[DropTopKinetics]

Huh ... imagine that. That's how I drive ALL the time!

(No, really: There's a point to it.)

In my younger motorcycling days, I perfected beliefs and habits I developed even before I began to drive on public roads that I learned from two sources in my early teens:

• German sportbikers and car nuts (a ringleader lived across the street from me)
• Cycling on European roads -- not on bike trails, but the actual roads between towns

You quickly learn two important rules:

• The safest place is in front of others.
• The more space around you to be able to move into in an emergency, the better.

I accelerate -- and, at times, brake -- to get into more space. That's the cardinal rule of safe vehicle operation to me. I can't tell you how many times -- as a cyclist, motorcyclist, and driver -- I've seen traffic behind me blow up. I very rarely have seen it do that in front of me -- and when I have, I've had a place to move into to avoid it (thankfully). Anticipation and bet-hedging is the name of the game. I describe it as 'defensive aggressiveness' to others. Most think I'm nuts. But I never crashed a motorcycle on a public road and have had exactly one minor accident since age 18 (I'll be 50 next month) for a reason, and it ain't being passive -- even amongst the 'morons', LOL. ;D

Couldn't agree more. Create a safe space. Best way to use 718 on public roads!

 

[Crewman19]

My 718’s a Moron Magnet

I’ve owned my 718 Cayman for almost a year now.

This is the first Porsche I’ve owned.

The one thing I really don’t like about the car, is the way some other motorists treat you.

It seems almost every other time I go out in the car, I get some idiot who wants to race me.

Countless times I’ve stopped at traffic lights and the person in the next lane goes for it when the lights change.
I even had a guy in a beat up old Volvo Estate try to cut me off at a set of lights when the three lanes at the lights went down to two the other side, “Really ???”
I’ve been tailgated numerous times by everything from “White Van Man” to young idiots in ordinary hatchback cars.
I’ve had another guy with his Mrs in the passenger seat chase me down a duel carriageway in a Fiesta ST. Stupidly I accelerated and left him behind only to see him again soon after right on my bumper again. I overtook a couple of lorries and pulled off at a junction, there wasn’t much of a gap. But to my surprise he followed me, I don’t know how he missed the lorries.The junction slip road had a long sharp bend, the 718 took the bend at speed comfortably. The Fiesta ST tried to follow as quickly, I could see the drivers passenger giving him a real roasting for being a “Tool”.

After that escapade I try to avoid these Idiots.
I now just slow down and let them go past.
I stick to the lower speed limits and only enjoy my car on country roads when there’s little or no other traffic about.
I don’t have anything to prove, I know my cars faster than 99% of other vehicles on the road.

So if you’ve never owned a Porsche before and are thinking of buying a 718 you will have this problem.

I didn’t have this kind of trouble in any of my previous cars.

Be careful especially as a lot of other drivers have Dash Cam’s, you don’t want to end up on You Tube.

I’ve just bought a cayman and had a similar experience, I’ve just decided a nice slow pace when the road is busy and open her up when the roads are empty.

 

[highwire_ca]

In general, I find the drivers here to be pretty OK. Last Friday though, I was heading to the drive-thru to get a salad (and when I say salad I mean a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (tm)). The driver of the RAV4 in front of me stopped dead about four car lengths from the end of the queue and I was behind them about half a car length back. Behind me was a Dodge Ram so I had nowhere to go in reverse. RAV4's reverse lights come on and it starts reversing as I furiously sound the horn. Fortunately they stopped with a couple of cms to spare. That was too close.

 

[Kman]

Thank God the near miss happened before you got your "salad" or you may have dropped It. My buddy tells me "just because it’s on the dollar menu doesn’t mean it’s right".

 

[Rideguy]

Similar thing to a coworker several,years. He and his wife went to buy a new car right after work. It took many hours to compleete the sale (a Ford), and they were starved. There was a McDonalds right next door, so they drove off the lot to the drive-through. They were one vehicle behind the pick-up window. The pickup truck in front moved ahead, suddenly stopped, put it in reverse and backed into their brand new car!
Glad your episode had a happier ending.

 

[MLJJ]

Went off-roading this morning. Someone in a minivan apparently had an urgent text (or whatever) and was visiting me in my lane headon. Car handled beautifully getting out of the way until it encountered tall wet grass. Thankfully, I had nothing but grass/weeds on my side. Spent a little while vacuuming vegetation out of the self-installed radiator grill mesh. I don't have an on-board camera, but this, and the litigious society we live in, has me thinking more about it. Be safe out there!

 

[Mozella]

I debadged my first generation Panamera and now I don't have any of the problems listed in this thread. People think I'm driving a Chrysler Crossfire.

 

[Graustark]

I debadged my first generation Panamera and now I don't have any of the problems listed in this thread. People think I'm driving a Chrysler Crossfire.

Crossfire is pretty cool. Isn't it a shared platform w/ some Mercedes, per it being the DaimlerChrysler era?

 

[Mozella]

I was beginning to think that the moron concentration was going down where I live since I don't notice idiots acting like idiots when I drove my Porsche Panamera. I have to remind myself that although it has sparkling performance and handling, it is a white, four-door, sedan; therefore, it doesn't attract too much attention.

Yesterday I took delivery of a brand new Guards Red 718 Cayman. I wasn't more than 2 minutes away from the dealership until I encountered my first idiot, racing up behind me in one of those Caddy CT-whatevers.

He pulled over to pass and then slammed on the brakes to stay right beside me until I scraped him off in the evening rush-hour traffic on the 5 lane wide freeway. His antics didn't go unnoticed though. Some guy in a Hyundai Ricer of some kind joined in and the two of them buzzed around me like gnats for the next 20 minutes. Traffic was pretty heavy but moving at around 85mph with the slow pokes going around 70. I was having thoughts of "the NASCAR big one" at Talladega.

They seemed interested in tailgating me and then pulling up along side after which they would drop in behind me when traffic made it look like they might lose a position or two. First one and then the other would try to block the other guy from pulling back into the faster moving lane so they would get blocked and have to fall back. Around here, people think it's OK to camp out in the left lane if they're doing the speed limit, so faster cars do plenty of right lane passing.

No harm, no foul I guess but I found it quite irritating. That's the curse of a Guards Red car I suppose.............. but boy, does it look good. Here's me getting a tank of gas at the dealer's expense.

 

[GregW]

I'm sorry to hear about your local moron population 😮. I often see them on the Tube, smashing and crashing.
Fortunately I've only run across one in the last 3.5 years. Of course my Boxster is yellow and that doesn't seem to be as viable a target as red.
Stay safe and enjoy the driving.

 

[Mozella]

Psychologists say that yellow is the favorite color of the insane. Perhaps the morons in your neck of the woods are afraid.

 

[dkmajm]

@Mozella your car is blocking the sign, just wondering how much to add a fountain drink thanks!?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Mozella]

@Mozella your car is blocking the sign, just wondering how much to add a fountain drink thanks!?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Don't know. I don't buy pizza, especially at a gas station. I make my own. I'll give you the recipe/procedure if you're interested.

 

[718Gator]

My 718’s a Moron Magnet

I’ve owned my 718 Cayman for almost a year now.

This is the first Porsche I’ve owned.

The one thing I really don’t like about the car, is the way some other motorists treat you.

It seems almost every other time I go out in the car, I get some idiot who wants to race me.

Countless times I’ve stopped at traffic lights and the person in the next lane goes for it when the lights change.
I even had a guy in a beat up old Volvo Estate try to cut me off at a set of lights when the three lanes at the lights went down to two the other side, “Really ???”
I’ve been tailgated numerous times by everything from “White Van Man” to young idiots in ordinary hatchback cars.
I’ve had another guy with his Mrs in the passenger seat chase me down a duel carriageway in a Fiesta ST. Stupidly I accelerated and left him behind only to see him again soon after right on my bumper again. I overtook a couple of lorries and pulled off at a junction, there wasn’t much of a gap. But to my surprise he followed me, I don’t know how he missed the lorries.The junction slip road had a long sharp bend, the 718 took the bend at speed comfortably. The Fiesta ST tried to follow as quickly, I could see the drivers passenger giving him a real roasting for being a “Tool”.

After that escapade I try to avoid these Idiots.
I now just slow down and let them go past.
I stick to the lower speed limits and only enjoy my car on country roads when there’s little or no other traffic about.
I don’t have anything to prove, I know my cars faster than 99% of other vehicles on the road.

So if you’ve never owned a Porsche before and are thinking of buying a 718 you will have this problem.

I didn’t have this kind of trouble in any of my previous cars.

Be careful especially as a lot of other drivers have Dash Cam’s, you don’t want to end up on You Tube.

Too funny! Get that too...recently traded in my C7 Z06 for my Cayman S...every knucklehead always want to see how they fair against 650 HP...I would always let them take off at the light and drive my Z06 as if it were a minivan...cool to drive a fast car slow😀

 

[Box2112]

Anyone who appreciates great pizza, get yourself a Gozney Roccbox, and thank me later...

Don't know. I don't buy pizza, especially at a gas station. I make my own. I'll give you the recipe/procedure if you're interested.

View attachment 29712

 

[girarcat]

Fortunately, in Spain tailgating is not frequent at all. If someone did that, I think I would regard him as a sort of psycho. However, what's really frequent (and maybe even more dangerous) is that when you are trying to overtake some other car, many people try and accelerate as much as possible in an attempt to outpower you and force you to go back behind them (and then they'll continue driving slowly, until you try to overtake them again). This is quite annoying when driving small-engine cars, aside from dangerous. This happens a lot when driving my Miata. However, when driving the Porsche, the power difference is such that I can't even notice if they are actually accelerating on purpose to make things harder for me.

A couple of months ago I was driving behind a woman in a Mercedes wagon. When we reached a straight line where I could possibly overtake her, I could notice she started to accelerate more than would be reasonable. At that moment I decided to teach her a little lesson, so I pressed the Sport Response button and vanquished her in a couple seconds, though I had to go well beyond the speed limit to do that. After that I felt like an idi*t, but I wanted to get rid of her 'cause we were reaching my favorite mountain road and didn't want to have here driving in front of me.

It's a good thing though that here in Spain very few cars have more than 200hp and, if they do, most of the times they are heavy SUVs which don't have a chance against the 718.

 

[Mozella]

Fortunately, in Spain tailgating is not frequent at all. If someone did that, I think I would regard him as a sort of psycho. However, what's really frequent (and maybe even more dangerous) is that when you are trying to overtake some other car, many people try and accelerate as much as possible in an attempt to outpower you and force you to go back behind them (and then they'll continue driving slowly, until you try to overtake them again). This is quite annoying when driving small-engine cars, aside from dangerous. This happens a lot when driving my Miata. However, when driving the Porsche, the power difference is such that I can't even notice if they are actually accelerating on purpose to make things harder for me.

A couple of months ago I was driving behind a woman in a Mercedes wagon. When we reached a straight line where I could possibly overtake her, I could notice she started to accelerate more than would be reasonable. At that moment I decided to teach her a little lesson, so I pressed the Sport Response button and vanquished her in a couple seconds, though I had to go well beyond the speed limit to do that. After that I felt like an idi*t, but I wanted to get rid of her 'cause we were reaching my favorite mountain road and didn't want to have here driving in front of me.

It's a good thing though that here in Spain very few cars have more than 200hp and, if they do, most of the times they are heavy SUVs which don't have a chance against the 718.

I've only done a little bit of driving in Spain. I find it interesting that the driving style you describe in Spain is so different from what I experienced in Italy. I lived in Italy for many years and nearly everyone drives a small, low powered fuel efficient car, just like in Spain. The Italian secondary roads are wonderful for driving with lots of hills and curves, perfect for my Ferrari or my Ducati. But these roads making passing difficult for low powered cars, forcing many situations where a driver is tempted to pass where there is insufficient room. But to my surprise, I learned that when the passing car gets hung out in the left lane when an oncoming car pops into view, the car being passed maintains speed and just moves over to the right while the oncoming car also maintains speed and moves over to his/her right. The car making the risky passing maneuver only has to stay on the center line and they turn a two lane road into a three lane road for a moment.

This is a bit unnerving at first, but it works out just fine. In the U.S., fancy maneuvers like this would result in a two or three car wreck.

Tailgating is different between Spain and Italy too. In Italy there is no "tailgating" law. You can follow as closely as you dare. Of course if you run into the back of someone, you will be found at fault. But if you don't hit the other car, you'll be OK. You get used to it because everyone follows closely. Now that I'm back in the United States, I have to remind myself to back off a little bit.

Drivers In Italy regularly made room for me when I was riding my Ducati. For example, I might come up behind a car when there was a long line of oncoming traffic. Normally, that would prohibit a pass, but more often than not, the car ahead would move over, inviting me to take the center-line and go on my way.

Italian drivers are aggressive and often drive well over the speed limit; however, they are also usually paying attention and almost never use their phones and hardly ever eat or drink in their cars. That is why I decided to start riding a motorcycle again, something I gave up doing in the U.S. more than 50 years ago because it was (and still is) simply too dangerous because of inattentive drivers. I enjoyed riding my Ducati fast enough to frighten the crap out of myself, but not quite fast enough to kill me.

 

[girarcat]

I've only done a little bit of driving in Spain. I find it interesting that the driving style you describe in Spain is so different from what I experienced in Italy. I lived in Italy for many years and nearly everyone drives a small, low powered fuel efficient car, just like in Spain. The Italian secondary roads are wonderful for driving with lots of hills and curves, perfect for my Ferrari or my Ducati. But these roads making passing difficult for low powered cars, forcing many situations where a driver is tempted to pass where there is insufficient room. But to my surprise, I learned that when the passing car gets hung out in the left lane when an oncoming car pops into view, the car being passed maintains speed and just moves over to the right while the oncoming car also maintains speed and moves over to his/her right. The car making the risky passing maneuver only has to stay on the center line and they turn a two lane road into a three lane road for a moment.

This is a bit unnerving at first, but it works out just fine. In the U.S., fancy maneuvers like this would result in a two or three car wreck.

Tailgating is different between Spain and Italy too. In Italy there is no "tailgating" law. You can follow as closely as you dare. Of course if you run into the back of someone, you will be found at fault. But if you don't hit the other car, you'll be OK. You get used to it because everyone follows closely. Now that I'm back in the United States, I have to remind myself to back off a little bit.

Drivers In Italy regularly made room for me when I was riding my Ducati. For example, I might come up behind a car when there was a long line of oncoming traffic. Normally, that would prohibit a pass, but more often than not, the car ahead would move over, inviting me to take the center-line and go on my way.

Italian drivers are aggressive and often drive well over the speed limit; however, they are also usually paying attention and almost never use their phones and hardly ever eat or drink in their cars. That is why I decided to start riding a motorcycle again, something I gave up doing in the U.S. more than 50 years ago because it was (and still is) simply too dangerous because of inattentive drivers. I enjoyed riding my Ducati fast enough to frighten the crap out of myself, but not quite fast enough to kill me.

In Spain, in general drivers are more civilized than in Italy (especially Southern Italy, which is famous all over Europe for their driving style). Police pressure has increased a lot these last 10-15 years, so most of the drivers comply with the speed limits (many people get quite judgmental against speeders), and overtaking is almost out of the question in secondary roads for many drivers (normal thing, considering the low-powered cars they drive and that many don't even know how to properly shift down to squeeze out a little bit of extra power).

However, many feel no remorse when using their cellphones while driving, or driving half-asleep, or even driving after drinking some beers (even though all those behaviors are penalized much heavier by the police than speeding).

This momentary conversion of a two-lane road into a three-lane road you describe and that is so typical in Italy would be considered as suicidal behavior in Spain. The main problem here is people tend to consider that no one should drive any faster than them, and usually get upset when you overtake. This brings some assh*les to accelerate when they realize you are trying to overtake to make things difficult for you in an attempt to force you to give up. Others will get closer to the preceding car in order to leave you with no room for overtaking them, which forces you to overtake two cars in a single maneuver (not a problem with the Porsche)

 

[Mozella]

........... snip.........However, many feel no remorse when using their cellphones while driving, or driving half-asleep, or even driving after drinking some beers (even though all those behaviors are penalized much heavier by the police than speeding)....... snip...........

Sad to say, it sounds like Spanish drivers are becoming Americanized. My favorites are those ladies applying fingernail polish while driving. I miss my motorcycle, but riding one in the USA is simply not worth the risk, at least as far as I'm concerned.

 

[ArchiProf]

But to my surprise, I learned that when the passing car gets hung out in the left lane when an oncoming car pops into view, the car being passed maintains speed and just moves over to the right while the oncoming car also maintains speed and moves over to his/her right. The car making the risky passing maneuver only has to stay on the center line and they turn a two lane road into a three lane road for a moment.

I found this to be true when I lived in Ticino, the "Italian" Canton of Switzerland, many years ago.