Boy Racers

Hammer Head2008-03-15 16:08:01

When you're right, you're right I don't mean to come across as scapegoating, and I agree it is a problem that the media does often illustrate as a boy racer thing - because that detaches the problem from everyone. "Oh, I'm a good driver, because I'm not a boy racer, heck I'm in my thirties...what, 50km only? Screw that...."

I guess the reason why boy-racing gets the majority of the bad press is because - and forgive me if I'm making a gross generalization by someone detached from the demographic - of their culture that promotes irresponsible driving. When illegal street racing, speeding and the like are considered "cool", it's going to lead to more and more problems.

I'm also agreeing with the suggestions in the thread to raise the driving age. Perhaps, however, raising only the age for having a restricted & full license might be better - so instead of just 6 months of driving with a (hopefully) responsible driver, our drivers will have, say, 24, which hopefully will help promote safer driving by giving parents/guardians/instructors more chance to stop irresponsible behaviours as drivers become more confident (and overconfident)

it's more the subculture that sucks for me - i tend to think of boy racer in a pejorative sense - not automatically someone that like nice cars or driving fast, i mean most people do...but the huge gatherings where people just go to cause sh*t is not the same thing. I dunno, call those guys something else if it makes it clearer, but it is a definite subculture

The smell of burning rubber is putrid at best.

LG wins

That�s the whole problem - people don�t drive according to conditions, and the fact that our roads are not of the quality to cope with increasingly faster and powerful cars makes the thing even more problematic.

HH, with regard to the ease of getting the licence, it is much easier to get in NZ than in many other parts of the world. To get a learner�s, you pay around $50 and have to pass basically a test a retarded monkey would breeze through. The restricted licence practical test (about $80 I believe) is beyond a joke, and while the full-licence test ($150) is more thorough, it�s still not that difficult to get through - I�ve seen at least a couple of people pass it in the past year who I wouldn�t let ride a bicycle, let alone drive a car. So all up you end up paying maybe around $300 over two years, without having to undergo any formal instruction and without being tested in different driving conditions.
As a point of contrast, my cousin in Europe was getting her driver�s license maybe about 2 years ago - she had to go through a three-hour theory exam first which inccluded everything from the basic road rules to knowing basics about common car failures (mechanical, electric) and how to react to them. She was then required to go through a 6-month training programme with an authorised auto-school where she learned to control the car on their test-roads rather than being out there with the rest of the driving population, and only once she was ready (and this was at her instructor�s discretion, not set in stone) was she allowed to get on the street. After successfully completing the theory exam and driving school, she then had undergo two driving tests (day driving and night driving, each about an hour�s duration), each of which cost about $650 NZ. All in all, she had to pay close to $4000 NZ to get her licence, with the overall outcome that she knows more about cars and driving than any ordinary driver I know here. And after forking out that money she�s hardly interested in losing her licence or getting it suspended. And yes, the driving age over there is 18.   el grapadura2008-03-16 04:13:59

Well, again, this is the perception that media puts out there, not really what many so called boy racers do. Most these guys just really like cars, invest a lot of their time and money into pimping out their cars and not ever doing anything illegal, yet they get painted with this brush of irresponsibility seemingly to fulfill someone�s self-serving agenda.
And those of you on the forum who know me will also know that I�m as far removed from boy-racing as Ahmad Elrich�s from a gym, I just feel somenone needs to give them a voice.

Ah the liberal over-reach.

The evil media and the poor boy racers
Cosimo2008-03-16 12:19:55

Surely the self serving agenda is that of the boy racers? The one's that gather in some poor residential area and annoy the sh*t out of the nighbourhood with their burnouts & drifting? I remember some farmer offered to build a specialist track for them to do just that but the boy racers turned it down because it was too far from town - poor things.

Too right.

Yes, let�s generalise again. All boy racers are evil, and once they and thier cars are off the road there will never be any car accidents in NZ ever again.

And everyone lived happily ever after.

yes, that's we are saying. ffs

no one has said that - you are acting like the dreaded media by misrepresentating people.

by your same logic - no boy racers are to blame for anything.

and if the boy racers that cause sh*t were off the road, many people WOULD be happier. Note: i didn't say ALL boy racers

and you are generalising about the media as well. if the media show some boy racer causing sh*t, is that misrepresentation? because they didn't show a boy racer acting harmlessly? what do you think the media is for, showing us stuff that isn't criminal/of interest to people/of no importance/that doesn't effect anyone?


Cosimo2008-03-16 17:26:57

and i'd really like to know what this self-serving agenda is

Probably Yellow Fever Txt Alerts

My generalisation about the farmer? He was a Waikato based one out near Matamata. Not only Cosimo and I genralising but also El Grapadula. All boy racers are good concientious fun loving types that always obey the road rules, never cause accidents, never cause disruptions in residential streets, never racer on motorways chopping lanes and driving hard out amongst busy traffic - never of course! Yeah Right!

Well, I never said that all boy-racers were responsible drivers - read the posts before replying please. I�ve actually said that many are irresponsible, but that there are also many who are not.

None of your posts, however, has recognised that - the tack has been boy-racers bad, without recognising the fact that they are as diverse a group of people as any.

And as for media�s self-serving agenda - you�ve answered your own question there Cos.

Enough of this sh*t, I�m going to the beach.

Don't get too sunburnt - slip,slop, slap and all that and don't perve too much, you'll go blind!

Too late, LG, too late...

I think the general consensus is that in any group there are going to be the good and the bad.

Prof, spot on, "Car Enthusiast" being the most important 2 words. Lonegunmen2008-03-17 18:05:30

The point is that whether you're a "Boy Racer" or a "Car enthusiast",  unless you're breaking the law you have nothing to worry about.

Well played sir

although, in a strict sense, unless the media actually stage something with actors pretending to be boy racers then they're are not actually doing anything out of sorts...it's overblown because of people's lack of discerning proportion...but i don't need the media to show me stuff, i've seen stuff that sucks without the lens of the the media's filter, and i'm sure many others have too, hence the annoyance

blah x6...you've won.

El Grap - lasergunz PEW PEW PEW

Cos - energyshield CLANG CLANG CLANG
Cosimo2008-03-17 19:34:20

As always, sheer class Cos.

Just make the little t**sers get insurance & fine their parents for letting them out when they should be doing their homework.

Simo that could be misunderstood as part of the Torture Act

I see two boy racers in one car died in Auckland this morning and the other racer took off.

FFS - to all the so called Boy Racers out there this is exactly why people like me and the others on here are complaining about the youth of today gasthering in their fast cars and doing dumb things like this - Two of your peers have killed themselves, and another has fled the scene - if there had been anyone esle on the road at the time it could have been an innocnet bystander getting killed to.

Well said sir.

violence only begets violence Skaman - clearly the "actions" taken so far hasn't stopped the craziness, I reckon a two fold plan is the most appropriate - making it harder for these young adrenaline junkies to get into high powered time bombs is the first port of call - secondly making the punishment for breaking the rules actually meaningfyll - and thirdly better education about the rules and what will happen.