Some Helpfull Cruise Advice-----

[skyline]

To ALL,

Firstly let me offer condolences to all affected by the cruise accident, second i would like to offer you all some well meaning advice for your/our future cruises. You may ask what are my qualifications for giving these suggestions, i have owned my sII r33 for 8+yrs and have been a member of the svd club for all of this time,i've raced several seasons of moto x,raced supercarts,drag raced etc., but more importantly have plotted ,organised and lead so many svd cruises that i cant remember the no's.Over the years we have had many large cruises containing 35 to 40 cars and these are not easy to keep under control nor simply not lose anyone!

A couple of simple suggestions for you to take in ,discuss and come up with the right answers before heading out----.

Drive with headlights ON at all times,not only do oncoming motorists see you the cruise leader and others can see when there is a ring in amongst you.The cruise leader should in most cases be the person who has plotted the cruise,the leader of the cruise should not be passed under any circumstances.The lead car the tail end car and one in the middle of the pack (in the case of large no's participating) should be fitted with uhf radio's for quick communication.My method for over taking is tried and true and i swear by it's success.The lead car should have a reasonable gap back to the following cars and when safe to pull out and pass i move out into the opposit lane and stay out there with my right inicator on--- i do not return to the correct side of the road but stay out there so all following can pass the cars /trucks etc without having to be concerned with diving in and out from behind vehicles to snatch a view wether it's safe to pass or not!THE LEADER is telling you its safe he's done the pass and is now spotting for the followers- you would be surprised how many you can get passed safely using this method.I simply move back in to the correct lane (and join the others that have already passed) when there are no more following to pass(that's the headlights) or it simply is'nt safe to pass any more( and its not safe if you see intersections,side roads etc. common sense must be used!If there are others that need to pass then the lead car moves over into the right lane again leaving the followers to sit in the correct lane giving the ppl wishing to pass and re-group a clear veiw of me sitting "out there" with the indicator going giving them the ok to pass also.And so on...

Im not trying to big note myself or anything but its important that the leader must be aware of his responsibilities etc when leading (incl changing speed etc as the conditions dictate!)

Hope this may help you all in some way,or prompt you to discuss these issues amongst your selves....

Regards,

SKYLINE (Kym)

Edited May 31, 2006 by skyline

[J_Red33]

A few interesting tips mate that could be quite useful.

That the accident wasn't the fault of any of us guys on the cruise is irrelevant, the overtaking lane was clearly for the use of cars heading in the direction we were, but it is never the less possible it could have been prevented.

For this to have been avoided I believe we needed to be running more like a 5 second gap between each car rather than the 2 that is supposedly sufficient. This may have been the difference between the head on occurring & not, but then we never will know for sure.

This accident is never the less not the fault of the guys on the cruise like I said before, but I have a phase I coin from time to time: If you don't take care of yourself (or in this case 'yourselves') no one will.

I think it's an important lesson for all of us, myself included.

[Madaz]

good points electro

!If there are others that need to pass then the lead car moves over into the right lane again leaving the followers to sit in the correct lane giving the ppl wishing to pass and re-group a clear veiw of me sitting "out there" with the indicator going giving them the ok to pass also.And so on...

i dissagree that is silly and dangerous if ur in a 40 car cruise for one if the 15th car is wanting to pass and u have say a 3 seccond gap between all the cars from Leader to car 15

1) ur not gonna see car 15 (due to needing long ass road)

2) the leader shouldnt have to hold the hand of fellow club members (even though were not a club)

3) things sumtimes happen to quickly for the Lead car, to say Leader comes out (to signal safe to pass) then car comes that u didnt see and car 15, 16 ,anf 17,18,19 all pull out thinking its safe then car 15 sees u pull back in only to see a car moving @ pace towards you car 15 is commited to passing the car/cars he pulled out from and you on a SA road traveling @ 110KPH (forgive my math) i had a mate work out for me @ 100KPH your traveling 33meters/seccond if your both traveling that speed thats 66meters of road eaton up between you 200-500meters doesnt leave any room for errors

forgive bad english getting ready to goto bed

**EDIT**

dont take my post as a flame trying to share my knowledge and experiance in driving and little physics

D

-

T = V

V*T = D

Edited May 31, 2006 by Madaz

[vange]

all cruises i been on have had responsibile ppl leading and every1 overtook with out making it unsafe for others. I dont think there is any perticular way of doing it, and it just common sense really.

The unsafest part of the cruise are the ppl who r not on the cruise...its happened to me many times where a motorist has got in my way, not their own fault but not aware of wat is going on, or a motorist purposly trying 2 get in my way because they see that were on a 'skyline cruise'.

on the last 1 i went on to barrosa, a few of us overtook this car who was going slow, prob a local, and when it got 2 me, he started to go crazy, he was swerving side to side, breaking suddenly and then when id go 2 overtake, start accelerating...so i just backed off and let him have his way.

UHF radios r a good idea, and we've had them on a few occations, so r having lights on,...(i always have mine on cos they look cool lol)

In conclusion, accidents happen, so all we can do is try and drive as safe as possible by using common sense.

[Cubes]

The best tips in the world really could not have helped what happened, it was simple bad luck.

Kym, I'm not sure if you watched the news or not but apparently they got their little diagram wrong, Madaz didn't pull out then pull back in behind the 4wd, they were in the right lane cruising along when madaz saw the festiva, madaz gave it all she had and ripped it in to the left lane in front of the 4wd, the festiva continued on to clean up drews car.

Please correct me if I am wrong as this is my understanding from the recent thread as it was a little hazy.

[Madaz]

yes thats correct cubes and cause of my vechile drew couldnt see the festiva not that he would of been able to do much

[Tangles]

On my bike riding 'cruises' (mwahahahaha hahahaha yeah right) with a steamtrain of 20 x 1litre mad-arsed sportsbikes, we'd put up the left hand high in the air when it was safe to overtake.

ie, leader overtakes and straight away left hand goes up, all follow Until left hand goes down. No more overtaking until the last person to overtake raises the hand again.

Safest method Ive ever seen. Bit hard to do with cars tho, certainly if its raining! Maybe have 1 or 2 cars with a orange flashing light on the roof or rear parcel shelf (ie like council cars etc, anything but red or blue), flash it when safe for overtaking? First lead car has one and a car in the middle of the pack has one.

Thoughts? Im not keen on Kims orignal idea of staying in the opposite lane, I think thats illegal anyway.

[J_Red33]

Thoughts? Im not keen on Kims orignal idea of staying in the opposite lane, I think thats illegal anyway.

Hmm I must admit I'm not that keen on that part of it either, personaly I'd like to judge for myself whether or not I can overtake. A lot of trust is placed on that lead car pulling back over before it's too late, which is left to personal perception of when it's no longer safe. It also depends on how confident the other drivers are on the cruise, anyone who's a bit shakey may not follow this so well.

I can see how it works, but it does require very good judgement by the leader & a high standard of driving in general still. Either way I agree with what others have said about using common sense.

I wouldn't call it common sense though, I'd call it good sense. Because if it was common sense every mug out on the roads would know what the hell they were doing, which is far from the truth in my opinion.