Top Gear

Started brilliantly with the Bathurst VXR8 and Maloo, went way off with the ad filming story and concluded with one of the most beautifully filmed, thought provoking and masterfully underdone pieces Clarkson has ever done. His comment about the ending, how the war on speed has contributed to the looming death of motoring beauty in the form of the Aston Martin simply rammed home just how much we motoring enthusiasts stand to lose because of inept piloticians and their insistence on not training drivers to drive but to pilot.

What else: bad drivers.

It’s a long weekend here in NSW and you’d never guess that there’s a blitz on “bad drivers” or, more to the point, speeders and non-seatbelt wearers, the two most heinous, horrible, dangerous categories of drivers on earth.

Yet, I sent this to one of Sydney’s papers with little doubt they probably won’t publish it:

Just a reminder that this weekend, if you speed or don’t have seatbelts fastened, you could lose your license.

So for the rest of the failures that have a license, feel free to fail to indicate, fail to put lights on under these heavy skies, fail to stop at traffic lights or stop signs or fail to give way correctly.

Because it’s all about safety.
Apparently.

And when I witness a lass and passenger in their early twenties blithely skating through a red light and not indicating or a ML320 plated “PUNDIT” (or dickhead, take your pick), failing to indicate and no lights on, I truly get angry and despair and wonder what would happen if one of these fuckwits hit me while I’m driving.

The RTA will continue to do nothing.

Ferrari’s disappointment

You’ve all heard by now the Mister Schumacher will not be returning for Ferrari. It’s a shame but I guess he’d rather keep his head rather than have the fractures get worse.

Bummer.

Good news for Ferrari’s Massa & Supercars deserting Oz?

Heard this morning that Felipe Massa is on his way home and apparently is doing fine.

Those rumours about the Supercars kicking off the season overseas just won’t go away, with more gossip about the category starting the year in Bahrain and Dubai.
This will, in effect, get two useless rounds out of teh way but effectively kills the Clipsal 500’s status as the opening salvo battleground between the lion and the oval.
Smart thinking or just a blase’ attepmt to try and encourage the overseas markets to take more notice of a category that probably doesn’t have ahuge amount of relevance to them?

Will Davison gets pole

Good on you, Will, your first one!

Driver Training

Rather than the bleating, sheep like bullshit espoused by people scared of speed limits that a snail finds too slow, here’s some more logical sense to play with:
BMW Driver Training Takes to the Schools

In an effort to create greater initiative for safety on our roads BMW Driver Training has combined with Scotch College Melbourne, as yet another example of leadership in the premium automotive segment.

With the ultimate objective to provide the next generation of drivers due to take to our roads with potentially lifesaving skills, the pilot programme provided students with a thorough and interactive experience.

Chief BMW Driver Training instructor Geoff Brabham headed up the programme, sharing key driver safety tips with the Year 12 students of Scotch College.

The pilot programme focused on theoretical and practical elements of driver and road safety, with the feature of the programme, various real-life braking demonstrations.

Over one hundred students rotated through a number of braking demonstration manoeuvres to illustrate how to best avoid a potential hazard and the importance of technology such as ABS (Anti-lock Braking System).

In a community based role, BMW Driver Training together with the Bib Stillwell put the programme together as a pilot to gauge interest.

“The opportunity to demonstrate driver safety techniques to the next generation of drivers is very satisfying”, said Matthew Taylor, BMW Driver Training Manager.

“The response has been overwhelming from the students and parents. Not only did they have the opportunity to meet one of Australia’s most accomplished racing drivers, they learnt some techniques to hold them in good stead when they take to the roads.

“As a pilot programme we couldn’t be happier. If participants take just one safety initiative away with them we’ve succeeded”, Matthew Taylor said.

Since 1998, BMW Driver Training has been the benchmark of driver education throughout Australia with over 15,000 people participating in the various courses offered.

For further press/media information contact:
Tim James
Product Communications Manager
BMW Group Australia
Phone: 03 9264 4150
Mobile: 0438 041 134
Email: Tim.James@bmw.com.au

Toni Andreevski
PR & Corporate Communications Manager
BMW Group Australia
Phone: 03 9264 4238
Mobile: 0438 562 954
Email: toni.andreevski@bmw.com.au

The Nationals at Morgan Park

Racing hits the bigtime next weekend for Morgan Park, hosting its first round of the Shannons Nationals.
The Queensland circuit has been around in various forms for over fifty years however it’s only in the last decade it’s been given the resources to host major events such as the Shannons Nationals.

There’s four Queensland state rounds on offer, being the Geminis, Superkarts, MX5s and Sports Sedans, plus the national categories of GT3, Saloons and Manufacturers, which did so well at Eastern Creek a fortnight ago.
It’ll be on Speedweek, no doubt, the weekend after so make sure you tune in.

Speed cameras, F1 and resurrections

You will get a whole bunch of people sprouting the inevitable “don’t speed, don’t get fined”; it’s true but so completely out of touch.
Speed cameras do NOT save lives; no matter what the RTA or that Dr Job tells you. They force you to slow down for a short space of distance then do nothing to stop you going over the limit. They’re inevitably placed in areas where there’s no need for them and if the governments were honest (a big stretch, I know) about safety we’d have amber/red light cameras on every traffic light intersection, better driver training and education and resultant drop in fatalities and injuries with less cost to the community. THAT’S a safer driving message.

Further to this, when we watch a lady, probably in her seventies, driving a top end level Prado, doing 60 kmh in a posted 110 zone, the law WON’T do anything about this kind of driving as people such as her haven’t broken any laws……
People, it’s been conclusively proven that it’s the driving habits that many have that cause crashes, whether fatal or not. Speeding in and of itself, is not dangerous. It’s an estimated figure of 90% plus, for Sydney at least and what passes for “roads” here, that the crashes that hold people up are done at UNDER the posted limit.
So many fatalities on the roads are single driver caused; speed may be a factor but it’s not the cause of the crash. So many times we read “vehicle left the road”; well, just how the hell does that happen? There’s only ever one person in charge of the vehicle and they’re wholely and soley responsible for the control of that vehicle and the ramifications of what happens when they lose control of it.
If it’s getting dark or it’s cloudy or overcast, put your lights on. If you’re changing lanes or at a roundabout, use an indicator. If they’re someone in front of you, watch them AND the traffic in front of them (where ever possible) and stay a safe distance away from them. Make sure, if someone else has used the car you’re driving, that your seating position is suitable for you, not them.

They’re all small points, but common sense points. Sadly, common sense is being taken away from the driver, with more and more political spin fooling people into believing there’s just on sole reason for everything bad that happens on the roads. Problem is, that one sole reason is the driver yet so many are thinking it’s speed.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Word last night that BMW-Sauber will withdraw from F1 from next year; unexpected but not unusual, I would think. With just one win from three years and god knows how many zeroes woth being spent, they’ve decided to withdraw. A shame but fair enough.

Christians believe that one day their messiah will return; for Ferrari fans the unthinkable, the unbelieveable will apparently happen.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/schmacher-makes-sensational-return/story-e6frexni-1225756260111
Their messiah, Herr Schumacher, is tipped to make a return to F1 for the next event to replace the injured, and thankfully recovering, Felipe Massa.
If ever there was a matter of timing being slightly off, and I don’t wish to be cruel in any way, can you just imagine if the return of Schumacher had have been at the Nurburgring, in his home country? A marketer’s dream there however the prayers of the Ferrari faithful have been answered and their messiah will descend to place himself inside a scarlet rocket.
God only knows what will happen if he wins…….

V8 Supercars, NRL defections: what’s happening in the world!

Hot on the tail of the news that Karmichael Hunt (and just what cruel parent names a child that!) is defecting from NRL to AFL, huge, huge news of itself and a great excuse for the treeswinging knuckledraggers to find voice for abuse, comes the news that Triple Eight Racing is signed to Holden for 2010.
Craig Lowndes back in a Holden; Whincup in the red corner (makes sense given the cars are red that they race in….), with two such amazing changes the only thing that will top this is Kevin Sheedy agreeing to coach a rugby team…..
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
The ramifications of this will obviously be seen over the next few days and the timing is intersting given the Supercars head to Sandown this weekend.
One can only imagine what the media and the crowd and indeed, the other competitors, will make of the news and what views will be (allowed to be) put forward…….

N ZZ 11P

A BMW driver and smart arsed prick who thinks having a car like this is an excuse to act like a smart arsed prick.
Small penis boy.