If it isn't boy racers thinking they are starring in the next Fast and Furious movie, its people driving real close behind you and overtaking you when you are sticking to the speed limit.

I had a guy today overtake me today, just as we had gone past a speed camera within the speed limit and were driving on the white lines.

Is it the Ferrari taillights? Is it the slashes on the side of the car? Is it the swooping bonnet? What is it about the Coop that invokes this kind of odd and indeed potentially dangerous behaviour?

I've hated driving just lately. I seem to get really distressed with other people driving stupidly!

So, i;ve just not been in the car much at all the past few weeks!

its what im finding out in the last 2 months of ownership,within 3 miles of ownership i had a focus st trying it on,ive had the usual saxo,corsa 1.2 twinports,even had a 2.ol jag trying to get me to race him

I was in Hull and a guy in a big mustang pulled along side me with the roof down at about 11pm on a friday evening!

He kept eyeing up the car and revving it and then once the lights went green he booted it expecting me to do the same!

Lol Me having a turbo or not i wasnt going to try it cos he looked stupid

You know what? I always find its the people in the crappiest cars that try and race you. You think they do it cos they think they'll win or just to try and get you to set off at lightspeed so they can watch?

I find the odd attempt at racing me on the roads, but generally seem to get respect...compared to knocking around in my mates R5 GTT where EVERYBODY wants to race you (including cyclists) it's all pretty tame!

is it the fact that 99% of the country dont know what the car is,and dont realise that just because its not a scooby or evo that it cant be a performance car

this bugs me too, i had a road rage incident a couple of months back.
it really p's me off with the whole tailgate thing, what is the point of it.

JKD wrote

All 3, its kind of a unwanted compliment that they cant wait to overtake a rare good looking car.

I had a chap in a Mini Cooper S undertake me on the A406 just to get one car in front and get stuck behind another car, can't of been worth his petrol

Perhaps their chosen car has a forum with a Vs section
They just want to be able to post to say that their heap of junk (Sorry, pride and joy) just blew away some Italian exotic

come on now bob, have you not had your coffee and anti-grump pills this morning

I Honestly had very little hassle in my Coupe over a period of 2 years and 30k miles. Even when i fitted a an exhaust that was bordering on boy racer levels of noise. Mine was also sprint blue which is one of the more lairy colours in my opinion. I live in a boy racer hotspot as well!

However my Peugeot commuter causes me no end of grief, some people seem to take real offence if I overtake them on the motorway, I also get tailgated frequently. My theory is that there is a stigma attached due to the fact that 99% of people would say its a nail, and maybe I shouldn't be in front of their vastly superior car, and as such feel the need to tailgate. I personally think its a case willy waving if you like.

Anyone else suffer anything similar?

The only hassle I've had in the 911 was from a group of lads in a MG ZR (I think? The Rover 25 that's ram-raided Halfords anyway). I was sat at some traffic lights on a dual carriageway and they pulled alongside. They were revving the nuts of it so I looked over and gave them a little wink. As we pulled away, I sedately accelerated in first so that they were level but deliberately left the gear change late so it sounded like I was trying. The excitement amongst the four spiky-haired youths was reaching fever pitch inside their car as they thought they were giving the old Porker a run for it's money. Then I selected 2nd and opened it up. My only regret was that I never got to see the look on their faces. Generally other cars seem to leave it alone. It does seem to polarise the opinions of pedestrians though. I gets lots of thumbs up, but a fair few Nescafé beans shakes too. It just makes me chuckle, although I have no doubt that if it was a newer one I'd get a lot more grief from all quarters.

My daily hack for work is an old Astra I was given. I've never been tail-gaited by so many German saloons in my life, despite the fact that I never drive it in a sedate manner. I imagine that it wouldn't matter if I was breaking the speed limit on A-roads by a good 30-40% I'd still have BMWs and Audis up my chuff and dangerously overtaking, simply to get past the old banger.

Since I've had my old Merc coupe, I've had no problem with tailgaters and no-one tries to drive agressively around me like they did when I had the Fiat. Probably because half of the people think it looks just like some crummy old Merc and the other half are thinking I'm some council estate drug dealer who drives around tooled up.

It does seem to have significantly more 'road presence' than the Fiat.

*raises hand* I had very little hassle from other drivers in my Coupe, barely any tailgating and no aggressive overtaking that stands out... my first car on the other hand (a 1990 Panda 1000 CL) seemed to be a total tosser magnet, especially on the motorway hauls to and from university (Doncaster to/from Aberdeen)

Every time I overtook someone they seemed to take it as a personal sleight and sped up to get past me... and then inevitably pulled in and slowed down in front of me robbing me of my hard-won momentum!

I always have issues with the fast Skoda's! They must feel the need to race everyone to prove that buying a Skoda is somehow justified. The drivers generally look overweight sweaty faced types who look like they've spent too much time detailing their c**ks!
But as you can see I am not at all bothered

Doesn't Stan drive an Octavia VRS?

Ahh, glad it's not just me then! Classic example on my way to Oxford today, M40, every lane busy, fast lane going slightly faster than middle lane. Anyway I'm in the outside, 1 Series about 1m from my rear bumper. No idea why, no one was getting anywhere quickly. I increased the gap to the car in front, which seemed to annoy the driver of the BMW. Anyway, I pull over into the middle lane as I was getting slightly wound up, and decide to observe the drivers actions behind the BMW that was infront of me. What do you know, they back off and leave a decent gap for the next few miles until they pull off at the next junction!

It seems a P Reg 306 DTurbo is a t1t magnet. Oh well......


Ben

P.s This happens with most modern saloons and hatchbacks, not just the BMW's mentioned in my post above!

I thought they left off some of the hoses on it's last service! not even the mechanics like them (the car stan the car!!)

Nah, that was the sporty Leon that Mrs Stan owns, although that is faster than a standard 20vt Coupé, so she tells me anyway

I thought it was just a local Aussie disease - they just HAVE to be in front, don't they? Last time I drove in Britain I found that most drivers were very polite and obliging. Sorry to hear the problem is so widespread.

I do find though that when I drive my other car (an auto Holden Berlina wagon) that it doesn't happen as much. Perhaps other drivers see such a common vehicle and just don't bother, or maybe I don't care if they get in front?

FWIW worth my experiences are as follows:

When I'm driving the Mrs' car (she goes for little hatchbacks) I get tailgaited very frequently, also get cut up far more often than when I was in the Coupé. I also noticed that when you're sitting at the lights where there are 2 lanes, it's amazing to see that 10 people will line up in the outside line when I'm the only person in the left hand lane! What, do they reckon all ten of them are going to get past me before the lanes merge again?! Her 1.6 SportKa was actually great fun in this situation, far quicker off the line than most other motorists would give credit for.

The Coupé was better for tailgating etc - didn't happen anywhere near as often, and as you were driving along the outside lane of the motorway or a dual carriageway, you'd often see cars moving out of your way, let alone cutting you up as they did in the Mrs car. However, it was amazing how many people would have a go at the lights - boy racers and reps in particular. Whether they knew what the Coupé was or not, it still looks like it's going to be useful, so quite what they thought they were going to achieve is a mystery.

The Monaro is similar to the Coupé in that sense, and if it weren't for the massive twin exhausts it would probably look even more discreet from the back. It gets quite a lot of respect out on the road (probably more due to how big it is, rather than some knowledge of how quick it is etc), but once again the amount of boy racers and reps who try it on at the lights is hilarious.

Classic case the other day, where a baseball capped Saxo driver pulled up alongside me at the lights, absolutely nothing behind me so he clearly fancied his chances. I just don't know what they're thinking though - when I look right, on the side of his car I see "VTS". When he looks left, on the side of my car he sees "500". Clearly Mr Saxo has no clue what that 500 means! Still, it amuses me greatly... sad, I know

I must admit that I get the opposite reaction in the coop, although I do get "invisible car" syndrome quite a lot, where the car seems to be invisible to other drivers for some reason... even though it's bright red! I guess they think "well he dosen't want to scratch that", and come through seemingly oblivious at the many give-way-to-oncoming-car junctions we have around here.

The Volvo S40 I had was probably the worst car for people trying to race off from the lights... pity they didn't see the "T5" bit on the back

I'm not too bad with the local boy racers as I usually get the thumbs up from most of them and they don't bother me (I think it may have something to do with having one of the fastest cars in the village ) .

Baz

Only yesterday I had this. Filling up at the petrol station, some numpton moved off the pumps in an mr2 turbo, bazzed to the 9s. He looked at my car, looked at me, then pumped the throttle a few times to rev his and get his dump valve tishing. I don't mind that sort of thing if it's done with a smile, but he was stony faced and staring.
Chump.

that'd be my cue to laugh at point at him......

What you need is a load of extra horse's stuffed under the bonnet. It never ceases to amaze me whenyou get some in a new merc/bmw/vw/audi 2l diesel thinking that his cars A; Newer ;B faster and that there's no way that you should be in the outside lane 'only' doing 80ish.. Why you should be doing '100+'... What makes me laugh is when you slide over into the middle lane and drop the old girl into forth and then as they try to pass. (It helps here if you let them get right next to you, so you can wave).. Then nail it... Oh the joy when you see them look down and realize that there ain't any more pony's left under the right foot and they look like a right .. I had this happen the other day and you could see this other blokes missus giving him a right bollocking for being a knob. Good laugh though.

I agree with everyones comments above.

I bet sometimes tailgaters want to see if the coupe
can really go, then you end up going faster than
you wanted, the guy behind you is then dictating
how fast you are driving your car.
I'm finding it hard to resist lately,
On A130 (very staight dual lane) Chelmsford to
Battlebridge when a focus tailgated me.
I floored it, 100 leptons came up quick and the focus
vanished to a dot in the rearview. Bet its up for sale today !
I must resist, I must resist, I can't resist. No i really
must resist.

When your driving in the right hand lane sometimes
other drivers ahead pull out from the left and block you coming past, I read that as jealously, or maybe they just drive like normally.

Sometimes at low speeds you can see on-coming drivers deliberately blank you (invisible), "Arrhhh, I cant look at you, your car is cool and I'm jealous, i only have a bog standard mass produced car"

Cars moving over without fuss. Yep, get one or two a day
moving over, im sure they're sports car lovers
and wanna see the car come past.
Bet the coupe looks good coming up in the other cars rear view mirror.

love the coupe. If i had a quid for every mile though
I could afford to buy the parts.