Already had 2 strange road rage incidents.

1) On a 3 lane road, passed a car on the left and turned back into the middle lane with about 100 feet of buffer. Car immediately gets on my tail, passes me on the left and cuts me off with inches to spare. When he stopped at a light I pulled next to him, asked him what that was about and he screamed at me and sped off.

2) Making a left into a side street, car waiting to make left into my road. While turning in front of him he pulls out and misses my rear quarter panel by inches.

I guess this is the sort of stuff I have to deal with when driving a 991

 

While stopped at a light with a open right hand turn lane to my right, I see in my rear mirror a young guy in a pickup coming up too fast in my lane. He has a angry expression. At the last second he swerves to right and turns after playing chicken with the back of my car.

 

What's scary is a lot of these a-holes are probably uninsured...

 

Ugh, I think that's more of a locoregional thing, I've never had anything like that happen in years of driving porsches in the chicago area. Sometimes idiots will tail, but often that's to look at the car. I'll get more thumbs up and revs up at lights than anything (I never street race though, just smile and wave). What's funny is I notice I tend to get more positive interactions in the lower SES neighborhoods, whereas in the middle class ones you get the scowls and evil-eyes, lol. Upper class neighborhoods they don't even look (except the kids).

 

I've driven a 993 since 2002 and had my first "incident" a couple of weeks ago in my Racing Yellow CS. A woman pulled up to me at a light and said that I had cut her off not once but twice and that did I know what the speed limit was? I was honestly embarrassed and perplexed at the same time as I was just puttering away, not being "spirited" in any way. These cars are targets for people who are out to pick a fight while driving. Unfortunate.

 

For years while driving my '86 911 the most aggressive driving and general nasty attitudes I got were from older men driving minivans alone. I think they were upset that they were stuck in a minivan and felt like directing that anger towards me.

 

I just try to remember that I'm not as important as I'd like to imagine, and people are probably just going about their daily driving habits with my head telling me that, well, it must be all about me. Of course it must, look at what I'm driving! Don't you see? Isn't it just..well, amazing?

Of course it is, I tell myself, but really, they all aren't out to get me. Just some of them, and only once in a while.

 

Has anyone else's manhood shrunk yet? Just curious when that part about being a Porsche owner comes into effect.

 

Nothing surprises me more about owning a Porsche.

On the trip home from the dealer in my first 911, a 997 C2S, on an EMPTY freeway, a guy in a older pick up merges right into my lane. I brake and drop back, thinking he didn't see me and wanting to let him have the lane, but when our eyes meet in his side view mirror he's cussing and angry. That was just the very first of many. Next, was coming out of a grocery store and I've got the 911 parked backwards all the way out at the farthest possible space on the lot. As I'm walking, still a good distance from the car, a guy in a Jeep CJ with the solid roof and doors pulls up to the 911 and slams the driver door right into the front fascia! Drives off. I just stopped in my tracks stunned. And on. And on. And on.

I live in a semi-rural area. Most people make their livings with their backs and a high school education. I see it ALL the time. Honestly, the single biggest reason that I haven't bought a new Porsche during the recession.

Let me warn you about gas station conversations, too. I avoid them now after what I've had said right to my face by people who don't know me from Adam.

Something I've learned though... when it happens, pull up the cell phone with the video going and start filming. It shuts them right done. Amazing how much the idea of being on video shuts them off.

It's definitely a downside of P-car ownership... in my experience, unfortunately.

 

My friend parked his red 944 at the far end of a grocery lot. Three guys in a pickup put a grocery cart in front of their truck and pushed it, at speed, across the lot and aimed it right into the Porsche. Caused thousands in damage. It was recorded on security tape but the guys were never found.

I keep hoping for karma.

 

Maybe it's best to live in Texas if you own a Porsche. I think it's legal there to shoot anyone that even looks at you funny, isn't it?

 

What's up with guys in pickup trucks? I had an incident where I was driving in the right lane going 5 mph over the posted 65mph speed limit. There was a pickup truck going slower than 65mph on the left lane, then he decides to go to the right lane and I moved to the left to past, he rolled down his window (for a second I thought he was going to compliment on the car) and tried to spit on my car. I wanted to slow down and give him my two cents but decided to continue driving. He drives a beat up pickup truck and I drive a Porsche 911, I have more to lose than he does when it comes to road rage. What's up with people?

 

Experiences like these are a big reason I've learned to drive carefully, park carefully, and even then keep an eye on my car as much as possible. One time as I walk into the QFC I notice a fellow looking at my car. Few minutes later, pushing my cart through the store I look out and now he's real close and seems to be kind of nervously circling around, like he's afraid of getting caught doing whatever it is he's doing. When I come out of the store he's still there. Turns out he's acting funny because he let his wife go in shopping alone so he could stay and gaze at my 911, and is nervous at getting caught (by me) even though he clearly can't help himself, he just loves the car so much. I mean, this guy- and he was a really nice gentleman in his late 60's- was like a 5 year old looking at a pony on Christmas day. We started talking, I told him all about the car, and Porsche, and the guy was so beside himself with joy you'd have had to have been there to believe it. Finally as I was about ready to leave I realized there was something this man really needed to do, something I usually have to tell people NOT to do but something this very polite gentleman would never be able to bring himself to ask and certainly never do without permission. So I told him it's okay, go ahead, you can touch it. And he puts his hand out and ever so gently runs his fingers on the fender. As clear as I remember that day its hard to say for sure if he let go a little tear of joy or was able to hold it back. If he did hold it back it wasn't by much.

I guess we just need to take the bad with the good.

 

You guys are busting my bubble. I'm looking at ordering a C4S Cabrio, and read this crap. I have enough guys in mini-vans trying to show me how fast they are while driving my 928.

 

You guys are not driving fast enough if you get bothered by pick up trucks and minivans.
Next time that happens,slip it in 2nd real quick and floor the accelerator with a quick wrist action to 3rd and 4th. By the time you get to 4th the pick up trucks and minivans will look so tiny in your rear view mirror that they'll all seem to be Fiats 500.