Continuation of KC-10 auto-parralel park thread

This is not an insult to anyone on this board but the standards & qualifications to get a Driver's License in the USofA are pathetic. It took me 3 weeks of sitting next to a fat, sweaty, perverted, 300lb gym teacher in HS. He was more concerned with checking out the girl in the class than teaching us anything. I took my drivers test in a 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood Broughman, it looked like the car below, same color, just different hub caps. That freaking car was so big (& freaking cool as hell) that I couldn't take the normal route they always took for the road tests since the car was too long to K-turn on the street, the parallel parking space was too short for the car, etc. The NJ DMV guy basically said that if I could get that car to the DMV without crashing, I was good to go. I got my DL after less than 1 month of training. Total cost: $12

My Wife is German. I met her when I was stationed there. It took her 6 months of training (quite normal in Germany) & cost her over $2000 to get a DL. She can out drive pretty much everyone I know other than myself. (the only reason she can't out drive me is because I spent almost $5000 taking racing courses on the Nurburgring in Germany. This is, no contest, the single best racetrack on Planet Earth. Driving this circuit is the most fun you can have behind the wheel of a car) The US's standards should be this high. Maybe then more people would know how to drive. Right now, I'd say less than 50% of Americans are "good drivers". As a side note, most motorcyclists are not included in this. In my nearly 20 years of riding, I find riders to be far above the skills of the average non-rider. I think is mainly due to the increased situational awareness required to ride without dying.

I am 100% against any kind of electro do-dad on vehicles, especially on motorcycles. I don't want ANYTHING on a bike, nothing. Car & trucks? DVD Nav? Buy a freaking map. DVD player? Tell your kids to shut the f up (like the parents of my generation did). Tire pressure monitor? Buy a $2 tire gauge. You get the point. There is a reason why people like me can drive as good as do. I pay attention to what I'm doing & make a concentrated effort to ensure I put 100% of my effort into driving. About the only distraction I allow is a radio.

Flame Retardent Suit Ready...:mad2:

KC-10 FE out...
lane:

 

Ahhh....to be young & stupid again, I never wrecked a car that I couldn't get fixed before ma & dad got home from a weekend away. I saved that til' I got in my 30's with my first brand new car( fell asleep & went off the road, launched my pretty little yellow cavelier sport off of a driveway embankment) I could blame it on the wife, but I'm not big on passing the buck she wanted me to go out for dinner on a friday night after I'd been abroad for a week training. All I wanted to do was go home, but she wanted to show me off to all her friends(2nd week of dating). I abliged her, went & picked up my kids for the weekend & fell asleep 1/2 way home. Luckily no one was hurt, my son bounce his head off the side window other than that the car took all the beating(now if I even feel tired I pull over). Dumb things you do can make you a better driver, but I agree more training by people who actually care should be given. I remember incidents of riding my dirt bike helmetless after a fifth of Winsor to get knocked off the bike 25 feet in the air by a tree branch after launching full throttle out of a high banked sand pit(17 y/o). I've never!!!! had more than one BEER riding since then & always grab a helmet if I know I'm going to do something potentially stupid & 80% of all the other times. Riding definetly does make you more self aware & more aware of your surroundings than your average cage driver; my wife scares the hell out me when she drives. I've been tempted a time or two to wear my helmet when riding with her. I drive fast all the time except in my Isuzu(that thing is just freaky to drive fast, but it will go thru or over nearly anything) & I don't have a problem w/ other people driving fast or even stunting a bit if they appear to be in control. People that don't appear to be in control scare me, old people that do 20 MPH under the speed limit & have a death grip on the wheel scare me, teen age girls in red cars scare me(there was a study on this teenage girls w/ red cars are more likely to be involved in car accidents than teenage boys or girls w/ any other color car). I was skepticle til' a teenage girl in a red Saturn talking on her cell phone damn near ran me off a bridge while on the VFR(thing is loud as hell & I was right next to her??*%@!)
enough from me:biggrin:

 

Flame Retardant Suit Ready??? I actually agree with you 100% on that paragraph...

 

hey, it happens on occasion.:biggrin:

KC-10 FE out...
lane:

 

If drivers in your part of the world are anything like ours here in Oz, I'd say that 50% is a vast over-guesstimate.

More like under 20%.