Nikev

I am developing a new habit which may be wrong.I am fortunate to live in a scenic area with a great barrier island/water view drive.The ride is a 15 mile cruise 50-55mph(limit 45)without stop signs/lights or much entry/exit traffic. It ends with a poorly banked 90'turn marked at 25mph. I often pass (with respect)on this road as I'm not a tourist and know the view. In the last week I have removed two drivers from my C2's rear bumper by downshifting and accelerating through this turn.One was a viagra/viper owner, the other firebird/country kind of guys. I guess both wanted to "race" only after being passed while they were going less than limit.Interestingly they took different paths through the bushes,drainage ditch,and empty lot...the viper holding the road longer.My girlfriend was with me the 1st time and thinks I was mean. A buddy was along the 2nd time.He wanted to get out and "talk" to the others before the turn but now can't stop laughing about it. While I know I'm not making new friends fast I'm not losing much sleep either.

Sooo...am I wrong?

Dallas Spikes

Well, yeah that is kind of mean, but honestly I'm having a hard time stopping myself from laughing! I'm assuming no one was injured/drowned etc. Once again the old adage "know your limits" comes to mind. I would never push any car to the edge (no pun intended) on unfamiliar territory.

-Chris

MAVERICK

I don't think you're wrong. You know the territory and they don't. Like Dallas said, it's common sense that you don't drive like a nut on a road you've never been on. Can you imagine the disasterous results if Mika or Michael would drive their F1 cars flat out on a course that they have never studied nor taken a single practice lap?

basil

Set up a video camera at the ingress and egress of the corner. And mail their wives a copy. I'm sure this forum would like to see your handiwork as well.

c4m5

Wrong??? Gee I wouldn't say it was your fault that they drove poorly in a situation they put themselves in. Who ordered them to try and keep up?

A-Train

You never know what kind of crazy guy you might tick off and how far he might be willing to take things... listen to what happened to me yesterday and then this morning, and I wasn't even inciting anything (really). I was just trying to go visit my grandmother on a casual Sunday yesterday and get a cup of coffee today. This kind of craziness didn't happen to me before when I had much sportier cars, such as a 911 Turbo, except for maybe once in a blue moon. Now, perhaps this is simply a statistically unlikely set of events. Is this an M5 thing? Believe me, I'd be the first to admit if I were baiting people.

Event #1: I'm on a medium speed (25 mph) and long one lane off-ramp. I'm going a very reasonable speed, not crawling nor going too fast, and some guy in a Town Car is maybe 5 feet off my rear bumper and stays that close for 10 seconds or so. I take my foot off the gas to let the engine brake the car a few mph and to indicate to the guy to back off just a bit, since the ramp still had a ways to go, maybe 1/8 of a mile. The guy just proceeds to get closer, maybe 2-3 feet off my bumper, literally. So I tap my brake just enough to get the rear brake light to turn red and let him know to back off. Now, really, I have done nothing to get this guy to tailgate me and I twice took kind measures to get him off my rear end for safety's sake. He continues to stay on top of me, even raising his hand and giving a face expression that says towards me "what's going on here, buddy?" Finally, I realize this guy has it in for me with him staying on top of me, so I downshift and scoot away, nothing crazy in speed, but making a bit of a chunk of space open up and I then settle into a normal traffic-flow speed. By this time the ramp is about to end and feeds into a three lane tunnel. The same guy then comes whizzing by my left at 70 mph, then swerves into my lane and slams on his brakes and comes to a near stop -- in the middle of light-medium volume flowing traffic! I literally had to do full-on braking to avoid hitting his rear bumper. Fortunately, nobody was close to me from behind. No kidding, I was maybe 6-12 inches away from hitting the Town Car's rear bumper. I honestly thought I was going to hit him -- not one of those "oh, we were so close" things but one of those "somebody was watching over me and I don't know how I didn't hit him" things. Then, the guy shifts over one more lane, now he's to my right (I was in the middle of 3 lanes) and going my same speed and he keeps jumping into my lane, about a full foot into my lane and so maybe 2 lateral feet from hitting me, as though he is going to try to knock me off the road, just like they do in the movies. I pay no attention to him and after he does this three of four times, he speeds away. I wasn't able to get his plates just yet so I sped up for a few seconds, got the plate info, and then let him go. If the guy is that unreasonable, who knows what else he'd do? Not worth it to me to find out, so I resumed my normal traffic flow pace and let him go.

Event #2: I'm exiting the drive-thru of a Dunkin Donuts, having picked up some coffee. The drive-thru-lane shares the exit to the street with the regular parking customers, so the regular customer lane (the ones they follow to exit) merges with the drive-thru lane, at which place people follow the normal rules of traffic and society to let whoever is closest to the exit to flow out first. Anyway, I begin to leave the drive-thru window (about 5 feet from where the lanes begin to merge and maybe 20 feet from the main road, and some big red pickup tries to leap in front of me to get out first. For him to go out first at this time means I'd have to hit my brakes, but he then slowed down, and so I continued to proceed at the same constant pace (a few miles an hour -- you couldn't really go faster even if you tried). No big deal, I figured, a little misunderstanding. Then, this truck creeps up so our cars' mirrors are close to touching, but I know he has to stop because he has no lane to proceed into. He has to wait for me, or so I thought. He ends up driving up over the curb to his right (I'm on his left) so that he can get into traffic before me. Finally, as traffic enables me to flow into the street, this truck keeps right on going, bouncing all over the place over the curb and back down into the street, landing with such a thud you'd think he busted something underneath the car. Then, both passenger and driver turn fully around and give me the finger. At this point they then had to take a left and I was continuing straight.

Am I missing something here?
- A-Train

MAH

A-Train,

In your 1st example I know what I would have done. When someone puts my life in danger and does it on purpose not once but several times, he is fair game for whatever I can do to put him off the road and in the ground. This may seem extreme, but it is just these type of people that are going to kill someone else and walk away. These people have no right to be on the road and if I can help take them off, then by all means I will. Since I was not here it is a little difficult to say what specifically I would have done. Glad you were not hurt, although I am sure that hard stop put your heart in your mouth. Thank goodness for the great brakes.

Example #2, there are always some people that are always going to act in this manner, nothing you can do about it. Look at it this way, look at the life they must lead.

Just my opinion.

bobafett

Crazy drivers out there, I know. I had an incident similar to yours with the towncar, only the guy rolled down his window and tried to spit at my car too. WTF?

Maybe I should give 'em a reason and get the plate "FU Q"

Are there any means by which to prevent such a$$holes from getting back on the road? I know how lax the DMV is and how pathetic most drivers are, but surely there is somebody to whom we can report such incidents (not highway patrol, they don't give a f**k. they'd much rather ticket you and spill jelly donut all over themselves)/

--Dan

John H

A-Train:
It amazes me what people will do from the relative anonymity of their cars. Can you imagine that type of behavior while standing in line at a store? No way! These people with road rage have serious issues, and this is their chance to vent. While most of them will go away eventually, one of them might not. It isn’t worth to me to ever find one of the really crazy people out there, so I always try to get separation as soon as possible. I have too much to lose and nothing to gain.

A-Train

OK, now I know I'm not crazy. I just told a friend at work about the Dunkin Donuts chain of events and the same thing happened to him the other day!!! He drives a Saab 900, by the way, so it's not just an M5 thing.
- A-Train

KnightRider

ok guys maybe its just movies but reading your posts, i wondered whethere you have ever thought that instead of spitting on your car or braking in front of you the guy may just pull out a gun and shoot you or your car???
ok i know that you cant carry guns in the car, etc all that s*** but there are sociopaths who obey their own laws.
just to add that this is not a movie stuff...i read an article sometime ago, how in the midday guy shot the other one just because that one raced him from the street lights and won, then the killer sat in his car and drove away...
i know LA isnt like a moscow city but still...
as far as for my attitude on the roads...i never try to enrage people on the road or teach them a lesson, however harmless they look and whatever car they drive...if they are chasing you why dont you let them through? is it a sign of weakness? more like a sign of a more intense brain activity being present in your head than in his.
now, to realize what are the possible consequences of a little race or unfriendly behaviour...would you try to kick someone off the road in your m5? unthinkable, out of line, isnt it?
well if it is unthinkable for you then it doesnt mean that it is so for everyone else on the road...so basically what im saying is that dont rely on other people's common sense when driving and expect everything...do you really think that he cares if he puts a dent on his rusted out truck...oh yes he does if he put a dent on your m5 too.
one of the samurai laws states that when exiting your house behave yourself in the streets as you would if you were on an enemy territory...that may be taking it a bit too far, but certainly there is some truth to this saying about being alert and cautious, but not aggressive, because an aggression is a sign of weakness as you all know.
or maybe i am just paranoid and should be riding bmw tricycle these days.
and "friendly" students at my bro's college already had spat on the m5 when my father was picking him up, slapped roadster's soft top when it was up too.
just my 4 ptas at $1=200 ptas.
take care all and safe driving



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SL

bobafett