What is it about driving a 911?

What is it about driving a 911 that makes everyone want to race you?  Happened to me yesterday, again.  C-4  Corvette guy, tailgated me some, then did the flyby.  Happened in me one time in the 914.   I just laughed at him.  "What, you mean in a straight line?"

I am sure it happens in all sorts of cars, but I think the 911 is the biggest magnet for this sort of behavior.

In reply to Toebra :

If it's any consolation my son used to get this in his Miata.

People do this when I'm on my motorcycle.

My 911 is a yellow 76 targa, most don't want to race anymore but seemed shocked to see it actually being driven. Lol. 20 years ago every Camaro, Mustang, and Honda wanted to race it. 
 

I had two S197 Mustang GTs, people always wanted to race those. I have no idea why they were completely stock, wheels, ride height, exhaust, etc. It was weird. 
 

I use to get this in my M Coupe.  Not so much the Miata or TR6.  My explanation was the perception of beating an expensive car.

Happened to me a lot when I had an STi, but I was never really surprised about it. The fun part about the STi before everything got launch control aids is that it would put at least two whole car lengths on anything from a stoplight. So you hit the posted speed limit, stop accelerating, and declare victory.

My Elise is an A-hole magnet.  Seems to have some strange thing that makes the 'rollin' coal' crowd want to follow 6" off the rear spoiler.   Funny thing is, they stop paying attention to the road.  So I find the closest 25mph suggested speed curve in the road and send them to pucker factor 5000 when they realize they are clearly in the midst of bad judgement.  Cars really don't seem to have the same issue.

I never had an issue with my 911. The skyline is a magnet, all of my mustangs have been as well. 

In reply to Toebra :

Driving a Jaguar with its top speed of 150 causes every fart can Honda and Turbo'd Subaru to want to drag race.  
     The Porsche's strength isn't stop light to stoplight. Nor is a Jaguar.  Yet to the Ill informed  that's how they challenge us  
       

Doing so would make as much sense as the Chess player taking on the football player out in the field or the surgeon boxing in the ring.  
It's hard but have them challenge you to your strength. 

I noticed the same thing in my 996.  Even my Boxster S gets more attention than it should.  I love the minivans that just have to cut me off on the highway to show me..... or maybe they are just trying to get a close look at the car.  Who knows, but yes the Porsche invites more fly bys than anything I've ever owned. 

I've heard so many people say "whenever I drive my <car that is perceived to be fast> people are always trying to race me!" Not saying anyone is a liar, I'm just wondering why it never seems to happen to me. In the last 8 years and 40k miles in a C5 Corvette there's only been one time that anyone tried to drag race me from a stop light. The funny part is, I didn't even know until it was too late. Tesla Model S, back when they were still pretty new. I was looking over and checking out the car, hoping to make eye contact with the driver just so I could give him a thumbs up and say "cool car." He never even glanced at me or gave me any sort of signal. When the light turned green, he just gave it the full ludicrous mode launch.

By the time I realized what had happened, there was no point in doing anything. I was several car lengths back, yelling "oh come on, at least give me a chance!"

People occasionally try to race me in my 160hp 924S. I mean, any minivan can smoke me from a stoplight. But, Porsche.

People try to race me in my stock GTI more often (especially other V-dubs).  I guess owning a GTI means I'm a teenage moron who wants to streetrace, not a 45-year old guy. 

There are just a lot of people out there who are not well-endowed and need to prove how manly they are by racing random people in expensive or fast cars (or cars they may think are fast).

related: When driving my Sequoia (which has +1 all-terrains, rack, lights, etc), I often feel like bros in bro-trucks intentionally try to catch up to me so they can pull up next to me and show me their bro-truck is bigger than my sequoia. 

In reply to obsolete :

When I had Corvettes it was rare too, except for that one coyote Mustang that thought my ZR-1 was a regular C4.  In a Porsche it is ridiculous.  Ask my wife and she has zero aggressive driving in her.  

Air cooled 911s specifically, we've found them to be especially attractive to rednecks in lifted trucks for some reason.

For some reason anything with a porsche badge gets an unreasonable amount of attention. I've gotten more compliments about and attention in the several <<$10k porsches I've driven around than several much nicer and more expensive cars. Probably the best was a cheap 944 that we had just finished stripping the interior out of to become a race car.

In my 991 I've never really had anyone try to race me. Corvettes ignore me. Some Civics and such will blow by me to show off. Not very often though. It also seems that other Porsches ignore me as well. I think that many 911 owners aren't really car people. 

Nobody wants to race me in my 996 Turbo.  I've had a few other enthusiasts slow roll around me and then give me a thumbs up, but no one tries to line up against it...

My wife and I just bought a 996.  I sure hope we don't run into that crap.  We just want to drive and enjoy it.

I rarely saw this behaviour when I daylied the 964. Once, with a motorbike, but that's pretty much it.

Never had anyone act like an a-hole when driving the 911. If anything, regularly get questions asking the year or just a thumbs up. Had one guy yell across traffic that he had one back in the day. 

Entirely location-dependent for me.  I live relatively close to downtown Atlanta. Nobody bats an eye at our WRX or MR2.  I'm guessing the sea of Teslas aren't exactly threatened.  I get into the burbs and the most random people will prove they're faster than our Odyssey.  God forbid I've taken one of the sporty cars out into that wasteland of strip malls.

I get more people wanting to race my 130hp(preLS) e30 than the turboLS trans am.

Before I bought a Mustang GT convertible a few years ago I worried a lot about this kind of unwanted attention.  Turns out it really wasn't a problem at all.  Instead got lots of waves and thumbs up.  I was very happy about that.

Use to get it all the time on my 924s. My Merc on the other hand I don't remember it happening. Oh wait there was that one mustang but he disappeared off in the distance as I want no part of that on the street.  

David S. Wallens said:

Never had anyone act like an a-hole when driving the 911. If anything, regularly get questions asking the year or just a thumbs up. Had one guy yell across traffic that he had one back in the day. 

Yes. This!

My 911 being a targa means the top is rarely on. Most people at stop lights, gas stations, and parking lots want to know what year it is. Or they say it's a "nice car" "beautiful" "love it" or something along those lines. None of them realize it has 228k+ miles and a cheap repspray. 

Cayman gets it all the time either someone trying/wanting to race me or an extra 10 minutes at the gas station talking about it.

The R has not had any issues yet. I think it is too Golf ish, without the flair of the GTI's red stripe. Only had it a week though.

Charger gets it a lot at a light, but if we are following someone they unfortunately go dead on the speed limit as the Staties around here have black chargers with matte black stickers.

Try driving a G35. Every ricer wanna-be, crowd killer, brodozer, and maybe even grandmaw in her Saturn, and the guy in the plumbing van wants to beat you off the lights.