It is a fact that the TT gets a lot of attention. At first, this was kind of fun. Now it's getting a bit annoying and perhaps even more.<p>While most motorists seem good-natured and interested in nothing more than checking out the new TT, I've experienced some motorists who seem hell bent on messing with the new car.<p>Here's the first example. Today, I'm running a bit late to work. There's an SUV in the fast lane, and I want to go faster. I'm in the #2 lane, and there's no one near us either in front or to the rear. I speed up to get in the fast lane, and I can hear his rpms go redline. The guy is giving it everything that he's got to prevent me from getting in the lane. Bear in mind that I wasn't tailgating him, flashing lights, honking horns, or doing anything that should have irritated him. Well, my TT's a bit faster than his SUV, so a give it a little gas and get into the fast lane. He's still giving his SUV all that he can and almost rear ends me. We then come to a light, and the guy looks like he wants to jump out of his car and kill me. Hey, I just want to get to work!<br> <br>Here's another example. I'm driving to work last Thursday on a transition road from one freeway to another. I'm not going too fast or slow, just another car in the crowd. I look in my rear view mirror, and I see a guy with longish hair in a blue late 80s to early 90s Mustang just inches from my bumper. The guy is looking straight at me and twirling his index finger in a circle, which I took to mean, "whoopie s**t, Mr. white collar guy in your fancy new sports car". So I slowed a bit and tapped my brakes gently. More of the same from this guy. Tap the brakes a couple more times, and he flips me off. At this point, it's pretty obvious that he is being a dick intentionally.<p>I speed up as much as possible, drop it into 2nd or 3rd, hit the brakes pretty hard, then accellerate hard to avoid getting rear ended. So the guy then starts following me. However, I lose him in traffic.<p>Monday, I'm driving to work and guess who I see? You guessed it, it's the same loser, who then begins following me, only this time from a distance. I speed up a bit to confirm this, and I can see him desperately trying to keep pace. So I get into the slow lane which is going about 45 mph, and here he comes. The guy follows me off of the freeway.<p>Rightly or not, I decide that I'm going to settle this guy's problem one way or another. I'm not going to have this guy following me every day that I see him. I quickly pull into a large parking lot that I know is going to be empty at that time of the morning. The guy follows me into the lot, and by now I'm standing outside of the TT staring at him and looking mighty pissed. The guy slows down, looks a little nervous, and then speeds away quickly. I saw him again yesterday, and I slowed down to give him a hard look. Apparently, the parking lot thing solved the problem, as he didn't follow me this time.<p>Anyway, sorry to go on for so long, but what in the world is wrong with these people? Have any of you had any similar experiences? <br>

 

Wow, nothing that bad, but that's how all Bostonians drive anyway. <br>The most I've had are people on the Mass Pike boxing me in or failing to move out of the fast lane.

 

Number one rule when confronted with road rage: never pull over. That's how people get shot. You knew nothing about this loser. If you are going to stop do it at a police station. Second rule: never look over and make eye contact--even through your reveiw mirror. You are lucky your all in one piece.<p>I had a guy do the same thing the other day, I come on him in the fast lane at about 80mph, two car lengths back. He pulls over (to my surprise actually) and I speed up and pass. Next thing I know, here he comes in my mirror in his piece of sh** pickup truck, looking very much like he is going to rear end me. He gets to close I can't read his license plate. I refrained from tapping the brakes--number one way to **** someone off--and simply decided to downshift and put some distance between us. Which was not difficult.<p>Again, be careful, there are too many bad stories about what happens when two drivers confront each other on the side of the road. I would hope you are far above that.<p>KJK 91 M5

 

Hi Brad,<p>First, from experience I must agree w/ kjk re: stopping. About 6 years ago I had a confrontation with a manic/depressive who had not been taking his medication. Neither of us were locked up, but then again neither of us won. <p>The first rule of winning is to "know your opponent." You knew nothing about him. Although you were lucky this guy was intimidated by you, he could have just as easily pulled out a gun and killed you. <p>Now on to my experiences. I have not had any bad reactions from people, only good. The worst experience so far was when some A. H. floored it to catch up to me and stuck his head out the window of his Suburban(while twisting his body, thus pulling the steering wheel to the left) to yell out how nice the car was. I had to hit the brakes before he squeezed me into the median.<p>Consistently the biggest problem I have had is that everyone wants to race. Since about 75% of my driving is in the city, I don't bite. Occasionally I do. Although the 180 FWD does not have a huge amout of power, the grip is incredible. I always win in the curves.<p>Regards,<br>Rob<p>

 

Now, was the guy in the beat up Mustang wearing Oakleys, a wifebeater tank top, frosted jeans and have a short-long(you know, short on the sides and long in the back) haircut? Unfortunately, it happens to everyone. Those kind of drivers are everywhere. It's not limited to only TT owners. Just try to ignore them or fall in behind them. Let them have their perceived space and they tend to remain happy. Make even the most innocent move and they perform a Mt. St. Helens meltdown. Living in the Bay Area, there are many driving-challenged individuals...;-)

 

Happens frequently.....I do my utmost to ignore them and stay safe (NT)

 

I've always been torn. I take a tip from the Europeans who are generally nonchalant about an outfitted MB coming up from behind to your bumper, they just move over and let him pass. The logic seems to be that we will all get ours sooner or later, so be patient. So my primary mode is to ignore the idiot, that will generally **** off trailer trash more than anything because you've decided they aren't even worthy of any attention.<p>So if that irritates them more, and if they insist on slowing down with you and tailing, then the Walking Tall approach is something I've always dreamed of but never executed. You slow the car to a dead stop. Take the crowbar that you keep under the front seat (in case you need to tighten a belt one day), you get out of the car and walk back to the idiot who has stopped with you and you smash his f*cking windshield with one good swing. <p>

 

The Beastie Boys did an article (in their Fan Mag, I think it's called Crown Royal) on the history and perversity of this hairstyle...

 

got a knife pulled on me, and yes, the situation was that both drivers got out of their cars. fortunately, i was one degree louder in theshouting match and he backed off. but i was trembling all the way home - never been that scared in my life.<p>my advice, back off, disappear, and let it roll off your back.<p>there are true lunatics out there. be safe, and no one will think less of you if you back down from a confrontation.<p>be safe, man.<br>gs.

 

I had one clown in a Pathfinder (what a sporty machine) decide he wanted to show me how much faster he could go out of a toll gate...I let him blow by me as he was glaring at me. A few minutes later, as I'm naturally now going much faster than he was, and have caught up to him, am staying behind him for a bit because we were in a big right hand curve, coming up to a long sweeping left curve that I was going to smoke him on. Next thing I know, the *** is driving onto the shoulder (gravel) to kick **** up onto my car! I swerve to the left, brake a moment, and then when he gets back in the lane, I BLOW by him and don't even look at him. He tried to catch up, but never could. Watch out for this "gravel attack" from some idiots. I've seen them do it more than once.