Jaisin

My grandma drives better than my aunt, but my aunt is the older sister so she doesn't listen to my grandma.

Glyphon

driving simulators are a great thing. they can condition you not to freak out when you hear the tires loose traction, and you can also learn how to react to a car that's gone into a spin or slide. another great thing is, in simulators, no cars to actually wreck and no one to get hurt.

its not the same thing as actually driving, but it can help get you in the right mindset incase things around you start going all wonky.

return42

See, thats different. If you were just starting out, frankly to me it sounds like you had too much car to young. Learning to drive with a sports car probrably isnt the best way to go. Again, to go back to the bike world, I watch people all the time start out with litre bikes, and frankly I can count the days till something bad is going to happen.

Dont get me wrong, I would have friggin loved to start driving in an RX8. That said, it isnt exactly practical. Even in teaching my wife to drive stick in my MX6, which isnt near as powerful, I watched her panic a few times in certain situations. Hell, I think twice she dropped my clutch completely and burned a good inch and a half off my rubber. BTW, shes 27 and has been driving(automatic) over a decade. So it aint just age, but also nerves and experience.

Hyperborea

That was one of the things that I remember being hammered in to me many years ago in the driver's ed class I took as a 16 year old. Is this not taught in the US?

I learned to drive in a country other than the US and I laughed pretty hard at the testing done in the US when I had to get a license here - 20 multiple choice questions with people working in teams, a simple whip around the block, and you've got your license. The only difficult part was the waiting in line. Friends from both Germany and Japan which have very tough licensing standards were very afraid of other drivers after seing the ease with which driver's licenses are handed out in the US.

Jaisin

I agree, but sometimes I wonder if having the RX-8 at this age is really that bad. Okay, now I am just being simple, but would it be worse to have a stock RX-8 with a good safety rating or a heavily modded (insert car here) with not such a good safe rating. I have a good amount of friends who mod there cars and they are just as fast as our car if not faster. I know the cars performance is judged on more aspects than just speed, but I'm just kinda on the border on this question.

return42

Theres the thing, drivers ed is optional, and often times just as good as the instructor you got. I know mine was pretty much insane, but it made for fun lessons. The tests are frankly a joke. Bike tests are MUCH MUCH better. They actually make you demonstrate emergency breaking, tight cornering, 4 ways stops, stoping in a curve etc. Car tests need to get tougher.

Glyphon

i'll take a leap of faith and say that most of the drivers in america haven't taken a drivers ed class.

and for my driver's test, we never left the parking lot. they had a auto-x type course set up. had to make a left turn, a right turn, pull into a parking space, backout, drive up a little bit, parallel park, and get back out, then come up to a stop sign, wait for the driver to say go, then floor it, and when he said stop you had to emergency stop the car and keep it in control, then start off again and go through a sloalom, and you were done.

i lost point on the fast start-emergency stop part because i anticipated the stop and broke a split second before he said to stop...because anticipating emergencies is a bad skill to develop

return42

Haha... well you just touched on perhaps the number one reason for accidents in your age group. The whole, whose ***** are bigger game. Yeah, your friends might have modded out cars with XXX hp etc... and probrably all compare HP ratings like ***** sizes. Guess what, im guessing 90% of your friends with those tricked out rides are going to crash them up, or grow up quick. Another trait of a good driver, especially a younger driver is not to get sucked into that peer pressure ****. Hell, I know thats pretty much what lead to my only accident.

You've got it all wrong though. You have a car that goes WAY fast enough for basically everything you need it to do, and frankly your friends probrably have WAY to much car for realistic driving. But at your age thats a pretty dumb thing to focus on. It aint a pissing match really... something the civic crowd has difficulty with. Be happy you have an RX8 at that age, not because how it drives but how it looks and rides.

Im guessing alot of the reason why you want a nice ride at that age pretty much resolves around image ( hey... thats as good a reason as any ). Screw the racing crap, the horse power BS and all the rest of the stuff. Im also guessing by image, it more or less means you like women to pay attention to your car ( again... a noble reason ). Trust me, most women arent that impressed by powerslides around corners, or bouncing off curbs. The RX8 on the other hand......

Jaisin

Yes, I love the way it looks! Heh, everyones like, why don't you get a nice 350Z or something fast. I'd rather look cool than end up dead. I'll take my "slow" RX-8.

beachdog

I said nothing about avoidable, I said acceptable. Any accident that occurs within 120 degrees left or right of center is avoidable. Stuff happening behind you is usually not avoidable, but sometimes even that is avoidable.

I run a business. Product defects are unacceptable. Shipment delays are unacceptable. Do we experience defects and delays? Yes. Are they acceptable? No! Once you have anything but zero tolerance, error rates climb. (ever been in a factory? they have scorecards posted all over the place counting how many days since the last accident)

Drivers that have an acceptance rate for accidents will have accidents. Drivers that have zero acceptance for accidents will usually have very few or none. If everyone's goal was zero accidents the roads would be a lot safer.

Along4TheRide

I think that the #1 attribute that any driver on the road could use is patience. Too many times people get aggravated over something, loose their patience, and find themselves doing something stupid.

• Know your enemy: Having driven a sport bike for awhile, you get to learn to drive in a pure defensive mode. Try to make eye contact with the other drivers. If you don't, assume that they don't or won't see you. You have to constantly make contingency plans at every intersection. Always try to leave yourself an 'out' should the need arise.

• Can you see me?: One of my biggest peeves are the drivers that want to hang out in my 8 and 4 o'clock slots. I try to avoid these spots as much as possible.

• Pass with care: If you are going to pass, do it! Cruise control, although a wonderful tool, can be a hazard if the person you are passing is doing 60, and you are set for 61. Also, after passing, please wait until you can see the person clearly in your rear view mirror before you settle back into the lane. I hate people that pass so damn close that there is only a foot between me and them.

• Be a loner: I try to stay away from car clumps as much as possible. I figure that the less traffic around me, the less I have to worry about. If you come up behind a slower driver, let the pack pass you by first. You'll avoid pulling out in front of someone going faster than you, and you'll have a clean shot at it once the pack gets by you.

• Hang up or Drive!: I know I am gonna get flamed for this one. I've been guilty of this one myself. But I do believe that having a cell phone in the car is an accident waiting to happen. It's not a question of 'if', it's just a matter of when. I was a near victim last month when a 'person' putting on their makeup and talking on their cell phone passing a semi on the right cut off the semi, which then proceeded to pull it over into my lane (I was passing on the left). I swear that the nose of my car was under the trailer before I jerked the wheel over. Fortunately, I had an extra lane to my left. Unfortunately, it was coned off. I dove it between cones, only to nick a cone, and scratched the front right corner of the car. Needless to say, I was pissed!

Finally, drive as if your life depended on it. Remember, it's the journey, not the destination that makes it enjoyable. And having an 8, well that just means that you are having more fun than everyone else around you.
:D

return42

Funny again that comment, but I truly believe driving a bike ( any bike, not just sport ) truly can make you a better driver.

One last piece of advice I can give, and im not sure how many others follow this line of thought...

Drive like the person infront/behind/beside you, is going to **** up. Really get in the habit of thinking worse case scenarios and you will be shocked by how many times you avoid having to avoid having an accident. Its scary how many times you will find yourself being right. Then again, it isnt going to raise your opinion of your fellow man I truly think half the people on the road today arent fit to drive.

1.3L

Assuming you're refering to street driving and not race-track driving...

good driver traits:

1. courteous
2. 100% focused on driving (not talking on the cellphone, combing hair,
picking nose, etc.)
3. flowing with the traffic
4. using their f-ing turn signals!
5. not tail-gating
6. doesn't insist on the right-of-way, even if it's theirs
7. did I mention, uses their turn signals?
8. doesn't look right at me and then pull out in front of me anyway
9. doesn't speed up when I'm trying to pass
10. doesn't clog/block the left/pass lane by creeping by another vehicle for
miles on end
11. doesn't take 2 parking spaces
12. doesn't try to pass me on the right while I'm traveling a safe distance
behind another vehicle in the left lane and then try to cut between me the lead vehicle
13. doesn't stop 6 inches behind me at a stop light or stop sign
14. doesn't give me the finger because I can't go faster than the vehicle in
front of me.
15. did I mention 'courteous'?

1.3L

FoxTypeR

I think you give people entirely too much credit. Clearly you are an optimist, half, pfft.

khtm

I think that would make someone a good "parker"

Lschiavo

[QUOTE=khtm]

Some factors that make a good driver that I can think of:
maturity...ability NOT to street race when someone revs their engine at you)
QUOTE]


I am not a good driver, lol... :D

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

hey you shushy mr champ car test driver :D

KYLiquid

somethings that could have made this NOT happen.

1) dont cruise in other people blind spot or directly next to them, it leaves both cars with nowhere to go in an emergency.
2) dont follow so close to other cars, leave enough room to REACT, then STOP in the event of an emergency
3) back to number 1, if your close to another car that is in a different lane, leave enough room so if they were to move into your lane and then suddenly slow down, you have enough room to REACT, then STOP.

--------------------------------

I know that this is not always possible given the ammount of traffic we have on the roads, but it would have kept the guy infront of you from getting side-swiped by the truck that suddenly came out of his lane, and left you enough time to come to a stop....

-------------------------------

as far as the original question:

i think a good driver is 2 fold

1) seat time: the more, the better....not only in age (years of driving) but also in miles (distance covered). the more your in a car, driving at night and day... the better you get at judging distance, speed...getting a 'sixth sense' for what another driver might do, based on the 'body-language' they show with their car. This only works though if your giving 100% attention when your driving, talking on the phone, singing along to the radio, talking to a friend, picking out a cd, ect, ect. Anytime your brain is thinging about anything other than driving, your not learning as much as you can.

2) i think part of it is genetic. Im not saying male of female, im talking about the fact that some people are just naturaly better than others while driving. part of this is just good luck with your DNA, and part of it is something you can learn, such as dedication, ect. Just like a pro-sports player...yeah they have some natual talent, but they also have to drive to do the best they can and be better than the others around them.

----------------------------------

as far as accidents, in my 7 years with a licence and 6 months with a permit, i have never been in an accident while driving a car/motorcycle. part of this is luck...sometimes your just at the wrong place at the wrong time (getting hit by a drunk driver at a stop light for example) and I feel part of it is just from the experience of driving...cause there have been times that things in the traffic around me have gone wrong, and I had to make quick choices/reactions to keep myself and those around me out of harm. So far ive been able to stay out of trouble. its not cause i drive like a grandmother, I got 4 speeding tickets last may alone! although i have never had any points on my licence nor have i ever lost my 'safe driver' endorsement. so am I a bad driver maby...i feel that I have learned somethings that make me a better driver...but there is always room for improvment.

Go to the track, learn the limits of yourself and your car. then when your on the street, drive like your in the 3rd person, outside your car...watching everything happen...and always learn as much as you can from anything you do...even accidents.

now if I could just master spelling/sentence structure...lol

feel free to flame me.

khtm

[QUOTE=Lschiavo]Me neither :o