Portarlington; National Boy Racer Capitol

SeanyC

I have recently moved to Port, I have been very impressed with the town and glad i moved here.
But I have to say I have been very suprised by the amount of boy racers racing around the town at night time.
And the irony of it is, they congregate in the car park opposite the guarda station.
Is there a town council? do they not care the streets of the town are being used as a race track at night.
Are the cops not meant to be having a crack down on L plate drivers, is it too much to expand it to noisy cars racing around the town nightly?
It certainly would improve the quality of life of living here in Port. Are there any other concerned citizens out there?

Ruby-J

I have to admit, ive noticed them in the car park but have no experience of them flying about town. ive seen them on main street but driving at slow speed. but dont get me wrong, im sure theyre doing some speeding at night!


Welcome to port by the way!

kmart6

Gaurds can't do anything about them being in the park,it's a public place and they're entitled to be there! And a town council definately couldn't do anything!

smokestone

Whats wrong with friends meeting up in the car park and going for a drive around town. You have the owners of classic cars and members of the RS owners club meeting up on regularly.

If they were doing something illegal in the car park surely the gardai would do something, they are after all across the road.

Port is not the Boyracer capital of Laois the midlands or even Ireland.

SeanyC

I have no problem with the boy racers meeting in the car park.
Its the racing on the street i have a problem with.
Flooring the accelerator down the street so the car is on the rev limiter, dump valves popping off, modified exhausts making an ungodly racket.
If they had kids trying to sleep and i did the same outside there house every night, i am sure they would have a problem also.
Hopefully the guarda will start to enforce the new car regs next month with regards to noise, modified cars, modified exhausts.
Perhaps the council might look into putting down more speed ramps in the urban area, keeping the street racing out of town, or locking up the public car parks at night time to deter this anti social behaviour.

luder

SeanyC wrote: »

Hopefully the guarda will start to enforce the new car regs next month with regards to noise, modified cars, modified exhausts.

Can you enlighten us to these regulations..??

SeanyC

Welll there is the obvious one which has always been in existance but never been enforced.
Modifying your car in any way which improves performance / horsepower, such as exhaust modifications, induction kits, chipping your car etc etc, and not declaring it to your insurance company.
This in essence results in you driving without insurance, but the insurance companies do cover 3rd party damage in these circumstances, however the insurance holder will not be covered.
There is also some regulation regarding to noise levels from cars, exhaust size, decibels etc.
The guardai are allegedly going to start enforcing these and others from July, and rightly so.

luder

SeanyC wrote: »

There is also some regulation regarding to noise levels from cars, exhaust size, decibels etc.
.

There is no mention in the current 1963 Construction and use of Vehicles act regarding decible levels and exhaust sizes.

The law is a big grey area and is entirely up to the descretion of a garda...

It states that - " any vehicle propelled by an internal combustion engine must be fitted with a silencer device so as to limit the noise to a reasonable level"

It is this reasonable level that varies from garda to garda and so leads to confusion and contradiction resulting in many cases being thrown out of court.

As for the whole non declaring of modifications another big grey area, if anyone has ever tried declaring modifications to insurance company there typical response is once it doesnt effect performance it does not need to be declared bla bla bla. but once you ask for this statement in writing the insurance company changes their tune,

They will add a loading to your policy of you declare all modifications but yet the companies state thay will not pay out for them in the event of a claim...? seems a bit unfair really... would you pay €200 extra for something that wont be covered..?

Clear regulations need to be put in place across all insurance companies..

I do agree though that the driving of drivers through all towns and cities across the is diabolical, not just from "boyracers" but from all groups of society.

As for someones suggestion to further install speed ramps, dont get me started as to the illegality of speed ramps in this country..by law all rapms have to be constructed from rolled asphalt thus making all those brick and concrete ones illegal.:D

SeanyC

Thanks for your response.
I think what you have high lighted is very important, perhaps from July when they finally start to try inforcing laws correctly, there will be feed back to the government regarding where the law is falling short, so it can be amended to allow the garda to police more effectively.
We cannot just go on with our heads in the sand, with some chosing to find and exploit loopholes.

kmart6

SeanyC wrote: »

Welll there is the obvious one which has always been in existance but never been enforced.
Modifying your car in any way which improves performance / horsepower, such as exhaust modifications, induction kits, chipping your car etc etc, and not declaring it to your insurance company.
This in essence results in you driving without insurance, but the insurance companies do cover 3rd party damage in these circumstances, however the insurance holder will not be covered.
There is also some regulation regarding to noise levels from cars, exhaust size, decibels etc.
The guardai are allegedly going to start enforcing these and others from July, and rightly so.

For them to do that they'd have to take the cars off them and run tests to see if any mod's have increased the power of the car. That won't happen as they wouldn't have the resources to do it, and I'm sure they'd need some kind of solid grounds to take a car off someone!

stevoman

Hi SeanyC, welcome to Port. Where have you moved from? Im just thinking Port might not be the boy racer capital of Ireland, but sometimes it might seem so! I think Port has the same amount of young lads in cars as the next place, i think the outlay of the town just suits young lads in cars as between the main street and the link road with the park, its a complete circle so the lads just keep doing laps around in circles and it looks like there are more loud cars than what there really are. Its just the same lads going round and round.

kikel

Hi Sean,
Welcome to Portarlington. Your right it's a great place to live.
I have to agree with Stevoman. I don't think that Portarlington has any more boy racers than any other town.
Some of these cars are illegally modded which is a shame as it takes away from other peoples fun that modify their cars within the confines of the law. I think we should treat these people with some respect. Modding cars is their hobby and as long as they do it within the confines of the law let them at it. If they are illegally modded or are driving dangerously through town. Take their reg and report them for breaking the law. The speed limit on the main street is 30Kph.

BTW, I hate modded cars myself. I much prefer factory spec. Spend money on the car not the mods.

Kingdom

I've no problem with the modified cars. There is no speeding down main st or the link road that I've witnessed and I'd be out at all hours!
The only problem I can think of with them is the noise the cars make when they take off, but to lump them in with the irresponsible regular car drivers is wrong.

As you say the new car regulations might make a difference.

Kingdom

kikel wrote: »

Hi Sean,
Welcome to Portarlington. Your right it's a great place to live.
I have to agree with Stevoman. I don't think that Portarlington has any more boy racers than any other town.
Some of these cars are illegally modded which is a shame as it takes away from other peoples fun that modify their cars within the confines of the law. I think we should treat these people with some respect. Modding cars is their hobby and as long as they do it within the confines of the law let them at it. If they are illegally modded or are driving dangerously through town. Take their reg and report them for breaking the law. The speed limit on the main street is 30Kph.

BTW, I hate modded cars myself. I much prefer factory spec. Spend money on the car not the mods.

My sentiments exactly Kikel. To be fair the people that wreck the town with litter, booze, piss and vomit from Fri pm -Mon am are doing more damage to port than these drivers/

kikel

Kingdom wrote: »

My sentiments exactly Kikel. To be fair the people that wreck the town with litter, booze, piss and vomit from Fri pm -Mon am are doing more damage to port than these drivers/

Now that is one thing that annoys me about some of those modded drivers. The way some of them leave the park when they are finished. Dumping rubbish out their windows when they are in the park.

If any of the modded drivers are reading this. Use the bins.

PS it's probably only a small number of the modded drivers that litter that car park.

Kingdom

kikel wrote: »

Now that is one thing that annoys me about some of those modded drivers. The way some of them leave the park when they are finished. Dumping rubbish out their windows when they are in the park.

If any of the modded drivers are reading this. Use the bins.

PS it's probably only a small number of the modded drivers that litter that car park.

To be fair I was on about the people who go to the pub and then the chipper. I went for a walk on Sun morning with lil Kingdom at 7am and the town was a disgrace.

kikel

Kingdom wrote: »

To be fair I was on about the people who go to the pub and then the chipper. I went for a walk on Sun morning with lil Kingdom at 7am and the town was a disgrace.

I knew exactly what you were referring to. I should of trimmed the quotation so i was just referring to the litter section.

Totally agree though, I left my van in town over the weekend and the state of it. Some fecker either has very bad aim or they smat on the back door.

Curvy Vixen

stevoman wrote: »

i think the outlay of the town just suits young lads in cars as between the main street and the link road with the park, its a complete circle so the lads just keep doing laps around in circles and it looks like there are more loud cars than what there really are. Its just the same lads going round and round.

I think you have a point there stevoman. Back in the day, when the Weighbridge was a nice little local, we used to sit outside on the tables and chairs there and drink on a Sunday afternoon. I remember one particular day counting a white pimped car going past 32 times ~ how the driver wasn't sick I don't know There is a speed bump right outside the Weighbridge so they have to slow down to almost a stop there to get over it safely!

stevoman

Curvy Vixen wrote: »

I think you have a point there stevoman. Back in the day, when the Weighbridge was a nice little local, we used to sit outside on the tables and chairs there and drink on a Sunday afternoon. I remember one particular day counting a white pimped car going past 32 times ~ how the driver wasn't sick I don't know There is a speed bump right outside the Weighbridge so they have to slow down to almost a stop there to get over it safely!

I have to admit curvey when i was younger and had first car i was guiltly of doing the same thing, over and over again with my friends in the car. Its always been the done thing for young lads in cars in portarlington.

Kingdom

kikel wrote: »

I knew exactly what you were referring to. I should of trimmed the quotation so i was just referring to the litter section.

Totally agree though, I left my van in town over the weekend and the state of it. Some fecker either has very bad aim or they smat on the back door.

No worries, yeah the town ain't pretty on a Mon morning!

connundrum

Curvy Vixen wrote: »

I remember one particular day counting a white pimped car going past 32 times ~ how the driver wasn't sick I don't know

At least we know who to blame for the fuel price rise now. :mad:

I remember the same when I used to sit outside the Spa of a Saturday/Sunday afternoon. The funniest thing was when they'd all join up in a kind of train fashion, I think 12 cars in a row was the most I saw at one stage.

IMO its all noise, and as previously stated - that should be sorted by legislation. I remember there was a bit of racing going on down Canal Road and out Lea Road, but that was maybe 3-4 years ago. Haven't heard anything since.

kmart6

stevoman wrote: »

Its always been the done thing for young lads in cars in portarlington.

Not for everyone though, none of my friends and me included have done it, what's te point of it like, it's circling Port which isn't fun and wasting petrol which is way to expensive at the moment!:D

connundrum wrote:

I remember there was a bit of racing going on down Canal Road and out Lea Road, but that was maybe 3-4 years ago. Haven't heard anything since.

Still goes on, just very late at night/early hours of the morning when there isn't really any other cars on the road!

Roaster

AFAIK most of the alleged boy racers do keep within the confines of the law. However, I have seen (on a very rare occassion) a couple of them racing down Canal Rd - on both sides of the road. I witnessed this one night when there was heavy fog and you could barely see in front of your face.

But for the most part I think most of them are grand and it is just a hobby but how they can afford it is another matter all together.

sydthebeat

post removed

kmart6

But for the most part I think most of them are grand and it is just a hobby but how they can afford it is another matter all together

Well the first conclusion people are going to jump to is drugs, but most of them just work on the buildings and if they're living at home they don't exactly have mush expense!


Different variations about that going around that Kingdom,prob be better if you took that down outta respect for his family!

Kingdom

Yes I realise that now, its been removed.

stevoman

kmart6 wrote: »

Not for everyone though, none of my friends and me included have done it, what's te point of it like, it's circling Port which isn't fun and wasting petrol which is way to expensive at the moment!:D

Im talking about 5 or 6 years ago. thats what the craic was and all the young lads then including meself used to love tipping around town in our cars getting dizzy!

CCCP^

Boy racers are pissing me off, I live in Portlaoise. They do this lap of the town constantly, from about 6 onwards. My bedroom window is right beside the street where they like to rev up.

If I ever make some money I'll build a raceway. Then all ye bastards can rev around it to your hearts content and I can finally get some bleedin' sleep.

SeanyC

I think some of them spend time out of there cars reading the tinter web, as for the last two hours some have been doing laps of the town and dropping the accelerator to show what a great contribution they are to society in Portarlington.

kmart6

stevoman wrote: »

tipping around town in our cars getting dizzy!

That's why some of them can't negotiate the roundabout at Maxol!