Another moment of silence

#11

"dwight" <tfrog93 (AT) gEEmail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

Several things trouble me about this story.

"Boynton Beach -- Stephen V. wasn't going to drive away like a punk,
friends said. So he accepted the challenge to race the silver Ford Mustang
that had beat his Dodge Neon SRT-4 before. V., 18, thought he would win
this time. He knew how to speed up his car, recently modified with a
wastegate and blow-off valve. He'd gotten up to 145 mph in the car.

"But shortly after hitting a curb about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday west of West
Palm Beach, V. spun out of control, knocked over a bus stop sign, hit a
gate and flipped several times, the Florida Highway Patrol said. V., of
Boynton Beach, didn't like seat belts, friends said.

"'He doesn't like being tied down,' said his girlfriend, Marybeth.

"V. was ejected from the car and died in a vacant lot near Forest Hill
Boulevard west of Anderson Lane, the FHP said." (Jerome Burdi, South
Florida Sun-Sentinel)

1) A Mustang racing a Neon. And please don't tell me, well, it was an
SRT-4. It's still rather like picking on your younger brother.

2) The Neon exceeded the operator's ability to control the vehicle. Did he
really have it up to 145mph at any point previously, or was that just
boasting?

most cars are speed limited these days by the computer, they lean out the
engine.
About 110 is top for most now, I had an older 5.0 ex cop car up to 140 but
it takes too much smooth highway with NO traffic to do it, they do not see
you coming at all, was 1 AM.
The cars are not designed to do above 110 anyway.

Quote:

3) Seat belt. How the hell can anyone consider themselves to be a "driver"
and NOT strap in? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

If he was doing above 110 and rolled it good luck even with seat belt on.

Quote:

When I drive, the vehicle doesn't move until all occupants click in.

dwight
www.tfrog93.com

#12

Jim Warman wrote:

Quote:

I feel no pity, little sympathy and can only scratch my head in wonder why
we should have a moment of silence for an idiot.

I'm going to have to agree with you there. It's a
darn shame when a young man person dies. But he made
those bad choices and there he is. Not just one bad
decision, but many all at once. And a history of them,
too.

His general attitude seemed to have been, "Screw
you, me first, I'm more important". Well, life is
tough, and it's even tougher when you're stupid. At
least it happened before he had a chance to breed.

Darwin's Theory in action.

Are you cold hearted? Am I? Yeah, I think we are.

--
..boB
2006 FXDI hot rod
2001 Dodge Dakota QC 5.9/4x4/3.92
1966 Mustang Coupe - Daily Driver
1965 FFR Cobra - 427W EFI, Damn Fast.

#13

"Jim Warman" <mechanic (AT) telusplanet (DOT) net> wrote

Quote:

He didn't die from being untethered.... he died because he was racing.....
Jeezussss... Is this so fucking hard to realize?

If he hadn't been racing, he wouldn't have been in his "situation".

Life is full of choices... we have the option of making the right choice
or the wrong choice....

I feel no pity, little sympathy and can only scratch my head in wonder why
we should have a moment of silence for an idiot.

In this case, the moment of silence - the absolute moment - is that singular
moment when the tire hit the curb and he realized, "This is going to hurt."

I'm not about to preach the anti-racing stance, since I engage in plenty of
mini-competitions every day. While I don't go out on a weekend night to a
staging area and run head-to-head with Neons, I do understand the need. I
didn't buy Mustangs so I could obey the posted speed limits and, yes, I've
done plenty of stupid things behind the wheel over the past 30 years.

Perhaps the subject line was misleading - I wasn't looking for either
sympathy or respect for this young man, merely passing along yet another
story of (as you would say) bad choices. A young kid (and they get younger
every year) who was too stupid or too full of testosterone to think
straight.

But the bottom line was the bit about the seat belt.

Some idiots try to defend their refusal to wear them in terms ranging from
personal comfort to personal freedoms, but on any level of any discussion
seat belts make sense. And, yes, a seat belt may have made all the
difference that night.

dwight

#14

dwight wrote:

Quote:

"WindsorFox" <windsorfoxNO (AT) SPAMcox (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:fZKYh.218413$Pi4.168823 (AT) newsfe14 (DOT) lga...
dwight wrote:
Several things trouble me about this story.

"Boynton Beach -- Stephen V. wasn't going to drive away like a punk,
friends said. So he accepted the challenge to race the silver Ford
Mustang that had beat his Dodge Neon SRT-4 before. V., 18, thought he
would win this time. He knew how to speed up his car, recently modified
with a wastegate and blow-off valve. He'd gotten up to 145 mph in the
car.

"But shortly after hitting a curb about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday west of West
Palm Beach, V. spun out of control, knocked over a bus stop sign, hit a
gate and flipped several times, the Florida Highway Patrol said. V., of
Boynton Beach, didn't like seat belts, friends said.

"'He doesn't like being tied down,' said his girlfriend, Marybeth.

"V. was ejected from the car and died in a vacant lot near Forest Hill
Boulevard west of Anderson Lane, the FHP said." (Jerome Burdi, South
Florida Sun-Sentinel)

1) A Mustang racing a Neon. And please don't tell me, well, it was an
SRT-4. It's still rather like picking on your younger brother.

2) The Neon exceeded the operator's ability to control the vehicle. Did
he really have it up to 145mph at any point previously, or was that just
boasting?

3) Seat belt. How the hell can anyone consider themselves to be a
"driver" and NOT strap in? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

When I drive, the vehicle doesn't move until all occupants click in.

Yep, and many of them look at you like you're an old fool when you tell
them that too. One good thing about that story is that at least he didn't
take any bystanders or passengers with him.

dwight
www.tfrog93.com

Are you TRYING to give the rest of us web envy?
It's working....

Hey. It's what I do. I work on my company's website, then I come home and
work on mine. And, if it makes you feel better, I just took out a contract
with a web host for 5 gigabytes of room, since I outgrew the 26MB per screen
name that Comcast allows. So now I've got all THAT space to fill up.

dwight

Heh, and see my hook up and "hosting" are free. And I can have as
much space to fill up as I can afford to purchase from Newegg. I just
don't have the talent for doing it.

--
"Yes, it is a good thing you are handy, as
you clearly suck at being smart." - Herb

#15

<snippage>

dwight wrote:

Quote:

Several things trouble me about this story.

3) Seat belt. How the hell can anyone consider themselves to be a
"driver" and NOT strap in? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

When I drive, the vehicle doesn't move until all occupants click in.

Amen to that. I have actually left a few behind because they felt it was
okay to argue and question my, as the driver, authority to tell them what to
do. The worst one, for me, was when a boy my daughter liked gave me lip and
I put him out at the curb. My daughter gave me major crap for that one. ;-)

She got over it.

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Another moment of silence

Ford Mustang Discussions About Ford Mustangs in all their flavours (rec.autos.makers.ford.mustang)

Re: Another moment of silence - 04-28-2007 , 11:26 PM

Re: Another moment of silence - 04-29-2007 , 12:41 AM

Re: Another moment of silence - 04-29-2007 , 09:45 AM

Re: Another moment of silence - 04-29-2007 , 01:06 PM

Re: Another moment of silence - 04-29-2007 , 08:28 PM