Vijay

So I'm on my way to the gym early this morning doing about 50 on an empty divided highway. I come to a red light and this beat-up old Pontiac Grand Am pulls behind me. As I leave the light, I accelerate at a very unhurried pace to about 60 and this guy is right on my ***. Up to 70....he stays on me......80....90....he again pulls up right on me. I see this is going nowhere good and immediately slow down, as there is another light coming up ahead. The guy pulls out, flies by on the right, then slams on his brakes as he approaches the light. His back end does a nice little wiggle all over the road as he attempts to slow down to make a right hand turn which he barely accomplishes by turning into the wrong lane.

What the hell was he thinking? A beat up Grand Am? I barely had the accelerator down 25%. What possibly possesed this guy to try and "take me" if that's what you want to call it. The odd thing is that I have experienced this kind of thing many times already in the 7 weeks I have owned this car. In comparison, my previous highly modded Nissan 350Z roadster was by far more of a head-turner, at least to Jon or Jane Q. Public, but fewer people actually tried to race me, although there were definitely some.

I've tried to analyze this phenomenon. The 350Z looks like a faster car. Could that be it? Could people have been saying "Why even bother?" With the RS4, could people be saying "Hey, let me see if can take that slightly beefed-up looking sedan". Could it be the opposite, where people know that the Z isn't a super fast kind of car so there's no interest in trying to see how close one can keep up? Or is this all just random stuff with no logic, pattern, rhyme or reason?

gtc

fight or flight response manifests itself on the road in such a way.

McGyver

and in the twisties, the movie in my rear-view mirror is priceless. It's amazing how some of them manage to stay on the road. Once we hit the straight aways, I "let" them pass me so they feel good and don't home to beat their kids/spouses, etc.

Silver Fun

It's the socially responsible thing to do.

daveak05

ignorance, he has no clue what you have. Audi's are understated and have a reputation as conservative luxury cars, to many other car owners, anyway. The masses don't know about the S models, much less an RS. The Z is well known, even to the crummy car owner crowd.

Vijay

Yeah, but why did he try to race then? He must have had something to try and prove to himself?

Bob W.

The RS4 is more unsafe for *other* drivers than it is for us. Personally, I think the RS4 is the safest car you can buy at this level of performance...the average driver can pull off maneuvers that would be extremely unsafe in, for example, a 997 or vette. The combination of AWD, DRC, and ESP makes it pretty tough to unsettle the RS4.

The problem is that other cars aren't as forgiving near the limit, but as you and I have observed, this doesn't stop people from trying.

Silver Fun

There is always the "subconscious" Darwin Award competition in our society.

daveak05

sure he had something to prove to himself, out of ignorance. He may have possibly known that it's not just another A4, but I doubt if the fool knew what you really had, the 420 HP, etc.

Don't ask me to explain it, it's one of the worst examples. But, I'm hardly surprised.

daveak05

No one's going to get anywhere here by trying to tell others how to drive. Aint gonna happen!

Now, if others here feel somehow obligated(for the greater good) to jump on another person's post about racing on the street, than that's fair game. Just stop short of sermons about death and and killing others.

So, I agree with your comments.