3.0SI - can SPORT Mode be Disabled?

[BMWZ4MC]

...Usually it's the fact it's a small car/engine that saves us when we're still 17 year old immortal driving gods!

That's what saved me every time...until it didn't! It took me a whole four months of repeatedly pushing the limits before I flipped my first car. I was the lucky one amongst many of my school mates as I was by myself and no one was injured. I learned a few important lessons that day. I'm not sure I would have been in a condition fit to learn anything if I'd had another 200+bhp to play with.

 

[Liam-O]

Is no one content with not pushing the limits to a point where your upside down? Many of my friends have rolled cars like its a sport? Myself, I'm not angel driver, and maybe I've been lucky, but I've never came close to parking on my roof in a field...

 

[richtea78]

Seriously, its not like the kid will definitely kill himself. I used to drive a V12 XJS a lot at 17/18 and several other large Jaguars.

Maybe not all kids are complete twats behind the wheel :roll:

(I did however write off a Metro and a Rover 214 however, I was just scared what the Jag owner would do to me if I crashed them)

 

[Bing]

Is no one content with not pushing the limits to a point where your upside down? Many of my friends have rolled cars like its a sport? Myself, I'm not angel driver, and maybe I've been lucky, but I've never came close to parking on my roof in a field...

Not a fan of pushing the limits deliberately too much - partly because I feel I need some proper (extended) training on a track, but mainly because I'm rarely on public roads that are suitable.

I kow this isn't a 'show us your accident' thread, but I have never been on my roof in a field, though I've had a tussle with the central reservation of the M4 at very high speed and count myself lucky to have walked away. Hit, spun 3 times across all 3 rush hour busy lanes, hit a lorry and back to the outside lane facing three lanes of traffic. 3 seconds earlier and I would have been under the lorry and dead. 28 years old driving 15k+ miles a year, Lexus IS200, all electronics on - not young, not inexperienced, not a sports car. Cause ? Well, some road rage from a guy in front who had taken affront at something earlier i guess who literally stamped on his brakes - would be easy to blame him as actually i'd done nothing to offend him (makes a change...) but the accident was really because of my instinctive natural reaction - I tried to avoid at high speed and lost it. Simples.

 

[richtea78]

Well, some road rage from a guy in front who had taken affront at something earlier i guess who literally stamped on his brakes - would be easy to blame him as actually i'd done nothing to offend him (makes a change...) but the accident was really because of my instinctive natural reaction - I tried to avoid at high speed and lost it. Simples.

Sounds like you might have been travelling too close to the car in front? I was always told to leave enough room to avoid the car in front whatever it does.

 

[BMWZ4MC]

Is no one content with not pushing the limits to a point where your upside down? Many of my friends have rolled cars like its a sport? Myself, I'm not angel driver, and maybe I've been lucky, but I've never came close to parking on my roof in a field...

Mine was a case of inexperience and poor judgement, not knowing the limits of a very old car on crap tyres and the roads in wintry conditions - downhill on a single track road between high muddy banks in heavy rain with consequent rivers of mud in the road. At 17 I didn't appreciate quite how slippery that combination could be until I was out of control and going up the bank. I wasn't going fast enough to make it into the field. 265bhp would likely have launched me far enough though.
My intention was simply to echo the previous posts regarding the stupidity of letting your average 17 year old (boy) loose in a sports car. After all, testosterone plus car often leads to ambition greatly exceeding ability. That my old school friends, and your friends seem to have invested great energy in seeking their own destruction really supports this.

 

[Bing]

Well, some road rage from a guy in front who had taken affront at something earlier i guess who literally stamped on his brakes - would be easy to blame him as actually i'd done nothing to offend him (makes a change...) but the accident was really because of my instinctive natural reaction - I tried to avoid at high speed and lost it. Simples.

Sounds like you might have been travelling too close to the car in front? I was always told to leave enough room to avoid the car in front whatever it does.

Yep, we all try, but not hard enough if I am honest - in this case he just pulled in front of me and braked REALLY hard, not just a brief flash of brakes, and I really didn't have any time to leave some stopping room unfortunately. He had been sitting on my bumper for a few miles, obviously wanted past, but the level of traffic inside me and in front precluded my doing anything quickly. I think he may have thought I was braking often to make him back off when in actual fact it was simply traffic. That said, part of the lesson I learned was about speed / traffic volume and driving defensively (e.g. Making sure to have some space to move into, not ramming people ) - my point was really that it was MY fault, irrespective of how anyone else was driving

 

[cj_eds]

It took me a whole four months of repeatedly pushing the limits before I flipped my first car.

If at first you don't succeed...

That said, part of the lesson I learned was about speed / traffic volume and driving defensively (e.g. Making sure to have some space to move into

That was one of the important lessons commuting on the A14 around Cambridge taught me. People behind would get really really worked up about the fact I'd leave a gap to the car in front if it otherwise meant driving alongside an artic (which is the majority of traffic in the inside lane of the A14). Given the almost daily crashes on that road involving a truck/lorry and a car they hadn't seen then there was no way I was going to sit in their blind-spot or in any gap I couldn't get out of rapidly!


Back on topic: we never know, maybe this kid is wiser than we all seemed to be when young and won't push the limits

 

[Huz-z]

Guys - thanks for all the comments. I generally agree with what folks are saying. Bear in mind that this is not for me and my son; its for another guy on another forum who is dead-set on allowing his 15 year old no-driving-experience kid to drive a 3.0si.

As for me, I have had my 3.0si since 2009, which is long enough to be absolutely certain that when my own son is old enough to drive in a few years and asks for the keys, he will get the keys to our Honda only.

 

[Bing]

Guys - thanks for all the comments. I generally agree with what folks are saying. Bear in mind that this is not for me and my son; its for another guy on another forum who is dead-set on allowing his 15 year old no-driving-experience kid to drive a 3.0si.

As for me, I have had my 3.0si since 2009, which is long enough to be absolutely certain that when my own son is old enough to drive in a few years and asks for the keys, he will get the keys to our Honda only.

15 ????? Can you drive at that age in Canada ? Jeez, surely the insurance is more expensive than the car

As for you philosophy

 

[Huz-z]

15 ????? Can you drive at that age in Canada ? Jeez, surely the insurance is more expensive than the car

As for you philosophy

Thanks! Actually, the bucko I am inquiring for is in the United Sates, so the entry driving age is different.