Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ferrari Digest, Vol 31, Issue 25

[Mike Fleischer (themightytoe]

OK

Well parallel parking is really only a single example, and I have yet to 
attempt that on a race track.  Its a skill many would consider basic for 
a driver to master (apparently you do not?), and shows that a driver 
knows how to maneuver their vehicle, use their mirrors, and not hit 
stationery objects.  Necessary or not where you live, its still a way of 
demonstrating control and ability.  And I disagree that Kansas has a 
different set of skills than New York.  The cars are the same, the roads 
are the same, even the weather is likely similar in that you have 4 
seasons, but maybe fewer tornado's and farm equipment in New York and 
fewer pedestrians in Kansas?  Those are driving conditions, not skills.  
A skilled driver will drive to their own ability based on the current 
conditions, whether its an open highway where you can see the horizon or 
a crowded street with bicycles and foot traffic at every corner.

As to an argument that drivers in the US are bad:  Here is a site to 
have a peak at: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

I think sorting by distance traveled is not really fair, many countries 
do not require a lot of distance driving..  If  you sort by fatalities 
per 100000 people the only worse countries to drive in than the US of A 
are Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Greece.  Sobering data.  So yeah we 
as a populace don't know how to drive as well as the rest of the 
world...  Plane and simple.  I would state that it is driver training 
that is the main cause, since I doubt we as a people are on some level 
less capable than drivers in Malta or Sweden...

Our Government's answer is to enforce citations, lower speed limits, 
mandate safety features such as better crash worthiness, seat belts and 
airbags.  As often is the case, the government should not try and solve 
problems, but should wait for good solutions and do what it can to 
enable them or get out of the way of progress.  I believe the real 
answer is better driver training across the board.  Make it difficult 
and expensive to get a license, and make it difficult to keep the 
license.  Mandate a minimum amount of instructed time in the car (with a 
professional instructor), a minimum amount of simulator time, Make all 
license testing a mandatory written exam along with a mandatory in car 
test to show basic proficiencies.  Re-test everyone every 2 years.  
Painful?  Maybe but you end up with a better driver.  On top of that 
driving schools should be rated based on their rates of success for 
students.

The flip side to this is that as roads get even more crowded, vehicles 
become full auto.  You get in, tell it where you want to go, and it 
takes you there.  I truly believe that is what is coming.  We probably 
won't see that in the US first but we will eventually see it, I expect 
to see that in my lifetime before I see a flying car.  Auto Cruise 
control, lane departure warnings, automatic Parallel parking are all 
available today in luxury vehicles from Audi, Lexus, and Mercedes to 
name a few, these features, like ABS brakes Electronic Stability control 
and Automatic transmissions will trickle into the mainstream Toyota 
Camry and Honda Accord before long. 

As for the offer to drive your 20 ton truck... Thanks If I am every down 
in KY I'd love to find a parking lot and learn how :)  I do need to 
venture to the Corvette Museum at some point, and that would be a fun 
road trip, my son would love to ride in a real fire truck too :)  But 
yeah I make no claims of being the best driver out there...  And I would 
not attempt to drive something I had no idea how to drive, anymore than 
I would try and fly a (new to me) airplane type without some lessons or 
an experienced pilot next to me first :)  Sure I can handle a Cessna 172 
but I'd be an idiot to think I could sit down in an Airbus and manage to 
get it off the ground and back again without a lot of training and seat 
time.

One last question. Why so disparaging of new developments such as the speed  
synchronizing features of certain cars or the paddle shifters?

I don't think I was disparaging of these new developments.  I think 
they're great, not something I would want in one of my cars, but I am 
not a pro race car driver, just a rank amateur.  And yes I have driven 
on a race track an F1 355 (preferred the gated shifter), an SMG M3 (good 
on track, terrible on the street), an F1 Maserati 3200GT (nicer than the 
F1 in the 355).  I also drove the DSG VW GTI before buying my GTI (with 
a six speed)...  The DSG is pretty amazing, and one of the best 
auto-manuals I have driven.  Even stuck in stop and go traffic on the 
Dan Ryan I do not regret the full manual though. 

BRIGANDBAR [at] aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 2/14/2009 8:25:20 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
> ferrari-request [at] ferrarilist.com writes:
>
> I am a  firm believer that in the US of A, driver training is abysmal...I  
> know many adults who could not manage to parallel park to save their  lives
> Mike:
>  
> I'm not sure of the validity of you argument, e.g. that a lack of a single  
> set of skills defines a driver as "abysmal".  Further, I'm not sure that  your 
> entire hypothesis is structurally flawed.
>  
> What  is "non-abysmal" driver training?
>  
> Where I grew up, and where I took my undergraduate degree in Kansas has a  
> completely different set of essential driving skills than one who lives in New  
> York City. In fact, we used to call what you refer to as "parallel parking" as 
>  "city parking" and it was something we had no real use for in our daily 
> lives.  It wasn't part of my test for my first driver's license and I don't see 
> why it  would be in most localities. Even now, here in Bowling Green, KY there 
> is really  little use to learn that skill just to be able to use a very small 
> proportion of  available parking spaces. We park between lines, at an angle and 
> the scariest  part of it all is trying to back out into traffic in the 348 
> when someone like  me has parked he Excursion in an adjoining parking space, too 
> tall to look over  and not quite high enough, even with a lift kit, to look 
> underneath to clear  oneself  while attempting to rejoin parking. Having driven 
> on the  Interstate Highway system here, and the Autobahn(s) in the FRG (now 
> back to  being known as Germany) I think that learning to drive on the Texas 
> and Kansas  interstate highways at or perhaps, on rare occasion, in excess of 
> the 80 mph  speed limits was just what I needed to be safe over there. Our next 
> generation  of drivers were brought up on the 55 mph national speed limit (or 
> as they called  it in Montana the 55 mph Environmental Control Law with no 
> such things as points  against a driver's license and a $5.00 fine), 0 to 60 
> times that would allow the  driver to grow a pretty nice mustache during the 
> intervening period of time, and  highway patrol and state police agency troopers 
> brainwashed into believing that  55 mph was the XI Commandment. I had to take my 
> first driving test in a car with  what was then called a "standard" 
> transmission or my license would have been  annotated with a limitation restricting me 
> to vehicles equipped with an  "automatic transmission only". Even now, the 
> state of Nevada has, except  for "Silver State" event days, given up on 
> "reasonable and proper" which  was frequently defined as "Did you have an accident? No. 
> Then your speed was  reasonable and proper". How can we expect out new 
> drivers to develop the skills  necessary to drive to the "standard" that you espouse 
> under these  conditions.
>  
> I drive my Ferrari with perhaps a little less aplomb than you display on  the 
> track, but how well would you do driving my 20 ton winch truck, with a  
> cranky 7 speed non-synchro transmission and air brakes, negotiating the Animas  
> Mountains or Sonoran Desert to get to the exact spot where your GPS says that  
> Geronimo surrendered to the Cavalry, or bringing a 54,000 pound fire truck  with 
> l00' lift platform to a fire for them to use in extinguishing the fire to  
> save the Ferrari in their garage? The track requires a special skill set that is 
>  not usually acquired by drivers on the street, but are also not necessary 
> and  rarely used by them.
>  
> Most American drivers who don't end up as highway statistics develop the  
> skills necessary to meet the demands of their life circumstances. Of course, as  
> their physical limitations overcome them they become the blue-haired old 
> ladies  or the old men in the c*ck-sucker caps who have to drive the speed limit or 
> less  in the left lane totally oblivious to the lineup of traffic behind 
> them, the  mental midgets who think that their personal cars are traffic control 
> devices  designed to run, aligned with another idiot of similar thinking 
> blocking both  lanes of a highway to ensure that no one drives at a speed greater 
> than that  which they consider to be "reasonable and proper". No amount of 
> driver training  can cure these ills.
>  
> One last question. Why so disparaging of new developments such as the speed  
> synchronizing features of certain cars or the paddle shifters? Actually, there 
>  are some reports of automatic transmission equipped automobiles 
> outperforming  the same make and model, virtually identical, automobiles equipped with  
> conventional three pedal manual transmissions. Remember the folks that could not 
>  understand why anyone would want to own tires without tubes, or with speed  
> ratings, and then there are the idiot manufacturers who develop cars that can  
> attain speeds in excess of 200 mph but equip them with electronic speed 
> limiters  to prevent owners from doing so. Heel and toe driving may be fun, and a 
> skill to  demonstrate on the track amongst competitors but just as  
> intentionally stalling an aircraft when learning to fly is a skill to  demonstrate to the 
> FAA examiner or designee, a skill that goes generally unused  except in the 
> most limited of circumstances. 
>  
> Dr, Steve
>  
> 1964 Rolls  Royce Silver Cloud III...........1975 Pontiac GV Conv.
> 1980 MB  450SL..................................1982 RR Corniche
> 1985 MB 280 GE  G-Wagen................. 1985 GMC Brigadier 20 Ton 
> Winch/Wrecker
> 1988 Rolls  Royce Silver Spur................1990 Cadillac "Eagle" Hearse
> 1994 F-350  Powerstroke 4x4................1995 Ferrari 348 Spyder
> 1996 Bronco  ......................................2000 Lincoln Town Car
> 2004  Excursion...................................(+ Audrey's 2x MB's)
> and  a
> 1976 Fire Truck...................................HAHN, WARNER &  SWASEY- 
> DUPLEX 
> DIVISION  HOWE  APPARTUS . MODEL #R400 FIRE  TRUCK w/a 100' Tower
>
> Dr. Stephen B. Spies, CES,  CFI
> Director, Forensic Sciences Laboratory
> Explosives Engineering  Technologies
> lex talionis
> Fides tamen Quin
>
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