*Note I copied this from a post I made on a local car board. I realize there are real Australians and Europeans here. If you have any comments or want to elaborate on things I may have got wrong, feel free. Thanks.
I just got back from a month of backpacking through east-coast Australia. I wanted to share some of my more interesting stories. I will keep this to automotive matters to keep it small, but it looks like it will still be humongous.
OK let's start with the fun stuff first.
Rally
I've wanted to go to a driving school like the porsche one or something for a few years now. Since rally is the coolest style of racing, I tried to find a course I could take in Australia. I found a half day school for ~$300US. A week before the class I saw a WRC clip of a guy running over a kangaroo going like 70K during the Perth rally. I was pretty pumped to go to Australia and get to drive a rally car!
After a short classroom instruction on AWD, RWD, oversteer, understeer etc. we were ready to get going. There were 2 courses: an AWD course and a RWD course. Everyone got to do each course frontwards and backwards, ~6 laps each (total about 25 laps.) There was one RWD car (80s Toyota, not sure of model) and two AWD cars (a WRX and something that I don't remeber :<.) I was a little uneasy about left hand shifting, but we kept it in 2nd gear for the most part, so that was no big deal. The courses were dirt with many ruts and rocks and fun things. There was also a huge wall to crash into (no one crashed our day, but they said its pretty common.)
The instructors told us how to apex, throttle control, brake, etc etc. We kept the car full throttle or full brake most of the time. No heel-toe or anything fancy, just working on technique and control. The main focus of rally is to lose all traction and just keep the car in one continuous,guided drift. Pretty strange when your used to staying in control.I'm used to my supra so the RWD was no problem. Just control the oversteer and keep the nose pointed in the right direction. The AWD had a completely different feel,but I eventually got the hang of it.
I also got to ride a hotlap through a much longer track throug the woods (bush). This was scary as crap because I had zero control over the situation. He skidded sideways by trees, caught air, and tried to make the American poop his pants. Anyway enough chatter, here's some pictures.
It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, One of the first things I saw when we showed up was a water truck, this was for definitely for real.
The cars
Getting ready to go.
The AWD course was on the right and RWD on the left. My buddy was kind of far away so there's no really good shots of the tracks, but you get the idea.
Here's some shots of me on the RWD course, check out the awesome oversteer action. I'm so glad I'm used to the supra or I'd be off in a ditch or wall.
Okay that's enough of me driving around in the dirt. Someone told me that with my $300 I could have bought a beater and drove around in the woods on my own. Sure but I wouldn't have gotten to ride a hotlap with a ARC driver and have him come within 5 feet of hitting the crowd.
Now on to other matters of interest.
Cars
The first thing anyone would notice outside of America is that everything is small compared to what we are used to. I saw 1 80s Corvette, 2 restored 60s Mustangs and thats about it for American V8s. No big SUVs or trucks anywhere. Also most people don't drive around brand new $30K cars and gas-guzzlers. There's tons of older cars in great shape. I saw all kinds of 80s cars that looked like they could have been made in the last 5 years
The kinds of cars were also completely different.Replace all the following cars.
trucks->Hiluxs,station wagons
suvs->UTEs
camaros/fbodies->Skylines, Silvias
mustangs->Subarus
ricers->well kept up older japanese cars, MR2s, celicas (pronounced Sahleeka), integras,
UTEs (utilities) are pretty much the coolest thing I saw.If I could import any grey-market car this would be it. They sit low like a car but have a bed, like a modern El Camino. They look really racy (the fronts of the Ford Falcons look almost like a Mustang.) For more info or pictures google Ford or Holden (GM) ute. They come with turbo and non-turbo 6 cylinders, or v8s.
Hiluxs are any brand of Toyota truck. From the early 4runners to the newest Tacoma, they are all Hiluxs. These are the largest non-work vehicles you will see. Actually there are more work utes and work station wagons than trucks and vans.
Skylines (I didn't see any GTRs) and Silvias are legal in Australia, and they are in full force. I'd see one every 10 minutes. I'm not a big Nissan fanboy, but it was still neat. I also saw like 5000 MkIV supras and a boatload of 3rd gen RX-7s (this could be the difference between living in Alabama versus living in California though.)
As mentioned, I saw very few ricers. Modifying ("hotting up") your car is definitely common. Almost every import was modded as far as I could tell. The utes and other cars were often modified as well. The Hondas there are used for economy cars (I saw no modded civics), they mod the Toyotas and Nissans. There were no primered body kits or big wings anywhere. The riciest thing I saw was people with their front bumpers removed to show off their huge ICs. I believe this is the way it should be
Which moves us on to turbos. It seemed like everything was turbocharged, or came with the option. Every minute or two I would hear someone blow off as they drove by. I guess like the Europeans, the Australian's crave efficiency. The youth and racing culture takes full advantage. Aftermarket ICs and BOVs were abundant. I don't think anyone bothers with screwing around with NA power.
I'm not a bike person but I got a good feel for them too. Not everyone rolls GSXRs and Busas, there's tons of makes and models. Like cars there are lots of older well kept up ones too. Saw many older Ducatis, BMWs, etc. and even a couple Harleys. I saw one of the opposed 2 cylinder BMWs too (don't remeber what they are called.)
If I took pictures of all the cars I saw I never would have left the camera, so I only got a few.
The last day I realized I never got a picture of a UTE. Probaly not the best example, but you get the idea.
A Mistubishi Supra? No its an FTO (note: Mitsubishis are only called 3000GTs in the US, they are the GTO back in Japan. 3000GT is just the engine size and class, supras and 300zxs are also 3000GTs)
Hiluxs are so cool. The 4runners all seemed to have snorkels, I don't know if it was a dealer option or if everyone mods their vehicle.
Some of them were diesels but it was cool to see that some of them came with turbochargers too (turbo 22r?).
Skylines were everywhere, I got sick of seeing them so I only took 1 pic.
100 series BMW.
Driving
They do drive on the left side of the road. This is quite scary, especially when trying to cross the street or when you think your driver is going to hit head-on traffic. In Melbourne they have a law that if you want to turn right (left for us) downtown you have to get in the leftmost (rightmost for us) lane and wait. So when you turn, you have to cross like 5 lanes. Ridiculous.
I think we saw like 5 cops the entire time. They rely on speed cameras and red-light cameras for ticketing. People don't mess around with the limits, if it says 110 you go 110. I didn't see any street-racing or speeders at all (this could be because I wasn't in the right place however), people pretty much obey the law.
RBTs
The drink driving limit is .05%. They don't wait for a car to be weaving or driving erradictly to pull it over. They have Random Breathalizer Tests (RBTs.) We got to experience one of these firsthand. Basically a few officers will be on the side of the road, when you drive by they will point to you and you pull over. You get breathalized, if you pass you go home and they point to the next car driving by. If you fail you lose your license. No arguing involved.
Ps
Their driver's licenses work on a graduated system. At certain ages you get your provisional license (Ps.) I don't remember the specifics but if you are on a provisional license you have to have a metal "P" plate showing on your car. There are green, red, and black Ps I believe. Each of these limits you to certain things. IE on a certain P you have a max speed of like 80k or something. So if your driving down the interstate at 110K, there will be someone going at 80K because its the law. The Ps also restrict alcohol limits and other things.
Various Notes
-A lot of intersections are replaced with rotaries.
-The interstates have many signs warning people not to fall asleep, and have free coffee and donut stops.
-Car ownership is very common, but the public transport systems are great. Buses, Trains, etc. go around and in between most of the cities.
-It cost us $75AD($60 US) to fill up our commodore, our friend mentioned that it costs here over $100AD ($75US) to fill up her car (car, not gas guzzling SUV). Petrol was like $1.10/L I believe, we calculated that to be like 3.50/Gal US.
I just got back from a month of backpacking through east-coast Australia. I wanted to share some of my more interesting stories. I will keep this to automotive matters to keep it small, but it looks like it will still be humongous.
OK let's start with the fun stuff first.
Rally
I've wanted to go to a driving school like the porsche one or something for a few years now. Since rally is the coolest style of racing, I tried to find a course I could take in Australia. I found a half day school for ~$300US. A week before the class I saw a WRC clip of a guy running over a kangaroo going like 70K during the Perth rally. I was pretty pumped to go to Australia and get to drive a rally car!
After a short classroom instruction on AWD, RWD, oversteer, understeer etc. we were ready to get going. There were 2 courses: an AWD course and a RWD course. Everyone got to do each course frontwards and backwards, ~6 laps each (total about 25 laps.) There was one RWD car (80s Toyota, not sure of model) and two AWD cars (a WRX and something that I don't remeber :<.) I was a little uneasy about left hand shifting, but we kept it in 2nd gear for the most part, so that was no big deal. The courses were dirt with many ruts and rocks and fun things. There was also a huge wall to crash into (no one crashed our day, but they said its pretty common.)
The instructors told us how to apex, throttle control, brake, etc etc. We kept the car full throttle or full brake most of the time. No heel-toe or anything fancy, just working on technique and control. The main focus of rally is to lose all traction and just keep the car in one continuous,guided drift. Pretty strange when your used to staying in control.I'm used to my supra so the RWD was no problem. Just control the oversteer and keep the nose pointed in the right direction. The AWD had a completely different feel,but I eventually got the hang of it.
I also got to ride a hotlap through a much longer track throug the woods (bush). This was scary as crap because I had zero control over the situation. He skidded sideways by trees, caught air, and tried to make the American poop his pants. Anyway enough chatter, here's some pictures.
It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, One of the first things I saw when we showed up was a water truck, this was for definitely for real.
The cars
Getting ready to go.
The AWD course was on the right and RWD on the left. My buddy was kind of far away so there's no really good shots of the tracks, but you get the idea.
Here's some shots of me on the RWD course, check out the awesome oversteer action. I'm so glad I'm used to the supra or I'd be off in a ditch or wall.
Okay that's enough of me driving around in the dirt. Someone told me that with my $300 I could have bought a beater and drove around in the woods on my own. Sure but I wouldn't have gotten to ride a hotlap with a ARC driver and have him come within 5 feet of hitting the crowd.
Now on to other matters of interest.
Cars
The first thing anyone would notice outside of America is that everything is small compared to what we are used to. I saw 1 80s Corvette, 2 restored 60s Mustangs and thats about it for American V8s. No big SUVs or trucks anywhere. Also most people don't drive around brand new $30K cars and gas-guzzlers. There's tons of older cars in great shape. I saw all kinds of 80s cars that looked like they could have been made in the last 5 years
The kinds of cars were also completely different.Replace all the following cars.
trucks->Hiluxs,station wagons
suvs->UTEs
camaros/fbodies->Skylines, Silvias
mustangs->Subarus
ricers->well kept up older japanese cars, MR2s, celicas (pronounced Sahleeka), integras,
UTEs (utilities) are pretty much the coolest thing I saw.If I could import any grey-market car this would be it. They sit low like a car but have a bed, like a modern El Camino. They look really racy (the fronts of the Ford Falcons look almost like a Mustang.) For more info or pictures google Ford or Holden (GM) ute. They come with turbo and non-turbo 6 cylinders, or v8s.
Hiluxs are any brand of Toyota truck. From the early 4runners to the newest Tacoma, they are all Hiluxs. These are the largest non-work vehicles you will see. Actually there are more work utes and work station wagons than trucks and vans.
Skylines (I didn't see any GTRs) and Silvias are legal in Australia, and they are in full force. I'd see one every 10 minutes. I'm not a big Nissan fanboy, but it was still neat. I also saw like 5000 MkIV supras and a boatload of 3rd gen RX-7s (this could be the difference between living in Alabama versus living in California though.)
As mentioned, I saw very few ricers. Modifying ("hotting up") your car is definitely common. Almost every import was modded as far as I could tell. The utes and other cars were often modified as well. The Hondas there are used for economy cars (I saw no modded civics), they mod the Toyotas and Nissans. There were no primered body kits or big wings anywhere. The riciest thing I saw was people with their front bumpers removed to show off their huge ICs. I believe this is the way it should be
Which moves us on to turbos. It seemed like everything was turbocharged, or came with the option. Every minute or two I would hear someone blow off as they drove by. I guess like the Europeans, the Australian's crave efficiency. The youth and racing culture takes full advantage. Aftermarket ICs and BOVs were abundant. I don't think anyone bothers with screwing around with NA power.
I'm not a bike person but I got a good feel for them too. Not everyone rolls GSXRs and Busas, there's tons of makes and models. Like cars there are lots of older well kept up ones too. Saw many older Ducatis, BMWs, etc. and even a couple Harleys. I saw one of the opposed 2 cylinder BMWs too (don't remeber what they are called.)
If I took pictures of all the cars I saw I never would have left the camera, so I only got a few.
The last day I realized I never got a picture of a UTE. Probaly not the best example, but you get the idea.
A Mistubishi Supra? No its an FTO (note: Mitsubishis are only called 3000GTs in the US, they are the GTO back in Japan. 3000GT is just the engine size and class, supras and 300zxs are also 3000GTs)
Hiluxs are so cool. The 4runners all seemed to have snorkels, I don't know if it was a dealer option or if everyone mods their vehicle.
Some of them were diesels but it was cool to see that some of them came with turbochargers too (turbo 22r?).
Skylines were everywhere, I got sick of seeing them so I only took 1 pic.
100 series BMW.
Driving
They do drive on the left side of the road. This is quite scary, especially when trying to cross the street or when you think your driver is going to hit head-on traffic. In Melbourne they have a law that if you want to turn right (left for us) downtown you have to get in the leftmost (rightmost for us) lane and wait. So when you turn, you have to cross like 5 lanes. Ridiculous.
I think we saw like 5 cops the entire time. They rely on speed cameras and red-light cameras for ticketing. People don't mess around with the limits, if it says 110 you go 110. I didn't see any street-racing or speeders at all (this could be because I wasn't in the right place however), people pretty much obey the law.
RBTs
The drink driving limit is .05%. They don't wait for a car to be weaving or driving erradictly to pull it over. They have Random Breathalizer Tests (RBTs.) We got to experience one of these firsthand. Basically a few officers will be on the side of the road, when you drive by they will point to you and you pull over. You get breathalized, if you pass you go home and they point to the next car driving by. If you fail you lose your license. No arguing involved.
Ps
Their driver's licenses work on a graduated system. At certain ages you get your provisional license (Ps.) I don't remember the specifics but if you are on a provisional license you have to have a metal "P" plate showing on your car. There are green, red, and black Ps I believe. Each of these limits you to certain things. IE on a certain P you have a max speed of like 80k or something. So if your driving down the interstate at 110K, there will be someone going at 80K because its the law. The Ps also restrict alcohol limits and other things.
Various Notes
-A lot of intersections are replaced with rotaries.
-The interstates have many signs warning people not to fall asleep, and have free coffee and donut stops.
-Car ownership is very common, but the public transport systems are great. Buses, Trains, etc. go around and in between most of the cities.
-It cost us $75AD($60 US) to fill up our commodore, our friend mentioned that it costs here over $100AD ($75US) to fill up her car (car, not gas guzzling SUV). Petrol was like $1.10/L I believe, we calculated that to be like 3.50/Gal US.
