BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...

Subject: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 10:12 PM

Seems that the rave these days to sell yer car is have it shown outta control skidding sideways???

What the heck is this all about???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bert
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 10:17 PM

That seems to be the way the new car buyers drive.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 10:19 PM

Well, it's fine if no one else is on the road... Ya' notice that there are never any other cars out there for these folks to crash into...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 10:38 PM

Don't little wankers call it "drifting"?

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: frogprince
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 11:45 PM

AAyuh; I'm a little surprised that Bobert was the one to ask this one. I've never quite understood how anyone can control "drifting" reliably, but apparently properly trained drivers can. So the cars are being touted as having the power and handling to pull it off. Idiotic and potentially homocidal advertising, but is that surprising?

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 11:45 PM

They're selling roadways.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: gnu
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 06:21 AM

I can control a car very well in most any skid, even without the fancy ABS crap which I detest because it takes away MY ability pump the brakes the way *I* wanna do it. After all, I AM Canadian... I learned to drive on ice and snow. >;-)

As for skidding on dry pave for fun, that is a waste of rubber.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 07:54 AM

All these commercials have one thing in common... Wet roads... Here's the part I wished they'd show: the 3 seconds after the filming where the car crashes...

BTW, I understand that car companies are trying to sell you on performance... Problem is that most drivers barely have the skills to just drive around town...

BTW, Part 2, I am a former race car driver... Yup, ol hillbilly used to race in the mini-stock division but quit when me son was born 'cause got tired of hearing his mother's "chin music"...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 09:10 AM

What's "chin music"?

And, as Gnu says, drifting cars through corners is the quickest way to Kwik-Fit...or the wall if you try it at Indy.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Greg F.
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 09:40 AM

AAutomobile adverts have encouraged people to drive like assholes for as long as I can remember- and that's over 6 decades. Nothing new here.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 09:41 AM

Chin music = nagging...

And, yeah, the last thing anyone wants is for the rear end to out race the front end... That's why everyone in my division did everything they could to de-camber the right rear wheels...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 11:21 AM

Here in the UK the Advertising Standards Authority dictates that car ads shall not place excessive emphasis on speed.

Incidentally, I don't understand the delight in drifting - it is NOT the fastest way through a corner. Although a bit of oppo here and there can be fun.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 12:41 PM

The concept and use of drifting was around long before most of us were born. The sport came to prominence in Japan and has garnered some serious followers. Its not speed alone or setting up the drift or passing but a combination of all with added difficulty and style points.

Personally, I think they should try Sprinters and Midgets on dirt. That's real racing.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bert
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 12:50 PM

Re: chin music

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Nancy King
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 01:48 PM

Bobert, I've wondered for years why so many car manufacturers have thought skidding -- or "drifting" -- was a good thing to show in ads. Personally, it's the LAST thing I want my car to do.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Ed T
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 02:50 PM

Is irt skid, or slide?

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 02:56 PM

Technically its a power slide and all the cars use a limited slip differential for far better control.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: gnu
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 03:08 PM

Skid, slide, drift, slew... it's just stunned.

Now, I used to park* my bug by crankin the handbrake and wheel and depressing the clutch pedal, letting the handbrake go and returning the wheel to centre while shifting into reverse, then popping the clutch at higher revs such that I backed up directly into a parking spot or driveway. Good fun. Especially with someone new in the car.

*On snow/ice.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 03:27 PM

I suppose it's better than cars perched on tiny islands of stone in the Grand Canyon.... at least drifting is POSSIBLE.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: gnu
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 03:38 PM

Bill... hahahahaa! And the Ford pickup climbing a hill of concrete blocks... and the GMC pulling...

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 06:04 PM

I once recited to a friend of mine a poem by Ivor Winters that begins

Evening traffic homeward burns
Swift and even on the turns,
Drifting weight in triple rows,
Fixed relation and repose....

Because he was a race-car fan, this called up for him a bizarre image of all the cars on a freeway going around the curves in a controlled skid. Poets beware!

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: RichM
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 11:47 AM

I live on a fairly busy suburban connector road that channels the local auto population to the 4 lane major road half a block from my home.
I've lived there for some 30 years but this week an out-of-control driver did something that sends a chill up my back.

It happened sometime during the night last Wednesday,though we didn't hear a sound -- Our bedroom is at the back of the house.

Next afternoon, when my Sue of the Golden Voice drove out to do some shopping, she saw tire tracks across our front lawn, ending up against the neighbour's mature lilac tree, which was almost uprooted.

Closer inspection revealed that someone drove at high speed presumably, in a turn from the T-intersection directly opposite our neighbour--then missed the big spruce tree on our front lawn, continuing across our driveway and stopping at the lilac tree.

I presume the driver simply took off because he/she was driving under the influence of some substance. If I had left our NEW car out in the driveway instead of in the garage, it would have been t-boned.

Or the driver could have come through our picture window and ended up right where I have my favorite guitar on a stand next to the computer I am typing this message on...

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 12:36 PM

Bobert, you must remember who those ads are aimed at. They are mostly crafted to suit the mindset of young men (or older men who have never grown up...of which there are many). Why are the ads aimed at that group? Well, there's always a new generation of young men coming along, and the world of commerce wants to get them heavily addicted to all forms of consumerism and impulse spending as soon as possible so that it becomes a lifelong habit and they continue buying as much stuff as they can possibly fit in their house, storage building, garage, driveway, AND additional rented storage units...until the day they die!

Now, what do immature young men like? (besides girls and intoxication, I mean...) They like ACTION! They like loud noises, speed, things getting blowed up real good, things crashing into other things, graphic violence, over-the-top extremes of just about everything. It's like the old famous last words uttered by young men since antiquity to audiences of other young men: "Watch this!"

Yup, ACTION. NOISE. DANGER. RISK. RECKLESS DISREGARD FOR SAFETY. That's what silly young men crave. They seek to prove themselves through witless and hazardous rites of passage, It's been that way forever. And the advertising industry panders to their moronic cravings by showing cars skidding and screeching their tires.

You gotta wonder about these idiots, eh, Bobert? These perpetual teenage goofs! The fact is, some of them NEVER grow up. They go right on into their 60s or 70s still watching NASCAR, opening bottles with their teeth, farting and belching ostentatiously at every opportunity, taking pride in their special brand of personal B.O., reading crap like Cheech Wizard, buying another Uzi, owning a couple of Weimaraners...... (grin)

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 01:11 PM

What I notice about car ads is the number plates (US= License plates).
Cars shown on the road usually have a number plate made up of numbers and letters which can be read in a mirror. e.g. the only numbers used are 0,1 & 8. For the letters there is a greater choice.
This means that scenic shots of cars driving along coastroads taken in countries with right hand drive can be 'flipped' for use in countries with left hand drive. The driver will still appear to be on the correct side of the road, and on the correct side of the car, and the number plate will still be legible.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 02:16 PM

You got it right, LH... Here in Charlotte there are no days where NASCAR isn't in the news... I remember my racing days and there weren't so many danged divisions... Now it's all but 24/7 and it keeps a certain segment of the male population in a constant state of agitation and competition and so they are constantly racing each other...

It's so bad that we've had cops do it with other drivers... One cop was in his unmarked car a couple months ago and observed and videoed rat racing with another driver on the interstate... So the cop puts his blues lights on an pulls the guy he was racing and when the guy stopped the cop sped off... The guy doing the videoing stayed with the entire event and then followed the cop off the next exit ramp and to the street where the cop lived... All of this was videoed and turned over to the local new station...

The cop got suspended...

But it points out just how bad it is here...

Back in DC the traffic is bad but you just never had the level of whako-ness as is the norm here NASCAR-land...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: gnu
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 02:30 PM

Nigel... glad I got up this morning! I learned something new.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with skidding cars??? Car ads...
From: Gurney
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 10:12 PM

Where I grew up, you could drive a motorbike for a year before you could a car. My Dad insisted that I drove an outfit, a motorbike and sidecar. (Or else live elsewhere!)
There isn't a better way to learn powersliding than driving an outfit, because it is the normal way of getting around corners, particularly when there's no-one in the sidecar. You have to break the back wheel away just to keep up with the normal traffic.
Wonder if I could still do it? I haven't even owned a rear-drive car for 45 years which had the power to play with.