Proof that we need faster cars*

Dorje

Dorje

Dorje

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Joined
13 Feb 2009
Posts
730
Location
North Yorkshire
Setting the scene; just finished a game of 7 a side and driving home with the roof down as we have blue skies

I'm almost home and approaching my road (on the right), I indicate to turn about 30m before and gradually slow to a stop as there is traffic in the opposite lane.

So while I'm waiting I suddenly see a white 406 in my rear view mirror approaching quickly and NOT slowing down, then the unmistakenable sound of screeching tyres, SCREEEECH SKID SKID SCREEEE. At this point I can no longer see the badge on the front of his car, so I floor it. I have to drive a whole 15m past my road before he stops screeching and comes to a halt.

Looking back I should have got out of the car and had a word with him (polite one), but instead I just turned round and raised my arms to say what the hell were you doing. I turned in the next road on the left hoping he might do similar and apologise, did he dont' swear. FF. just drove off on his merry way.

If I didn't have the presence of mind to floor it away from my junction, he would have crashed into me at a minimum of 20mph. There were a couple of pedestrians and cars behind him who had realised I was at a standstill too.

Just thought I had to share and get it off my chest, was the first time I have ever truely got ****ed off when driving.

Thanks for reading. *I realise my car is not a car built for santa pod :p
 
I was in a similar situation on the M25 last year. I stopped because of traffic in front, a guy behind was going too fast and did the same as your guy, except I had only a few metres in front to me in which to move forward. He still hit me, but with his braking (or should I say skidding) and my forward movement the impact speed was such that our car sustained no damage worth getting my knickers in a twist over.

Bet you're glad you looked in your rear view mirror now eh? ;)
 
I've been in a similar situation, except the thing coming behind me was an artic. I was on my way to MOD Aldershot, it was raining quite hard, came to a stop at a roundabout. Glanced in my rear view mirror and saw the artic coming up real fast, his trailer was squirming around all over the place so I assumed that he'd locked his brakes. I realised that both the left and right hand lanes were clear so with a split second decision I did a sharp left into that lane, then a left onto the roundabout. The artic finally stopped with the cabin on the roundabout and his trailer across the middle and outside lanes. Luckily there were no other cars around and when he locked his wheels everybody around him slowed down.

The driver did actually wind his window down and thanked me, after I'd unclenched my bottom I decided to take it easy the rest of the way. :)
 
I think situations like this have happened to a lot of us (myself included) although I dont think they prove that we all need at least 200bhp to stay out of trouble or anything like that :)

You'd need to be slightly funny in the head to describe my car as anything approaching "fast", but its certainly capable of getting me out of trouble when I need it to.

I think what they do show, is that there are cars out there that are dangerously slow - mostly horrible little tin cans that cost 6k new, of course the average buyer of this sort of car wouldn't think twice about this sort of thing.
 
Thread title was slightly tongue in cheek :p

My car is certainly not fast, and the incident was avoidable in most cars. However something like a 1.3cdti astra estate may well have had problems ;)
 
Dorje said:
So while I'm waiting I suddenly see a white 406 in my rear view mirror approaching quickly and NOT slowing down, then the unmistakenable sound of screeching tyres, SCREEEECH SKID SKID SCREEEE. At this point I can no longer see the badge on the front of his car, so I floor it. I have to drive a whole 15m past my road before he stops screeching and comes to a halt.
Click to expand...

This man should have his licence destroyed. He's clearly blind.
 
Its surpising the amount of times you can look in your mirror and see someone completely shocked by the fact you have slowed or stopped. Never been hit, but been close a few times. Had to move right up to the back of someone on the A38 once to prevent the guy behind hitting me. Didnt work so well for him as someone went into the back of him!
 
I just nipped out in the car and had 3 cars behind me and every one was up my rear, I was doing 30mph, why does all the spacks come out at night.
 
cheets64 said:
I just nipped out in the car and had 3 cars behind me and every one was up my rear, I was doing 30mph, why does all the spacks come out at night.
Click to expand...

Maybe your speedo overreads by more than theirs does?

I swear an awful lot of aggro could be avoided if we had self calibrating speedos that GPS (obviously could only calibrate themselves when doing a constant speed in a straight line) or something to adjust themselves. My mates old J reg Nissan Micra used to indicate 30 when he was actually doing 25 (and following him in my D reg Escort said we were only doing 23, good job Ford)

To him, everyone on the road was a **** being agressive and tailgating because he's sticking to the speed limit. To me he was doing 23mph in a 30.
 
IAmATeaf said:
I've been in a similar situation, except the thing coming behind me was an artic. I was on my way to MOD Aldershot, it was raining quite hard, came to a stop at a roundabout. Glanced in my rear view mirror and saw the artic coming up real fast, his trailer was squirming around all over the place so I assumed that he'd locked his brakes. I realised that both the left and right hand lanes were clear so with a split second decision I did a sharp left into that lane, then a left onto the roundabout. The artic finally stopped with the cabin on the roundabout and his trailer across the middle and outside lanes. Luckily there were no other cars around and when he locked his wheels everybody around him slowed down.

The driver did actually wind his window down and thanked me, after I'd unclenched my bottom I decided to take it easy the rest of the way. :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like he thought it would be a good idea to drive fast in the wet with a trailer without ABS, not clever.

Good thinking, you saved yourself there!
 
Had a similar thing once when I was in the 7. On an NSL, I was following the traffic, just enjoying the scenary and someone came screaming up behind me, got it all wrong under braking trying to be clever and locked up, so I had to drop a couple of gears and accelerate otherwise he'd have hit me up the chuff. I was pretty concerned about my safety at this point so I actually pulled right over and gesticulated that he should pass me pronto. Bloody lunatic.

Another problem I find is people don't appreciate how quickly the 7 stops (around half the typical stopping distance of a modern car), so it's easy to catch people out. I normally have to drive for other people in that respect, keeping a close eye on the mirrors whenever I brake.
 
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