had enough of the Modified vehicle bashing...

read this in the sunday mail today and just had to reply....



replied with:

I am writing to respond to Tony Tagliaferro’s comments about hoon driving in last weeks sunday mail.....

1/. How do you know that these cars have had ( Obvious work done) just by the sound of them taking off from lights ??

2/. why must every driver of a performance vehicle be “Tarred with the same brush”

3/.just by listening you can tell a modified vehicle speeding,revving hard or doing a burnout......

I am getting sick of people with the “Blame anyone who drives a hotted up car” attitude for anything associated with hoon behaviour.

I am involved with a car club, of which many of our members drive “ Highly Modified vehicles”
We do not tolerate hoon behaviour on any of our events and if this does occur, the police are handed the offending vehicles details.
We are a family orientated club, who provide outings as a family, our most recent being an Easter Egg hunt cruise to Mintaro SA for the kids.

On a personal note I drive a 2001 WH Holden Statesman with a 5.7 litre LS1 V8 Engine. my car is stock except for a set of 18 inch chrome wheels and a free flowing performance exhaust which it not as restrictive as the original exhaust, thus increasing fuel economy.

It also has a sporty note to it.....I’d hardly call it a “Modified Vehicle” but yes it does make a noise when I take off from the lights.

I have spent too much time and effort on my car, to disrespect it by spinning wheels, creating smoke or revving it hard at every given opportunity.
Majority of the cars I see performing those exact things you are describing, are bog stock 4 cylinders, VN Commodores or Ford Falcons, hardly modified vehicles by any means...

You complain about the government not banning the sale of 600 –700hp street engines, but where do we draw the line ??? do we ban any vehicle manufactured, whose speedo goes above this states limit of 110 kph ?
You can spin the wheels,rev hard and speed in a Hyundai Getz also tony, yes their may be “ Hoons” out there performing these actions you describe, but their are also Enthusiasts, those of us who take pride in our vehicles, do have modifications but treat our cars with the respect they deserve, and who are quite frankly sick of being heaped together by the misinformed public.

Sincerely
Andy Johnson
( Membership Coordinator )
Commodore Owners Car club
c/o 414 Regency road Prospect
SA 5082

i agree with u 100% here maybe add something to the letter stating that oif there was a drag strip or motorsport park here alot of tnhis would b done there not on the streets

great reply andy well done and yes the drag strip missing in adelaide would be a good note to finish on

A drag strip won't stop the problem. The real enthusiasts will go there yeah, but a drag strip won't stop P platers in their VN V6's floggin around the streets. It just means they won't be able to use the "there's no where else to do it" excuse.

If mates tell me they wanna race someone (or do some burnouts), I always tell them to go find a deserted road out of town in the middle of the night and have a lookout incase anyone comes. I know it's still illegal, but if ya do that ya can only hurt urself, not innocent lives. People will always race, ya just gotta try and keep it safe. People have done that for decades, that's half the reason why it was never so bad "back in the day" coz our Dad's weren't doing 150+km/h down the main roads, it was done out of town out of the way of other traffic and homes!

That's just my opinion, I know not many will agree. But yeah if someone wants to race they will. If they get told not to, they still will.

DANNY8 wrote:

A drag strip won't stop the problem. The real enthusiasts will go there yeah, but a drag strip won't stop P platers in their VN V6's floggin around the streets. It just means they won't be able to use the "there's no where else to do it" excuse.

If mates tell me they wanna race someone (or do some burnouts), I always tell them to go find a deserted road out of town in the middle of the night and have a lookout incase anyone comes. I know it's still illegal, but if ya do that ya can only hurt urself, not innocent lives. People will always race, ya just gotta try and keep it safe. People have done that for decades, that's half the reason why it was never so bad "back in the day" coz our Dad's weren't doing 150+km/h down the main roads, it was done out of town out of the way of other traffic and homes!

Hence why I didnt even mention the drag strip.....

JUSTA8 wrote:

great reply andy well done and yes the drag strip missing in adelaide would be a good note to finish on

Thanks ray, the reason I didnt mention the drag strip, was that it has been bashed to death in the media of late, and this guy wasnt really singling out about a drag strip, it was about bashing us car lovers to death instead, and having, ill informed and misguided opinions on what denotes a hoon driver...

Whatcha talkin about Andy, my car is stock

If i cant spend money on my car (as the government is trying to do to all of us) then all i will do is get shit faced on drugs and alcohol.

LMFAO hahaha thats good point id rather spend money on my car than take drugs n drink myself into a coma..!!! i only mentioned drag strip as i believe that once its opened and running regular meets for a shoret period of time these so called "hoons" will probarbly go there and do it then u can hit back at them saying well hey no more acidents recently mauybe its due to the motorsport park being opened?? lol i know that excuse wont last long but worth a try i reckon... i hate it that they try and tar us as a general group cvalling us hoon's..!!! im sure im not the only one that has been minding there own business and have had younger unexperianced drivbers pull up next to u at the lights n had them hassle u to give them a go.... now majority of the time i will let it slide and not even acknowledge them but there is the odd occasion u might give it abit in 1st n once u get to 60km/h u back off lol... but there are a MINORITY of ppl that wont let it go at that they take it a step further n continue untill they r doing stupid unsafe speeds. i say if they open the motorsport park nu get caught doing stupid stuff on the street ur banned from entering the motorsport park period!!! as a competitor or spectator simple fix... any thoughts??

Our cars are our outlet...They are our passion...That was a very well written reply andy...You know what, I might even use this to fuel an on-air discussion on Fresh!!

I think many here are missing the point of the article, its aimmed at the government and SAPOL for not using the already tough laws but just making new ones to make it look like there doing some think.

lets face it there are idiots in all cars and age's.

I put it to you this way, grab twenty stock car owners and twenty modified car owners follow them around for a month without them knowing and add up all the offernces they commit (not caught for) and i think you will find the numbers would be higher for the modified car owners.

At the end of the day the current sa government has to go, there not listening to the people of South Australia on any topic and this state is going backwards fast. SA the Nanna State

i agree with you Andy drag strip wont stop them and saying that all nice cars have hoon drivers is also not true if we can't spend our money on nice cars what else can we spend it on as i dont do drugs or booze on i have nothing else to feel proud about except my car