Hi all. This is my first post.
This thread is particularly interesting and relevant to me. I am 42 and in the slightly unusual situation that a 370Z is my first car after only passing my test last December. In fact, I learnt to drive because my partner and I decided to get a good car.
Although I’m old enough to know better and a pretty down to earth person, I constantly have to resist the urge to do the “it’s a fast car so I should drive it fast†thing. My girlfriend is a great influence because she has been driving for years and although she loves the Z, she doesn’t ever feel the need to drive it like an idiot just because it’s a fast car.
I don’t feel qualified to give anyone tips about driving, but as someone whose made the usual new driver mistakes at the start – the occasional stall at junctions etc - the one general piece of advice to promote safety I’d give is to be patient with other drivers. There’s nothing worse than having your fledgling confidence knocked by someone who decides that you haven’t pulled away fast enough as the lights turn green and slams their horn on. If you make people nervous by being impatient with them, you knock their confidence and increase the chance of them doing something wrong.
And I couldn’t agree more about the importance of being aware of other drivers capacity for getting it wrong, not just your own. Only yesterday we were driving to our local vets with one of our pets and some idiot in a white van ran a red light and pulled right out in front of us. It was only because I was taking it easy and keeping my eyes open that we didn’t have a nasty accident.