A.R.S.E.

Rots wrote:Last week whilst on a country dirt road, I deliberately tested out the ESP on a very loose bend. At about 60km/h I let the car drift out wide into the real loose stuff and then turned/accelerated suddenly. The back end stepped out only a little before the ESP/traction control engaged, gently applied the brakes and straightened the car with only very minor steering input by myself as a natural reaction. I kept the boot down, but it denied me of that input!

I was surprised at how quick and well it regathered the car, especially on dirt, as I never given thought to testing such things out before. I didn't have the balls to test it again, once was enough given the size of the trees next to the on corners afterwards. At least that corner was clear with wide run-off room.

On my way back however, at the same turn, I switched all driving aids off and discovered just how nice the car was to power slide on gravel before switching them back on to avoid any further encouragement of such silly acts.

Here is some ABS, TC & ESP testing by Tiff on Fifth Gear...

[youtube] [/youtube]

norbs wrote:The problem is, a guy clutching his chest before he drifts off to the Maccas in the sky doesnt make as good a TV as a ricebox wrapped around a tree.

Maybe not but it probably doesn't rate as well as "The Biggest Loser" either.

If you've driven much in the Territory 140kp/h is not really that fast, not to say that we all speed excessively up here but on a lot of the highways 140kp/h is not a big deal. I've driven Darwin to Alice in a single day and then the same again on the way back, that's roughly 1500km sitting on 140kp/h the whole way. The roads and conditions are suitable and I have experience with that sort of driving, with a better car I would probably have done 160kp/h.
This is not to brag, just to point out that with the right circumstances you can definitely travel at these speeds without it being dangerous, relatively speaking.
Of course it doesn't look good when you're constantly pushing "speed kills" Australia wide to have the NT with open limits on the major highways so we've eventually been pressured into introducing limits even though it's ridiculous and most Territorians don't support it.

Exactly speed limits outside of Towns are a crock of shit.

I swear most accidents on straight roads are people bored to death at 100KPH who just drift off concentration wise. Next thing they know they're in a tree, or incoming traffic. At 100MPH concentration is not an option.

Jamo wrote:Exactly speed limits outside of Towns are a crock of shit.

I swear most accidents on straight roads are people bored to death at 100KPH who just drift off concentration wise. Next thing they know they're in a tree, or incoming traffic. At 100MPH concentration is not an option.

Could not agree more.

Jamo wrote:Exactly speed limits outside of Towns are a crock of shit.

I swear most accidents on straight roads are people bored to death at 100KPH who just drift off concentration wise. Next thing they know they're in a tree, or incoming traffic. At 100MPH concentration is not an option.

What, you think people aren't going to drift off at 160kph? (see that Jamo, kph, come on along with the rest of us and embrace the 21st century) 160 in my car doesn't feel that much different to 110kph. And my car is a bog standard Commodore wagon. I imagine a nice BMW or Merc would just coast along too, and people would still get bored.

You also have to consider that many people would need to buy better tyres to travel at 160+ to avoid blowouts.

Yes of course Norbs but it's less likely and you're on the road for a significantly shorter period. When it comes to motoring I prefer MPH and BHP.

Good point Sambo, bodgy brothers retreads will no longer cut it.

norbs wrote:What, you think people aren't going to drift off at 160kph?

People will drift off to sleep no matter what speed they're traveling at. It's a function of lots of different things. At 160 it most likely has greater consequences.

J.D. wrote:

norbs wrote:What, you think people aren't going to drift off at 160kph?

People will drift off to sleep no matter what speed they're traveling at. It's a function of lots of different things. At 160 it most likely has greater consequences.

which is also good, 'cause it reduces the number of repeat offenders

Unless you also take out a car full of children.

Skaifey has been driving at speeds over 300kph for over 20 years so it must be safe..

Richo i seriously lose sleep at night wondering why you are not Prime Minister of this dear country.

I ponder that too my good man, yet my message seems to get lost some how

Its a travesty

next in election there seems to be an opening..

I wonder how many votes the ARSE party could amass...

With Richo as out leader and carrying out the frivolous word of JD and JB the number of voters is only limited by the bandwith of our ARSE.

Sambo wrote:With Richo as out leader and carrying out the frivolous word of JD and JB the number of voters is only limited by the bandwith of our ARSE.

We would have the full spectrum of political personalities...

Norbs can be the power broker
Big Kev the international power broker
Smiss, the pilot for the prime ministerial glider
Richo the token leader
Woodsy the analytical investigator
JD the press secretary
Montey the IT advisor
VT the speech writer (making sure of correct punctuation)
Wobbly the backbencher shouting at the opposition
Neil the sports minister
Hz, can do the dirty work setting up opposition backbenchers with bungeye moles... and photographing them, thus keeping them in opposition for a long time.
Nigel, arts minister
Vil can be transport minister
Sambo, the driver of the prime ministerial formula vee

and if I am really lucky I can be the controversial one who gets sacked in the first week for innapropriate behaviour with the current leader of the NSW labor party...

Surely there are others I have missed....

Jamo - Head of feminist affairs (appointment predominantely based on avatar)

Dexter - Director of counter intuative intelligence

Gizmo - Director of education...no wait I mean... Director of Homosexual affairs.

Scottie - Head of the reserve bank. The only honest and trustworthy man that I have met on these forums!

Chaz - Personal driver of Richo. All vehicals, land, sea or air.

EK - Director of Infastructure and Medical Research.

JB - Would be in all the community service adds, because we all now if John does it, so should you.

R8 - Head of the military (Ive seen him roll in BC2 he will do well)

Could we move Big Kev to Big Brother perhaps? Or at least the head of the Intelligence agencies? His all seeing eye is a valuable asset. His lead agent would be Virtual-R the silent Ninja.

Id give montey defense secretary, purely on the basis that so many conspiracy theories would arise and at the first sign of those theories coming to fruition rivaling nations\parties would be reduced to ash. Thereby increasing our stay in power.

Id then give Astro IT secretary as I have sensed the evil genius in him.

I would, regretfully, have to resign my said poistion as I would undoubtably crash at T1 into someone spinning around on the pavement.

I'm just picturing you blokes discussing all the important topics on the forums. With a bit of side-chats on msn for pool room threads later on.

Wabbit we may have an opening for CEO of a multi-national conglomerate seeking to gain a monopoly by way of underhanded government intervention. Would you be interested?

Go i get unlimited Gustav's?

Surely Dexter is a shoe in for our morals campaigner... we will need somebody to inspect all of the facilities in Fyshwick to make sure all the fleshlights are of required standard...

PS: I bet when Mark Skaife drove a silver bullet down the autobahn at a couple of hundred click, he was surely hoping to create such a debate... Well done Mr Skaife, you can be our minister for creating more street circuits for VESA...

If i'm going into politics, I want to be one of those seat sniffing types thanks