Why do Porsches (and the ilk) send other drivers into rages??

[mikefocke]

Originally Posted by Shawn Stanford

I went to the movies yesterday in my '05 Cayenne and the closest spot was being encroached by a Ford Explorer. I'm thin enough, so I centered in the spot, opened the door and eased out. It was pretty tight; I doubt the average American would have been able to get into the Explorer without a lot of huffing and puffing, or maybe a hand full of Crisco to ease his passage.

I come out after the show and - as I expected - there's a fingertip-sized dent with a paint nick and a line of door-edge paint on my door. The guy in the Explorer obviously took exception to me correctly occupying the parking spot he'd encroached upon.

Ha ha, buddy! Joke's on you. Your Explorer was newer and the damage you just did is probably the smallest dent I've got.

I hope you got a few "before" pictures. Of your car and his license plate and positioning.

[Shawn Stanford]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

I hope you got a few "before" pictures. Of your car and his license plate and positioning.

Seriously not worth it. My Cayenne is an '05 with 175k miles on it. When I said it was the smallest dent on the truck, I wasn't joking.

[BIGJake111]

I once was on an unfamiliar road in the right lane at a light and noticed after stopped that my lane ended not far ahead. Considering the 70 year old in the tarus beside me I decided I'd take first as I was near some enjoyable mountain twisties. Expecting to easily get ahead by using maybe half throttle in second. Low and behold grandpa kicks it lol. I was already committed and it wasn't hard to give more go juice and get ahead but he caught me way off guard.

I lose complete sight of him in the corners but on the straights driving maybe 12 over he would catch right back up lol

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by Disaster

. . .He would drop way back in corners but come on like a locomotive every straight stretch. Finally he passed me at what must have been close to his tire limit speed on a really a really long straight stretch.

Originally Posted by BIGJake111

I lost complete sight of him in the corners but on the straights driving maybe 12 over he would catch right back up lol

Yeah, these "straight-away supermen" are really quite the drivers. I'd love to get them on a race track in some wheel to wheel driving

[kk2002s]

From the number of threads this is a common occurrence for must of us. I too see different behavior between my common Box SUV and the P-car.
There's challenges direct and sublet. You notice it when someone just has to pass you and when you don't bite, they drive normal.
The tailgaters - either your a Porsche and expected to blow down the hwy @90-100 mph but your just cruising 5-10 over in the flow so you can relax and enjoy the drive
OR
It's first thing in the drive and your warming up the car, going the speed limit (especially in the 25 mph residential) not letting it all hang out.

The best was driving home on the interstate one night, top down stereo blasting. A new Ferrari pulls up in the right lane and matches my conservative 74 mph, revving their 12 cylinders - the challenge was on. I just dropped the hammer (Tom Cruise Days of Thunder reference) to 3rd and unleashed the fury of 252 HPs. That Ferrari was so intimidated they just pulled off on their exit never to challenge a 986 S again.

Maybe I was that guy - "Why do Ferrari's send Porsche drivers into rages???"

[spinedoc]

Originally Posted by kk2002s

From the number of threads this is a common occurrence for must of us. I too see different behavior between my common Box SUV and the P-car.
There's challenges direct and sublet. You notice it when someone just has to pass you and when you don't bite, they drive normal.
The tailgaters - either your a Porsche and expected to blow down the hwy @90-100 mph but your just cruising 5-10 over in the flow so you can relax and enjoy the drive
OR
It's first thing in the drive and your warming up the car, going the speed limit (especially in the 25 mph residential) not letting it all hang out.

The best was driving home on the interstate one night, top down stereo blasting. A new Ferrari pulls up in the right lane and matches my conservative 74 mph, revving their 12 cylinders - the challenge was on. I just dropped the hammer (Tom Cruise Days of Thunder reference) to 3rd and unleashed the fury of 252 HPs. That Ferrari was so intimidated they just pulled off on their exit never to challenge a 986 S again.

Maybe I was that guy - "Why do Ferrari's send Porsche drivers into rages???"

LOL....you would have lost that race.

I was driving home last year, and there's a local guy who has a Yellow Lamborghini Gallardo, and I saw him on the highway ahead of me. There were virtually no other cars around, and I decided to get past him, I dropped a gear and flew by him waving to him. Didn't see him at all for a few minutes and wondered if he had turned off. All of a sudden. FLASH....he went by me like a thunderbolt, we got up to our exit and he was smiling from ear to ear and laughing.

Point is Boxster's are fun, but they aren't supercars.

I did race a Ferrari 308 GTSi once, and beat him, but to be fair, his car was over 20 years older than mine....Even then, I didn't beat him by much.

To the point of the OP, I ignore most of those people. To me, the worst are the Corvette folks. There are literally dozens of people in my area that have Corvettes, mostly C5's, C6's, and C7's. They see a Porsche and want to challenge them. I don't even bother. In a straight line drag race, a Boxster is going to lose to a Vette, unless it's an older C4 or something. On a track, it might be a different story.

Was coming back from cars/coffee a few weeks back, and saw a young guy pull up in a Dodge Viper SRT-GTSR w slicks on it. A Corvette C7 GS pulled up next to him and they started revving.....Why the Vette even bothered, I'll never know. The Viper smoked him so bad it was ridiculous. Predictable before it even happened.

[BIGJake111]

I will say. When driving the box as apposed to any of the family Toyotas I do see one behavior that I really appreciate. If I'm in the left lane in my speed yellow boxster even 8 car lengths behind someone the guy up front gets over.

Maybe people are more afraid of being tailgated by the box then any other car but even if I was a massive tailgater which I'm not I would rarely even need to. People see it coming, they get over, then I merge over as well once past.

I will note that people are way more willing to get over on the two lane interstates in the area rather than the 3. People on the 3 lane sometimes want me to pass on the right which I would really rather not do.

[steved0x]

I had this just the other day, driving home in the Boxster from Gainesville (45 minutes away from home) I exit the interstate onto highway 441 (2 lanes, mostly 55-60) and within a few minutes I am caught up to some big white SUV looking thing going maybe 10-15 under the speed limit. I stay with it a few minutes until I get a clear zone to pass, I pass, slow back down to 60, and then a moment later this SUV is up on my tail for a while, then he makes a pass and roars off into the distance, now at maybe 15 over. Maybe the my glorious exhaust (I did downshift to 3rd to get by him) work him/her up out of their hypnotic stupor and they had to speed back up to make up for lost time?

[Drphil]

I See this a lot on our 3 lane highway on my commute to work, and I have done what jake does, if I have time and the idiot crusing in the left lane is causing a back up of traffic and refuses to move over- a warning to others in SC that might not want to move out of the left lane- our state highway patrol will pull you over for impeding the flow of traffic as it is a PASSING lane not cruising lane so if you insist on this behavior you may get a ticket, I know several that have! But I have to say its usually work trucks that will do this, however yesterday it was a county deputy! he was 2mph under limit sitting in left lane backing up traffic- nice they have badge numbers on the cars- I called him in to dispatch in sherrifs office lol!

[jb92563]

I wonder if the self driving cars of the future will have an "Agressive" setting to mimic a road rager and get you to your destination 30 seconds faster. I don't think people will accept granny mode chauffeuring.

I often ponder my own destiny and my occasional risky spurts of enthusiasm and wonder if it helped me avoid disaster or rushed me towards it.

So far so good but I tend to think back on some of those things and make a mental note not to do it again. Best to leave the high speed antics to the track rather than messing with unpredictable and often irrational regular drivers that barely passed high school physics and have no clue what they are doing.

I do feel a bit guilty at times when I have provoked a Honda to try and stay with me in the twisties. They typically try to chase and get themselves in trouble quite quickly and if lucky, just scare themselves as they over reach their own and the cars capabilities.

A momentary evil grin, then a bit of guilt. I figure the planet is over populated with Hondas so running a few through the Darwin Award test is OK right?

Also I've noticed that when I'm driving slower (The Speed Limit) other folks around slow as well as they must think that something is wrong or my detector has picked up the LEO's.
They would be right with that assumption!


"As I sit here I am traveling at 1000 mph to the east, due to the rotation of the Earth.
The Earth is hurdling in its orbit around the Sun at 67,000 mph.
Our solar system is traveling 514,000 mph around our Galaxy.
Our Galaxy the Milky Way is traveling through space at 1,300,000 mph.
So officer, I DO know how fast I was going, it was 1,814,000 mph plus or minus 68,000 mph.
What did you clock me at?"

[Fintro11]

Originally Posted by jb92563

I wonder if the self driving cars of the future will have an "Agressive" setting to mimic a road rager and get you to your destination 30 seconds faster. I don't think people will accept granny mode chauffeuring.

I often ponder my own destiny and my occasional risky spurts of enthusiasm and wonder if it helped me avoid disaster or rushed me towards it.

So far so good but I tend to think back on some of those things and make a mental note not to do it again. Best to leave the high speed antics to the track rather than messing with unpredictable and often irrational regular drivers that barely passed high school physics and have no clue what they are doing.

I do feel a bit guilty at times when I have provoked a Honda to try and stay with me in the twisties. They typically try to chase and get themselves in trouble quite quickly and if lucky, just scare themselves as they over reach their own and the cars capabilities.

A momentary evil grin, then a bit of guilt. I figure the planet is over populated with Hondas so running a few through the Darwin Award test is OK right?

Also I've noticed that when I'm driving slower (The Speed Limit) other folks around slow as well as they must think that something is wrong or my detector has picked up the LEO's.
They would be right with that assumption!

Oh Hondas lol, I had a 90's Honda Civic tailing me and revving just before a downhill sharp s section. I buzzed through no problem, on the first corner he slid perfectly sideways into the curb hitting both side rims. Could hear the crunch sound from the bottom of the hill, needless to say he did not even look over at me at the lights

[jb92563]

Originally Posted by Fintro11

Oh Hondas lol, I had a 90's Honda Civic tailing me and revving just before a downhill sharp s section. I buzzed through no problem, on the first corner he slid perfectly sideways into the curb hitting both side rims. Could hear the crunch sound from the bottom of the hill, needless to say he did not even look over at me at the lights

Hehehe, I just love that. Perhaps I really am evil at heart.