You see it nearly every time there is a car crash where someone gets killed, particularly a young driver. Some kneejerk reaction from politicians or motoring organisations (or in Australia, that clown Harold Scruby who won’t be happy till there are no cars on the road at all) calling for restrictions on the number of passengers a newly-licensed driver may carry, lowering speed limits, more speed cameras (sorry, road safety cameras), even GPS speed tracking.

It was always my thought that driver training would be the answer - I attended a driver training course a number of years ago, and it was an excellent learning experience. In fact, I still highly recommend anyone to attend one of these. But I found a link to a report (in pdf format, briefer version here) prepared for the RACV that noted that it may not have much effect. Its author found that what was learned during the training would drop off in time - people would forget most of what they were taught. It also noted the ‘low individual crash risk’ of drivers - I believe it refers to the actual chances of being in a position, where a crash is imminent, being so remote for the average driver. The other factor, widely expressed, is that the increased level of skill following training would lead to an increase in confidence of the driver, therefore encouraging more risk-taking behaviour. An example of this is “Hey, I learned how to recover from a slide, lets try one around this corner.”

This latter opinion is what concerned me - surely having knowledge of how to control a car is better than none? I wouldn’t get into a plane whose pilots were not told how to recover from a stall, for instance, but rather told “Just don’t get into one in the first place.” A vague analogy, but hopefully you follow my thoughts.

I still believe there is a place for advanced, or defensive, driver training. Not the sort of higher level stuff that was mentioned in the above paragraph, with stuff taught on skidpans and the like, but just the basic stuff like what I was taught, like how to brake in an emergency, to not look at what you are about to hit, but rather where you want to go to avoid the obstacle. To check your tyre pressures regularly. To look further down the road for any dangers, rather than the bumper of the car in front.

Experience is the main thing the report suggested, particularly supervised training while a learner driver. This I can understand. But some of that training should also include just some basic emergency skills, like trying out the ABS brakes on a quiet wet road, to know what it feels like when they activate. The report also suggested a graduated licence scheme, with further tests to be passed to get less and less restricted licenses. I agree with this. But the main suggestion of the report, in my opinion, is buying more crashworthy cars - cars that can better survive an accident. Even better is a car that can avoid an accident with better active safety.

I’m finally getting around to my main point. Active safety in cars, such as better brakes, ABS, traction control, and in particular, Electronic Stability Control. My next car will definitely be fitted with ESC. Basically, the common factor in crashes is overwhelmingly human error. The more ways you can take human fallibility out of the equation, the safer the roads will become.

If you take that last point to the extreme, the only ways you would end up with zero road deaths would be to limit them to 20km/h, or remove humans from the control of cars altogether. Have each car computer controlled, with sensors taking in information about the surroundings, lane markings, radars picking up obstacles to the front and side. Communication between other vehicles, using a common standard, that lets each car know what others in its vicinity are doing, so they don’t hit.

Even then, there are still factors that will cause possible deaths. Mechanical failure, or errors in programming; after all, the human factor is still in the design and construction stages. Pedestrians, particularly drunk ones, or suicidal ones, will still find a way to jump in front of a car.

In the end, is this a situation we want? It would be a massive cost to replace all vehicles on the road with automatic travel pod-type things (I don’t know if you could call them cars). There would be massive opposition. I happen to like driving - so do millions of others. People would not trust these automatic drivers, even if they could be feasibly developed - there is no chance at today’s level of technology. I guess the moral of the story is, you make something foolproof, they will just make better fools…

After slaving over a hot keyboard for quite a few weekends, I have finally finished the log of my trip across the country, driving from Melbourne to Perth, and back again. 8700 kilometres, three states, four time zones, twelve southern right whales, five emus, two dingoes, four hundred kangaroos (6 living), three quokkas, two peacocks, and approximately 1 million splattered insects on the front of the car. Read about it here.

http://bort.blogsome.com/crossing-the-nullarbor-index/

Have a look at the new section, detailing the drive across the Nullarbor from Melbourne to Perth and back again. Eight thousand, seven hundred kilometres in three weeks. I’ll be adding to it whenever I can, so keep checking back for updates!

http://bort.blogsome.com/crossing-the-nullarbor-index/

Well a bit more preparation has been undertaken for the trip. The car has had a suspension check over, and got a clean bill of health. Even the wheel alignment was still spot on from the last time it was done. The transmission has been serviced, and again there were no problems. It actually feels like it shifts a bit quicker now too, as a bonus. Recently the engine developed a bit of an oil leak, and so that was attended to at its 120,000km service. They also noticed a leak from the power steering pump, which I might get replaced.

Next up is to get a new spare tyre, possibly replace the power steering pump (and a final check to make sure the oil leak was fixed) and put the stone guards back on the headlights and bonnet. I’ll also grab a tent from my folk’s place (just in case we can’t get accommodation somewhere) and put some tools together. A water container would be good too.

As for the trip plan, this is where we are going, courtesy of Google maps. Just under 8000km, with about 21 days to do it in. There looks to be roughly sixteen driving days, with the remainder being the odd rest day, and a few days in Perth for sightseeing and recuperation.

Next up is to actually book some accommodation -  there’s only a month to go!

Here is a brilliant promo video of the corolla SX - lotsa trick driving footage that would have no chance of getting on to a car ad these days. Also a bit of classic Group A Bathurst footage. Enjoy.

Later on this year, probably around August, Mrs Bort and I are going to do the big drive across Australia. It’s something we’ve been talking about for years, going back to 2001. Back then, we had a trip to Queensland planned. Hotel was booked, flights were booked. Then the airline went bust. Rather than call the thing off, we decided to drive from Melbourne to Queensland’s Gold Coast. It was around 1700km each way, and we did it in two days, each way - stopping overnight in Dubbo, which was about half way.

That drive gave us a taste for doing some big distances, and from then on, we thought it would be good to drive across the Nullarbor plain, from Melbourne to Perth. It’s nearly 4000km each way, through some pretty remote areas, so we don’t want our car to break down.

We had a few options:

- We could fly to Perth. While this is the cheapest and quickest option, the holiday to me is not exactly the Perth part, it’s the journey I’m looking forward to. So this option is out.

- We could take my car. It’s getting on a bit in years, and will be having its eleventh birthday on the trip, but it hasn’t done that many kilometres for its age. Plus it is great on the highway, really relaxed.

- We could rent a car. It would be pricey, plus I’m not sure how well the rental agencies would take it if we bring the car back three weeks later with 8000 extra kays on the clock… Another thing, when I have hired a car a couple of times this year, both times they have been around 7000 km overdue for their service (ie 30,000km service due, with 36-38,000 km on the clock).

- We could take Mrs Bort’s car. It’s a little smaller than mine, but it could be a little cramped.  Plus I don’t want that one getting stone chips all over it.

In the end, we decided my car would be the one to take. The big 4 litre 6 cylinder engine of the EF Falcon just ticks along at around 1800 rpm at freeway speed. Of course, as it is getting older, it is worth preparing it for the trip.

The first thing done was to get the head gasket replaced. At its last service a leak was noticed; as a precaution it’s best to fix it now than risk it blowing completely out in the middle of nowhere. It only came to $700 - the head didn’t need machining or reconditioning. The gasket is a bit of a weak point on the falcon engines, so it’s good that it is out of the way.

Next week will be a transmission service, and a replacement spare tyre. The current one is nearly bald, and we may have to drive on it for a few hundred kilometres on the trip if we get a flat. Frankly, the original spare tyre is crap, and around $120 will get a quite good new one.

A wheel alignment and balance is next. Eight thousand-odd kilometres will put a bit of wear on these tyres, so I want the balance and alignment to be spot on, to avoid any additional wear.

The car will need a general service - it is nearly at 120,000km, so that will come soon as well. These items will all be done at least a few weeks before the trip, so any dodgy repairs should make themselves evident before the big trip. 

Hell, I might even get around to planning the actual trip soon! 

P1000415-resized
Originally uploaded by Bort1974.

In 2005, Mrs Bort and I went on a holiday to Central Australia, namely Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Kings Canyon. One of the cool parts about the trip, and a real novelty for us, was the fact that there were no speed limits once past the city limits. Yes, once you are out of town you can just open the taps and let it rip. The photo attached shows me doing roughly 150km/h - the fastest I’ve ever driven, since I’ve never been to a track day or anything. It got a bit daunting at that speed, as I was not used to it. The roads we were on were minor, secondary roads, only a couple of steps from being dirt basically. They were pretty twisty, which was surprising in what you would expect to be a dead flat expanse of nothingness turned out to be quite undulating.

Another thing to look out for was roaming livestock, camels and wildlife. A lot of the roads out there are unfenced, so there’s a fair chance that cows and the like may be wandering about in the middle of the road - not something you’d like to see when you’re barrelling around a blind corner at 200km/h. Basically you really have to pick the time and place to put the foot down. The main north-south road, the Stuart Highway, is a little better in that regard. We found that we settled at around 120-130 km/h after the novelty of speeding legally wore off.

Which brings me to some sad news. As of the start of this year, speed limits were introduced in the Northern Territory of 110 or 130 km/h on the open road. This is quite a shame, and I think it will hurt tourism somewhat. One of the attractions of visiting the Top End was the chance to drive fast without getting thrown in jail. My home state, Victoria, in contrast, starts handing out the fines once you break the posted limit by three kilometres per hour. Never mind that Australian design rules specify that a speedometer only has to be accurate to +/-10%. And before you ask, no, I’ve never had a ticket…

But I digress. A lot of international car manufacturers used the Northern Territory to test cars in a hot, high speed environment with little population. The speed limits have seen the end of that. Well, speed limits and the time zone difference - some are now testing in South Africa, where the time is closer to Europe’s.

While the speed limits issue is not a deal breaker for people considering a trip to the NT - it is an awesomely beautiful bit of the country - I’m glad I got in before the limits did. Another thing I’d like to do is see Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef again before global warming bleaches the thing into oblivion… but that is another post.

Many years ago, I cut this out of the car classified of the newspaper (the Herald-Sun circa 1992, I believe) because it was rather …unusual. Obviously a fake ad done for laughs, it wouldn’t have been cheap to run - I think you are charged by the line when placing an ad. Anyway, since I only recently found it again, I thought I would give it a bit of a new lease of life on the net. Enjoy:

For those who don’t know, the Niki 650 was a Polish-made version of the Fiat 126, with a two cylinder 650cc engine producing a whopping 17.7 kiloWatts.  Top speed was about 100km/h, depending on tailwinds and gradients. When it was on sale in Australia, for about three years, it was the cheapest car on the market, and for good reason.

Found this video clip of Fernando Alonso doing a lap in the Renault F1 car, shot with a camera mounted basically in his line of sight, somewhere on (or in) his helmet. Looks great, and sounds even better - got me looking forward to the first GP in March.

Yesterday Mrs Bort got me off my arse in front of the TV and we went for a drive. Out to Marysville from Melbourne via the Black Spur, a very nice and scenic twisty bit of road through the Yarra Ranges. Great weather, and a great driving road. Trouble is, there is a lot of traffic, usually old people dawdling along in four wheel drives or camrys. This ruins the experience of going out for a fang.

 However, after a bit of lunch at the bakery, we went back another way. Heading out of Marysville, take the road leading to Lake Mountain and Woods Point. Go up to the mountain if you want - we did, and took a walk up to the summit. It left us surprisingly short of breath on a steep section near the start - I’m guessing due to the higher altitude, but it’s only 1433m at the peak. As you go along it is flatter, and not terribly far, only about 800m. The view from the top is pretty impressive and we could actually see a few Melbourne CBD buildings in the haze in the distance. The only hazard on the walk is the ankle-rolling large gravel on the path. Fortunately, no injuries were sustained and we were back at the carpark in about 45 minutes.

Following that, we headed back down the mountain and towards Woods Point, along a (sealed) narrow road that is used mainly by logging trucks that travels through the catchment areas for some of Melbourne’s dams and is unofficially called the Reefton Spur. It is pretty spectacular to drive on. There is virtually no traffic, a ton of twisting bends and some blind corners that tighten right up, a lot more than you first expect them to. We’ve done the drive a few times now and always enjoy it. As tempting as it is though to straighten out some bends by going over to the other side of the road, you really have to be careful. I’ve had to do a quick jink back into my own lane when a car pops out from behind the embankment coming the other way. It’s best to only do it when you have a clear view of the next few bends.

After a while there is a turnoff to Warburton - we took a right there and headed along that road. It’s not so much a logging road, and is a bit wider and straighter, but still offers glimpses of some pretty impressive landscapes through the trees.

Eventually we got to Warburton where parked outside of a cafe serving Polish food and vodka (yes, yet  another one of those…) was a black Lamborghini Countach, the 25th anniversary edition. Quite the head-turner, with the number plates ‘RUN4IT’, these cars make a Ferrari look common. I’d say I have probably only seen one other Lambo this year, excluding the Motor Show.

Heading out of Warburton, in a valley with abundant trees and lots of greenery, I felt concern about what may happen to it (and the rest of the areas we drove through on the day) with the impending bushfire season.  Melbourne has had far below its average rainfall, with some hot days already - A total fire ban in October, the earliest on record do not bode well for the rest of the summer. I hope the fires are not too severe.

The road out of Warburton eventually joins the Maroondah Highway at the intersection we turned at to go to the Black Spur. From there, it’s back through Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Croydon and the rest and back home.