Why do people drive aggressively around the Coop?

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.

I'm not suggesting anything of course, but like most of my Fiat based fodder before it, my LE brake switch clicks quite loud, it also lights the brake lights before it engages the brakes, you can therefore brake without braking!

However, I generally deal with tail gating by slowing down, they'll either overtake and bugger off or just get more annoyed, both a result in my eyes.

G

Don't let this thread degenerate into a vs post, or it *will* be nuked...

A question: if you are in a position to pull over a lane so someone can pass, why aren't you already pulled over? And pulling over, allowing him to come alongside, and then accelerating to illegal speeds? Are you so fond of your license that you don't want it any more?

Although driving in the left is not required in law it *is* advised in the highway code:


However:





From the same act:


And last but not least:


F927UBS and AndyEssex, please draw your own conclusions about the behaviour you are advocating.

Hang loose, guys. The fact that you have a fast car does not mean that you have to prove this on every occasion and is no excuse for inconsiderate or careless driving. Further; another road user's illegal behaviour is no excuse or reason for you also to behave illegally.

Ive just read this thread properly & honestly think like a lot of things in life at the moment , its a post code lottery. I have no problems whats so ever up here, but like ioksosot I do get the invisible car syndrome, its as if some guys don't want to show their true feelings towards the lovely coop.... ..

As a last note I think Ive mentioned before,when I'm filling up with petrol & there is a boy racer type doing the same near me,its like I don't exist, he cant give me eye contact. I, on the other hand am grinning like an idiot watching his every move. .... I know, I'm such a child at times.

Read my post carefully, moved over yep.. No harm in acclerating to a speed and then backing off.. Let the knob in the new car do the 100+... It's not worth your licence or the hassle. I will agree that the worst thing you can do is start driving stupidly on the road. There are other people out there who maybe not as in control as yourself.

Of course there are some people out there who do feel they have a point to prove, and drive like jerks. But I'd suggest that 90%+ of the bad driving you come across is just people making mistakes, failing to read the road, or not really paying attention. Its not personal. I've never noticed a significant pattern of the cars involved either. People always single out modern 'prestige' cars, but I really can't understand why.

Also, many, probably most, motorists drive because they have to, and have no passion for it. They are not jealous of your car, whatever it is, because they are not interested.

point taken on board Barnacle.

Dont want to end up selling the coupe for some
very daft reason.

I must be the lucky one, I dont have people tailgating me or being big willy's near me.

About the only thing I dislike is people who have right have lane syndrome on the motorway (or an extreme aversion to driving on the left). This is particulary bad on the M11, sometimes the left hand is empty but drivers just dont want to travel in them.

I even saw a driving instructor last week who was stuck at 65 ish in the right hand land and refused to allow any of the four cars behind to overtake. Despite the middle and inside lanes being free

Luckily I am sensible driver so I didn't move to the inside lane and undertake.

personly i think that most motorway users have no CLUE of the speed limit on a motorway. for example the speed limit as everyone knows here is 70mph. now when your doing 70mph i wouldnt even dare venture into the right hand lane of fear of being tailgated,flash and being shown hand signals (giving the bird)
I also think too that the traffic police are abit lenient towards speeders on the motorway, i mean how many times have you been doing 65 - 70mph with a police car a couple of cars ahead of you in the same lane on the motorway. And being overtaken on the right with cars doing well over 70mph. its happen to me a few times now. i cant be the only one.

grrrrrr

anyway rant over

steve

EFA

This really hacks me off - if you are not overtaking then move over. UK drivers are the worst at this...they only seem to get the message when you put your lights on full beam or go past on the inside on full boost.

was at a set of traffic lights today, when a guy from behind, comes into the lane to the right of me, with his car stationary a foot in front of mine. it seemed to me that he would turn right when the lights turned green. instead he goes right in front of me and accelerates off into the distance.

i gain comfort from the fact that i have a decent looking car that people feel they must be in front of as having its pretty ass in their face must really annoy them.

I honestly have never had this happen to me in 2 years of Coupe ownership and I spend a lot of time on the motorways. However when I owned my old S14a it was a completely different story. I think your cars image is everything...

They aren't lenient, these other cars simply aren't speeding. While you're merrily trotting along with your speedo on 65-70mph in the inside lane, those in the outside lane are having to stay out there because you're doing an actual 62-68mph. If you're in the second lane and doing less than an indicated 80mph, then get the hell over, you're a hazard.

Police will generally only nick you when you really taking the piss on a motorway. I'd say 85mph+ as a rule as long as you're not driving dangerously. That means 92mph+ on your speedo. The sooner people realize this, the sooner motorways will start to function properly.

80-90mph + a proper 2 second gap (read 70-80 metres) is perfectly safe.

If you're in the second lane and there's space in the inside lane to stay there more than fifteen or twenty seconds, then get the hell over, you're a hazard.

If you want to travel at high speed in the same lane and following the same car with your brain turned off, get on the train.

trappy i never said i was in the middle lane. unless im overtaking lorries or coaches that are limited, you're see me using the outside lanes to overtake. Which can be easily done at 65mph maybe 70mph if needed. in which im using, as you should the two outside lanes to overtake. i really dont see how you can call me a hazard when im sticking to the..... oh wait.... what do you call it...... oh yes, the law!!

steve

i think trappy is pointing out the vagaries of speedos - they routinely read 5 - 10% more than the speed you're actually doing, so when you think your doing 70mph you may well only be doing 63mph....

Ikon and Trappy, you are both wrong.

The Law clearly states that Coupe owners can do whatever the hell they want...it's in section whatchamacallit paragraph doodah!


True story...

really? i never knew speedos can be out.... which is a little worrying

Yes but if you're being followed by one of Stan's mates, they'll go by the speed on their speedo. And if that speed happens to be reading 80mph then I'd guess you'll be seeing blue flashy things in your rear view mirror

Interesting point about the speedos generally though. In my Coupé I noticed that the speed reported on my sat nav was always lower than the speed on the dial in front of me. Always. In the Monaro my sat nav (the same sat nav system) shows EXACTLY what's on the speedo at all times.

Curious.

i guess that's why on a motorway if you're driving in a safe manner you are unlikely to be pulled at anything under 77mph....it could also be that stan will come along and refute this...

Speedos must not under-read but can over-read by something like up to 10%. Most speedos will over-read. Sat nav is a better guide, but be wary - on gradients a sat nav will under-read.

I've seen this quoted various places, but have never found out the reasoning behind it. Any one know?

GPS relies on knowing location in three dimensions (from satellite ephemeris data) and velocity is simply change in location over change in time. Maybe sat navs only use 2 out of the 3 coordinates to calculate velocity? I've never seen anything confirming this though (and I also don't know *anything* about sat nav software!).

And *if* sat navs only do work in 2D, the impact of gradient should be pretty small ...



I'd think that the sampling delay in working out speed would probably lead to bigger inaccuracies?

Speedos may be miscalibrated +15%/-0% so most manufacturers will aim for +7.5%. I find the coupe's speedo to be quite accurate; within 2 or 3mph at seventy, but as expected it reads faster than the satnav.

Satnavs calculate speed by measuring distance over a fixed time. The distance is line of sight, not road distance, so on wiggly roads or steep inclines it can read a little low.

2D navigation is inherently less accurate than 3D - it requires only three visible satellites so the calculated circle of confusion is larger.

Either way I still think it's risky to do 77mph in a 70mph road and assume you'll be okay because your speedo might be 10% over. Yes, you probably will get away with it..but is it worth the risk?

As you are given a 10% leniency on the speed limit anyway, 77 is a perfectly safe speed to drive



Oh on a motorway of course



Through the school car park is not advised

Now this I can get my brain around However rather than a "steep incline", wouldn't the problem be a changing incline (much the same as its a "wiggly" road)? (In that the line of sight difference between the two sampled 3D positions is shorter than the distance travelled.) And in these cases the underread should be quite small (unless there are very sudden changes in direction)?


Agreed But three is the minimum number needed ... and most the time you'll see/ lock on to more than this. So is it that sat navs only use data from three satellites? (As I mentioned above, I know nothing about sat nav software )

Guessing here: there's a limited amount of time to process the position, so you'd *probably* write the software to just use four, or at a pinch, three satellites. However you'd want to use satellites as far apart as possible for improved precision. The inbuilt ephemeris will tell you what should be visible; I'd *suggest* that it would select the four most widely-separated satellites it can see, and go for more only if it gets signal loss from one or more - urban canyon thingy.

But I'm guessing from a reasonable knowledge of how the system works but no detailed knowledge of the actual software.

I would suggest the the software will look for combination of the most widely spaced satellites and those providing a strong signal. Also consider that atmospheric conditions and reflected signals can also impact accuracy.

At least the selective availability has been turned off which should help.

I never have any trouble with people wanting a race but the coupe is the worst car I've ever driven for people tailgating through 30mph limits.
Doesn't matter if it's young boy racers or middle aged women there's always someone up your chuff.

It's really noticeable compared with the other car I drive regularly

I get tailgated frequently in the coupe (have had this problem since my first one), when i drive my mums car, my dads van or one of my friends cars i dont have this problem. I think its a combination of 1. It's a rare, striking car so people want to keep up with it to see what it is and what it's capable of, 2. People have read about them/seen them on tv and heard how quick they are 3. Sheer jealousy, not realising that they could buy one with their pocket money and why arent we driving an a3, 1/3/5 series, mini, audi a5 like them. I personally just let them get on with it or sometimes i brake slightly to see if they back off, if not i just let them overtake as im not going to risky damaging my coupe in a potential accident, it does wind me up though as im generally a relaxed, 'normal' driver

I don't have much in the way of the problems with this that aren't caused by the fact that I drive like an old man these days!

I just stick to the inside lanes of motorways and stick to the limit wherever I am, I don't know why, my license is currently non endorsable and I could get away with murder but I like driving steady these days.

Don't get me wrong, I do give it a cuffing every now and again, but most of the time I drive it like any other car.

I do notice people driving up to my rear in 30 and 40 zones a lot, why this is I don't know, maybe to get a look, maybe an alpha male thing (and it's always males) but I just cruise along, if they want to get past then they are welcome to it.

The above is all good for the petrol consumption as well, so far on a full tank and without thinking green or anything, I've just passed 200 miles on less than 1/2 a tank, 60 miles of that was motorway, the rest has been the roads around Hawarden and Broughton in N.Wales as I go to work and a few trips into Chester on the back roads.

Pull over and let them by, if they want a race, let them find a fellow chav to pick on!

G

For some reason when I'm driving the coupe on the dual carriageway to work everybody seems to feel the need to drive in the outside lane infront of me, even when not overtaking anything. Just a random car or van does it for no reason. Never ever happened to me in the Golf.

I had some tw*t drive at me through a pinch point in the road yesterday when I had right of way. I tooted my horn at him and he got out of my way eventually.

Then he reversed at warp speed about 300 yards down the road to follow me, got out, came over to my door and opened it.
I got out and he's all shouty and punches me on the chin
Couldn't punch for toffee, didn't hardly feel it
Pushed him on his and asked him what his problem is, told him he was in the wrong... told him that I was sure he had a problem with something in his life if he was acting like that, and that it probably wasn't me. He went beserk, so I offered him two options... get in his can and F off, or pick his teeth up from the pavement before doing the same... he took option 1.

Unbelievable. I'd never even think of getting so aggro about somebodies driving and starting a fight, especially if they were bigger than me

I find almost the opposite, I find when I drive my mothers Micra, I get people trying to bully me around on the road. As an example, I'm in Joe's 206 coutesy car at the mo, and on Monday afetrnoon, I had a 7.5 tonner pull next to me in the right hand lane while I was in the left, his indicator came on and he starts to turn left on the sliproad, with me in the way! He had just tried to avoid the traffic behind me and cut across to save some time but that doesn't happen in the Coupe, always when I'm in a smaller car.

to be fair i never get anyone really diving like a when i am in my coop.
when i had my skylines though it was impossible to drive without having a idiot talegating or trying to race or being a . you get fed up very quickly of it.

Around here I just wouldn't feel right without some chavvy skum parked in my boot in a Saxo/Imprezza hybrid with an exhaust you could loose a small dog in (how do they think this
A. looks good?
B. Sounds good?
C. Doesn't in anyway reaffirm our suspicions that they are indeed nobbards!?)

Is nice to let them start overtaking you out of a 30 limit, slip down to 3rd n bugger off wiping their stupid burberry smile off their face.

Just had it at quarter to 8 going to work, it's too early guys, I'm in no mood for w*****s 10 mins after I get up!

Only ever had problems with BMW's esp the Dielsel ones. Like they are required to justify there exsistance everytime they drive there car.

Everyday...

best bet is to ignore them, most can't drive to save there life and normally a company car if is and exec car or a loung lad who can't drive and i wqasn't will to ruin my r34 skyline or my life baiting them whats the point we both know whats the better car!
same goes with the coop i would just ignore it and leave the little hussles for when you encounter other like maind people with cars i think are a good match or something fun to play with..

I recognize everything written here! Also that people move aside when approaching an overtake, which is a plus.

All changes when I swap to my Punto.. People don't care BUT move IN MY WAY of overtaking.. (which is rather dangerous).

Sadly, I don't think it makes much of a difference what you drive. There are everywhere...

I've noticed something the last couple of times we've had a midlands meet, at the Darlaston (roundabout car park) in Stone.

As soon as other road users spot a few nice cars together, they feel the need to 'give it some' as they're passing. Not sure what they're trying to prove, mind