Ban on "boy racer" cars

ciarsd · 02-12-2005 12:44pm

Mr Callely has been a naughty boy and is in trouble at min.

Allegidly offered a brand new car as a gift to his personal political advisor to entice him to stay working with him - needless to say this car would've been sourced using tax payers money.

EDIT: Link

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1514847&issue_id=13333
&
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=39&si=1518963&issue_id=13361

elexes · 02-12-2005 3:33pm

wonder what car was it and did it have tinted windows

ambro25 · 02-12-2005 5:41pm

iregk wrote:

The ultimate boy racer accessory...

ROFL - Pearler that!

Victor · 04-12-2005 4:33am

What is the basis for this change? Is there a new NCT manual, regulations?

Seth Brundle · 06-12-2005 10:14am

Victor wrote:

What is the basis for this change?

I believe it is because Ivor Callely wants to appear in the headlines. This really is symptomatic of him. However, as I said before, he currently has other things on his mind and will soon be shafted by his department staff so wont be much of a worry.
Hopefully Martin Cullen is next!

Victor wrote:

Is there a new NCT manual, regulations?

Im not aware of one. Nor am I aware of any firm legislation on these issues at the moment and to be honest, find it hard to accept that it can be put through without leaving so many loopholes.
Im all in favour of removing unroadworthy cars but making deliberate attempts to target car modifiers and assuming they are all unroadworthy is pointless.

BrianD · 06-12-2005 12:04pm

All these protests and actions are premature. The media have misinterpreted the comments of the minister as a ban on boy racers. As far as I am aware there are no regulations on tinting of car windows as in other countries. This will probably be introduced. Same with noise levels on exhausts. This doesn't mean that you will no longer be able to mod or personalise your cars.

Again, Callely is going with conventional wisdom and looking at the small things of the NCT that people whinge about e.g. place name on number plates etc. None of these should be changed. If you haven't got standard number plates going into a NCT then that's your own stupid fault.

ciarsd · 07-12-2005 4:04pm

ciarsd wrote:

Mr Callely has been a naughty boy and is in trouble at min.

Allegidly offered a brand new car as a gift to his personal political advisor to entice him to stay working with him - needless to say this car would've been sourced using tax payers money.

EDIT: Link

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1514847&issue_id=13333
&
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=39&si=1518963&issue_id=13361

and once again, the rogue politician is back in the news.. Bertie was on the radio at lunch looking for Callely - he aint returning calls..
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1207/callelyi.html

small pic of Callelys house (look at the punto outside

)

NeonTripper · 11-12-2005 11:43pm

The new law has to be the must ridiculous thing ever, I thought the smoking ban was dumb but ok, they had all the health reasons etc which we can understand, but what have they got against someone that takes pride in their car? So some of rather spend a few bob doin up our cars to the way we like them, would they rather we spent it on cig's an booze so we can line their pockets with the tax? It's not like we're all fittin NOS and racin each other up an down the m50! (it's not long enough

) Serio, I know alot of people agree that some exhauts are too loud but so what, it's not you thats drivin it, you only hear it for a second, they have to sit in it!

We all like things to be the way we want them, from our gaff's to our phones. So why not our cars? Loads of people are organising petitions, rallys etc so if ya feel strongly about it, do something about it before it's too late, and once again we all give out about a law that we could have stopped from coming into effect. What's next? A ban on christmas cos people are spending too much on decorations? Check out the petition on www.fastlane.sc/petition.asp and get signing!

Bettyboop · 11-12-2005 11:50pm

I seen an article in a paper (cant remember which one)
that the lads in their modified cars met up in the Phoneix park
and were told that this new law was not going to happen.
Will Google for the info and will post it up.
A.S.A.P.

NeonTripper · 12-12-2005 12:05am

Cool, maybe the thoughts of hundreds of us gathering in the park revin the engines terrified them

Be an idea to organise another one soon. Any ideas?

Bettyboop · 12-12-2005 12:57am

valerie wrote:

I seen an article in a paper (cant remember which one)
that the lads in their modified cars met up in the Phoneix park
and were told that this new law was not going to happen.
Will Google for the info and will post it up.
A.S.A.P.

as quoted from the Sun newspaper
A rally by the drivers of 100 souped up cars was stopped
by cops yesterday,instead orgainisers were allowed to take
3 vehicles to present a petition,at Leinster house.The demonstrators
who gathered at Phoenix park,were furious over plans to prevent cars fitted
with tinted windows and loud exhausts passing NCT tests.Organiser Dan Hayes a car customiser from Cork said,about 350 customised cars from around the country had met at the papal cross.6 hoped to talk to minister
Callely,but he was unavailable.They met with transport officials and put their
point across about the intended nct changes.We are glad to say changes
will not now come on January 1st .

DoctorEdgeWild · 12-12-2005 1:00am

Well done to all involved for supporting the cause. Congratulations on staging a proper sucessful protest that didn't cause huge disruption as well.

BrianD · 12-12-2005 1:17am

What were they protesting about? A successful protest about nothing?

Callerly (before he departed) vaguely referred to issues such as tinted windows and noise levels. He also stated that these items would be included in a NCT review that would be taking place in the new year.

One would think that one would wait for the outcome of that review to see what is exactly is proposed before protesting. Plus I would assume that the modified car industry would be attempting to make a contribution to that process rather than running a ridiculous half-baked protest as this. No one will take you seriously!

DoctorEdgeWild · 12-12-2005 1:28am

A protest being a means of getting a message across among other things, I'd say this one was sucessful. It was covered in many newspapers and TV news broadcasts. It got people talking about the modified car industry whereas before, people only thought about the fools in badly done Micras causing trouble.

Hotblack Desiato · 12-12-2005 3:44am

DoctorEdgeWild wrote:

A protest being a means of getting a message across among other things, I'd say this one was sucessful. It was covered in many newspapers and TV news broadcasts.

Yet 600 motorbikes protesting in Dublin city centre last April couldn't get a single word in the media.
At least we were protesting agianst a very real issue - the ongoing insurance rip-off and failure to implement the European single market.
Callely was just mouthing off and shouldn't have been taken seriously by anyone, he was a gobsh1te of the highest order. There should be some sort of a reasonable limit on window tinting and exhaust noise, but banning modified vehicles outright is certainly not reasonable - there's no chance of that happening from what I can see.
Much ado about nothing.

DoctorEdgeWild · 12-12-2005 3:53am

I was part of that protest mate cos I was riding as opposed to driving back then. It was a great cause as well. That was against an ongoing problem which had been out of hand for a long time. This one was about a problem which hadn't yet come about.

Hotblack Desiato · 12-12-2005 4:06am

Yeah but the media overreacted to a statement from a guy well-known to be a few cents short of a euro. Media played it up to generate controversy and people on the radio and on here went ape about something which had zero chance of happening. Best to keep your powder dry until you need to fire it imho.

DoctorEdgeWild · 12-12-2005 4:32am

Think of it as a dry run!! We'll be ready when they try to screw us again. Oh wait, I just paid my insurance for the year. I can't afford petrol from the Park to Kildare St.:(

iregk · 12-12-2005 11:12am

I find this entire situation laughable. As has been said, it was a simple comment not about banning boy racer cars, but bringing some sort of levels into place, which in my opinion is needed. The papers and radio stirred it up to sell more and now we have protests over nothing!

Even the sane people who are genuine modders must surely see the sense in having a safety level on window tints? As I said in a previous post, i have seen cars that the guy driving had to roll down the window to see out at a set of lights! That aint safe, it will cause an accident and that has to be outlawed.

By all means do your car up what ever way you see fit, but when it starts impeding the safety of you and other road users then like it or not it should and has to be deemed illegal.

BrianD · 12-12-2005 1:30pm

DoctorEdgeWild wrote:

A protest being a means of getting a message across among other things, I'd say this one was sucessful. It was covered in many newspapers and TV news broadcasts. It got people talking about the modified car industry whereas before, people only thought about the fools in badly done Micras causing trouble.

Didn't hear a word about it myself other than here. However, I would mark it down as unsuccessful and poorly thought out. The powers that be won't take you seriously as you have all got fired up when you don't even know what has been proposed.

I thought it would have been wiser to keep your powder dry 'till the proposals have been published and are up for discussion. Does your 'lobby group' even have a policy on the key issues e.g. tinting, noise etc. I would say probably not.

stevenmu · 12-12-2005 3:18pm

iregk wrote:

By all means do your car up what ever way you see fit, but when it starts impeding the safety of you and other road users then like it or not it should and has to be deemed illegal.

I agree completely, and as I recall various people in the industry and spokespeople for modding groups agreed on the radio too. The problem was that the rumours going round were that all after-market mods were going to be banned, which could have meant after-market tints being illegal even if they were lighter than other factory fitted ones, or exhausts being illegal even if they were quieter than some factory ones. Knowing the half-assed way governments usually implement these things I think that's a reasonable fear.

I think 'protest' is probably the wrong word for what happened in the park, 'demonstration' is probably a more accurate one.

NeonTripper · 12-12-2005 9:17pm

The demonstration was only the beginning, the government thought that they were picking on a minority of 16 - 18+ but unfortunately for them, it spans a wider age group. They forgot that alot of people are employed in this line of work, and I don't think they fully thought out the consequences before they made their announcement. Pick up The Star newspaper tomorrow TUES 13/12/05, hopefully we'll have the first of many articles to highlight the issue, and they will start to take notice that we are not going to just back down and walk away.

Ban on "boy racer" cars

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