Road Rage

[Ringmaster]

Is it me, or does anyone else out there think driving an older car brings out the worst in other drivers?

Early this morning a 'lady' in a some sort of Honda SUV would not let me in front of her as two lanes of traffic merged into one. Thanks to the early hour there was nothing else coming the other way.

It's not the first time this has happened to me when two lanes of traffic start to merge. One white van pillock was prepard to force my family and I into the oncoming lane if need be a few years ago! I can see why people feel angry enough to get out and attack the other driver.

However, I do feel that some drivers take one look at my 80, see the A-reg and immediately hate it. I can sometimes see them anxious to get by me.

Am I alone on this?

Happy New Year everyone and thanks to Coxy for his efforts

[Coxy]

Yup! I think 99.4% of the population think old car = slow!

That's makes the 0.6% of us who driver old cars know that 99.4% of the population are in fact cocks!

[Addicted]

Its definatly an old car thing. My daily transport is a rather shabby 83 mk1 Golf and I reckon I get cut up every single day, no one will ever let me out of a junction and if on the rare occasion I'm traveling fast and come up behind a lane hogger they take one look in the mirror, see an old car and stay put. The worst for me is roundabouts, my mk1 will go round roundabouts quickly without any fuss, the only problem is that other drivers see it coming, think "slow old car" and pull out on me...

When I used my V6 typ89 Audi 80 for work it was a very very very different story.

[stuartmmcfc]

Originally Posted by Coxy

Yup! I think 99.4% of the population think old car = slow!

I love it when some idiot pulls along side my "old audi" at traffic lights, not to get stuck behind the jalopy, and then have to wipe the egg of their faces a few seconds later.
Mind you, I do have to know what some turbo diesels will do now, 0-60, to avoid getting egg on my face!

[86audicoupe]

I'm with you all on this, some people drive in a very twatish manner with no consideration for other drivers!

I get two reactions from drivers - one being my car is old and knackered and is just getting in the way! The other being that the person behind/alongside thinking it's a quattro (shamefully badged!) and then try and give me a blast or get past me. I will say they usually fail at this! The old girl is a lot quicker than they think! I've always got the noisey exhaust to scare them away!

[4v6]

Before the golf got seriously modified, it ran a 1.8 litre injected passat engine, on an undersized carb from a 1.6 scirrocco.
This meant that it it had absolute shedloads of torque low down ( 144 foot pounds at just 3000rpm) which made it quite a hoot to drive.
The paintwork....well it was left sprayed in primer red, looked like a right bag of tat and hardly ever got cleaned so of course the word "banger" must have been on the minds of those who encountered it and treated it with the disdain to which others have alluded.

Most always was the last mistake they made in underestimating the powers of a 30 year old motor....

[TheTwelveQuidKid]

I don't know if it's just older cars that bring out inconsiderate and / or dangerous driving in others, or if driving standards and skills have massively decreased. I used to get a lot of twats pulling out in front of me on roundabouts when I was in the e28 5 series BMW, but 2 weeks ago, some muppet pulled out of a petrol station forecourt and crashed into the front of it. Since then, I've been driving an 08 plate Volvo s40 courtsey car, and people still take liberties. I've had at least 3 near misses in it so far. One thing I have noticed though. When I drive my J reg Volvo 940 estate, they take the piss far less. Granted they might start overtaking a parked car on the other side of the road, but when they see a 6 foot wide swedish barge heading straight at them, they shit themselves and move out of the way, quick. Twunts.

[bart simpson]

hi read your article on road rage i do agree the roads are a night mare as a hgv driver i get this every single day of the week. i have been cut up by car/van drivers pulling in at the last exit marker on the motorway try stopping one of these wagons with a full load at 56mph. I have driven abroad and i think we have some of the worst drivers ever in this country. women the rudest what comes out of there mouth is quite something they have taken overi think. I would like to take them from there car and sit them in my cab and then they would realise the complete skill you need to drive an hgv vehicle but they would shit them selves let alone get vertigo. this country over congested on the roads , I also drive a audi 200 quattro and a cosworth scorpio and everytime i go out theres someone waiting for a race.

[Isimmo]

I tend to find it not too bad really, I expect some of that comes from driving the RallyRep... As all those who've got one, or indeed the real thing, most people tend to notice them and the last thing you do is entertain any Tom foolery, because it's pretty conspicuous.

The Ur and S2 don't seem too bad either, but I apply the same principle as the RallyRep, but you've got to remember there's a lot of old folk about down here...

[Booty]

Love the S6 for this reason. Oh the old Audi is in the way, says the BMW 535D driver the other day on the M6, so I'll melt his rear bumper with my Zenons. One kickdown later and we have opened up a 200 hundred yard gap, just like that. You gain some respect playing those games with the modern rep mobile set.