Paul Walker Passing

[sx4rocious]

Nice show!! That Red '69 Camaro was something!!

Also gonna go out on a limb and guess your wife is a Vin Desiel fan?

[SamirD]

Nice show!! That Red '69 Camaro was something!!

Also gonna go out on a limb and guess your wife is a Vin Desiel fan?

And that was an 'okay' local show. The biggest one (that I missed this year) has over 1000 cars.

That's not my wife. She and her husband were site regulars and very active in the local Camaro club, but I think they moved. She was a Vin Diesel fan. But ironically my wife is too, so good guess!

[KuroNekko]

I was actually refering to media that leans liberal. I'm a hard-core raging conservative that still believes that most people need to point fingers at themselves and search for ways to accept responsibilities for their own actions instead of placing blame on everyone else and letting the government decide what's best for me. Paul was a good man, but no one strapped him into the passenger seat of the car and demanded he sit quietly while the driver spinns helplessly into a tree at 100 mph. It was an accident PERIOD. I don't blame McDonalds for my larger-than-it-should-be belly, people shouldn't blame modified cars for the death of ANYONE rich and famous or not. I'll miss Paul (and that AMAZING CGT!!!) but please just chalk it up to an accident and leave my favorite and only hobby alone....

I don't watch TV anymore so maybe I'm missing something about the media's reaction to the crash. Are people on the news talking about the dangers of sports cars and modding? That's the sense I get from your post and SamirD's.

Keep in mind that most news commentators are worthless. They are not experts in anything about the topic on hand whether it be politics, the economy, or current events. This includes the liberals in "liberal" networks and definitely the conservatives like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly. They just spew predictable biased opinion and not news. Saddest thing of all is that these guys on both sides are so hypocritical too. I've simply come to leave my TV off nearly all the time. Probably why I'm on here so much.

[SamirD]

I don't watch TV anymore so maybe I'm missing something about the media's reaction to the crash. Are people on the news talking about the dangers of sports cars and modding? That's the sense I get from your post and SamirD's.

Keep in mind that most news commentators are worthless. They are not experts in anything about the topic on hand whether it be politics, the economy, or current events. This includes the liberals in "liberal" networks and definitely the conservatives like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly. They just spew predictable biased opinion and not news. Saddest thing of all is that these guys on both sides are so hypocritical too. I've simply come to leave my TV off nearly all the time. Probably why I'm on here so much.

I haven't watched TV in years, so everything I found out about it came from the Internet.

I've always hated news, especially the way they talk in that condescending tone. Plus, I've been on the news and have seen how stories are spun to make headlines and advertising revenue. It's a business, plain and simple. It's why all news is bad news--good news doesn't sell well.

My wife loves the news, but in India they're CRAZY about the news--14 CNN style channels babbling about absolute nonsense trying to make mountains out of molehills with almost zero integrity. Half the time they're just making stuff up and lying their heads off to cause a stir. And people that should be working or worried about their personal hygiene are more worried about elections and which politician is going to get elected--even though the politicians just rob the public blind! And no one has a story on that because it isn't news. Ahh...the third world.

What scares me is how I've seen some of the stuff from the third world show up here in the first world and change our lives for the worse, and then no one do anything about it (just like in the third world). That's alarming to me as it will eventually destroy the US.

[sx4rocious]

I have heard a little talk about it when it comes to Paul Walker, but I have heard A LOT of talk about banning modified cars when the TV show "Street Outlaws" came out. (There are several clips on youtube about it, especially "Farm Truck, since it seemed to be the fan favorite) The show is about an illegal street racing club based in Oklahoma City. They were meticulous in their scouting of what roads to use, and the keeping of "the list" and such. I, in now way, condone street racing, but if it were to be done, these guys knew what they were doing. There was a HUGH public outcry after the show aired to ban anything that developed that much power from public roads. The car owners and drivers used code names on the show, but supposedly, the police put out tip lines for citizens to turn in anyone on the show. Granted the LEAST powerful car was reportedly in the neighborhood of 800 HP (farm truck) and the No 1 on the list was somewhere around 2000 HP, so I wouldn't thisnk they would be too hard to find on a public street. Anyway, the show didn't even run a complete season if I recall, and several laws were passed in OK as a result. My point is, Romania has passed laws making ANYTHING done to a car's engine that is not stock illegal. I don't want to see this happen here. It's blaming McDonalds coffee for being too hot and sueing for millions of dollars instead of admitting you were a moron and burned your mouth...

[SamirD]

I have heard a little talk about it when it comes to Paul Walker, but I have heard A LOT of talk about banning modified cars when the TV show "Street Outlaws" came out. (There are several clips on youtube about it, especially "Farm Truck, since it seemed to be the fan favorite) The show is about an illegal street racing club based in Oklahoma City. They were meticulous in their scouting of what roads to use, and the keeping of "the list" and such. I, in now way, condone street racing, but if it were to be done, these guys knew what they were doing. There was a HUGH public outcry after the show aired to ban anything that developed that much power from public roads. The car owners and drivers used code names on the show, but supposedly, the police put out tip lines for citizens to turn in anyone on the show. Granted the LEAST powerful car was reportedly in the neighborhood of 800 HP (farm truck) and the No 1 on the list was somewhere around 2000 HP, so I wouldn't thisnk they would be too hard to find on a public street. Anyway, the show didn't even run a complete season if I recall, and several laws were passed in OK as a result. My point is, Romania has passed laws making ANYTHING done to a car's engine that is not stock illegal. I don't want to see this happen here. It's blaming McDonalds coffee for being too hot and sueing for millions of dollars instead of admitting you were a moron and burned your mouth...

Wow, that's crazy. I never heard of the show, but sans tv, that makes sense.

I started my car enthusiast life on the street, and what I discovered was that when done safely, the street rivals the track, and many times is actually safer. Sometimes high horsepower cars came out, like 1000hp Supras. The thing is though, for these type of cars to get traction, you almost had to prep the street like a track. And it would take forever to do that.

Now, this being said, there was a highly publicized daytime street race (these are typically on Sunday) in Birmingham, AL in which people got killed. But they had no organization and nothing in place for safety. This is what makes the street dangerous.

Public outcry is justified when it affects the safety of the general public. But when there's a bunch of people out at 2am on essentially an abandoned road, it's not endangering any of the general public. But since politicians use these type of events for their own advantage (like the media does), we have some idiotic laws passed that either get repealed later, or are never enforced and essentially abandoned.

[sx4rocious]

yeah, I agree SamirD. I think racing should be kept on the track, but the Autobahn has actually proven that speed can be done safely in the public domain. I have several European friends that say the Autobahn is actually safer than most other European highways. I have a friend that drives it daily and says most drivers stay in the right lane at about 85mph. There might be the occasional 150+mph Merc or Lambo, but for the most part, they don't go any faster than WESHOOT2 does!!

[SamirD]

There might be the occasional 150+mph Merc or Lambo, but for the most part, they don't go any faster than WESHOOT2 does!!