Brian O'Neill treats *any* counter-argument as an attack. His entire
public persona is defensive.
That said, relying on a 29-year-old study to say "race drivers are bad
street drivers" is a little like using a 1973-spec automobile (say, a Chevy
Malibu) as a surrogate for a 2002-spec automobile (say, a Chevy Malibu) in
a crash test.
The IIHS is funded by us, via our insurance premiums. The charter for the
IIHS is dictated to it by insurance companies, who, as Matt stated, are in
it for the money. They want our premium dollars and loathe having to
fulfill their contracts by paying claims. Thus, they want vehicles that
will minimize their claims payouts (passive safety, preventing occupant
injuries in a collision). At the same time, they want to maximize their
income from premiums, thus the emphasis on aggressive speed limit
enforcement, since license points translate to premium surcharges.
One company, GEICO (that's Government Employees Insurance COmpany), has
gone so far as to purchase a stake in LTI -- Laser Technologies, Inc. --
makers of the LTI 20/20 and LTI Marksman LIDAR guns -- when LTI was on the
verge of bankruptcy. GEICO then provided LTI LIDAR guns to police agencies
in states with high percentages of GEICO customers, free of charge, with
the sole condition being that they be used to write speeding tickets. As
recently as 7 or 8 years ago (they may still -- I don't have information on
this), GEICO would send new customers a questionaire asking if they were
members of SCCA, NHRA, IHRA, NASCAR, USAC, IMSA, AMA, "or any other car
club", and whether they had performed any number of '50s hot-rodder
modifications to their car ("3/4 race cam" "cheater slicks" "open
headers"). They also asked if you owned a radar detector. Answering "yes"
to any of these was grounds for either huge surcharges (as, if I recall
correctly, a "habitual speeder") or outright cancellation.
I maintain, and will continue to maintain, that autocross driving as a
teaching tool for new drivers will improve their skills at collision
avoidance on the street. Part of the disipline of autocross driving is
knowing when you have to go slow -- when going fast causes more problems
than benefits -- and that mental disipline certainly applies to street
driving. Further, by knowing the behavior of the car under extreme
conditions, the driver now has far more options available to him/her than
just standing on that big pedal in the middle.
Jim Crider
autojim@att.net
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