Other Drivers' Minds

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Just about every action shot of a VW GTi ever taken shows them on three tires.

Me in autocross school with the old stock suspension:


Zoom by aranach, on Flickr

I use my knowledge of performance driving to make tailgaters look stupid.

Right here: troy mi - Google Maps

I was driving north last night, exiting onto the elongated cloverleaf. I was EOC'ing from the exit sign on the freeway with someone following me. He exited too. I was going down to like 40mph, seemingly very slow for the approach. However I do know that it is a fun decreasing radius turn and you have to take it slower at the end than at the start.

I also know that I can go a lot faster than expected because I've never gotten the tires to squeal around a corner. At around 30mph, I bump started it, put it in 4th gear and powered through the curve, coming out wide and fast. That guy must have been 3 seconds behind me at the end. He must have thought I was crazy. I must have thought he should let me do my thing because I know what I'm doing.

Moral of the story? Know what your car can do and you can lose tailgaters very easily.

[Old Mechanic]

Originally Posted by Ladogaboy

Wait, did it come lose completely? Subaru's have a bad tendency to shear off lugs when driving under harsh conditions.

I saw it when it bounced off another cars hood and flew 40 feet up in the air.
I was a little to preoccupied to look at the car it came off of at the time.

regards
Mech

[niky]

While I believe that you are always perfectly within your right, under law, to not drive the exact speed limit, I find that it is less stressful, when you're on a road with few passing opportunities, to pull over and let assholes past.

-

One funny thing happened to me a few months ago. As I write car reviews for a website, I often drive a different car every few weeks. This time, I had a Toyota Yaris sedan with an absolutely outlandish "TRD" body kit on it. Absolutely garish and hideously expensive. I was driving at around 65 mph on the way home (sort of in a hurry... since I'd done all the economy testing portion of the drive, I wasn't consciously trying to save gas) when I passed another Yaris sedan.

Same color. Same year model, and this car had the skirts, the spoiler and a hood scoop, too. Even better, he had LEDs plastered all over the car, even inside the hood scoop.

Didn't take a psychic to figure out what he was going to do next. Extreme tailgating, high revving... close overtakes. I saw them all in the span of the next ten minutes. Apparently my ugly little car was an affront to his ugly little car.

Funny thing, he was hitting speeds in excess of 80 mph, and I still got to my off-ramp before he did, driving more or less in a perfectly straight line.

Hunh. Go figure.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Ladogaboy

I think you're confusing entering the corner versus leaving the corner. He was on my bumper (at most, a car length back) going into each corner.

You are now changing your story from what you originally related.

My guess is, because the first corner was slightly more extreme, he had a harder time maintaining speed. He seemed to try to force the issue on the second corner.

And the fact that you've never seen a car on three tires just means that you have never seen a car pushed to the limits of its suspension (usually not a good idea on public roads).

As I said, you are speaking metaphorically. You cannot possibly know what I've seen or not seen, and you cannot know what is in the mind of any other driver. There is no way you could have actually seen even his two front tires (in your rear view mirror, no less, if he was literally on your bumper as you say), let alone three or four of his tires. That is impossible from your vantage point. I fully understand that you mean he almost lost contact with the road.

The whole point is that he was trying to compete with you by showing he also could do whatever you did at the same speed. Fortunately nothing came of it.

We cannot control anyone's behavior but our own.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

You are now changing your story from what you originally related.

I'm sorry for the confusion. I should have been more clear.

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

As I said, you are speaking metaphorically.

No, I am speaking literally. And as you can see, a number of people here can vouch for the fact that tires do actually lose contact with the road.

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

You cannot possibly know what I've seen or not seen, and you cannot know what is in the mind of any other driver. There is no way you could have actually seen even his two front tires (in your rear view mirror, no less, if he was literally on your bumper as you say), let alone three or four of his tires. That is impossible from your vantage point.

How would you know? He was two car-lengths away while exiting the corner, and I have two side-view mirrors and a 330mm convex rear-view mirror. I can see quite a lot.

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

I fully understand that you mean he almost lost contact with the road.

Apparently, you do not.

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

The whole point is that he was trying to compete with you by showing he also could do whatever you did at the same speed. Fortunately nothing came of it.

Exactly.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Thymeclock:

I fully understand that you mean he almost lost contact with the road.

Ladogaboy replies:

Apparently, you do not.

How many times do I need to repeat it to convince you?

Of course I don't really need to repeat it or convince you because it is of no consequence, and I really don't care what you think.

[rbrowning]

My guess that only thing going through their heads on any consistent basis would be the wind.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by rbrowning

My guess that only thing going through their heads on any consistent basis would be the wind.

a lot of it probably produced by themselves.

[Blacktree]

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

We cannot control anyone's behavior but our own.

And sometimes, not even that