What is it with people in boring cars?

[anonymous-user]

Anyone else noticed that people (always men) in really dull cars just have to overtake a Eunos that has the roof down? So far it's been Golf TDis, Audi TDis and yesterday a 406 diesel. It's always diesels.

As it's finally stopped raining and snowing I've had the roof down to and from work, and even over a fairly short 10 mile journey I regularly get these types who just have to make a mad lunge past at full throttle in a cloud of black soot, while we're all in a queue of cars doing about 40mph. Even been hooted at because I took a nanosecond too long to pull out of a junction.

Been doing the same route for years in a Toyota truck and a Honda tin-top and I've never seen the same behaviour in any other vehicle or when I've got the Mazda's roof up.

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 25th February 18:36

[anonymous-user]

Andy Meads said:

My rule is: if it isn't raining and if the hood is dry, it goes down. Keep the faith!

True - I've just had to repair the roof in the rain after the 2 halves of the rear-window zip parted company in the middle of Halfords car park - slightly worrying drive home with a busted roof as the rain started.

The roof is now held together with the best repair device ever invented - cable ties! No way am I going to have a roof that I can't put down, so I'm going to have to fold it down with the plastic rear window still in place, but never mind.

[anonymous-user]

There is an amazing satisfaction to just not lifting for a 90-degree junction and watching the tailgating muppet disappear in the mirror as they try to scrabble their nose-heavy front-wheel-drive barge around the corner. For some reason it just never gets boring

[anonymous-user]

GravelBen said:

JimSuperSix said:

No way am I going to have a roof that I can't put down, so I'm going to have to fold it down with the plastic rear window still in place, but never mind.

I never zip the window down anymore (as my zip was starting to pull apart), just stick a rolled-up wooly hat or something on the window as the roof goes down so it can't fold/crease. Been doing that for a good few months now and hasn't caused any problems.

I might give that a try - currently the plastic screen tries to bend up the centre vertically, which means to lower the roof I have to get out of the car and press on the screen centre to snap if back so it curves the other way and can fold - I think this is due to lots of use lowering it between the 2 rear braces of the rollbar so it's developed a natural curve the wrong way. Hopefully a few months of use being curved the other way (with your suggested wooly hat to hold it in shape) might mean that I can once again easily lower the hood from the drivers seat. (although TBH unzipping the rear screen is impossible from the drivers seat if you have a rollbar anyway - I always had to turn right around in the seat to do it).

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 28th February 10:20

[anonymous-user]

Well that's not going to happen!! I live oooop north and it's always cold here.

Anyway, TBH if the screen cracks I'll just cut most of it out and glue a replacement piece of clear flexible plastic in place - I made a complete roof / sidescreens for a Seven-type kit car so I'm quite happy building this sort of stuff, especially as my Eunos is a (very) long way from pristine.

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 28th February 20:24

[anonymous-user]

hman said:

Could it be that they have the power to complete the overtake around the whole queue of traffic whilst you patiently wait for a slightly longer gap to appear(as you either dont feel the urge to overtake or are not confident that it could be completed without affecting another road user?)

I'm all for a bit of top down action but don't hate the cars which overtake you, just let them go and enjoy the countryside!

TBH I've never had an issue blowing away an mx-5 in the twisties, quattro obviously gives me a lot more grip through the bends and a decent amount of bhp and torque see to the straight bits (although I dont do diesel)

HTH

Given the type of cars that I see acting this way, it is never due to an excess of power - it's always the exact opposite - base model diesels. The people in more powerful cars tend to behave much better, perhaps they've got less need to constantly try and prove how big their manhood is...?

Anyway, I've no problem with people overtaking, in fact I'll normally move over and indicate left to help them out if there's a gap ahead, and I tend to drive my 5 quite slowly normally as I'm one of those people (apparently in the minority these days) that enjoys the journey more than getting there quickly.

It's just these overly-aggressive blokes in poverty-spec diesels who perform lots of tailgating followed by these mad overtakes just because I've got the roof down...I'm not decided if they annoy me so much as just make me pity them slightly.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 1st March 19:36

[anonymous-user]

franv8 said:

But, for most of us, it's all about the fun, or we'd have gone and bought something faster if we were that worried about speed, probably sacrificing the bags of character.

True, I sold a 2 litre Seven-type kit car and bought my Eunos, and I've had a lot more fun driving the Eunos because it feels so utterly sorted and you don't have to be doing illegal speeds to have fun. Going really fast was all very well but the novelty soon wore off, especially given that you'd spend most the time on the lookout for camera vans etc...

I'd much rather have a car that I can enjoy everyday at lower speeds than something that does 150mph but is very uninvolving. I drove my dad's new A4 and it was really quick, but soooooo dull.