Rise of the slow driving early morning commuter

[vwdan]

I wonder when they changed the advice. That's certainly the advice the IAM gave me when I did my course, but that was some years back.

Dunno, then - I never completed mine at the time, but that was what my instructor/volunteer/whatever told me - maybe he was wrong. I suppose to some degree it's interpretation and opinion.

[Damon]

I used to get annoyed with motorway knobs like that but now I just laugh at them.

They must have amazing jobs to get to as they risk their lives driving like that!

I do have a car that makes overtaking easier due to its acceleration and as long as judged and executed well don't worry other drivers. But I don't bother when driving wife's car.

[Old Greg]

You guys are heart attack and stroke fodder. Chill out a bit

[vwdan]

It's part of the reason I'll always love pottering around in classic cars; when you've got less than 40bhp behind you, it forces you take a somewhat more chilled out view to travel! Hard work over long distances, though.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

This concerns me as well. its obviously fuel price related because when I moved to the countryside in 2001 the roads were much faster. Now its common to find people trying to hyper mile their way around to save a few quid. The M4 has definitely reduced in the average speeds by at least 20mph. The other side of that is having seen deer pop out of hedges randomly or other road users jump lights or be forced into stupid overtaking manoeuvres over the years I too have increased my caution in certain parts of my journey.

No-one is forced into stupid overtaking.

Why? A friend of my wive's family was kicked to death in a road rage incident in the early 90's He was a big strapping Rugby playing father of two and the guys that he crossed dragged him out of his car with a child in the back and kicked the crap out of him. It destroyed the family and the four guys involved did not even serve a prison term.

That's very sad, since you don't mention (and I'm not asking you to) the full details I have no idea of the relevance, unless he was slowing down a lot when being tailgated or something.

I do it for three reasons, firstly it gives said aggressive tailgater more chance to overtake, secondly it reduces the potential severity of any impact if I have to slow or stop suddenly and thirdly I use it as an attempt to illustrate the pointless nature of tailgating me as an attempt to make me go faster. If there is an opportunity I quite often just pull over and let the pillock past too, which quite often results me following them for a further 5-10 miles (at a sensible distance) illustrating their minimal gain.

For drivers of normal cars, overtaking has become a far more dangerous sport of late. There seems to be a new breed of selfish stupid moron that dawdle about looking quite aimless until anyone has the audacity to try to overtake them. At this point they try like mad to speed up and scare the crap out of the car that is now on the wrong side of the road. I have seen it done to a few cars of late and had some loser try it on our V8 Land Rover. It was quite pathetic at the time because despite them trying I had still made up the 300 yards or so that I needed to manoeuvre safely.

It seems trolls are not just for the internet.

I agree that bloke and the others I've seen doing it are idiots. I don't do that.

[Mich the Tester]

Buy an older car. An old Roller or Daimler, and then just sit back and laugh at the silly buggers. Sure, it'll burn some fuel but in such a pleasant way you don't care. Plus, you're a contractor; reward yourself.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

It's part of the reason I'll always love pottering around in classic cars; when you've got less than 40bhp behind you, it forces you take a somewhat more chilled out view to travel! Hard work over long distances, though.

My Classic has about 200bhp (but in a very heavy car). I'd love to use it more, but it's not the most reliable thing in the world and it's not much fun in bad weather.

[vwdan]

My Classic has about 200bhp (but in a very heavy car). I'd love to use it more, but it's not the most reliable thing in the world and it's not much fun in bad weather.

What do you have nice? I previously had a '68 VW Camper which had around 110bhp (way more than standard) - I once attempted a journey at 80mph ish on the motorway. It would sit there fine, but after filling up twice within 250 miles, I discovered that it was far more at home doing 60 with the trucks!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

What do you have nice? I previously had a '68 VW Camper which had around 110bhp (way more than standard) - I once attempted a journey at 80mph ish on the motorway. It would sit there fine, but after filling up twice within 250 miles, I discovered that it was far more at home doing 60 with the trucks!

I had a '79 Bay Window panel van (wish I'd kept it). Took a shed(two if you count the van) and some other stuff down to Devon for a mate. Fuel bill was waaaay more than the huge Mercedes van he'd hired to do the job before...

[vwdan]

I had a '79 Bay Window panel van (wish I'd kept it). Took a shed(two if you count the van) and some other stuff down to Devon for a mate. Fuel bill was waaaay more than the huge Mercedes van he'd hired to do the job before...

Oh, very tasty! Are those Rebels? I had to sell my Bay because I'd let it fall by the wayside - I was absolutely (and still am) gutted. I think my next treat will be a little bit of muscle, but all of my knowledge is VW (And all my tools are metric). For the time being I'll have to put up with the 1200 Beetle.