Driver education

[rat156]

Hi All,

As many of you know I'm all for driver education rather than revenue raising in an attempt to lower the road toll. The Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Australia runs two driver education days per year. Normally we run this in conjunction with a more advanced racecraft day. We have the advantage of being able to run both simultaneously as we use the Winton motor raceway, one part for driver education, the other for race craft.

Anyway, we have enough entries for the racecraft side, but for some reason are running low on entries for the driver education side.

Driver Education or Safety is aimed at the teenage drivers, Learner, P-plate drivers and in fact any driver, the course will show the driver various aspects of heavy braking, swerving in various conditions, use of ABS (braking) and ESC (control) of their car. It is a great way to take on road experiences that you can not practice on the public road and be able to use these techniques when you have to under emergency conditions. All members with teenage drivers are encouraged to participate. Cost is minimal and well worth it for the experience.

Our entry fee for this is normally $120, but because we are short we have dropped this to $50. If anyone out there in the Benalla region (2.5 hrs North of Melbourne) who would like to participate then contact me President@alfaclubvic.org.au.

Cheers
Stuart

[koputai]

Stuart,

Having just divested ourselves of our GTV, probably the best education the Alfa Club could give to a new driver is "Don't buy an Alfa!" :D

Cheers,
Jason.

[rat156]

Hi Jason,

Well, I own six, including the one that did the Sh!tbox rally last year and will do it again this year. Unsurprisingly, I love them. At least you've owned one, now, according to Top Gear, you can be a petrolhead.

I should have mentioned in the post, that you don't have to be a member of the club, you don't even need a driver's licence, we usually draw the line at about 12 YO as a minimum, there is no maximum. The student does need to know how to drive to some extent though. Alfa ownership is optional, not mandatory.

Cheers
Stuart

[tlgerdes]

Minimums
1) Reach the pedals ..... while sitting in the seat with seatbelt on
2) See over steering wheel ...... while sitting in the seat with seatbelt on
3) Grand Turismo license
:lol:

[koputai]

Stuart, I was having a bit of a joke, thus the smiley. We really loved the little GTV, had it for 8 years, but it was written off on New Years Eve when a stolen car wiped it out parked outside our house.

You must admit though, they are not what you'd call low maintenance or cheap to own.

Cheers,
Jason.

[rat156]

Hi Jason,

I did realise that what you said was in jest, I simply have had enough of the attitude (usually perpetuated by the media) that all Alfas are poorly made rust buckets. This is simply not the truth anymore.

Of course if you choose to define a marque by the product they made in the mid 80's then most car manufacturers were crap. I don't know why Alfa's in particular have not shaken this off yet.

Of the three cars that are driven regularly (2 x 156GTA, 1 x 159SW) go in for their service at my mechanics about every 10,000 km, that's at least twice a year for two and once for the other (it's a bit too nice to drive everyday). Apart from the servicing costs, we have had two window regulators replaced in the 159 ($200 ea) and an oxygen sensor fail in both of the 156's ($200 ea) over the past three years. Tyres, of course, need replacing, as do brake pads and discs. Really all three have been not much trouble, it does depend on where you go and what you know though. Unless you go to a specialist Alfa mechanic things can get expensive, some of the dealers also charge like wounded bulls as well.

Of course the SBR car had sat on someones front lawn for 10 years, I picked it up, got it running right, changed some stuff as preventative maintenance, then drove it from Melbourne to Cairns via the outback on some really rough roads, then back from Cairns to Melbourne in three days. The car cost $500 and I spent another $500 on it. Not bad for a $1k POS.

Cheers
Stuart

[koputai]

Wow, $200 for the window regulator. We had to replace one of those a couple of years ago as well, and it cost $650. Oh, and then the engine detonated the bottom end with 80,000 on it. $10,000 to replace.

Services at the Alfa dealer were never less than $1500, usually over $2000. In the last couple of years we were taking it to a local mechanic and services were less than $800. Much better, but for a car that was insured for $12k, and was worth $3k as a trade-in........ we were lucky someone wrote it off for us!

A beautiful car to drive, but painful to own.

Cheers,
Jason.

[TechnoViking]

Ive got a 1984 GTV project car, Love the thing! drove it back from Vic to my house (about 600kms), it was one of the most relaxing drives ever.

[big-blue]

on this theme, I fwd the following : to quote :

This is the new "wear your seatbelt" ad the UK is doing - started by some dude not hired to do it, but because the cause is important to him, he came up with this idea, and now it's being hailed across the world as a "beautiful" commercial.
And now the video has become so popular with the general public that people are forwarding it to friends/family on their own so quickly that it has spread all over the world in a very short time.

Check out this remarkable ad
http://www.youtube.com/embed/h-8PBx7isoM

[Larryp]

Brilliant!