duplicate
It came as a surprise to me two years back when I did the H4H rally in my Mk1 which was covered in H4H roundels and done in desert camoflage shrink.
It had Ā āH4H Drive for Limbsā on the rear bumper in whiteā¦hi viz.
Not once was I pushed around from Fort George to Portsmouth over 6 days & 2000 milesā¦ever.
Everyone let me out on the motorways & junctionsā¦often with a toot and a wave or a thumbs up, the length and breadth of the busiest roads in England.
It made me ponder about how people perceive your car but Iām no motoring shrink so I do not have the answers.
Odd, but there we go. Nor can I say I bother about tailgaters. I just imagine they are over compensating for a lacking in the trouser dept, smile, and stick to the limits
They soon tireā¦and letās face it, youāll never see them again. Maybe itās 40 years driving that has taught me this.Ā
Weāve all had tailgaters no matter what car we are driving and when theyāve passed we want ārevengeā at
the next traffic lights/roundabout.
The thing to remember is if you run into the back of them then you are at blame and are they insured.
Also YOU DO NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE GETTING INTO AN ARGUMENT WITH!!
The best laugh is when some one who has tailgated you and raced off if you catch up with them at the
next roundabout look across and give them a big smile.
Mk2 mx5 and HGV driver.
I have the ultimate anti tailgate device a sticker that states āthe vehicle is equipped with cctvā I have one on my works van and yes ppl come flying up behind me but only takes about 10 seconds for them to notice the sticker and they instantly back off mind u the 4 cameras also have something to do with it as well?
Driving up from Baslow to Owler Bar 7.30pm approx last night,doing 45mph but slowly catching an articulated lorry.
I was in no hurry and was enjoying driving on a virtually empty road.
As we came to the cross roads half way up a Range Rover was stuck on my bumper and although I was a good 40-50 yds
from the lorry he/she never made any effort to overtake.
I left this gap all the way to Owler Bar but the Range Rover just stuck on my bumper.
I ACTUALLY THOUGHT I HAD A MAGNET ON MY BOOT LID AND THE R R COULDNāT BREAK THE MAGNETIC FIELD
AND I WAS DRAGGING IT ALONG.LOL
The lorry took the Sheffield exit and the R R followed me to Holmesfield still unable to brake my imaginary
magnetic field.
I wasnāt racing him and there were plenty of opportunities to overtake me so what was the point of the inconsiderate
driving.
Anyway as we left Holmesfield (magnet really working now) we came upon a road collision and the road was blocked
so we had to turn around and find an alternative route.
Another point,if I had been trying to race and keep the R R behind me we would have arrived at the road collision
earlier and could have been caught up in it.
Iāve definitely noticed it more in the mx5 - i also drive a Honda Accord diesel, and never really get bothered in that, but people really do like getting close to the 5 for some reason.
I was almost killed by a tailgating lorry on the M25 this morning.
Driving my everyday car, a Vaux Zafira, there were variable speed limits in force coming up to the A10 junction, the anticlockwise stretch through the Holmesdale Tunnel.
I drive past this every day. I stay in Lane 3 as I am going striaght through, and I know that Lane 2 is dangerous there as people often tty to jump in at the head of the queue
in the exit lane, or indeed can decide to pull out of the exit lane queue with zero notice.
Variable speed limit is down to 40 mph before the tunnel, and I am in lane 3 leaving a very large gap to traffic in front.
HGV driver in a rigid body truck (not an artic) takes exception to my speed and fastens himself inches off my rear bumper.
Hooting his horn, as we go into the tunnel he is still literally inches off my rear.
So how is that āalmost killedā?
While walking across the gigantic car park at Goodwood yesterday I noticed quite a few cars of many makes had a small camera fixed to the rear window, various shapes and sizes of anonymous camera but usually in the top corner on the passenger side.
Most of them were big enough to be visible to the tailgater, but perhaps not so obvious to someone wanting to nick it. I had a closer look at one on a big BMW and noticed it was actually just a dummy with no wires!
It occurred to me that sticking a dummy on the inside of our folding window might just be possible, especially if it is just a thin fake, effectively no more than a picture! The other alternative is to fit a dummy or real camera within the roll-hoop aperture behind the driverās or passengerās head, which would then also work with roof down.
Two questions then,
- which is the best small real camera for this purpose (it would need remote screen and storage)
- does anyone know of a source of the stick-on dummy-cams?
I ask because there were several stupidly aggressive tailgaters down there yesterday, always in a big 4x4. The only small satisfaction I gained was when one nearly rolled his in a couple of familiar tight corners on the A286 which the MX5 simply drove round without slowing down. Otherwise I just did my best to ignore them; their blood pressure, not mine.
Here is a practical test.
Get a piece of A4 paper and draw the shape of your rear view mirror on it in the middle.
Now cut that shape out.Ā
Now, holding that piece of paper horizontal in front of you at 3/4 arms length sit on the floor 20 feet in front of your car and look through the paper at your car.
Now kneel fully upright and and move 5 feet further back and look at your car through the paper again. See how different it looks.
Understand it is all perspective and angle. Also understand that if someone actually Ā wants to tailgate you, that having a whole BBC film crew sat on the boot isnāt going to make a difference.
Very true.
However I can still tell the differences between two feet behind and ten feet behind and thirty feet behind. One was so close at 50 that I could hear (above my exhaust tyre and wind noise) the V8 of the 4x4 as it was flipping between auto gears; he was too close to see my brake lights, so I didnāt use themā¦
Yesterday driving clockwise around the M25 there was a yellow BMW Mini (with a small spotlight mounted above the centre of the windscreen) sat uncomfortably close behind in the traffic for the best part of five miles, following me when I changed lanes. Eventually I came to the exit slip for the London M40, which in my old family balloons required a maximum of about 50mph because of the tightening curve. Leaving the 60mph traffic on the M25 he followed me in the inside lane instead of taking yet another opportunity to overtake on the straight bit.
Glancing in my mirror when we reached the curve still only at about 60 I could see the Mini driver sawing at his wheel trying to keep it on the road and now dangerously close behind. I thought I had better increase the gap. However, when taken up to 70 the MX5 was as happy on the curve as if it had been on rails, and simply left him behind. By the time I joined the M40 he was nowhere in sight, and he didnāt appear in the mirror again.
Job done legally, no stress, no aggression.
I think a really conspicuous rear dash cam is the answer.Ā Once noticed it usually makes tailgaters back off and if there is a near incident you can always post it on Youtube.
I always feel as if Iām being tailgated in my mx5 because cars look so close behind in the rear view mirror. However, if I look in my door mirrors I see that the offending car is nowhere near as close as it looks in the rear view mirror. Itās almost as if the rear view mirror slightly magnifies the image!
If Iām troubled by a tail-gater I do this. Ā When itās safe to do so I put on my left indicator, slow down, stop and put on hazard warning lights. Then when they pass they see me talking on the mobile, ignoring them. Ā The punch-line being that the mobile is an old pocket calculator as I donāt have a mobile phone.Ā Luckily my journeys do not include motorways and only a very short stretch of dual-carriageway āAā road!
And if said person was an unmarked police car he will no doubt stop and issue you with a ticket for using a hand held device whilst in control of a vehicle as most ppl are not aware that just pulling up to use your mobile is an offence unless the vehicle is switched off and no keys are in the ignition
Iām not sure you can be done for talking on a calculator.
The engine is off, an automatic reaction with me, and my ND does not have āa key in the ignitionā, why does yours?
Sorry itās taken so long to reply the joys of a 2 hour drive home
With regards your calculator the legislation you get prosecuted under states the use of any hand held device whilst in control of the vehicle so yes you can be done for it
And as for your keyless ignition Iām not totally sure but as the ignition can be turned on just by pressing a button rather than having to insert a key meaning the vehicle is still active although not running then Iām sure a pedantic police man would issue a ticket
You seem a bit paranoid about being stopped by the plods, in all my many years of driving, 40+, Iāve never once been stopped by them. In fact round here youād be extremely (un)lucky to see one, youāre more likely to see the advance guard of the invading North Korean army than a police vehicle.