After reading about other drivers incidents with road idiots I thought I'd vent my frustration.
On Christmas day, about 6PM, I was driving from my parents house on the West Cumbrian coast thru' the Lakes to Kendal where I live. This is a brilliant drive, and I was especially looking forward to it when it would be at it's quietest.
As I got to the dual carriageway section of the A66 next to Bassenthwaite Lake, an old (M or N reg) Honda Civic Coupe was in the overtaking lane (with nothing to overtake!!) doing about 50mph, I presumed it was an older driver or someone not that used to driving etc, etc so I moved behind it, flashed the Hi' Beams... and it moved over to let me by, eveything fine, I thought no more of it...Until just as the dual carrigeway came to an end it overtook me, it's tired engine howling in protest, then slowed right down to 40 mph.
I'm thinking, "why did you do that?" but still didn't think it was anything more than a poor driver, so I waited 'til it was safe then overtook it again... Only to have it overtake me again and, once again, slow right down again. I now realised it was someone playing the idiot with me.
Rather than carry on this stupid game I just sat behind it, at sometimes down to 20 or 30 mph until Keswick and the next section of dual carriageway.This section of dual carriageway is up-hill and my plan was to hang back, and then overtake it quickly and hopefully leave it behind enough for it to stop clowning around. As I went past I heard it drop a gear and begin it's attempt to carry on pestering me. I realised now that this was just gonna go on and on, and to outrun it I was going to have drive really fast. If you remember Christmas night was freezing cold, after rain, black ice was very probable.
If I had floored it, my C220 would probably have outrun it but I reckoned the outcome could possibly have had 2 negative outcomes,
1. I put my car off the road, 2. I get caught by the police, even if neither of these happened, best case scenario would be that I give my 14 year old car a drive that would do it no good, (she's an old lady now!!). So I decided to just drive into Keswick and towards the police station, as I stopped outside it, the Honda decided to carry on driving, the two baseball capped occupants obviously having had enough fun. I gave it 10 minutes then drove home in a bad mood, my drive ruined.
In looking back I know I did the right thing, but I wished, not for the first time, that I'd had a big V8 under the bonnet, and just been able to power past them with such ferocity that they would know it wasn't even worth trying to mess about.
Isn't it annoying when a good drive is ruined? Anyway, this has been very theraputic venting my anger!!! Thanks for reading, and take care out there people, Best Regards, Jeff.
On Christmas day, about 6PM, I was driving from my parents house on the West Cumbrian coast thru' the Lakes to Kendal where I live. This is a brilliant drive, and I was especially looking forward to it when it would be at it's quietest.
As I got to the dual carriageway section of the A66 next to Bassenthwaite Lake, an old (M or N reg) Honda Civic Coupe was in the overtaking lane (with nothing to overtake!!) doing about 50mph, I presumed it was an older driver or someone not that used to driving etc, etc so I moved behind it, flashed the Hi' Beams... and it moved over to let me by, eveything fine, I thought no more of it...Until just as the dual carrigeway came to an end it overtook me, it's tired engine howling in protest, then slowed right down to 40 mph.
I'm thinking, "why did you do that?" but still didn't think it was anything more than a poor driver, so I waited 'til it was safe then overtook it again... Only to have it overtake me again and, once again, slow right down again. I now realised it was someone playing the idiot with me.
Rather than carry on this stupid game I just sat behind it, at sometimes down to 20 or 30 mph until Keswick and the next section of dual carriageway.This section of dual carriageway is up-hill and my plan was to hang back, and then overtake it quickly and hopefully leave it behind enough for it to stop clowning around. As I went past I heard it drop a gear and begin it's attempt to carry on pestering me. I realised now that this was just gonna go on and on, and to outrun it I was going to have drive really fast. If you remember Christmas night was freezing cold, after rain, black ice was very probable.
If I had floored it, my C220 would probably have outrun it but I reckoned the outcome could possibly have had 2 negative outcomes,
1. I put my car off the road, 2. I get caught by the police, even if neither of these happened, best case scenario would be that I give my 14 year old car a drive that would do it no good, (she's an old lady now!!). So I decided to just drive into Keswick and towards the police station, as I stopped outside it, the Honda decided to carry on driving, the two baseball capped occupants obviously having had enough fun. I gave it 10 minutes then drove home in a bad mood, my drive ruined.
In looking back I know I did the right thing, but I wished, not for the first time, that I'd had a big V8 under the bonnet, and just been able to power past them with such ferocity that they would know it wasn't even worth trying to mess about.
Isn't it annoying when a good drive is ruined? Anyway, this has been very theraputic venting my anger!!! Thanks for reading, and take care out there people, Best Regards, Jeff.
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