back from Canada&France, driving is a farce in Australia :-(

EDManual · 01-06-2005, 11:58 PM

Just had a great 22 day trip.

Landed in Vancouver where I hired a Chrysler Sebring (V6) left the city after 2 hours (I hate citys, even Canada has traffic jams), anyway out on the highway, speed zones change at least as often as in OZ, but! everyone who likes driving has a radar detector, and the police dont seem to mind these serious drivers. I basically did near 3000km through to the rockys, Banff, Jasper back to Whistler and had a great time driving safely often with other cars at, on open roads 40 to 50 ish over the limit, and i was hardly keeping up most of the time!! Saw a few cops (mounties), but they didnt mind at all.

<http://www.fordforums.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=3929&stc=1>

The roads are for the most part magnificent sweepers through massive mountains and river valleys. Fantastic stuff. I wish i was still there, but then on to France...

Here I met up with my Fiance whos parents have a 206 turbo diesel we drove around lots of beaut villages and roads you'd dream about. Basically I was hanging around the border of Switzerland but in France, at the beginning of the Alps. The roads are all like the Great Ocean Road, all a 90 zone but no one seems to mind if you do a little more, and I was constantly being tailgated by, well even grandmas, and well you wouldnt believe how fast some people drive! I was just fast cruising not flying as wasnt by myself, and not my car. There are villages every 5 to 15km where its a 50 zone, but the roads are so tiny 20 seems more appropriate! Anyway, i would say at least 90% of cars are turbo diesels and they go very well if you are going cruisy fast but not racing and the fuel consumption is amazing. the 206 does 900km on a 45 litre tank! her uncles renault scenic 1.9 turbo deisel also does 900 on a tank of mixed driving averaging 5.7 l/100! On the highway sitting on 135 the instant reading was 5.9 l/100! i was impressed I must say! Oh, I saw a nice Aston Martin in a village and a few Ferraris cruising round these roads past castles and vinyards too....

I must say I enjoy both these countries driving styles much much more than in OZ.

In France they have reasonable limits which you really dont even need to speed on to have a nice time and in Canada they know their speed limits are unreasonable (like here) so let speeders (who are more often than not good safe drivers) do a reasonable speed.

<http://www.fordforums.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=3930&stc=1>

Thats 2 perfect places to drive.

why cant we be like that? I just hate driving in OZ. No wonder we all are so bored, are falling asleep or playing with radios etc and crashing....let us do a speed where we actually have to concentrate.

MITCHAY · 02-06-2005, 12:06 AM

Sounds really nice. Ive watched some show on ABC2 where they go to find overseas holidays and must say even though i like most things modern that the countryside is absolutely awesome and my favourite was Le Marche in Italy so niiiice. What ive always wondered though do they have speed cameras over there (mainly america and canada)? I know there is radar detectors.

I vant to go for a drive on zee autobahn in zee mclaren f1 lol.

Cypher · 02-06-2005, 08:07 PM

Totally agree about australia adopting a more realistic approach to road speeds.

Lets compare per capitia road deaths in Oz and other places and have a look at the speeds you can travel.

smoo · 02-06-2005, 08:32 PM

Quote:

i would say at least 90% of cars are turbo diesels

yea, and if you walked round the tiny ancient towns, you shoulda noticed the narrow streets were polluted with diesel fumes, ****ing horrible.

T_Terror · 02-06-2005, 08:33 PM

Great read thanks for the comparison.

One day i will move to another country (my girlfriend wants to go Canada) just so I can all this speeding bullshit and drive in peace.

buickman · 02-06-2005, 08:49 PM

What I have found driving in the US and Canada is they seem more patient (ex New York city) Bloody nightmare on manhatten Island driving a Chevy Trailblazer
For some reason on average the Australian driver is more aggressive. In the US and Canada as soon as you put you indicator on they let you in try that in Melbourne. Plus the roads here are pathetic and no Aussie bidge or roadbuilder would get a job in the US. In LA a earthquake hit in 1995 and within 6 months it was hard to tell that the 5 h/way was damaged at all.
That Chrysler looks like the one we had in 2003.

buickman

MITCHAY · 02-06-2005, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buickman

What I have found driving in the US and Canada is they seem more patient (ex New York city) Bloody nightmare on manhatten Island driving a Chevy Trailblazer
For some reason on average the Australian driver is more aggressive. In the US and Canada as soon as you put you indicator on they let you in try that in Melbourne. Plus the roads here are pathetic and no Aussie bidge or roadbuilder would get a job in the US. In LA a earthquake hit in 1995 and within 6 months it was hard to tell that the 5 h/way was damaged at all.

buickman

So do they have speed cameras in the US and canada. Im very curious about it thats all.

BA GT-HO · 02-06-2005, 08:57 PM

Canada is somewhere I have always wanted to go. I like the picture there of the woods and the mountains in the background. Imagine doing a tour of Canada in a GT-P or something similar.

buickman · 02-06-2005, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

So do they have speed cameras in the US and canada. Im very curious about it thats all.

No cameras but my mate got done for doing 98mph in a 70mph in Montana and got a $70us fine by a state trooper in a Ford Crown.

buickman

b2tf · 02-06-2005, 09:04 PM

Canada is definately on the visit list for me. Some very interesting observations about their driving/roads etc, but we all know Australia has got it right, and they'll never even think about taking a scheme from another country, watering it down and making it law here. Would that happen? Never.

excuse me, I think Ive been looking at the RTA website for too long

:

buickman · 02-06-2005, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BA GT-HO

Canada is somewhere I have always wanted to go. I like the picture there of the woods and the mountains in the background. Imagine doing a tour of Canada in a GT-P or something similar.

The problem with that is they use corn ethanol to get the octane up in Nth America. Most octane ratings are between 87-91 in servo's I've filled up in the US and Qubec or BC in Canada.

buickman

MITCHAY · 02-06-2005, 09:33 PM

Show the american and candians our beasts. Get a HSV GTS and a FPV GT over there. Bet the cops would love it. By my calculations thats a AUD$93 fine. Wed be happy with that lol.

-AL- · 02-06-2005, 11:00 PM

I just had a quick search around for some Road death stats in Canada, if I understand it right, with a population of around 30 mil in 2003 close to 3,000 Fatalities occured due to motor vehicle accidents.

Walkinshaw · 03-06-2005, 02:16 AM

Im wondering what our death toll is for 20million people (would it be 2000 people??)

Walkinshaw · 03-06-2005, 02:19 AM

2003 toll of 1,633persons. Less than the equivelent fatalities in Canada.

USA 15.3
France 14.4
Australia 9.3
Canada 9.7
Sweden 6.6
UK 6.0

Deaths/100,000persons/yr

Steffo · 03-06-2005, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buickman

The problem with that is they use corn ethanol to get the octane up in Nth America. Most octane ratings are between 87-91 in servo's I've filled up in the US and Qubec or BC in Canada.

buickman

They use a different rating system there then we do here. We use RON (Research Octane). Their formula is MON (Motor Octane) + RON (Research Octane) / 2. 98 RON is actually the same as 93 Octane there, a bit worse actually. 91 RON regular is worse then their 87 octane regular unleaded.

EDManual · 03-06-2005, 12:13 PM

in canada they dont have speed cameras, but do have red light cameras, which is fair enough. They do have highway patrols with radar, but you are allowed to have radar deetectors.

In France they have started to bring in speed cameras that are fixed, but are seen fairly easily but not signed. They have basically no cops.

The diesels in France are basically all the new high tech diesels and dont run on our smoky diesel fuel. The villages were not at all polluted by these cars. Thats something I was amazed at. They didnt blow any smoke at all. Not like here. and they have heaps of torque, i guess one day we will start to see these new diesels selling in OZ. Everything comes in turbo diesel, even little 2 door RAV4s!

DId you see on GETAWAY last night, they drove through the rockys in canada the same way I did!! was a bit more wintery though, and that lake they paddled on was frozen over just 3 weeks ago when I was there! they must have recored that last summer.

EDManual · 03-06-2005, 12:24 PM

In Canada there are not many sports or what we would call a good car at all. I think I saw 1 BMW! and 1 Merc. Every 2nd car though is an F250 or bigger!! rediculous! and the fuel price is the same as here. Asked them bout their consumption, around 12 miles per gallon!!! And you see ladies driving them to the shops, they are daily shopping trolleys! However, the one cool Mustang I saw was getting sideways! and I saw a duel cab F350 size GMC getting sideways too!! thats quite a sight! they must be 8 or so metres long!

EDManual · 03-06-2005, 12:32 PM

oh, and my car is the size of a falcon! doesnt it look small!!

The MaDDeSTMaN · 03-06-2005, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDManual

oh, and my car is the size of a falcon! doesnt it look small!!

WOW! It sure does! I wonder why the preference for such a HUGE mode of transport over there?!?

Homer1 · 03-06-2005, 01:06 PM

Over there "bigger is better"!!!

MITCHAY · 03-06-2005, 01:38 PM

I reckon our stock commodores and falcons would smoke their cars. I mean look how big the bitches are. Man i love those F series, Chevy, GMC etc trucks but damn what the hell do you need em for. I see F series trucks ocasionally and they are beasts. I even got to see a Chevy 2500 a coupla weeks ago and that was freaking huge aswell.

If theres an accident how you survive i spose is on how big your truck is. Ive heard that F250s are just legal over here and the F350 is illegal here. But it was from a dumbshit mate so hes probably wrong.

Guess you wouldnt have to worry bout a bigger car space because theyd have to be designed to accomodate those huge things.

Bigger MIGHT be better in engines but not in weight.

Steffo · 03-06-2005, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

I reckon our stock commodores and falcons would smoke their cars. I mean look how big the bitches are. Man i love those F series, Chevy, GMC etc trucks but damn what the hell do you need em for. I see F series trucks ocasionally and they are beasts. I even got to see a Chevy 2500 a coupla weeks ago and that was freaking huge aswell.

If theres an accident how you survive i spose is on how big your truck is. Ive heard that F250s are just legal over here and the F350 is illegal here. But it was from a dumbshit mate so hes probably wrong.

Guess you wouldnt have to worry bout a bigger car space because theyd have to be designed to accomodate those huge things.

Bigger MIGHT be better in engines but not in weight.

If the F350 was illegal here, you wouldn't be able to buy it brand new from Ford.. and yet you can. And they have some trucks that make our cars look stupid. The Ford SVT Lightning, 5.4 SOHC 2v per cyl Supercharged V8, 380hp (284kW) and 450ftlbs (610Nm) is faster then an FPV GT stock. And its a big truck that weighs 5000lbs (2273kg).

Then you have the Dodge Ram SRT-10... 8.3litre OHV 2v Pushrod V10.. 500hp (373kW) and 525ftlbs (711Nm). Also faster then almost every Aussie production car.

I have a mate in Texas who owned a Lightning, 02 model, he ran a 14.0 stock with no traction. $1000 in mods later, the thing ran a 13.0 @ 117mph... again with no traction... 117mph = low 12s trap speed.

As for accidents.. not much can harm you in a ladder-frame chassis 5000+ pound truck. Wouldn't be pretty hitting one of those.

MITCHAY · 03-06-2005, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

As for accidents.. not much can harm you in a ladder-frame chassis 5000+ pound truck. Wouldn't be pretty hitting one of those.

No it sure wouldnt. And i worry about getting taken out by a speeding 4WD.

Yes i must say i love those Dodge Rams and Lightnings but how much do they cost though. Not everyones opinion but wouldnt you rather spend that on mods. To me a truck is for work and not racing but it still looks damn cool.

Steffo · 03-06-2005, 02:43 PM

An SVT Lightning retailed for $32,000 US ($42,333.18 AU) and the Dodge Ram SRT-10 retails for $40,000 US ($52,908.09 AU).

MITCHAY · 03-06-2005, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffo

An SVT Lightning retailed for $32,000 US ($42,333.18 AU) and the Dodge Ram SRT-10 retails for $40,000 US ($52,908.09 AU).

Shit thats actually quite cheap. But wouldnt it become more expensive if they were brought over here as an import?

Steffo · 03-06-2005, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

Shit thats actually quite cheap. But wouldnt it become more expensive if they were brought over here as an import?

Yeah. But we have a zillion stupid taxes. The USA doesn't have the Luxury Car Tax, for example. The Pontiac GTO retails for $32,995 there. That's with the 395hp LS2. Our Monaro CV8 with a 260kW LS1 is $60,000. That's close to $50k American.

buickman · 03-06-2005, 06:39 PM

I saw one of those SRT Dodge Rams in Sth Carolina go past my hire trailblazer last year at over a 100mph and the sound from the exhaust sounded tough.

The reason large SUV's sell well in Nth America is it snows for over 6months and in StGeorge in Quebec Province they can get over 6 feet of snow on the roads plus black ice. Try driving a RWD car in those conditions.

Yeh I was wondering why such low octane ratings on the pumps over there. Some stating that 10% corn ethernol is used.

buickman

-AL- · 03-06-2005, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDManual

DId you see on GETAWAY last night, they drove through the rockys in canada the same way I did!! was a bit more wintery though, and that lake they paddled on was frozen over just 3 weeks ago when I was there! they must have recored that last summer.

Yep I saw Ben Dark & Reyne cruising the Rockies on getaway lastnight, it definately a very beautiful part of the world.