Day 3: Supra Nats and the 60-130
Originally Posted by houstonT
Sean - $90K????? That is for a 98 with less than 10k miles that is in perfect shape = aka MY CAR. You can buy a TT Supra in good shape for $25k, another $30k for motor, fuel, engine management, labor and tuning and you're making 1,000 rwhp all day long. Total = $55k.
Peter
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Originally Posted by houstonT
Sean - $90K????? That is for a 98 with less than 10k miles that is in perfect shape = aka MY CAR. You can buy a TT Supra in good shape for $25k, another $30k for motor, fuel, engine management, labor and tuning and you're making 1,000 rwhp all day long. Total = $55k.
Peter
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Originally Posted by houstonT
Sean, same offer stands for my car...$90k and she's yours!
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Originally Posted by Divexxtreme
Come on now...in the big scheme of things, street racing is FAR from the most dangerous thing on our roads.
Heck, street racing accounts for less 150 fatailties each year (mostly the street racers themselves). Now compare that to big-rigs, which account for 100 fatalities *each week*, or 5,200 per year. Also drunk drivers, distracted drivers, sleepy drivers, etc...all cause much, more more harm that street racers do.
Sure, any fatality is a bad thing...but street racing accidents are small scale stuff. Doesn't even register on the radar compared to the real killers listed above. It's just happens to be flavor of the month for the press, so we hear about each accident, each and every time one happens (which again, is pretty rare).
Heck, street racing accounts for less 150 fatailties each year (mostly the street racers themselves). Now compare that to big-rigs, which account for 100 fatalities *each week*, or 5,200 per year. Also drunk drivers, distracted drivers, sleepy drivers, etc...all cause much, more more harm that street racers do.
Sure, any fatality is a bad thing...but street racing accidents are small scale stuff. Doesn't even register on the radar compared to the real killers listed above. It's just happens to be flavor of the month for the press, so we hear about each accident, each and every time one happens (which again, is pretty rare).
Street racing is a really ****ing stupid.
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Originally Posted by MrBlonde
Scott, I couldn't disagree with your thrust more. Sure street racing is only one small part of road fatalities, but that doesn't mean it should be swept under the carpet.
Street racing is a really ****ing stupid.
Street racing is a really ****ing stupid.
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Originally Posted by Divexxtreme
Heck, street racing accounts for less 150 fatailties each year (mostly the street racers themselves). Now compare that to big-rigs, which account for 100 fatalities *each week*, or 5,200 per year. Also drunk drivers, distracted drivers, sleepy drivers, etc...all cause much, more more harm that street racers do.
Fatalities as a percentage of vehicle miles is massively higher for street racing than driving a big rig. That said, in absolute terms, it's a tiny number compared with other causes of road fatalities, and in terms of law enforcement expenditure, cracking down on drunk-driving/red-light running/tailgating etc. would have a much greater effect on fatalities.
I have to question the 150 fatalities number, though. I live in a suburb of St. Louis, with a population of a few hundred thousand, and we have at least one or two fatalities per year, and there really isn't a whole bunch of street racing locally. Grossing that up to the US population yields at least 2,000 deaths. I suspect a lot of street racing fatalities happen without witnesses, and involve one of the cars losing control, wiping out, and the other guy running off into the night before the ambulance arrives.
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Originally Posted by PMac
We need to remember that there are differences in the denominator here. There are thousands of big rigs driving millions of miles every month, versus how many actual street races per month, the average race that lasting maybe 10-20 seconds.
Fatalities as a percentage of vehicle miles is massively higher for street racing than driving a big rig. That said, in absolute terms, it's a tiny number compared with other causes of road fatalities, and in terms of law enforcement expenditure, cracking down on drunk-driving/red-light running/tailgating etc. would have a much greater effect on fatalities.
I have to question the 150 fatalities number, though. I live in a suburb of St. Louis, with a population of a few hundred thousand, and we have at least one or two fatalities per year, and there really isn't a whole bunch of street racing locally. Grossing that up to the US population yields at least 2,000 deaths. I suspect a lot of street racing fatalities happen without witnesses, and involve one of the cars losing control, wiping out, and the other guy running off into the night before the ambulance arrives.
Fatalities as a percentage of vehicle miles is massively higher for street racing than driving a big rig. That said, in absolute terms, it's a tiny number compared with other causes of road fatalities, and in terms of law enforcement expenditure, cracking down on drunk-driving/red-light running/tailgating etc. would have a much greater effect on fatalities.
I have to question the 150 fatalities number, though. I live in a suburb of St. Louis, with a population of a few hundred thousand, and we have at least one or two fatalities per year, and there really isn't a whole bunch of street racing locally. Grossing that up to the US population yields at least 2,000 deaths. I suspect a lot of street racing fatalities happen without witnesses, and involve one of the cars losing control, wiping out, and the other guy running off into the night before the ambulance arrives.
As far as the differences in the denominators...I'm fully aware that there are differences...but that really doesn't matter. Because no matter how you slice it, street racing fatalities simply don't come close to those caused by big-rigs (52,000), drunk drivers (16,885), distracted drivers (8,400-12,600), or sleepy drivers (1,550).
The fact is, while it's truly small potatoes compared to those driving hazards, many people seem to love to talk about how "big" of a problem it is. Mostly the press.
Does that mean it should be "swept under the carpet", as Kenny implied? No. It means we should probably spend our time discussing other, more pressing driving hazards (listed above) much more than we do street racing.
http://ip.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/10/1/53
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools....asp?ID=178857
http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-dr...tatistics.html
http://www.distracteddriving.ca/engl...undeen_000.pdf
http://www2.umdnj.edu/pgmeweb/docume...lertness cycle
Last edited by Divexxtreme; Mar 21, 2007 at 10:33 PM.
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Originally Posted by Divexxtreme
As far as the differences in the denominators...I'm fully aware that there are differences...but that really doesn't matter. Because no matter how you slice it, street racing fatalities simply don't come close to those caused by big-rigs (52,000), drunk drivers (16,885), distracted drivers (8,400-12,600), or sleepy drivers (1,550).
The fact is, while it's truly small potatoes compared to those driving hazards, many people seem to love to talk about how "big" of a problem it is. Mostly the press.
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I want to see the statistics about those who knowingly go sloppy seconds .. or thirds even. What long term health risks do they face and what percentage of fast followers want a snowball?
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Originally Posted by justinmm2
It may be overblown by the press, but there's another issue here. How many big rig drivers knowingly decided to do something with their rig as reckless as racing on the street? How many distracted people hopped in their car and said "God, I can't wait to talk on my cell phone while I drive"? The difference is that with street racing, you make a conscious decision (emotionally or not) to do something extremely risky. In that regard, I think it's fairly comparable to drunk driving (which depresses me every day since there's absolutely no excuse for it, people know that, and do it anyway).
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Were I to ever street race, I guarantee that I would be FAR more focused on what I was doing than the mom in the mini-van, on her cell phone..smacking her kids for fighting in the back seat....or the big-rig driver who's been on the road for 12 hours straight, using two log books so he can exceed his maximum driving hours without getting caught so he can earn more money (since he's paid by the mile..'brilliant idea')...or the drunk idiot, who decides to drive home after drinking a 12-pack of beer at his buddy's house, rather than call his wife to pick him up.
Do I think it's the safest thing one can do on the road? No. But I'd say it's safer than about 5 or 6 other things that people commonly do on the roads.
Last edited by Divexxtreme; Mar 22, 2007 at 08:52 AM.
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Originally Posted by Divexxtreme
Were I to ever street race, I guarantee that I would be FAR more focused on what I was doing than the mom in the mini-van, on her cell phone..smacking her kids for fighting in the back seat....or the big-rig driver who's been on the road for 12 hours straight, using two log books so he can exceed his maximum driving hours without getting caught so he can earn more money (since he's paid by the mile..'brilliant idea')...or the drunk idiot, who decides to drive home after drinking a 12-pack of beer at his buddy's house, than call his wife to pick him up.
Do I think it's the safest thing one can do on the road? No. But I'd say it's safer than about 5 or 6 other things that people commonly do on the roads.
Do I think it's the safest thing one can do on the road? No. But I'd say it's safer than about 5 or 6 other things that people commonly do on the roads.
