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

[Oldcarguy]

Sorry in advance for the long post, but I need to vent because this just happened to my wife again yesterday.

We've had our home in the Catskills since 2007. Retired here full time in late 2015. Love it. State Hwy 28 is our main access to practically everyplace. Beautiful two lane road through the mountains, speed limit 55 mph for the most part, 35 / 45 mph through the towns. I race karts and we both do HPDEs and AX, so we are not street racers.

We never tailgate, pass only under safe conditions in legal passing zones, and we always signal our passes. On Hwy 28 we generally drive 60 - 65 in the 55 zones. Never speed through the towns.

Now that we are on Hwy 28 regularly, we often encounter other locals driving 35 - 50 mph max in the 55 mph zones. We always wait patiently at a safe following distance and then pass when legal and safe. More often than not, one or more of the following happens when we pass (no matter if we are in the Explo Sport, S5, or 986, or if it is me or my wife driving):

1) the driver we are passing sees us and floors it to try and keep us from passing (yeah, good luck with that)
2) honks and / or gives us an obscene gesture, shakes their fist, etc. out their window as we pass.
3) speeds up and tailgates us (and I mean I can't see their license plate) until one or the other of us turn off.

These are not people on weekend sightseeing drives (we get a lot of that), this usually occurs during the week. In all my decades of driving in Houston, Dallas, Austin, Europe and SE Asia, this is the most consistently bizarre behavior I have ever seen in the US.

Frankly, if these people exhibited this behavior in Texas they would either be eventually shot or run off the road. No kidding.

We just ignore them except for the few times they have actually followed us, then I pull into the first available LEO establishment and they bug off. I never try to outrun or otherwise engage the tailgaters.

So many angry? resentful? people in such a beautiful place. We don't know what's going on with them, but we're glad that we live in our world instead of theirs.

[Disaster]

Originally Posted by Oldcarguy

1) the driver we are passing sees us and floors it to try and keep us from passing (yeah, good luck with that)
2) honks and / or gives us an obscene gesture, shakes their fist, etc. out their window as we pass.
3) speeds up and tailgates us (and I mean I can't see their license plate) until one or the other of us turn off.

Yep. I've seen this behavior multiple times. I'm not sure if sometimes passing a person doesn't "wake them up" and then they speed up to the speed limit...and then often beyond because...well...people are competitive and don't like to be passed.

It is bizarre behavior whatever the reason.

On a recent trip in the Allegheny Mountains in PA, (might have been rte. 219) I came popped over a hill only to see a guy tooling along at maybe 5 under the speed limit in a Dodge Magnum wagon. It was a road with lots of fun curves which I didn't want to take at 5 mph below the yellow signs.

I moved into the oncoming lane and stayed on the throttle. Should have been a smooth pass...really long straight away going into a blind corner. As I came up on him he started accelerating and the 15 mph difference in our speed changed to zero. I pressed the pedal to the floor and he matched my speed. There was no way I could out accelerate a Dodge Magnum but I thought he might back off. He didn't till we were well within triple digits and a car appeared coming around the corner.

I decided to stay on it and enjoy the road. It was great fun driving on this almost empty road except for him. 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. I dropped my speed and never saw him again.

I hope he didn't go over the edge of the road somewhere.