yea its all hypothetical anyways.. I have a valentine one

really pisses me off when people equate speeding with reckless driving when they are very different. I'll trust the observant, speeding sports car over the cell phone yapping soccer mom in a 6000 lb SUV any day

 

Amen to that!!!
Joe

 

Yes, well said!

I had an accident (not from driving too fast but from being inexperienced and non-observant) when I was a teen and did my share of stupid things in cars. I'm 30 now and am I a safer driver? Yes, because I'm more experienced and I don't do some of the dumb things that inexperienced drivers do. Do I drive slower? No. Should my insurance company charge me more? Probably!

I do my fair share of autocrosses and track days. In a car like an FD it is the only way to really push it's limits. I am able to get somewhat close on deserted mountain roads. Is driving an FD at 9/10ths on any public road safe? Heck no, but if I'm out on the road alone (no other traffic or cross streets within miles) I figure I'll most likely just kill myself. Personally I prefer my Miata for driving at 9/10ths on the street. It's much less suicidal.

Bottom line... if I had an FD when I was a teen I probably would have crashed it and maybe killed myself. I don't think anyone should drive a car as fast as the FD anywhere near its limits if they're not experienced. Of course... I THOUGHT I was an experienced driver at 19. But I'm glad I couldn't affording anything super fast... just had the hand me down old 240 Volvo... which in college I put a turbo engine stuffed with old school Group A car parts in... What an idiot I was!

-John

 

How about you get a job. I am 19 and I have 2 jobs to afford my third gen and I nor my parents are by any means "rich". Also to those of you that keep saying that kids dont deserve third gen because of our "inexperienced driving" most of you guys just have the money to blow on a third gen so therefore you have a third gen. I started when I was 14 from the bottom with an automatic 88 gxl with a blown motor for 100bucks from an 80 year old drunk guy that lived in a trailer home. Since then Ive owned 3 2nd gens and I now have my pride and joy 93 MB Touring that I work my butt off for. Yes, its sad that a third gen died today but hey we work hard for our cars or atleast I do and its mine/ours to lose so just keep some of those dirty comments to yourselves.

 

*some* older people are just as irresponsible with their FD's as teens. Case in point, I live outside Ann Arbor, and mid-summer this year I was sitting in front of a ford dealership at the stop light (i drive a '92 ranger, 6' bed, extended cab, 3.0 V6 backed by a 5 speed, open diff) when a silver FD rolled up behind me with a guy who was in his early-30's and his wife in it. I just hung my head out the window and stared because it had an R1 lip (touring model), i could hear the exhaust coming up behind me, and a huge front mount, and it was the first time i'd ever seen a FD on the road. He pulled up right next to my passenger side door, and i talked to him for like 30 seconds before the light turned green, and he pulled in behind me. We waited until the road ahead of us cleared, and i asked him what how big of a single he had on it. modified T-78. crusin at 40 in 3rd, he got on it, so i downshifted into second and got almost my rear bumper to his front before the turbo spooled. he had to be doing 80 or 90 by the time he let off. we did this a few times, then i followed him to an ice cream/auto memorobilia place, and we talked for a few minutes.

Should teen's insurance be more expensive than adults? in my opinion yes, because i'll admit it, i've done extremely stupid **** in that truck, but doing stupid **** is the only way you're going to learn how to control stuff when it hits and you least expect it. a couple of times this summer, if i hadn't been sliding my truck during the winters (the only way that i can really get around corners, whether i want to slide it or not), i would have fucked myself and others up really bad. one time was in a light rain, going around a real slow turn (people sitting stopped in the next lane), so my rpm's were down, and i had to give it a little gas to get the power steering pressure up to turn it back the other way (right then immidate left), and the rear took off on me. counter steered, fed the throttle, got off, countersteered left, let off the gas then back on trying to catch it, and had to countersteer right again, and i slid it accross 2 lanes (turn and north-bound) and stopped it perfectly in a parking space. the other time, i was coming around a left corner (onto ann-arbor saline road, from the road accross from lohr circle), and i lost all air pressure in my outside tire instantly. slid it, fully sideways, almost took out a benz sitting in the turn lane, and ended up in the middle lane (2 northbound lanes, and a right-turn lane to get on east I-94).

the point of this post is that ******* around to just **** around is a stupid, immature thing to do, and probably will get you (and more than likely others) hurt extremely bad, but sometimes if you do it learning the limits of your car where if you slide off the road, all you're going to hit is a ditch or sign, it can be helpful.

 

on a side-note, i almost bought a 93 VR FD that had 60k miles on it, and the guy said it had a bad computer, which i interpreted as having a blown/almost blown engine. i looked at insurance, and Geico was the cheepest place online for me to get my own policy at 8,000/year. the guy wanted 6k for the car. through my parents insurance, with me as a secondary driver, 6 other cars and a house worth almost 750,000, it would have been 160/month. i'm 19, perfect record, never caused any accidents, no tickets, never been pulled over. only accidents i've ever been in: backed into, hit in a parking lot, black ice and hit a trash can, deer, rear-ended. none of which went to the police or the insurance company. needless to say, being in college i can't afford the insurance on a FD, so i'm gonna drive my minivan until i can afford it, i just hope that i can find one when i can finally afford it