[rodderz]

Heard an interesting story off the young fella at work today, he is 19 and drives a Nissan 180SX, stock except for a mild exhaust system.

The other day he was driving into a shopping centre, and proceded to grab a parking spot out the front of a JB HiFi store, where he was immediately greeted by a traffic operations cop in an unmarked XR8. The copper proceded to ask him what he had done to the car (quite arrogant), which he replied. The officer told him that the power:weight ratio was illegal for him to drive this car, so no more driving till he's fully licensed. Vicroads and the insurer had previously told him that his car was not on the list of banned cars for P Platers, which causes some confusion and clashes between agencies.

He then did a noise test on the car, revved out to 4000rpm all while the music was being played out the front of the JB Hifi store....to which protests fell on deaf ears. It was over by about 5 decibels. Then a series of photo's was taken of the car, not sure if this is allowed or could be considered an invasion of privacy? Apparently this copper has quite a nasty reputation, trolls the Sylvia Forums and while he is doing his job, seems a bit over the top. The way the story was explained to me it sounded a bit suss, so i told him i'd ask around on here to get some similar stories and advice

I think there has to be some clamping down on P platers and what they can drive...but what do you think, is this over the top and cause for some sort of clarification by vicroads etc as to what is and isnt allowed? This guy isnt a hoon by the way, the car is quite a weapon for being 14 or so years old but doesnt drive it out of the ordinary