Old car in a modern world!

In reply to Otto Maddox:

What jrw said. It seems around here an inordinately large number of contractor vehicles have them. Ticks off a buddy of mine, because his main job is home improvement work, but he also used to work the early shift at a bakery. Being out at 4-5 AM in his truck led him to getting pulled over a lot for BS reasons, just to see if he was drunk.

/end threadjack

i drive my 68 c20 like i could care less what anyone wants to do around me. i go the speed limit everywhere and take forever to stop because of the manual brakes.

my belair however, is faster than all of their new crap so it doesn't matter.

jrw1621 wrote: Also known as Party Plates. In Ohio, a judge as the ability to order the driver to carry these yellow plates on their car. It calls out to cops immediately that the driver is a repeat offender.

I can't decide if that's horrible or awesome.

I always like tailgaters on a twisty back road. Everyone's a badass until they actually have to not go in a straigt line and make a turn. I don't touch the brakes in my E36 M3box '00 Saturn, but they have to stand on them in their BMW or Merc or Lexus IS. Suddenly they're not tailgating anymore

Taiden wrote: One time I was driving my (late) obnoxiously low and loud eg civic around the outskirts of Charlotte NC. I was doing probably 5 over in a 45. Sweet new BMW g650 with street tires pulls up behind me. Completely blacked out. I was on some curvy roads, so I pulled over to let him by. He slowed down right behind me. I couldn't really pull over, but I did what I could. He rolled slowly next to me. POLICE written on the side with what looked like added flashers on four corners. Heart skipped probably ten beats. Cops ride BMWs now?

BMW plant is in spartanberg.. I think they give the staties BMWs as a good will gesture

Taiden wrote:

jrw1621 wrote: Also known as Party Plates. In Ohio, a judge as the ability to order the driver to carry these yellow plates on their car. It calls out to cops immediately that the driver is a repeat offender.

I can't decide if that's horrible or awesome.

As a motorcyclist and someone who is on the road late at night we need those in California. With something like repeat offender on them in big bold letters, and hash marks to mark the number of times cited.

Taiden wrote:

jrw1621 wrote: Also known as Party Plates. In Ohio, a judge as the ability to order the driver to carry these yellow plates on their car. It calls out to cops immediately that the driver is a repeat offender.

I can't decide if that's horrible or awesome.

It's awesome, you have to get 3 DUIs to have them issued. It makes it easier to laugh at people while you are driving.

oh yeah, IMHO the party plates are awesome.

every other work truck/van has them, so i look like the good contractor when i show up on time, sober, with normal plates.

plus i stay the hell away from people with those plates, or i make drinking and driving gestures at them like i'm holding a fake 40.

however - repeat DUI offenders just need their cars and driving rights revoked permanently. i've heard of people convicted 14 times for DUI/OVI

When I'm king... They won't have special plates for drunk driving. Don't need special plates when you get the chair for drunk driving.

Joey

I think a bumper treatment like this applied on the back would probably limit tailgating somewhat.

joey48442 wrote: When I'm king... They won't have special plates for drunk driving. Don't need special plates when you get the chair for drunk driving. Joey

I have little sympathy for drunk drivers.. but I do understand if maybe they have one or two too many can think they are ok but are not...

Last week one my neighbors lost their forester and mailbox to a drunkdriver in a suburban. He had 4 little kids in the car and could barely walk. That is the kind of drunk that needs the chair. Not only did he endanger others on the road.. but he put four small kids (all less than 10 yo) in direct danger due to his carelessness

I love to "mess" with tailgaters. With the Focus I just gradually keep increasing my speed. This works very well on the interstates. The reactions of the "unconscious" tailgater is fun to watch when they finally look at their speedometers and realize how fast they are going.

My Transit Connect has an even better way to deal with them. No "brake tap" needed, just flick on the European style rear foglights. They are even brighter tahn the brake lights

some sort of a device to inject a small amount of atf into the exhaust system would also be a decent way to get people to back off..

I had a couple old beaters I had rigged up with the atf James Bond smoke screens. Had a seperate window washer tank and pump under the hood with the hose directly over the carb oe throttle body. Push the button and a no visibility rating white cloud of foul smelling smoke was made. I did use it on tailgators and it did work well but it was also fun blocking out intersections and fogging out freinds behind me or along the road, lol.

vwcorvette wrote: In DE I remind my students that they cannot control the space to the rear. Only the forward space. While they are doing the speed limit I point out that they are following the law. If possible I suggest they move to lane position 3 (along the white line to the right of the car) and give them the opportunity to pass. "Let 'em go," I say. They often repeat back to me, "If they had just left the house earlier they wouldn't need to be in such a rush. And, it's not our problem if they're late." The "I gotta be ahead of you mentality" that pervades is amazing. Many of these people think they are Tony Stewart. Woohoo, you just got to the traffic light .8 seconds faster than I did. Here's your trophy. Oh wait, nobody cares! Some are just clueless.

Amen.

My least favorite type of tailgater is the speed up and follower. You get over into their lane for what ever reason and they have to fly up from however far back they were to be right on your bumper. This usually happens to me when I am moving at a 5-10 over speed. I will move over and give them the lane so they can go past and they just follow over and stay behind.

I think they don't want to go faster and cannot control their speed without someone in front. My sister drives that way and it drives me nuts. There can be only 2 cars on a deserted freeway and she is always the second car and always closer than I am comfortable with. I ask why don't you pass? She always say the speed is fine. I say why don't you back off? Always get a blank stare back. She also doesn't feel comfortable using 6th gear or cruise control when on the freeway because there is not enough feedback. Car in question is 04.5 GLI 1.8T.

former520 wrote: My least favorite type of tailgater is the speed up and follower. You get over into their lane for what ever reason and they have to fly up from however far back they were to be right on your bumper. This usually happens to me when I am moving at a 5-10 over speed. I will move over and give them the lane so they can go past and they just follow over and stay behind. I think they don't want to go faster and cannot control their speed without someone in front. My sister drives that way and it drives me nuts. There can be only 2 cars on a deserted freeway and she is always the second car and always closer than I am comfortable with. I ask why don't you pass? She always say the speed is fine. I say why don't you back off? Always get a blank stare back. She also doesn't feel comfortable using 6th gear or cruise control when on the freeway because there is not enough feedback. Car in question is 04.5 GLI 1.8T.

I see a lot of this. My ex-wife was actually one of those, she claimed that you need someone in front of you so that the cops will pull them over when you're over the speed limit. Only time it ever happened when we were traveling in tandem, she got pulled over because the LEO caught up to her first.