NoisyIsNotFaster

Dear 4GTuner members,

First off, let me say that I understand your need for speed, I know the thrill that speed and noise can create. I also understand why racing at night might appeal to some people, and some will even argue that it's safer racing at night due to less traffic on the road. My message is to those people who are racing at night on our touristic routes in the Brisbane area.

Please understand that people do live on these touristic routes and in those rural properties, they work just like most of you, they get up at 05:00am and go to work every day, and when they get home they are tired and just want to relax and enjoy the peaceful environment that is the national park. A thing that these people do not enjoy, is getting woken up at night because of the excessive noise that some racers generate when they drive on the roads.

Not only are these people a danger to themselves (which is their own business) but they are a danger to others on the road. My wife had a very close call with a racer one night who almost collided with her as she drove home in one of the corners on Mt Nebo Road that has the dividing barriers. The racer decided to overtake his "mate" who was driving on the correct side of the road. Overtaking in the wrong lane of a barrier-divided corner is one of the silliest things that a driver could ever do on mountain roads. Had my wife not driven slowly as she usually does (45), she would have had a collision with this racer. Had this driver been a good driver he would have noticed her headlights reflecting on the railing which means oncoming traffic. We have pictures of this car as well as number plates from the security camera recordings of our home.

Aside the dangerous driving is the excessive noise that these cars generate. Having done plenty of tuning myself, I can tell a fast car from a slow one, and an emptied out muffler (or sawn off muffler) do not make your car any faster. If anything, it will make it more expensive to run, and in some cases even less powerful. Noone enjoys a loud car except the attention-seeker who drives it.

Yesterday night there was a car that sounded like a trumpet (the 1600CC kind), he wasn't fast, just loud, and lonely too. The only "tuning" this pov could afford was sawing off the muffler of his car, which did 0.0 in regards to performance. It did get him noticed though, by residents and police alike. This noise woke up everyone on our street, and as a result we are now grumpy: Thanks to trumpet-car, we are now grumpy; grumpy hillbillies who own and operate chainsaws for fun and drive big rusty 4x4's that can easily block off your escape route, which is not that hard on a 19km straight road without exits or ways out: All that's needed is me calling my hillbilly friend up the road and we pince you in from either side. We also know the area and if required can drive these mountain roads faster in our 3 tonne Ford than you can in your Scooby Doo.

So here's the deal : Want to race on touristic roads ? If you do it safely, and don't do silly things, we won't stop you. If you want to drive silly, spend a day at the race track for a race day. Don't saw off mufflers and don't cut out muffler parts, and don't use excessively loud pipes that don't do anything performance wise except get your car noted and make the local hillbillies angry. Basically, don't turn your car into a 110 decibel hillbilly-magnet. This way the hillbillies can get undisturbed sleep and you can continue driving over our wonderful and fun roads.

The second message is : Don't ruin the experience for your fellow drivers ! If you know someone who owns a loud car, tell them to put back some sense on their car and muffle them. If they want to performance-tune their car, there are plenty of other ways to get performance from your car than to mess with the exhaust. Hillbillies have no issues with racers that drive safely and quietly.

This way, we can all live together, quiet racers can still race at night over the beautiful roads and the hillbillies will stay in their beds. Please pass this message on to your fellow drivers and racers on other forums and facebook, so this message gets heard.

Respect,
A Hill Billy from Mt Nebo