tailgating
 

I just saw a comment about people who always tailgate porsches. This is SO true.. I HATE it..Mostly bigass pickups..I think it has to do with the whale tail..but maybe all 911s..I feel like getting out of car at stop sign and telling them to F+++ off. It brings out road rage I havent felt in years.It bothers me a lot. Does this bother anybody else?? what do you do about it?? thanks

I know exactly what you mean - except here in Europe it is the 'white van man'
I had it only last night on the way home!
I jabbed my brakes - which I know is dangerous because he might just be lighting a cigarette, or chatting on his mobile and not notice the brake lights - especially as he is too close to even see them!!!
The worse thing here is the French cut corners - blind corners! trying to take the 'racing line' in their Renault 'Twingos' - as if it would get them home any quicker????

- This is when I wished I could flick as switch and let neat gas flow through the exhaust and light them up in flames!
Unfortunately my 930 does not even spit flames (as far as I know)

Drives me crazy. Now I usually slow down and let them pass but they are mostly wanting to see the car so they just get pissed and eventually pass. When in my truck it's tap the brakes.

It's one of my biggest peeves. I've never driven a car before that elicits such strange responses. When you are following somebody, they seem to drive slower, but when you are in front of them, they usually ride your butt.

This really get my blood boiling. Especially when they inch up even closer at a stop light or sign. I use all the tricks, tap the brakes, put on the turn signal and keep going, swerve a little. I think it has to do with the fact that the car is small by today's standards and drivers don't get the same sense of space perception. When i used to ride a motorcycle i felt the same way.

In Montreal we have the kids with the old beat up lowered Civics sporting stove pipe mufflers that always want to race you and are right up your A$$ on the highway !
I just move over and let them by,although i always wondered how many laps they could do at Circuit Mont Tremblant before driving off into the woods ... lol

Cheers !
Phil

This is certainly my experience. At night, when you're just another a pair of headlights, there seems to be no such issues. Cheers

Younger age? Speed up a lose them.

Now? Pull over and let them by. Not as much fun, but much safer and easier on the pocket book!

Al

I tend to slow, and invite them to pass.

A few decades ago, I had used a brief flick of my four-way flashers to alert a tailgater to my wish he back off. After he finally went by in his old pick-up with the cobbled together wooden body, he pulled in front of me and hit his brakes hard enough to momentarily lock his rear wheels! He and his buddies had a good laugh.

We took his plate number and pulled into the local RCMP station as we went by.

I could see them discussing my turn into the Police station, but it came to nothing. It was the weekend and no one was around. I let it drop.

From time to time, I see the programmable license plate frames and am tempted with thoughts of messages such as: "Back Off A**hole"

Best
Les

I know what u mean exactly. Two teenage girls insisted on riding my bumper for several blocks. They were laughing their heads off in their small car like it was party time. I changed lanes a couple of times to shake them. Fortunately my Boxster is old , 2001 but still dont like any damage done, even bumper rash. In case sometimes rams into the back of me , I will try and stay calm. It's not like it is a 2012 911. :eek::)

".Mostly bigass pickups."
Yep, especially the one's jacked up five feet with air craft sized tires on. The real problem is they don't understand how fast a Porsche can stop and their big ass truck can't so in an emergency situation they'll more than likely crush you and your car under them.

I have always wanted to engineer a concealed gravel launcher. Something to shoot out gravel right at the windshield of a tailgater. Something that would look like typical road debris, but shot at the tailgater with enough force to chip paint and crack windshields. Unfortunately it would take a shop like the Mythbusters to make it work and I don't have access to that.

A nice oil mister would be convenient as well, makes a mess of the windshield. No real damage, just good clean fun.

I don't want to chip paint and break windshields, but I would like to be able to pour .177cal BBs out that would barrage the front of their car. Bad oil smoke would be nice to have on command too. I'd use them against tailgaters and left lane bandits.

I don't brake check. I'll just gradually slow down or occasionally, I'll speed up.

The problem with that is that the little brained folks that do it would just be incited to screw with you even more if you flashed that at them.

How bout the a hole who flashes his headlights as you are in the middle of passing a line of cars or trucks.

Depends. If the line of cars or trucks is going 55 and you're passing them going 56, then no, I have no sympathy.

Funny, I have never seen tailgating being directed specifically at Porsches, mine included. Maybe because they are nothing special in So Cal? Or it could be that everyone drives on the bumper of the car in front no matter what...

It definitely happens more in the 911 than in the 924. I don't really acknowledge the tailgater's existence. If I do anything, it is slow down. It seems to REALLY irritate people when my car is cold and I accelerate gently. When people are being dumb, I decide my engine is cold...

In NY state this exact thing happened to me. I accelerated to get away from the unmarked truck and he followed me keeping pace, then all of a sudden hit the wailer and lit me up. According to the Lawyer I hired to fight the case its a standard State Police tactic here.

It appears to be some sort of peculiar mindset with more than a few of the 4 X 4 crowd. I am in no way tarring them all with the same brush. There is a disproportionate number of them (forget about any 'situational awareness' with respect to their vehicle's dimensions)who haven't the first clue of how inherently unstable some of their more radically modified machines may be under less than ideal situations. These situations being, some evasive action may be necessary & that is when the $sch1t hits the fan. Too many of these 'offenders' - tailgaters et al. - leave no room for error thus making things a little more than tense for the rest of us in our 'normal sized' vehicles. Just sayin'..........

Cheers
JB

Yes, not all truck drivers, but there does seem to be a group of truck drivers that are driving the trucks, I suspect, to feel like the "big man" and will use the trucks to intimidate folks. I used to get it more in the 911, I still get it, but less in the miata. Oddly, I think I got it more in my old black miata than I do now in the bright red miata with a tail.

me again, Only reason I dont get out of car,Im not 20 years old anymore,and many redneck types carry guns in their cars in case they see a deer thay can shoot from their car.(just kidding hunters out there)lol

People tailgating me in the 911 was the absolute worst thing about that car! For some reason, guys with pickups would try to see how close they could get to my bumper and it drove me nuts!!

Don;'t get out of the car unless you have stellar witnesses or video. Trust me.

I'm with Max. An old 911 in SoCal is nothing. Everyone is tailgating everyone else.

In Long Beach the speed limits don't often fit the street and they damn sue don't fit the drivers' idea of what the speed limit should be. The main street i use in and out of the neighborhood is a 35 MPH and people don't do but 30 most of the time.

I'm always on someone's ass.

OTOH, another street nearby is a 25 but it's wider. So people are doing 35 and they are on my ass. Anytime I see the radar and I have a follower, I slow down and move to the right. When they blast by they are in the beam. I don't get much better pleasure in life than to see that.

Honestly, around here the worst tailgaters tend to be the drivers of "luxury cars".
Your Beemers, lexus, Infinitys, Caddys etc etc... they think they have some sort of road entitlement.

This is why a sunroof is good - you just toss your beer bottles out and see if they hit the offending driver behind you. It is well worth losing the 5 cent deposit.

Gud idear Webbie....unless it's the POPO trolling fer speeders....

On my Jetta I can turn the windshield washers on above 60MPH and most of the water ends up on tailgaters car.:D

I love it when they are so close you can't see the headlights anymore.

But if they are drafting you the water should just go over both cars?

I'm talking about a couple of feet not inches.

Some old Porsches have that.:D

Actually you can open the sunroof and flip pennies straight upward without being noticed doing it. I always keep a few in the ashtray:cool:

I had a guy riding my bumper one night on the way home. After a few miles I sped up to put some distance between us. A few seconds later he was right back on my bumper. I pulled over to let him go by. He pulled up along side of me and rolled down the widow.
"What's your problem" he asked me.
"Get off my ass"
He drove away. He was a cop from the next town over.