Well played, school paper, well played.

"sm70- why not Duesenberg?" (sm70-whynotduesenberg)
05/02/2014 at 17:59 • Filed to: None

Some of you may !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , in which I basically called out parents who allow their children to have fast cars. Apart from calling them a few names, I pointed out that many of the kids are given these fast cars, and are not responsible enough to handle them. I also made a point of talking about how much higher the risk is of getting in a serious crash is when you have a fast car.

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Well, this morning I walked into homeroom and found the school's newspaper, fresh off the press, sitting on my desk. The headline article was all about students in the school who work on and race their own cars. The story focused on a senior in my homeroom (who I completely forgot to mention yesterday) who has spent the last few years working on and tuning his 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. The car appears stock on the outside, but all the modifications are under the hood. He is quoted saying how he loves the "sleeper" look. The article does say he turned his car into a "power machine with 200hp." I was thinking "That sounds a little low, especially if you're calling it a 'power machine."' Turns out, that car came out of the factory with 210, so the article may've gotten that fact a little off. The article also mentions another senior, who owns the stanced '05 STI I mentioned in my rant yesterday. It talks about how he too has spent several years tuning the car, and how both of them take the cars to shows. More importantly, though, the article talks about how these kids take their cars to track days and drag strips, and don't race on the street. So congratulations, school paper, on showing me that some kids my age can have fast cars.

But the school paper didn't stop at calling me out for my judgement of teens with fast cars. Oh no, that wouldn't be ironic enough. On the next page was an article about a student at my school who was irresponsibly hooning and driving recklessly (doughnuts & drifting on a gravel road) without a seatbelt on, flipped his car, and ended up in the hospital with seven skull fractures. The headline amused me a little. "Motor Accident Leaves Sophomores with Life Lesson." I seriously hope he learned that lesson.

Now, if he had been driving a Camaro or and Evo, it would have perfectly proved the point I made yesterday, the point that was accidentally but beautifully countered by the paper in the first article. But no. Like I said, they wanted to prove me more wrong-er. The car that the kid in this article flipped? An admittedly unstable, but decidedly not-at-all-fast 1997 Ford Explorer. Shows how much I know.

DISCUSSION (7)

CPT Speedbump > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
05/02/2014 at 18:05

97' Explorers can be pretty quick :P I used to keep up with tuned up Eclipses with mine, though it was the sport (2 door) and had the most powerful V6 they offered in that body style

AM3R > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
05/02/2014 at 18:05

yeah, people (not just teenagers) can make really stupid decisions in ANY car. I've honestly never seen a sports car like an M3, 911, S4, STi, or any of those other highly desirable high powered cars get into an accident due to driving irresponsibly IN PERSON.

I have however seen tons of corollas driving like asshats getting into accidents.

midengineer > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
05/02/2014 at 18:11

I read what you posted about yesterday and while I agree that there is an added factor of danger in letting an inexperienced driver have a fast car it's not right to lump all of these drivers together. It doesn't matter how fast your car is, if you're an inattentive or irresponsible driver you're gonna be a liability on the road.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > midengineer
05/02/2014 at 18:21

It's true, generalizing is never a good idea. And while there are obviously lots of kids with high-performance cars who are responsible, still many more drive like they are immortal. Plenty of kids do this in normal cars, but with a fast car and a high schooler, the temptation is greater, the control is harder, and the speeds are higher.

midengineer > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
05/02/2014 at 18:49

Ultimately, I think it's ok that teenagers are not limited in car choice; at the end of the day the issue falls under the parent's discretion where it belongs. My biggest complaint about new drivers in general is an apparent lack in preparation; it's one thing to be irresponsible but just as bad is being allowed to drive without the knowledge or skills needed in emergency situations. Anyways, there are plenty of adults on the road who haven't progressed from their high school days; you can look up plenty of examples on youtube, e.g. supercar fails.

Garrett Davis > CPT Speedbump
05/02/2014 at 19:20

I had that same 4.0 V6 in my Ranger. That thing was quicker than anyone gave it credit for. With a 5-speed manual, it was pretty fun, too. Of course, I had it in high school and I was a complete idiot and raced people in it all the time. I did manage to beat a 2004 Sentra S, a 2003 Echo that some guy was building up for some reason, and a few others. Not bad for the ol' 4.slow ;)

CPT Speedbump > Garrett Davis
05/02/2014 at 19:25

Yeah, mine has the DOHC 4.0, was a auto though :( fun as F to drive though, and unstoppable in snow. Nooottt great offroad though. I mainly remember just hanging with Eclipse's..and going mudding and drifting in snow, lol.