific accidents on the Autobahn - but Germans don't bitch and spectacularize as much as Americans. A few accidents on a American Autobah, and the likes of AOC, Pelosi, and Schumer would be up in arms about this needing to be heavily regulated. Gas mileage also goes to total shit a high speeds (ever lift the pedal going past 135MPH, it's like hitting the brakes, at least that's how it felt in my old Evo which was shaped like a box). Newsom would have a cow since such piss poor mileage would have obvious deleterious effects on global warming. We could just allow electric cars on the American Autobahn... until one flipped over and lit on fire... and the firefighters couldn't put out the battery fire for three days.

    We Americans don't get an Autobahn because we are too stupid and can not handle one. This isn't any different from other peoples who cannot handle democracy.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2021
  11. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    IMG_20210331_230507845.jpg $100 Craigslist wheels still going strong after like 6 months. Surprised, don't leak at all, never filled up after getting them on. Great deal at $100 for the set of 4, I like the bronze with my car color
     
  12. shredical

    shredical Friend

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    The weather seems to be looking to be an extremely warm "summer weekend in spring" turn.

    Signed up for both days with Hooked on Driving (my first time with them) at PIR.


    Originally had a set fo GT Radial SX2s ordered but they weren't going to ship on time.

    Thankfully Maxxis was prompt and the showed up on time. Although, i might have just enough tread left on my Continental extreme contact sports to ride them out this weekend.

    ALso the first time i bought track day insurance. Went with Lockton motorsports..seemed reasonable at just 170$ for the weekend.

    Got the track brake pads swapped in..transmission and differential fluids changed.

    Brake fluid still looks ok (PMU335 turns clear when its time to change)
    Engine oil only has about 1500 miles and about 4 months old. Debating whether to change it or run it this weekend.


    tires.JPG
     
  13. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    Those are 200TW? I've been considering the Falken RT660s, but are the Maxxis the new hot cheap shit?

    my first HPDE I saw a guy stuff it hard into barriers in a G35 and wouldn't step foot on the track without track insurance being as inexpensive as it is.

    I'd only bother changing engine oil if you saw oil temps over 240 intermittently for more than a couple laps. But I'm going on what I've read on VW forums for cooking Liqui Moly.
     
  14. shredical

    shredical Friend

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    yeah they are TW200 conservatively.

    They last longer than the Falken RT660 though i think.

    I couldn't find the Falkens in stock either hence i ordered the Maxxis.
    Falken = 640 a set
    Maxxis - 680 a set
    GT Radial SX2 - 440 a set (shame they were backordered). Last long like the Hankook RS4 and what the 86CUP series use but are about 1.5-2s slower compared to the RE71R.

    the oil in there has only seen street use. On track i expect to see north of 245+ later in the day.

    I haven't switched over to my air cooled oil cooler setup yet, thinking ambient temps would be cool enough in spring to get a coupleof days in with the water cooled laminova setup i am running right now.

    Last track day i recorded coolant temps of 223 with oil temps hovering about 252 ambient being 82deg f
     
  15. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    If you're really into it and your street car is expensive, and if you have room for a small trailer and a tow vehicle, you may find that it's more cost-effective to just buy a real (by which I mean purpose-built and probably open-wheel) racecar.

    Safer, way faster, and tons cheaper and quicker to repair. Plus, if you do break something that you can't fix in the paddock, you can still drive yourself and your racecar home. And when you get there, it'll be a lot easier to work on that thing than on a street car.
     
  16. shredical

    shredical Friend

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    well saturday morning was a wash.. had an off track moment on the in-lap on the warm up session no less, coming off the back straight and money shifted, locking up the rears and skidding off track.

    That generated enough force to knock all manifold bolts out on the passenger side. Wife rescued the day by bringing 3 oem bolts to the track.
    Had a blast the rest of the sessions. Feel like we skipped spring as it was friggin hot in the afternoon.

    Managed to get a few laps under my best time from last year.
    About 0.5secs shaved off the lap.
    trackday1.JPG track2.JPG
     
  17. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    you seem to be doing alright since everybody is waving you by! Turbo set up?
     
  18. shredical

    shredical Friend

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    yup. Nothing crazy power. stock fueling setup. about 250 to the wheels with pump 92 gas.

    still get squirrelly under braking.. and pucker factor when braking later than my normal comfort point.

    haven't ever heard my car from another's perspective...here's me going by a mini R53 and then past a newer GP3 at like 4:50 mark.

    ANd yeah, that white BRZ was basically a roadblock for everyone else on the track in the intermediate group.

     
  19. shredical

    shredical Friend

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    I happened to make it to a weekend at my favorite track in the pacific northwest, the Ridge complex near Olympia Washington.

    Turns 1 through 6 is just such a blast! This was my best lap from the day. Not bad, but with a more track focused alignment and more seat time, atleast 4-5 seconds still on the table.

    Had one major spin at turn 6 in the carouse but caught it (after swinging sideways right left right left ) and stayed on track..wish I had caught that on video .the instructor who was riding with me was nice in the debrief about it..cold tires and getting greedy on the gas :p

     
  20. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    Nice flying lap! But uhh, yeah that carousel looks like a blast!
     

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