Aggressive Drivers?

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Robj

Robj

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Redding, California
I just got my Swinger back on the road last Friday. It's painted and mostly back together so it looks almost complete. The first thing I've seemed to notice is that people seem to drive like idiots around me now. I don't think it's just that I'm a little more paranoid- they seem to come up faster behind me, race past me, cut me off close in front, try to race past me through intersections....Not like racing their engines at lights to race but just driving aggressively around me.

I drive exactly the same as in my wife's suby and as in the GMC mini-van I was driving while the Dart was out of service. Is it the look of what people perceive as a '70s muscle car and they have to prove something in their own driving? I remember going to races at Riverside in the 70's and everybody got stupid leaving the race at the end. They all thought they were Richard Petty in their Pintos, Vegas and Kingswood Estate Wagons.

Does anybody else notice this when in your vintage Mopar or am I just imagining it.
 
I notice people driving 5 miles under and swerving around until you try to pass them and they speed up. Once you get around them, they are going at least 5 mph faster than they were. Some even speed enough to ride your *** after you pass them. People drive like idiots constantly.
You care about your rare and special vehicle. They drive cookie cutter turds worth nothing with no nostalgic value with no shocks and poor tires at break neck speeds like they own a finely tuned ZR1 vette or something.
In the last 10 years I have rarely operated any vehicle without the head-lights on. I could care less about any reason not to do such. It helps dramatically on people pulling in front of me, merging in front of me, pedestrians crossing in front of me, dumb asses pulling out in front of me.

The "other guy" reason. I saw a nicely done rat rod get pounded when some young girl thought she had the right away and pulled into oncomming traffic. My 69 coronet was totaled by a punk in a camero cause he was showing out doing 85 with his thumb on the spray button in a 35 in the "cruising" lane.

Good insurance coverage is important. Haggerty has a pretty great "agreed upon" policy process. There are some restrictions but they are reasonable.

When I lived in the Bay Assarea, I garaged the machine, mostly drove early in the early morning headed out of town, and occasionally late at night. The freeways and roads inside dense cities are entirely too populated to be taking a rare or precious vehicle into the daily grind; for collision, theft, vandalism, enviro-fanatics, and insurance reasons. I moved to the hills to enjoy my hobbies.
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Agressive and distracted. I'm selective about when and where I drive my Barracuda.
 
I notice people never drive within the speed limits right here in town. They cross streets from driveway to driveway even if they have to go up a one way in the opposite direction for 50 foot. I have headlights with directional's inside them on my Signet cause many don't bother to look down and my horn scares the crap out of them. Cadillac drivers have been replaced with Prius drivers both who haven't a clue what the fast lane is about on a freeway. I hardly drive in the daytime anymore, too many moronagonioans out there.
Don't get insulted but here in southern Oregon we have many persons from SoCal and they bring their habits with them. I lived in Redding for a year and had to return or I would have been in jail. Come to think of it, I'll be in Redding the end of this month but will take my truck..
 
Just make sure you got the right insurance And get the car apprised by a classic car association If the car means that much to you! Cause if some one hits you. its going to be hell.
 
I drove my 72 Scamp on a road trip to Socal(101 to 405 south). Drove in the slow lane(62 to 65 ). Had more people stare,swerve around,and generally be idiotic.To me it boils to one item:we work,care,and spend time/money on our cars.Maybe the average suburbanite lemming doesn't realize the difference.
 
Abodybomber said:
I drove my 72 Scamp on a road trip to Socal(101 to 405 south). Drove in the slow lane(62 to 65 ). Had more people stare,swerve around,and generally be idiotic.To me it boils to one item:we work,care,and spend time/money on our cars.Maybe the average suburbanite lemming doesn't realize the difference.
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Maybe they just want a better look. I really don't know.

Funny though because I drive a shuttle up and down I-5 for the VA and I can't tell you how many times I've had people almost swerve into the side of my van in my lane while they're frantically trying to get our attention waving a vet or Navy ship cap through the window. I've gotten blocked from lane changes for my exit in downtown Sac by people speeding up and slowing down, hovering right beside me to show their respect and wave to the passengers seated behind me.

I guess they just get caught up in the moment and forget that it's a dangerous situation.
 
Yep I get it all the time in my daily driver swinger. They especially like to cut me off..... Not really sure why but it makes me gald I put disks in front. I also always drive with my head lights on.

Not to mention all the ricers that want to race in traffic? Where exactly are we going to race with all the other cars around?
 
Robj said:
I just got my Swinger back on the road last Friday. It's painted and mostly back together so it looks almost complete. The first thing I've seemed to notice is that people seem to drive like idiots around me now. I don't think it's just that I'm a little more paranoid- they seem to come up faster behind me, race past me, cut me off close in front, try to race past me through intersections....Not like racing their engines at lights to race but just driving aggressively around me.

I drive exactly the same as in my wife's suby and as in the GMC mini-van I was driving while the Dart was out of service. Is it the look of what people perceive as a '70s muscle car and they have to prove something in their own driving? I remember going to races at Riverside in the 70's and everybody got stupid leaving the race at the end. They all thought they were Richard Petty in their Pintos, Vegas and Kingswood Estate Wagons.

Does anybody else notice this when in your vintage Mopar or am I just imagining it.
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I doubt that people change their driving habits when you change cars, lol, but, if you're like me, you become much more aware of the number of idiots behind the wheels of cars around you.
 
i never noticed it before someone pointed it out to me .....but i tend to drive more aggresive when im driving a mopar or a car with some power over when im driving an econo-box.......i didnt realize, but i go faster and and aggressively get in front of ppl and jack rabbit start more ........if im in a situation where its up me to be polite, i usually am except if its a toyota then i wont let them in and crowd them out.

this is bad bcoz my daily driver is a mopar, but now its a slanty so that slows me down a lot compared to when i was driving my 72 swinger with a 440/4speed.
 
Welcome to "our" world. I'm almost to the point of being totally paranoid every time I take the Dart out for a cruise. I have to plan what time of day I go out and then when I do, my head is spinning in every direction to try to see them before they get to me and I can take steps to avoid a crash. I get the "cut me off" bit all the time. Like was said, they always got to act like they're some bigshot race car driver with their girlfriend in the car to show off to. You can always spot them in your rear view mirror way back in traffic. You know the kind. POS 79 or early 80's Mustang or Camaro with a huge hood scoop, funky racing stripes, dark tinted windows, and a boom box blaring away. They spot you and then they break ranks and start weaving in and out of cars trying to catch up to you just so they can get right on your a$$ and start acting like a wacko. They hope that the next traffic light is two lanes and you catch a red light. Then they pull up and show ALL their intelligence by saying something COOL like, "Hey man....whatcha got in it? Wanna run it"? And of course when the light turns red they floor it and go blazing off in a trail of smoke and noise with their chests all pumped up for the little lady thinking how they just blew your doors off, even though you didn't join in the big race. It's tough owning a cool muscle car and simply having fun driving it without having a cell phone user or texting nut doing their best to take you out. Be careful guys. It's a jungle out there!
 
Yeah I know exactly what you're talking about. Small car with a bumble bee tail pipe comes roaring past me over in my lane. He gave me a "fly by". His punk buddy in the back seat thought it was funny. If they knew what I had in my pocket they might not gotten so close to my car.

Guy in a truck with his girlfriend sitting up under him going down two lane highway slowly pulls up beside me and then lets off the gas slowly gets up beside me then lets off the gas then he nails as he is beside me wanting me to nail mine. I pull over and let them get on down the road then go back to minding my own business.

Hagerty is the insurance company you need to have it you want the money that you have in the car back if its totaled. Believe me...... I lost a muscle car because of a stupid idiot but I got my money back. That won't happen with normal car insurance.
 
When driving our 70's cars I think we do pay more attention. What I consider cutting me off in my dart might not be so in my escort. When driving classics we keep certain things in the back of our minds like the fact that our car's brakes, steering and suspension were designed 40+ yrs ago. The fact is, stupid/bad/inconsiderate drivers are around all the time. Sometimes it's also the area, like in Los Angeles, my aggressiveness goes up a notch or two. However, as an aggressive driver I must say when on the fast lane, I move over for anyone approaching even if I'm doing 80 and I expect the same of others. On the slow lane, I will never ride anyone's *** and I also expect the same from others here.
 
I'm in a college town and it's FULL of idiots who think they can drive, drink, text and cell all at the same time. There isn't any drivers training in high schools anymore like there was when I was in school. Let me tell ya...my instructor in High school was a drill sargent when it came to teaching the class and also when we went out to the driving range and he was worse when we went out for our road test. It was a somester long class and he stressed the importance of being safe. They even showed us all the graffic gory movies like Death on the Highway and others to drill it into our heads about what acting stupid can get you...AKA, dead!! Not that I didn't do some dumb and stupid things, but I don't recall ever cutting people off or tailgating just to impress my girlfriend. Had I done that, she would have moved over to the other side of the front seat or refused to ride with me anymore. There wasn't as much traffic back then either and my town was a whole lot smaller, people wise and businesses weren't even open on Sundays and most closed at noon on Saturdays. So cruising was easy on weekends.
 
I'm going to be real careful like whenever I post here again and I will be knocking on wood each time too. Leaving work today I got rear ended by an elderly gentleman. I honestly couldn't believe it. I could not believe it! He and his son who were riding together are both OK. I'm still stunned.
 

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Robj said:
I'm going to be real careful like whenever I post here again and I will be knocking on wood each time too. Leaving work today I got rear ended by an elderly gentleman. I honestly couldn't believe it. I could not believe it! He and his son who were riding together are both OK. I'm still stunned.
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Aw man that sucks. I know how that feels, my Barracuda was rear ended too (hit and run!) At least you can feel some empathy for the elderly gentleman, everyone is ok and your Dart can be fixed. Regarding the subject of your post and the timing of the accident... a couple accidents I had, I can say I had a premonition about them.
 
It was 106 and he was on oxygen. He really felt bad about it. Yeah the car can be fixed and will be. I'm glad he was OK and hopefully got home to cool off and get some rest.
 
There's something about a vintage muscle car that brings the idiot out of most people. I've had the same thing happen to me. I have no explanation for it, but the other drivers seemed to overdose on stupid pills whenever I used take my car out. My friends who own classic cars notice it also.
 
People just drive like crap nowadays. It doesn't matter what your in they aren't biased.

I have to get offtopic here but, there is a short story about cars, which rush's song red barchetta is based on. In a nutshell the cars are made bigger and stronger for saftey standards. the cars get so big that they can run into stuff and take no damage. so it becomes sport to run older cars off the road!
 
People do behave differently around different cars. When I drive my 99 Dakota people give me room and get out of the way. When I drive my brand x compact people can care less and won't heed you're your horn or signal for anything. And yes watching fart pipe compacts race in traffic is funny as all get out.
 
I used to have a REAL ugly 62 Landcruiser with a 340 in, later a 318. I had NO trouble with people getting the eF outta my way!! Great big channel iron front bumper helped!!

Years ago, coming out of "the beach" in my small home town, some beauoeawtch was tailgating me in her POS Nova. I "got on" the brake several times tryin' to tell here to "get off." There was no room to pull over or I would have. EACH TIME I braked, I could see in the mirror, her POS was diving to one side from the brakes pulling, but she would GET RIGHT BACK ON ME!!!

This was back when I still had the 70RR, and I was NOT happy about someone screwin' with that car!!!

FINALLY I get out to the stop sign and stopped AND SHE HIT ME!!!! Only damage she did was a tiny corner of her bumper hit one of the bumper bolts on the 70. I launched out of the car absolutely outta control. I was enraged. I could barely walk I was shaking so hard. I got into her face and screamed at her nonstop for at least 2 minutes. People behind her were honkin and yellin. I didn't care. Gawud I was mad. If she'd been a guy, he'd been on the ground.

Did it do any good? Nope. Next day I see her in town, she makes a stop, and the car dives off to one side. The cops won't do squat. "It's an equipment violation."
 
Lucky I haven't ever had to deal with that here. There is rubbernecking but most people are pretty good about staying away. Hell on Tuesday I went to school in it and parked on the last spot in the back middle of the lot (bottom right of the HH). I come out and go to it, there is no one in any of the other 3 spots in that double H. I was like, wow, thanks guys for being so incredibly considerate and basically giving me 4 spots to myself. I think part of it was that I was all the way in back and they didn't mind as much, where as if I had been towards the front it would have been different.
 
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