370z's Bring Out the Crazies
 

Gentlemen,

What is it about Z cars that bring out the idiots who have to prove themselves by tailgating, or trying to pass, or get ahead of you to the next light?

I'm old enough to have owned a 71 Datsun 240Z, an 84 300ZX, a 90 300ZX and now this 370Z Roadster, and every one of them has attracted some young kid with a backwards ball cap driving a 14 year old Civic who wants to tailgate. Then there's the macho, tatooed, redneck, driving a jacked up 2500 pickup that wants to pass and pull right in, two feet in front of me.

I avoided buying the Boxster and the Z4 to try and get away from these morons, but the Z's I've owned over the years seem to attract them like bees to honey.

Am I the only 68 year old Z owner who this happens to?

Gene

No, Same stuff happens to me and several members here. I use to try and get away from them, but that only made things worse. Hate to do it, but I have found slowing down and turning on my turn signal helps.

I too have "been around the block" similar to the OP.

Maybe a bit more...

From my experience,the moron wanting to race you differs by area. At least here in the
U.S.

I tend to take examples from the guys that really have the hot machines like Porsche
Turbos ,upward to a Ferrari and if you are fortunate to spot,a Koenigsegg.
These guys don't play the game. For sure,they can blow off most of the competition.
They tend to drive the speed limit(maybe a bit over---)and,enjoy what they have.

Nothing to prove.

So should you.

You're not alone. I swear there's a button in the driver's seat that turs on a "Ride my ***!" sign out back.
It doesn't matter if it's a Hyundai Santa Fe or a Camaro. They pull right on up there. I'll take off, every once in a while, and put a quick hundred yards between us and slow back down, but pretty soon, they're right back to sniffing my hatch. After that, I just slow down til they pass and go on about my business. Muttering the whole time.
Fortunately, I don't seem to attract the attention of the riced out civics. They seem to be more over around Houston.

Kirk B.

For some reason I always have people rev next to me at lights, even if there are cars in front of us...


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Everyone where I live seems to be of the OP's age bracket... so I rarely get bothered.

I used to do that to Priuses (Priusii?) when I had my Shelby. I didn't want to race it, I just knew it would take them all day to recoup the energy and smog from those couple of revs.....

Kirk B.

Gene - I'm 71 years old and only drive my Z on weekends. I get the same as you. Maybe I should take the Z out during the week instead of the weekend. Sometimes I get pretty upset and I will give a gesture to the tailgater and they will just go around me and return the gesture.

ya.. last time a tesla try to rev-up at the light but couldn't.... :bowrofl:

one time I was talking with a bimmer owner, a very nice and educated gentleman..

he told me nowadays instead of giving them a finger, he actually blow a kiss to the driver... that cranks me up and he told me it works better than a finger... much better... :icon18::icon18:

Gonna have to try that. :cool:

Kirk B.

Just a thought, but are you guys having the correct perception of the situation? I had a brother in law who had the 6 cylinder Mustang, he thought half the guys pulling up next to him wanted to race him. Especially those 60+ year old guys that would pull up next to him in a Z. ;)

Joking about the 60+ year old guys but serious about my brother in laws perception. I disliked riding with him.

If you have something sharp looking and nice the crazies come out of the woodwork. Just do your thing and they will go away.

This is what I wished would happened to those immature dumbasses

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps4mk9hgr4.gif

Thats actually what I do sometimes. :roflpuke2:

I'm 61. I get the blow-bys, the rev until the limiter kicks in idiots. I just laugh at them. But every once in awhile. I won't brake for a turn and see if these idiots can hang.

omg Thank you! i thought it was just in NY and paranoya. Whats crazy is people driving mustangs and camaros and vets driving in my area dont get bothered. I drive in the right lane doing 45mph and clowns flock to me like flys on dodo. Every day is a challege for me to not to socome to roadrage:mad::driving::mad:

I get a jack *** every day pull up to my passenger side window pace me and then fly by doing 100mph but instead of going about there business thee morons proceed to slam on there brakes and do the whole dam thing over again at least 3 times !

Driving the Z is easy compared to the motorhome. My motorhome is 41ft long, plus add a Grand Cherokee that I'm towing. I'm around 60+ft in total length, and 41,000 lbs in weight. I get idiots who pass me, then pull right in front of me. Then slam on the brakes for a red light. Leaving me with little room to slow down in time. Then I get the morons who expect me to slow down or move over when they are merging from an on ramp. They got the yield sign, I don't. :mad: Air horns will do wonders for a sleeping/texting driver. :eek: :rofl2: I do get a good view of shenanigans going on in the passing car or truck. :eek::rofl2:

Love it, I can attest to this as well. I also enjoy the occasional mini van moms in their joyous attempts to "take me" at the light.

Sadly it frequently happens to me.

That's because you live where the rest of North America retires :icon17:

I've found that driving about 15 mph over the speed limit seems to avoid a lot of encounters. Most people don't want to go more than 5-10 mph over the speed limit, so they generally don't try to keep up with me. And the ones that do keep up often want to go faster than 15 mph over, so I let them pass me.

Or just find some turns, like Rusty says. It's amazing how many Porsche drivers I've seen fly past me on the highway only to get stuck behind them going agonizingly slow on the curved exit ramp (and I'm in my wife's Accord!) :shakes head:

It doesn't happen to me often with the Z. When I had a C5 Corvette, it was unbearable. I got rid of that car in part because of it.
I've found that I get a lot of respect with the Z. I've only had one situation where a BRZ driver wanted to race me on a Highway. I just ignored him. It isn't worth losing my license or getting my car impounded. That is what they do to anyone caught in the 100 mile/hr range in my area. It takes a lot of maturity to drive these cars without getting in trouble.


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It happens almost every time I drive the Z and I'm 62...It's not the age of the Z driver, but the low IQ of the people around you. I used to "play the game" as in speed up to get some distance between us, but then that just gets these idiots more involved. So now, I do exactly the speed limit (maybe 2 MPH less) and give a turn signal or two and it finally gives the message to back-off. If not,oh well. They can pass me if they want to, but I don't risk a ticket or even worse; some kind of road rage. As you "mature" :) you finally realize it's not worth the trouble to entertain these morons...

You what to see people shatter and run in other directions. Stick this out the window with the 30 rounder in it. :eek: But this is something that I will never do, but thought about it.

LOL. I've done that...it's my guilty pleasure. There's a tight sweeping highway exit around here that the Z can handle at 70 MPH. It's especially amusing to hit that with a 35 year old driving a jacked 4x4 riding my ***. I can accelerate out of that and be a mile down the highway before he exits the turn. He'd need to hit ridiculous speeds to catch me.

Yeah, it's great to catch and blow by them...they know they are out-gunned on the curves and tend to not get close to you again...too embarrassed...

I love doing that to people especially on u turns that go under the freeway. They'll be behind me one second and nowhere to be seen the next. One guy almost plowed through a barrier in his maxima trying to keep up, understeer on passenger car tires is a bitch.


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I'm 61 too...some times I can't resist handing out a lesson or two..had an SRT jeep try to leave me on an on ramp...crawled up his behind and backed off...then he tried to hang with me around one of my more favorite exchange ramps..easy to do at 85 or more...bye bye SRT... I love my Z!:happydance:

I get the "can't resist" option as well (usually to my wife's dismay). Last year I was on a two-way road that merged into one after a traffic light. I had the right of way, but I can see the guy next to me in his fancy Cadillac, ready to pull the trigger. I anticipated his antics and when the light changed, we both took off. I don't think that he realized what he was up against as he pulled in BEHIND me. The flashing of his headlights in my rear view signified that he was pi$$ed and I took the time you tell my wife...that's what he gets for messing with the Z :happydance:.

I've never had this problem...

Hardly happens, although the last time was notable. Some loser in his S4 was trying to come at me for two lights only to get left behind. He wasn't attempting to blow-by, but to try to act like he's able to keep up. For me, I do react to these things because I want nothing to do with being near someone who surely doesn't act like they can drive maturely. The whole "let them by" thing doesn't always work. People are that stupid.

Anyway, I was coming up to the next (third) light, but it was already turning red. I come up to a stop because duh. Note he was car lengths behind me, and I see him seconds later — literally seconds after it was red — blow right through it, luckily without any cross traffic.

I don't want to make assumptions, but I can't make out any other reason why he'd do something so blatantly stupid apart from trying to act like he "got the last word".

Save for an over investment in mods, that S4 had no business to be put through it's paces against a Z. That guy had no business driving period.

My pet peeve are the ones who ride my *** like they want to go, I'll leave them way behind on the interstate on-ramp, then a few minutes later, after I've been at cruising speed for a while, they'll come flying up behind me they've accomplished something.

Envious
 

We have a Z and they dont.

I don't have this problem. I think I have maybe gotten 1 or 2 flybys in 6 years of ownership. I do find that people are more likely to change lanes to let me by even when I am not close to them though. This doesn't happen all the time, but I have noticed it on several occasions. I am coming up in the left lane, not flying up, just gaining gradually with plans to keep a set distance and match their speed when I catch up. They then change lanes over expecting em to be flying. Sometimes, this puts a bit of pressure on em t go aster than I planned so they didn't move over for nothing, lol, but nothing crazy or dangerous.

I don't really have anyone trying to race me or anything, but there are a TON of stupid rednecks around here with jacked-up diesel 4x4 pickem-up-trucks that think they are all driving Bugatti Veyrons. They floor them standing still, they floor them driving through busy parking lots, they floor them through intersections, they floor then when they drive around you. That's all they do is floor the stupid things, leaving these huge clouds of black smoke everywhere.

What I do hate is that the few Z owners I see around here (350's and 370's), are either completely oblivious to other Z owners, or they seem to think they are better than you and have a stuck-up attitude.

In over a year of driving my Z, I have yet to have a single Z owner take the initiative to wave or anything at me.

Whatever...

I don't think it's specific to the Z, I also ride a CBR and there are people who try to test me on that as well, which is laughable. I chalk it up to the insecurity of the other driver. Who in their right mind thinks that a car is going to out perform a sport bike? Unless you have a Viper or something similar, you're hopelessly overmatched when it comes to acceleration and even if you can keep up you'll never match the handling and maneuverability. Whether the bike or the Z, I most often find people want to try and race me. On occasion I'll indulge them to a point, but I'm not going to get thrown in jail over a chest beating competition. Once on the bike I was racing a guy in a WRX, when we hit a red light I looked over and it was a cop in uniform on his way to work. Needless to say I had a good laugh. As for tailgating, that's an epidemic in the DC metro area, i get it even if I'm driving my Jetta, doing 75 in the right lane. You just can't win with some people. I don't let it get to me.

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Former Mustang drivers

You ever think it could be the way you look! :eek:


Just kidding. :D

On those diesels. That's called rolling coal. We got those idiots too. :shakes head: I own a Dodge Power Wagon. When I drive it. I get these idiots who want to drag race their mall crawlers. I ask them, lets go out into the woods. I know some really nasty trails. They all back down. They don't want to get their mall crawlers dirty. :shakes head: