PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

Awww fuck me welllll fuck snowflakes anyhow!

 

@booted
@ChadsPride
@Iamraiderpower
@Jamesboy2233
@Plain Jane Taco

ASPERGERS AND DRIVING:

Statistics show that roughly 50% of all people diagnosed with Aspergers end up driving...

I have four friends with Aspergers who I hang out with regularly, three of whom have driver's licenses. I am the only one who of that bunch who knows how to drive a stick shift.

As a rule of thumb, I'd say the vast majority of people with Aspergers are generally very good drivers...

My one friend John, who is 31, first got his license when he was either 17 or 18. He has been in one very minor accident where he rear-ended somebody at a stop sign. He has never lost his license, gotten a ticket, or even been pulled over in over a decade of driving!

I am going to be 29 in less than a week as of this posting, and I finally got my license at the age of 22. It took more than four years before I had an accident that was my fault, and nearly two years after that for me to get pulled over. As of March 2018, I've been pulled over twice, have never gotten my license suspended for any reason, and have what most would consider a flawless driving record.

My friend Doug, who is 29 (less than three months older than me), got his license just days before his 19th birthday. He isn't a bad or reckless driver, just a very inattentive one. He's been pulled over so many times since 2009 that I've lost count. All of those traffic stops have been the result of Doug's inattentiveness rather than doing anything outright dangerous. For example, the first time he got pulled over right after he got his license, it was for turning the wrong way onto a one-way street due to his unfamiliarity with the area. He got off with a warning...

He also got pulled over for cutting around a truck, that was waiting to either go straight or make a right, to make a left turn. Again, he got off with a warning because he was polite to the cop, and honestly I don't think the cop knew exactly what to write a ticket for. The two times he's actually gotten a ticket, his father (a lawyer) or one his father's lawyer friends has gotten the charges greatly reduced and he has yet to get any points on his license. Doug is very responsible in that he does drink and drive, refuses to use his phone while driving (his car has Bluetooth), and always wears his seatbelt. However, I refuse to get in a motor vehicle with Doug at the wheel because he almost got John and me seriously injured on the 4th of July in 2016 (see below).

The sole female in our group of licensed aspies finally got her license in 2013 at the age of 24. There was a huge delay in her getting her license because her parents were hesitant to teach her themselves (they have two older non-AS boys who both drive). So, they sent her to a service provider called OVR (I think; either way, regardless of the name, it was an organization well-known among me and my peers for basically treating high-functioning individuals with AS and other forms of autism like retards). OVR didn't think my friend should drive, but she pushed her parents and she eventually got her learner's permit and got them to teach her (or pay for an independent driving instructor). Her dad bought her an old Escort ZX2 and she finally got her license in 2013. She's had her license more than four years and hasn't gotten so much as a parking ticket, so that service provider can go to hell as far as I'm concerned!

 

About the July Fourth driving incident with my friend Doug...

Specifically, we were going to get a Bic flamethrower thing at Walmart, so we could light off the stash of fireworks I'd recently purchased. Doug was making a left turn into the parking lot of the Walmart, and he had a green light but not a green arrow. I was in the shotgun seat and John was in the backseat, directly behind me. John and I had both had a beer each, but Doug was sober. Doug had plenty of time to safely make a left turn, if he did so fast enough. While he did signal and look both ways, he didn't do so fast enough and moseyed into that left turn with all the gusto of an 80-year old granny taking her friends to bingo...

There was a black Infiniti going straight in the opposite direction, and coming at us fast. Like I said, if Doug had gone faster there would not have been a problem. I should also mention that it was raining pretty hard when this happened, and like I said, Doug was driving like a grandma!

I saw the black Infiniti as we made the turn and I may or may not have told Doug to go faster. It became obvious that Doug was not paying attention, and I was convinced that the Infiniti was about to T-bone Doug's Altima. If this had happened, not would only would Doug's car have been totaled, but the Infiniti probably would have been totaled as well. Even worse, John and I were sitting on the passenger side, which would have taken the brunt of the impact. We probably would have been seriously injured. Doug probably would have been a bit banged up as well, as would the driver and any passengers in the Infiniti. I don't know much Doug's insurance covers, but that would have been two totaled cars for sure. Then there would have been the potential for four or more seriously injured people (I don't know if the driver was the only person in the Infiniti). And it all would have been Doug's fault. Yeah, Doug was sober and probably would not have lost his driver's license, but being sober doesn't exempt you from responsibility in an accident like that.

I saw the car coming and began screaming at Doug because I was sure we were about to get T-boned. Doug, in turn, started screaming at me and telling me to either shut up or get out of his car. At about the time I started screaming at Doug, the driver of the Infiniti slammed on their brakes and laid on the horn. Luckily, the Infiniti stopped in time and we made it through the intersection. Doug and I were still screaming at each other. When we got back to my house, I apologized to Doug and also told him that when it came to intersections like that, my philosophy was "all or nothing." I told him that if he felt it was safe to turn, then he needed to floor it, and if he didn't think he could make the turn, he needed to wait for the other vehicle to pass or wait for the green arrow to come up...

Needless to say, I have not ridden in a vehicle with Doug driving since July 4th, 2016. I don't know if I'm more scared of being injured in an accident as a result of Doug's error, if I don't feel like Doug turning things around to make me look like an asshole when I give him constructive criticism about his driving, or both...


The Walmart in question...




The intersection where this "near-accident" took place (circled in red)...




The red arrow marks the direction/path of Doug's car, and the blue arrow marks the path of the black Infiniti...

 

My opinion, based on what I've seen, is that the majority of Aspies are not only good drivers, but also know how to handle the situation appropriate when pulled over by police.

When the Coffeehouse still existed in its original incarnation and I was still going there, a good number of the members had driver's licenses and a few even had their own vehicles.

One member shared an aging 1993 Honda Civic with her sister for a while and then bought a 1997 Chevrolet Lumina with her own money. This girl did not like me very much to begin with, and she took it at as slap in the face when I showed up in the brand new Tacoma my parents had bought me. Though he two female members of the Coffeehouse fell into the category of C-U-Next-Tuesday, they were good drivers in the sense that they never got tickets or anything.

The one with the '97 Lumina told the other members that she'd gotten pulled over by police one time while driving that car because her car matched the description of a stolen vehicle. This was despite the fact that the car was titled in her name, had a valid license plate, and the VIN matched the license plate, etc. I know race had absolutely nothing to do with the traffic stop, because this girl was white. She also claimed she wasn't speeding or doing anything that would get her pulled over in the first place...

She wasn't handcuffed or even asked to step out of the car if I remember correctly, but she did tell me that the police made her wait by the side of the road for a long time and she was about to lose her shit with the police. I would be mad too. If she was driving a car that had switched plates or something, and the plate on it came back to a different car, but that was her plate. The registration and insurance both said "1997 Chevrolet Lumina" and had her full name on it. Like I said, I would be pissed too. The police finally realized their mistake and let her go.

One of the reasons I've made my Tacoma distinctive is so that the police won't have any excuse to mistake it for a stolen vehicle or a vehicle used in a crime!

 

@Iamraiderpower

My dad's '93 S10 Blazer had the "W Code" CPI engine, so it did not have TBI. I don't know if it had spider injection, but did CPI instead of TBI mean no problems?

 

Pretty sure it does...

 

No...

 

Sort of...

Took auto shop in high school (2004-2005). Me and my neighbor are installing an amp in my Taco in a couple months!

 

CPI (center port injector) had more power than TBI but it came at the cost of Injector/EGR/Intake issues

 

Did it have spider injection?

 

Yup

 

Why did GM actually think that shit was good?

 

Lots can be asked of all automakers in the late 70s/80s/early 90s due to the government crack down of EPA and fuel consumption

 

I partially blame the government...

 

For the MustangII and 3rdGen Camaro, yes I’ll agree

 

I like the 3rd Gen Camaro...

Especially the IROC Z and the 1992 Z28!

 

We can’t be friends

 

My favorite Camaro of all time though is the 1969 model!

 

Too cliche. My pops had a 71 Maroon Z28 454/4speed that would pull the wheels on the street. I can remember sitting in the back seat as a lil fella screaming for my dad to hammer on it.

 

I'll bet that got about 8 MPG...