v8voodoo

Okay, where do I start....
Earlier this evening my girlfriend came in shaking and visibly very upset. Seeing this I asked what was up..

It turns out that whilst overtaking a truck on the A20 approaching Folkestone at around 70mph in her 2002 MINI Cooper, someone in a VW Golf (possibly a VR6) decided to hurry her along by switching on his high beams and driving so close to her that she couldn't even see his headlamps. As a reaction she accelerated away from the car behind though he pushed her past the truck edging towards 90mph.

Once she pulled in past the truck she gave a flash of her headlights after the Golf driver had passed (whilst he was gesturing) to show her consternation at the way the Golf was being driven. What happened next amazes me....

She turned off onto the sliproad to go shopping and the Golf, seeing she was turning off decided to play silly b*ggers. He also turned off at the last minute and cut right across in front of her onto the sliproad and to the inside, half on the road and half on the verge, then cut back across in front of her causing her to brake hard. The Golf then turned in towards Folkestone which was unfortunately the same direction as she was headed. She used her head and maintained a healthy distance between her and this Golf but unfortunately ended up behind him at a set of traffic lights . This tw*t had left at least two car lengths in front of him for some reason, but what takes the biscuit is that he started reversing towards her whilst she was stationary at the lights..!!!

She clocked the number plate but was so shaken that she forgot it, but thinks it was P30 *** or P38***. She also thinks it was possibly a VR6 as she thinks she remembers badges to that effect on the rear and that it was possibly dark purple or blue. Oh and the guy was a "big bloke" with (get this..) "a kiddy in the front"..... It's easy being hard to a barely 5ft tall woman on her own in a MINI, eh..?

I've not seen her as shaken as this in a long time. If only he'd tried these games with me

However, bringing it back on topic, I had a MINI Cooper S before my MY03 WRX and I was intimidated all the time whilst driving it. I regularly had cars cutting me up, driving up my backside etc even though the car was Electric blue..!! As soon as I changed to the Scoob, it all stopped, I just get the odd Corsa or Escort stalking me now, but nothing worse than that.

WTF is wrong with people..? I certainly intend to keep my eye out for Mr. Golf when I'm in the Folkestone area next.

Any of you lot had similar findings after swapping to a Scoob..??

WRXTURBOWAGON

To encourage such a reaction from the VW driver she was probably creating a rolling road block by overtaking the truck at snails pace, or started to overtake just as the VW driver behind decided he wanted to overtake (at a faster pace). I've seen many women/older drivers do this and to be honest it can be very frustrating. Of course it does not excuse the subsequent behaviour of the VW driver, what he did is unacceptable, but i can understand how this situation could happen. She should not have flashed him though, this is bound to cause problems with such a driver.

v8voodoo

WRX,

Yes, she should not have flashed him, I agree, but then wouldn't you have reacted in some way..?

However, in answer to encouraging the VW "drivers" behaviour, she was already doing 70mph (that's 70mph, which is theoretically the limit) and accelerated up toward 90mph just to get out of his way as she was expecting him to appear from underneath her parcel shelf at any time. She checked he wasn't around or about to overtake himself when she pulled out (she's surprisingly spatially aware for a woman!), yet he still appeared behind her mid-overtake, which suggests to me that he was driving well into three figures and obviously doesn't like cars in "his" lane that aren't allowed to overtake too.

Now I'm sure we've all accidentally strayed into 3 figures, but we do look in front (as well as for the blue lights behind!) to see whats going on and anticipate things don't we, as you are moving rather quickly up around that mark..?

She's not a slow driver and to prove the point, only six months ago lost the 2nd lot of 3points she picked up for speeding.

I just feel angry that people think they can bully their way along the roads these days and frighten people. I always try to hang back and let other people use their bit of the road as we all pay road rent.

Goodness help him if 40 tons of Polish truck pulls out next time (which they are prone to doing around here).

WRXTURBOWAGON

I understand what you are saying and for sure there are aggressive drivers, but a reaction such as horn, flashing lights, fingers, strong breaking, will more often than not result in further aggression

To answer your question "Wouldn't you have reacted in some way..?" probably not, I'm a fast driver so rarely have someone that close behind me, if i did I'd get out of the way asap, or slow right down depending on my mood, if he followed me I'd come to a stop in the middle of the road and get out to sort out the problem. But then if I were a woman, it could be quite worrying.

v8voodoo

Wow.... I, amongst many others no doubt, would love a piece of that road which would allow us to be fast drivers, enough so that we too would have no one behind us....lol!!

That's what she tried to do, get out of the way asap, though that obviously wasn't good enough for Mr Golf.

I know I would most certainly have reacted if it was me driving admittedly.

ScoobLou

iTrader: (21)

Mate I understand where you are coming from and know what you mean as I have experienced a similar situation. Its a very scary situation when you are a woman on your own

I hope your g/f is feeling a bit better and send her my best wishes.

These situations are getting all too common unfortunately.

mad-dad

what a ****!!!!!! the ONLY reason why this ever happened was that the guy would have seen the driver being a woman.
i can guarantee that if there were some blokes in the mini, he would have still come close, overtaken, seen that there were guys in the car and then carried on as if nothing ever happened.
what is so hard about treating people the way you yourself want to be treated
i'm no fairy when it comes to driving(just got back home from drifting my sx round a local roundabout) but all thats lacking is respect for others

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

regardless of if she was in the right or wrong this fella needs a kicking, I live no where near there but will be sure to beat up on all VW drivers from now on... and the Stalking thing is right, all up to my scooby people wanted to sit in my boot, now they stay away.

richs2891

Symphany to your girlfriend, Seen this a few times before, mostly down to agressive drivers or people thinking should be in front of you, Mostly just let them go as dont seem to get much hastle in my Scoob - got loads more in my CTR ! Most are just simply bullies and if you do the same back to them they tend to drop straight back as the prat in the Merc sprinter found out after trying to brake check me after he almost took front end off, due to him trying to muscle his way from one lane to another. Best advice if you think someone is following you is to take a different route - a few times around a round about and they tend to wake up. Do know its a lot harder for female drivers though.
Richard

EddScott

Similar thing happened to me last Sunday actually.

In my scoob in very thick fog I was in the right hand lane on the motorway. I was a bit late so moiving a little fast for the condition but I decided staying in the right hand lane gave me less chance of coming up on a slower vehicle in the left hand lane.

I could just make out in the distance a vehicle moving quite slowly on the left hand lane so I stayed put. The burk in a new golf came right up my **** expecting me to jump out the way. I wasn't sure if he saw the slow car on the left because for me to pull in would mean having to brake as I was close to the left hand car.

We passed the car again with the golf glued to my bumper doing about 80-85 in thick fog (silly but I had speeded up to get the fool off my bumper). I pull in to let him go and he's waving his fingers at me so I politely do the same.

He pulls in, slows down and starts pointing to the next junction. Unfortunately for me its where I need to go. I indicate as normal and golf boy swerves onto the slip thinking its game on. I thought "Here we go" and coming up to the traffic lights they were just turning to amber so I overtook golf boy and went onto the roundabout. He carries on through the red light and gives chase.

I slow down to let him catch me to see his next move and the guy is going so fast he hasn't noticed that the middle lane is coned off. The workmen all look up to see this golf swerving to avoid hitting the cones and the workers and ends up doing a tank slapper back onto the motorway!

Think in some points we were both in the wrong, but golf boy really did lose it big time. All this at 8.30am too.

Crazy Chick

This happened to us a while back. We were coming off a dual carriageway onto a main roundabout to then join a link road (also a dual carriageway). The roundabout was clear and just joining the link road on the other side was a bright yellow mini (lovely colour) so we went round the roundabout and came up behind this mini which had pulled into the outside lane to overtake and the driver looked in her mirror and saw this bright blue scooby (still a safe distance) behind her and she just slammed her brakes on so hard I think she must have done an emergency stop. Anyway, we slowly got moving again at a snails pace of 30mph when the limit is 50mph bearing in mind she was supposed to be overtaking as well. She was so hell bent on looking back at us all the time that she wasn't concentrating. My husband is a very safe driver because that's what he does for a living so his job (+ the house and my spending money) depend on it. I'm not having ago at this girl (even though she had a tit of a boyfriend gesturing at us all the time) but the driver that we were both supposed to be overtaking thought just because we were in a scooby we were obviously not fit to be on the road and he boxed us in on the left hand side with this girl keeping us there too. Now as far as I'm concerned that is dangerous driving. I have every sympathy with this woman who had trouble with the golf driver but my point is that all Subaru drivers are victims on the road - it must be a terrible thing to deal with - jealousy.

Shonen

What the hell are you on about? I have seen bad driving from both men and women and men are more likely to pull out on you. And in all my years of driving I have NEVER seen a woman follow somebody due to road rage.

If she was doing 70 overtaking the truck then MR VW only had to wait a futher few seconds to get past her. And she only flashed her lights AFTER he did some hand signals to her.

Like it was mentioned earlier, if it had been a bloke in the mini then he probably wouldnt have done anything. I can only imagine how scared she must have been when he was following her. What do you do in this situation? Go home and they know where you live, go to work and they know where you work or drive about till you run out of petrol or they see sense and stop following you?

Crazy Chick

It's a sad world we are living in now.

scoobydoo one

i had a land rover discovery which was fully equiped for off road use before the scoobs i always had people trying to push me in that but i had 4 spot lights on the back so i just turned them on they soon backed of probley cos they couldnt see lol

yam got a scooby

I have noticed a difference in the way treat you on the roads when driving the scoob. When I drive the wifes people carrier people are always cutting me up and pulling out in front on round abouts etc. But when Im in the scoob people do seem to get out the way. Except of course the odd muppet that wants a race. Normally in some ****e box that doesnt stand a chance.

furrydice79

i also had a Coop S before my MY05 sti, i feel the same,, some ppl underestimated the MINI especially as mine was a wrks spec. but since i got the scoob its all stopped.(oh apart from the escort and corsa crew )

Gutmann pug

Bet he wouldn't have reversed at a HUUUUUUUUUGE lorry at the lights if it had caused a rolling road block though........

There are far too many people on the roads who become ultra agressive because they are driving a large chunk of metal. In normal life they wouldnt say boo to a goose......waxnkers

bob r

iTrader: (46)

i think its just a sad reflection of the way society has changed especially drivers. "road rage" just didnt appear to exist to the extent it does now. after a driver was driving like a total *** behind me i let him pass, and after giving me the finger i retaliated, not good idea, at the next set of lights he reversed at my car(205 gti) i managed to avoid the colision but he pursued me and rammed the back of my car. lesson learnt!

Kuro

Exactly

When I drive the wifes corolla I may as well have a sign on my head that says slow git, please abuse me...

When drove the Scoob, or the 350Z now I don't get any reactions at all, even if I go slow, fast or whatever. In fact, people seem to move out of the way

The physcology of road rage - you could write a paper and get published!

bgood

iTrader: (2)

Drive to the nearest police station.

Shonen

That is a very good idea in practice but many stations are now unmanned at night or in small towns. I wouldnt want to take the chance of getting out of the car and station being shut.

WRXTURBOWAGON

Just telling it like it is. Granted men are more likely to pull out in front of people and they are also more likely to follow someone due to road rage. But next time you go out on the roads you might want to note the type of drivers that hesitate at roundabouts (often coming to a complete stop when it is unneccesary), do not pay attention to when the traffic lights turn green, break to late/early, are in the wrong lane, wait too long to turn at junctions etc etc in my driving experience 90% of the time it is women drivers. Sorry, that's just how it is.

nik52wrx

Are you talking out of your backside
Are you 17 by any chance


[quote=WRXTURBOWAGON]To encourage such a reaction from the VW driver she was probably creating a rolling road block by overtaking the truck at snails pace, or started to overtake just as the VW driver behind decided he wanted to overtake (at a faster pace). I've seen many women/older drivers do this and to be honest it can be very frustrating.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

It sounds to me Mr wrxturbowagon, that you are actually defending this 'Golf' driver? His actions are inexcusable, especially with a child in the passenger seat. You can just imagine what the child will be telling his mates at school the next day!
People like that cause accidents and ultimately, they cause death on our roads. Someone will loose a mother, father, son, daughter etc, all because one little person wants to appear 'big' to other motorists. (reminds me of the school playground)
Everybody has a choice when they contemplate driving on our roads, along with the 5 million other motorists we share it with. Drive responcibly, or don't drive at all.

If you honestly condone the 'golf' driver's actions, then you shouldn't be on the road.

Bubba po

And that justifies threatening behaviour on the road?

Fecking knuckle-shuffler.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Cars are lethal weapons in the wrong hands. Using them to intimidate others, is no different than holding a knife to somebodys throat.

Bubba po

Chris... ever heard of "apostrophe rage"?

I'm on the verge of wishing to hunt you down.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

I know that wind'''''s you up Bubba. Come on, it'''''s Christmas! Well, nearly!

Bubba po

Chris, please... for the sake of not looking like a berk who can't write English... don't use an apostrophe when the word is just a plural. I'm begging you, for the sake of your own self-respect. What are you, a greengrocer or something?

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Atleast I am not a keyboard hero who 'gets off' on shouting at their computer screen.