Re: alfa-digest V9 #617

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

While I find Jorge's solution damn near unassailable from an emotional 
standpoint, it's really not quite that simple. Unfortunately, the 
skills that most American drivers lack won't be learned by the sink or 
swim method of being thrown, for two weeks, into the melee of Italian 
driving. Most Americans are SCARED of their cars. They don't know the 
physics of driving (or if they do, they don't apply them WHILE 
driving), they don't know where the limits of the car are. They 
'believe' firmly and with the conviction of a baptist minister that 
"speed kills" and that if they take a corner at anything above a 
walking pace, the car
will literally fly off the road into space. They head for a ditch in 
the first snowfall of the year (with all wheels locked solid), here in 
CA, they collide with abandon after the first rainstorm of the season. 
In short, they don't know the first thing about driving. We need to 
dispel our collective fear of the automobile before we can become a 
nation of better drivers, and with our traffic laws being more 
concerned with revenue enhancement than safety, and the general 'speed 
kills' mentality of the official side of motor transportation, I don't 
see how we're going to be able to do that.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0S



On Friday, July 4, 2003, at 10:02 AM, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 09:14:07 -0700
> From: Jorge Mazlumian <jmazlumian@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: ... and Driving in Italia
>
> Andrew and George are dead on about how Italians drive.
> About attending a driving school by "Derek Daily or Bob Bondurant or 
> some
> such venue", as George suggests, I disagree.  You could spend the same
> amount of money flying to and spending a week in Italy, renting an 
> Alfa and
> driving your brains out.  You can even go to the Museo in Arese (for 
> free).
> By the end of the week, you would drive like the Italians, especially 
> if you
> get your daily dose of pasta, prosciutto, parmiggiano, Chianti and 
> espresso.
> (I am NOT trying to oversimplify the italian gastronomic culture here, 
> this
> is just not the place to expand).
> Money better spent.
> (I wouldn't post this at alfaracing@egroupsdot com)
>
> Jorge Mazlumian
> 2 alfas
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