Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Ok this maybe interesting.
How do you rate your ability as an offroad driver. take it seriuosly and think about it. Do you feel comfortable driving new terrain, or difficult stuff. Do you have a point where you just don't want to go harder?

I reckon about 18 months ago I was probably about a 7 out of 10 driver (in my mind on how much further i had to go to be the driver I wanted to be). i was comfortable pushing my car and my ability each time I went out. Now I reckon I have dropped back abit just out of lack of driving. Also the type of stuff the club is tackling has risen a notch. I feel I'm up for the challenge and will probably get back to my preferred style of driving once the Zuk is back on the road pretty quickly.

Anyway be interested to hear your thoughts on how you rate yourself.
(Try and keep it somewhat serious)

B grade tracks are about my limit as a driver

am working on being an A grade one....

mmmmmmmmm, excellent question grimbo

when i first started 4wdriving, probably would have been a 2-3 (cause i'd been 4wdriving with friends for years before i got my license), and have now probably moved up to a 5 possibly 6. and like most people, the thing stopping me atm is the whole 'daily driver' thing, not so much the damage thing.

Now this is a great question grimbo! Makes more sense then spua vs spoa.

I was a 1 up until recently just scared and I didn't realise what the zook could do. Now I would say about a 4-5, the best thing is that even though it's a daily driver I live close enough to work to just walk. I've found now that the car in it's current form is pretty sad and doesn't let me get into positions that i'm scared of. I reckon that once I have built the car up i'll start getting worried then i will really be able to my limits.

hard question to answer i reckon!!!

prolly similar to antt, around 6... like to tackle hard stuff even when i know i won't get up it, but get a bit wary when i'm playing on hard stuff with a big drop off or cliffs n stuff like that around.

daily driver slows ya down a bit, i need the car to get to work. and not having a roll cage i'm hell wary of rollin...

That's a very good question Sir Grimbo.

My ego says 10!!! But realistically my last vehicle (90 Modified Vitara) probably limited me to about a 3 due to its capability.

Hopefully this will increase with the new rig.

I like to think that I will have a go at anything, new terrain & old terrain included, this is a far cry from where I was when I first had zook #1 modified.

I'd rather have someone else rate me rather than me rate myself though.

At the moment with the Vitara I reckon that I can use that vehicle pretty much to it's ability - maybe 90% or so of what it can do.

I'd say that rating a modified Vitara as being capable of 3/10 is a bit harsh. Of course it depends on what you are using as the scales - some full tube buggy on 44" boggers is gonna have more capability than even something like grimbo's beast, so then grimbo's is only gonna be able to rate 6/10 max and then maybe 3/10 is right for the vitara.

The scale of what you challenge is generally proportional to what your car can as well as it's daily driver status do so how is the best way to present this?

I know I wouldn't feel comfortable pushing my Vit harder without a cage so that's been my limiting factor recently. Sure I could do some of the more challenging obstacles but the risk without the cage is just not worth taking so that has to knock a point or two off whatever my rating would be.

I'd say for something that also gets used as a daily driver whenever I can't be bothered using the bike I'd have to be somewhere around 6-7/10.

Against some of the (trailer queen and night runs only) vehicles on this board me and the Vit'd rate 2/10 at best.

with the rating I'm talking about how you see yourself and vehicle compared to what you want to be/do. Don't rate against so and so and his car. I am just trying to see if people are feeling they are happy with their standard of 4wheeling or if you are feeling you still have a way to go.

I'd say maybe 5/ 10 but having to work w'ends means I'm not wheeling much and rapidly going backwards

I have the haircut just need a real job

Its not what you do its how well you do it

Me, ive dun some stupid things but ive also dun sum stuff thats scared me but i did it thanks to some navigation.

i reckon me and my brother(fourbyphil) together could do a large amount of stuff with him guiding me or me guiding him. Give us a crawler and we'll do some huge stuff.

I dont like rating myself though im rather confident.

(i think thats the most i've ever writen in a post)

The only reason i made reference to my vehicle is it is the only way i could possibly put a figure on it.

It's really simple progression, everyone starts with a standard vehicle, modifies it then grows beyond its capabilities. Then they start over with another one.

No offence intended to the Vitara, they are a great rig. I just got sick of fixing it. The limiting factor, i believe, with the Vit is not the IFS itself but the axle housing (alloy) and the CV's.

I personally would like to rate myself higher but that's as far as i could go due to the limits of the car. I'm hoping to increase my ability when the new rig is done but will always keep learning. Nobody knows everything.

good one grimbo.

I would say about a 4-5/10 as I will just about have a go at anything believing it will not kill the zook/ mererly just wound it is ok.

I have never cared for dent's anyway.

cheers

bigsteve wrote:I like to think that I will have a go at anything, new terrain & old terrain included, this is a far cry from where I was when I first had zook #1 modified.

I'd rather have someone else rate me rather than me rate myself though.

same here
the obstacles just keep on getting bigger and bigger
if i looked at the stuff i drive now bout a year ago i would have thought there is no way u can drive that stuff but i love pushin the rig and when u make a hard line u think FARK that was good
it really gets me goin

cant say how good of a driver i am?

i have absolutely no idea on how or what the grading is down south or anywhere else in this country.

its hard for me to say how i rate myself, as there isn't much to campare myself to up here.

a rough guess in the rating, would be a 6 ish, or thereabouts. i have been 4wdriving for about 4 years now, so i would like to think that i'm getting better at it, compared to when i started.

i've always walked my line, and thought about every situation, and scenario that can happen.

also, i've been practising my wheel placing for a couple of years too.

but in then end, it all comes down to how big your balls are, and what the limits of the rig you drive is.

if you dont know anything about 4wdriving, and all you do is floor it to get over whatever it is, then that doesnt make you a good/expert driver.
i think you first need to full understand all aspects, and what the result will be, to become a good driver.

That is some great repies guys, but i think we have kinda lost the point of the question (including myself)

It's about how we drive as a person, not the car we drive. If we put everything about our car aside (eg: small tires, ifs, spo, spa, crap gears) and just look at what we can do not what we can't. When I started driving I was scared that I would tip, I always applied to much right foot, I always took the wrong line etc etc. Now i'm a much more confident driver. I realised that you don't need to pick your own line you just do as the navi tells you to.

If I just look at how I react in a tight situation now then say a year ago their is a big difference! So I have matured in my driving skills and really leveled up. A year or so ago I would have sworn I had taken my car to it's limit, but now with no changes to the car I look at those same tracks and think how weak is that! So I think we should stop using the limiting factor of the car as an excuse

i think i rate myself pritty poorly, as ive only been driving for 6 months. but i guess i will get better with pratice.

im good at poser shots. steeve you would agree

Without being a Wanker I would have rated myself 8-9 about a year ago but due to the lack of driving in the last year I would say I would have dropped to 5-6.
A year ago you could have shown me any obstacle and I wouldn't have thought twice about giving it a go but now I would have a good look and think about it. Going from a tube buggy to a daily driver doesn't help either.
SAM

I still got a lot to learn although every trip I go on I feel more confident afterwards. Most of the time that I learn its when I follow someone else that Im with. I dont have a choice because they have the maps and weve already come down something more serious then we are gonna go up. I love it though when you get to the top and you think wow thats wasnt so hard. I would give myself a 2 and a half out of however many stages there are in driver ability.

Ive never been out with a stock suzuki but i give myself 8/10 for tryin to keep up with bazooked locked and sprung over suzi in my suzi with open centres and 1/8 the travel of his zook. Ill give anything a go that would prob explain all the dents and the stuffed drive line lol 8-) but as long as i have fun i dont give a shit.

ya should move this to general 4x4 tech grimbo to see what everyone else reckons

geez you're game grimbo -> http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269551

i'm happy with my skill level i tend to achieve what i set out to achieve , in saying that im probably a crap driver compared to the multitudes but im pretty much at the skill level for myself that i'm happy with 8/10.

i believe that is what you are referring too Grimbo? our skill now compared to what we want to be ? not our skill against someone else?

with out sounding over "EGO"tised ,
I would give myself 8.5/10 !!
but only give my POS about 5-6/10 !!

those that have seen me drive , know I push my heep , further than it should go !!!
oh , for some gearing !!
(car parks excluded from this statement !! )

i think that i was up to about a 7 in my rig, but when it rolls out of the shed in a couple of weeks (i hope) ill be back down to 2-3 as its a whole new ball game with a different set up.

rating your own driving ability seems a self ritious. Id say to rate your driving in a particular vehicle you need to start at 10 and then take away points for if you use the vehicle for other than 4wding. take points away for if: a: daily driver =3 points
b; can afford to fix if busted = 2 points
c; cant fix yourself = 1point
d; lack of saftey devices in vehicle (rolcage) =2 points
e; thumb print = 5 points


if this is the case im only a 5 in relation to my sierra (gotta love the thumb print)

If we're rating driver ability in current vehicle I'd have to say 6. I still get nervous on new terain especially roll over backwards lips and hills, but I think I drive my car to it's limits seeing it's also a daily driver.

Would luv to have the confidence, $$$ and vehicle to tackle some of MMM's competitions. Happy to keep on learning at this stage.

cant give myself a scale rating. I just think Im bloody stupid for the things I put my little red monster through. Dont have a care about damage, damage is fun. I'll give just about any thing a go. Even if it is due to peer pressure, just makes it more exciting. I have pushed my zuk as far as it will go and a little bit further for the specs she carries.

As for thumb prints, I just get laughed at.

I don't think that i would give myself a rating, but i will raise a few points:

1. my driving ability has increased significantly since owning a suzuki and taking it offroad for the following reaons:
a. i'm accustomed to driving very slowly and patiently because my car has in it's lifetime been quite gutless due to big tyres etc...
b. i'm used to adjusting to things on the fly when driving - i.e. being no longer able to use second gear and still having to drive 100kms home, or having brakes that aren't very useful and having to brake hard a long way before you want to stop, or driving with 2 very flat tyres at diagonal corners, driving with no clutch, a carby that won't idle below 1000rpms, a hand brake that does work, no rear drive shaft, 1 working headlight, no indicators, no brakelights etc... i think this makes me a better driver than someone that drives a brand new car with no running issues that handles like a dream - because i can adjust.

2. my driving has also improved since removing the stereo from the car. there are less disctractions and i can now put far more attention towards looking out for other fourbies on the road to give the thumbs up to.

3. i think others made the point earlier on that being a good driver is always going to be judged on how well your car goes accross a given piece of terrain. i.e. me in my car - somewhat able. me in a stock sierra - less capable. but the same goes for everyone - i wouldn't expect michael shumacher to be winning all those races if he was competing in a stock sierra either...

and lastly - a reference to a great movie - remember what Tom Cruise said in Days of Thunder - he wanted to race nascar because it was an event where the drivers compete - not the cars. Only when we all have the same tools can we be judged equally.

p.s. Pete - you're a ledgend (this is unrelated to anything else on this board).

cheers

I think I am the best driver in the world, but I am too humble to ever write that down.