P-PLATERS will be able to drive a greater range of vehicles under new laws set to come into effect on August 1.
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It follows a review of high-performance vehicles by the Centre for Road Safety.
The new laws would "reflect the reality of today's cars" where super charged no long just meant super speed, minister for roads and freight Duncan Gay said.
"The previous blanket ban on P-platers driving supercharged or turbocharged vehicles was put in place when the features on these cars were only used to enhance speed and acceleration," he said.
"These days, for many vehicles in this category it is about fuel efficiency, not speed and acceleration, so it was appropriate we revisit the ban in light of the fact many of these vehicles are low performance with modern, effective safety features."
Mr Gay said the reforms would make life easier for families, with P-platers no longer needing to carry an exemption when driving the family vehicle.
Dubbo driving instructor Catherine Barnes, who operates Cee Beez driving school said she would "support anything that saved lives".
She said while banning P-platers from high-powered vehicles might do that, introducing the new laws as part of a suite of measures might be more effective.
"The aim of the new laws is to make it easier for learner drivers to drive their parents' cars," Ms Barnes said.
"It's important to understand you can kill yourself in any vehicle, turbo or not.
"While you don't need a powerful vehicle to die, for every kilometre faster you're going the outcome will be worse.
"Teenagers can tend to push things to the limit, and that's not meant to be insulting to teenagers because we've all been there.
"I would like to see a phase where new young drivers can drive unsupervised but not have passengers.
"I would rather have five individual P-platers driving around me, five concentrating brains, than one vehicle with five distracted teenagers inside. Teenage drivers' friends can be their worst enemies on the road.
"Having said all this, I've never been able to understand why cars are built to go so fast if that's not something you're meant to do.
"I know some people argue that it's for safety during overtaking, but it could be argued that if that was the case, maybe that gap wasn't big enough to overtake in the first place".
Ms Barnes said in her experience teenagers learning to drive had a wide range of ability and confidence levels.
"Some have a frightening confidence that a 17-year-old shouldn't have, a real lack of awareness for life," she said.
A new feature on the Centre for Road Safety website would let P-platers, their families and employers check whether it was legal for them to drive a particular vehicle model.
About 7500 vehicles remained banned for P-platers under the recently-agreed definition.
"Cars that remain banned for P-platers include cars above 130 kilowatts per tonne, and a few models that have performance characteristics that pose a high risk for inexperienced drivers," Mr Gay said.
"For example, the 2007 Subaru WRX has a power-to-mass ratio of 123 kilowatts per tonne, but is banned because it can also go from zero to 100 in less than six seconds."
