1980 Buick LeSabre vs. early-mid 2000s Toyota Corolla

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theholycow
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1980 Buick LeSabre vs. early-mid 2000s Toyota Corolla

Post by theholycow »

Went to the Ancients & Horribles Parade. For it they close a section of Route 44, a major route. Once the parade is over it only gets worse as the people parked along the non-closed portions all stop being parked at the same time. Surely someone is bound to be impatient.

Today that someone was a couple cars behind me. In stopped traffic I kept seeing him in my mirror as he tried to use the shoulder to pass the car behind me, only to find more parked cars.

By the time the speed of traffic went from standstill to 25mph (speed limit 50) the Corolla was directly behind me. I didn't notice how he got there.

At that speed I could allow a few carlengths in front of me and he started looking to pass. Speed increased some more. For all his disregard of the law he sure wasn't willing to pass on a double yellow. He was tailgating pretty bad.

So he goes for it. We're probably up to 40mph and I'm in 4th. I'm feeling abnormally playful, as well as righteously indignant, so I flick a quick downshift to 3rd, and then it was on.

Well, I should have DC'd into 2nd, but let's face it...I don't do sudden maximum downshifts very often (actually, ever) so I don't have the reflex. He may have been surprised by the "BLATBLATBLATBLATBLATBLATBLATBLAT" but he managed to get in front of me before the gap closed, where he proceeded to ride the next car's bumper at about a meter or less, for the next couple miles until another lane opened up. I can't imagine why he didn't just pass that car too, there was no oncoming traffic.

Image
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P.S. I was on my way to my best MPG tank ever but I think I burned it off.

Edit: It really wasn't the right thing to do, and it's not like me at all, so I'm not sure why I did it.

Also, my wife got really pissed off at the dude. I was laughing and smiling, she was yelling and giving him the bird. WTF.
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AHTOXA
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Re: 1980 Buick LeSabre vs. early-mid 2000s Toyota Corolla

Post by AHTOXA »

You know, sometimes you just gotta do it.

Similar thing happened to me. I gave the Rubi a kick and blocked some asshole from purposely trying to cut in front of me. He started accelerating from behind me at the lane merge while there was no one else behind me what so ever.
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Squint
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Re: 1980 Buick LeSabre vs. early-mid 2000s Toyota Corolla

Post by Squint »

There are occasional times it needs to be done. Also, in your turtle/snail picture, there's an obvious reason the bottom turtle is winning. He has legs. And the top turtle does not. Minor inconvenience.
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theholycow
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Re: 1980 Buick LeSabre vs. early-mid 2000s Toyota Corolla

Post by theholycow »

Looking at the shadow you can see that the top turtle is not on the ground. Therefore he is a hoverturtle and should be able to go faster.
1980 Buick LeSabre 4.1L 5MT

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Squint
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Re: 1980 Buick LeSabre vs. early-mid 2000s Toyota Corolla

Post by Squint »

I couldn't tell that, he must be a sleeper turtle. Maybe if he had riced out his shell I would've known...
'15 Mazda 3 iSport Hatch 6MT
'11 Ford Fiesta Hatchback SE 5MT
'14 Giant Escape City 24MT
'97 Honda Civic EX 4AT - Retired @ 184,001 mi

For Pony!
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