Too much of a good thing?

[Bear376]

i love lots of power, and find the horsepower wars a good thing. Lately, I have seen the harm that idiots are doing with the Mustang and other performance cars because they have no common sense and lots of money.

Rather than a ban on performance cars, should we push for better training and stricter license testing? Should there be a separate license requirement for licensing high powered cars, like many states require for boats and motorcycles? I would like to see a requirement that to buy/own a car with a high hp/wt ratio, the driver must pass a certified driving course for race drivers. It would be disastrous if the lawyers shut down performance cars because of a huge lawsuit. Any thoughts?

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[Billy1]

Better training and stricter license testing is what is needed. It is too easy to get a license in America. The bigger issue is the idiots that sit in the left lane and clog traffic. In Europe it is much harder and expensive to get a license; often as much as $3k in Germany. UK has a graduated licensing system.

Still, it's just strange anybody with good credit and a down payment can walk into a dealership and buy a 700 hp car without proving you can handle it. Over the years I have seen lots of guys showing off in high powered cars crashing.

But then again, it you are an idiot you can crash in anything.

 

[Tone Everready]

Yes, that’s exactly what we need. MORE government control.

 

[Kep4]

i love lots of power, and find the horsepower wars a good thing. Lately, I have seen the harm that idiots are doing with the Mustang and other performance cars because they have no common sense and lots of money.

Rather than a ban on performance cars, should we push for better training and stricter license testing? Should there be a separate license requirement for licensing high powered cars, like many states require for boats and motorcycles? I would like to see a requirement that to buy/own a car with a high hp/wt ratio, the driver must pass a certified driving course for race drivers. It would be disastrous if the lawyers shut down performance cars because of a huge lawsuit. Any thoughts?

#1: Please give three examples of this 'harm' being done by Mustangs and other performance cars.
#2: People crash vehicles every single day, no matter the HP rating.
#3: What number is a high HP to Weight ratio and who determines that number is high?
#4: Is this an attempt to correlate vehicle licensing and testing with another consumer product?

 

[NoVaGT]

....Rather than a ban on performance cars, should we push for better training and stricter license testing?

Non-sequitur;

There is no "ban on performance cars", nor has one been suggested.

 

[MasterCylinder]

Lawyers. Lots of lawyers.

 

[BmacIL]

i love lots of power, and find the horsepower wars a good thing. Lately, I have seen the harm that idiots are doing with the Mustang and other performance cars because they have no common sense and lots of money.

Rather than a ban on performance cars, should we push for better training and stricter license testing? Should there be a separate license requirement for licensing high powered cars, like many states require for boats and motorcycles? I would like to see a requirement that to buy/own a car with a high hp/wt ratio, the driver must pass a certified driving course for race drivers. It would be disastrous if the lawyers shut down performance cars because of a huge lawsuit. Any thoughts?

Yes and it's something that I have wanted to see for quite some time. Cars are one of the only complex and potentially deadly machines people use with such unbelievably lax licensing requirements, and with such wide range of performance. You can't just hop into a fighter jet or a flagship airliner after becoming a pilot...

 

[Cobra Jet]

i love lots of power, and find the horsepower wars a good thing. Lately, I have seen the harm that idiots are doing with the Mustang and other performance cars because they have no common sense and lots of money.

Rather than a ban on performance cars, should we push for better training and stricter license testing? Should there be a separate license requirement for licensing high powered cars, like many states require for boats and motorcycles? I would like to see a requirement that to buy/own a car with a high hp/wt ratio, the driver must pass a certified driving course for race drivers. It would be disastrous if the lawyers shut down performance cars because of a huge lawsuit. Any thoughts?

High horsepower cars have nothing to do with the idiocy of the driver - it’s been happening since the horse and buggy days...

If the car has 50 HP or 1000 HP, the driver who passed all of those “checks and balances” with no common sense can still not only wreck it, but kill others in the process.

Thread end.

 

[Roger Blose]

I am driving my forth Mustang GT going back to 1983. Each car has had progressively more power starting at 175hp, 225hp, 300hp and now 460hp. I have also aged along with this upward movement and learned how to handle the ever increasing thrust. My 2018 GT has so many safety features that the FOX cars never had and big brakes to haul it down. Let's not kill off the last remaining automotive freedom that we have in this ending golden age of high performance cars. Every auto manufacturer is turning to EVs which will be the next HiPo wave. I have ridden in a Tesla 3 Performance model and the ride made my current GT feel like yesterday's news in so many ways. Long live the American V-8!

 

[Timeless]

Yes, that’s exactly what we need. MORE government control.

While I am typically the last person to call for more government anything, driving is a privilege not a right.

So I am ALL IN FAVOR of both a combined strategy of FAR more stringent testing to get a license. FAR more testing to RENEW a license and FAR more policing on the roads (ie, warning/ticketing slow morons in left lane, idiots who never leave enough space at stoplights for people to go around them to turn right, distracted driving, basically stopping the mentality of people thinking they are only ones on the road).

I am also in favor of FAR greater punishments for people caught with suspended licenses, no insurance, and DUI/DWI.

 

[zxd9]

It's a slippery slope once you head down that path and soon you won't have to worry about getting a license for your 700hp car because the Prius lovers will push gov't to say you don't need that to get to work. And they'd be correct. We don't NEED it but we now have the freedom to have it. Why do we keep wanting the gov't to be our nanny and decide what's best for us?

 

[BmacIL]

It's a slippery slope once you head down that path and soon you won't have to worry about getting a license for your 700hp car because the Prius lovers will push gov't to say you don't need that to get to work. And they'd be correct. We don't NEED it but we now have the freedom to have it. Why do we keep wanting the gov't to be our nanny and decide what's best for us?

Allowing for a tiered licensing would prevent that from happening. It's not about the government deciding what's best for us. I don't want half the jamokes who buy a 500+ HP car on the road with me without knowing how to control it. As we share the roadways, they are a hazard without proper training. Yes, you'll have the freedom to drive what you want and buy what you want, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't be qualified to do so prior to it. Yes, you can easily be dangerous in a small econobox too, but the kinetic energy potential of those cars is far less, and the people buying them statistically much less likely to be using a lot of that capability.

 

[LFG_Cory]

The amount of horse power doesn't make a driver less or more idiotic. Plenty of people loose control of their cars.
https://www.newsday.com/classifieds...ludes-kia-nissan-and-chevrolet-cars-1.9890304

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/7-of-the-deadliest-cars-on-the-road/

Have a great weekend everyone. And stay away from those econo boxes. They are deadly!!!

 

[BmacIL]

The amount of horse power doesn't make a driver less or more idiotic. Plenty of people loose control of their cars.
https://www.newsday.com/classifieds...ludes-kia-nissan-and-chevrolet-cars-1.9890304

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/7-of-the-deadliest-cars-on-the-road/

Have a great weekend everyone. And stay away from those econo boxes. They are deadly!!!

LOL those articles don't support any argument about the type of drivers in cars. All that data says is you're more likely to die or be injured in those cars if involved in a crash.

 

[LFG_Cory]

LOL those articles don't support any argument about the type of drivers in cars. All that data says is you're more likely to die or be injured in those cars if involved in a crash.

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