Do people always try and race you at the lights

[whitey]

Just wondered if this happens . If your daily is a bit different exhaust mods etc. a bit different. I find it bloody annoying especially when you drive normally and people think they can undertake you in a filter lane!!!

[Smiler]

I think loud exhaust, particularly if they are disproportionate to the car (i.e. on on an Astra as opposed to a TVR), will always get that type of a reaction. Just don't play up to it, keep the revs down and let them speed off. They'll see that you haven't been sucked in and that they have now made themselves the object of derision in front of the general public. Of course if they are undertaking you then they are complete twonks!

[vulgalour]

They did with my old Polo even though it was only slightly lowered and had a peashooter exhaust. They don't with anything else I've got, though beating people off the line in the Princess is hilarious.

[pistonpopper]

This depends on what i'm driving, when i'm out in my old Talbot, i get loads of John-boys pull up and revving their engines, (The Talbot is pretty loud to be fair!) But in my Mustang, they just pull up next to me and do nothing. However i had a mid eighties Camaro a coulpe of years ago, it had a quite nice subtle burble, until you stood on it, then it would ROAR! I had these two lads pull up next to me in their fairly new Corsa, bass thumping away, they looked at me, gave their little Corsa a good couple of blips on the throttle, which was quite loud through their baked bean can exhaust. I gave my Camaro a good rev (which set of a few car alarms on some parked cars!) I looked back at the boys who both appeared to be fiddling with the radio! Anyhoo, the light turned green, and i slowly drove off like some old grandma! It's the best way, if someone wants a bit of a burn up on the street, i just let them get on with it, and drive away like some 90 year old granny, i've got nothing to prove.

[86corolla]

I had a kid with a fart can exhaust dtm style mirrors...but forgot about the stock badges all over it...so his 1.0 barley has the power to pull the skin of a rice pudding..then sped off.
All with 3 people in the back and him and a front passenger :/

[PHUQ]

No.

[fordperv]

The funniest was When I was in mrs high engine spec escort rs turbo which has a mongoose stainless system with a 4 inch outward tailpipe, I had a lad in one of those shake your ass megane turbos revving up next to me at a roundabout trying to get me to race with all his mates in, i looked across smiled revved and dumped whilst whilst making a small gesture with my thumb and index finger, he pulled off slowly not making eye contact his mates were laughing at him

[Smiler]

I did have a couple of blokes in a transit pick-up pull along side me in my yellow Scimitar start revving their engine. However, it turned out that they were trying to get my attention and wanted me to rev the Scimitar so that they could hear it. I felt a bit foolish but I obliged and they gave me the thumbs up with big cheesy grins and when the lights changed they pulled away as normal.

[nisfan]

Ive found that some people take offense to being overtaken by an older car, they usually speed up so i just go even faster, that they don't expect.

[Deleted]

I get a lot of this. My Snipe is low, has lots of authentic racing details on it (as opposed to stick-on boy racer graphics I mean) and the roll cage is very visible, plus it makes a very nice noise that says it isn't stock. It seems to make people want to floor their cars at traffic lights, even if there is a lot of traffic and in the case of Brighton sea front a lot of pedestrians too.

I agree with it being deeply annoying. Especially when it's some no hoper piece of curse word that really doesn't stand a chance even with its racing stripe and alloy tyre valve caps. But off they go, screaming up the road at 15,000revs while I very deliberately pull off so slowly I'm in danger of cutting out.

It's really stupid behaviour. As if any of us are going to submit to a biggest dick competition at every single set of traffic lights.

I always think to myself "I don't need to beat you off the lights, I already beat you just sitting here".

[turbotechnics]

Me and a friend were out in Southend many years ago in his standard Subaru impreza rb5. He pulled up at a set of lights when a pulsar gtir pulled up along side of him. The driver of the pulsar put his window down and asked "what sort of power are you running a mate". My mate replied "don't know", to which the the pulsar driver said "I'm running 350bhp". So my mate starts revving his engine and so does the pulsar driver, lights turn green, my mate drives off normally and the pulsar driver side steps his clutch... bang, he's gearbox exploded. Oh how we laughed, it was comedy gold.

[Mercdan68]

Well past my traffic light Grand Prix days,, but a cautionary tale for youngers members! Back in the day we were sat at a set of lights in bexleyheath on a Saturday night I was 18 and driving a 77 bmw 320 , I was paying more attention to the girlsin the car next to us in a car I was on the near side and forgot the lights sequence had been changed for filtering they took off laughing at us,, I took off to straight into the back off a Granada estate! The bloke got out and was a big old fella, cost me the nights petrol money as I broke his rear lights...... The said girls came back past laughing and gesticulating ..... Prize plonker but I guess that's how you learn

[skylinedave]

If I'm driving my plain focus i sometime get the local twonk in his Focus ST doing that ' ive got a better version of your car ' thing . Ive found that to happen with quite few cars , people seeming to think you are going to be envious they have a better model than you [ which i find really really odd !!]

Usually drives up really fast behind me to about half a car length then lets off so his anti lag goes off .

I just let him get on with it , its only a bloody car , sad curse word .

[willowandmikey]

I know of a friend who was in his work car when someone did similar with loads of wheel spinning. His work car just happens to be a unmarked police car!!!! Luckily he found it amusing and words of advise were given.

[Deleted]

I tell you what does really move when pressed into service, and I learned this from a traffic light hot head. Those BMW M1s with twin turbos... My god those things are time machines. Had one of those challenging me at some lights a few weekends back and whilst I did my usual deliberate slow roll away he floored that thing and I think it arrived in the year 2018. It seemed to go from 0-120mph in 0 seconds, and then the driver realised he was out of road and had to flatspot his tyres to avoid rear ending the car in front of it that was 100 yards ahead of us. I cruised steadily next to the beemer as it sat there and I ignored the driver's attempts to get my attention through the side window, but I knew for sure that if I was a hot head and I accepted his challenge, I would have been utterly destroyed by that car. So unbelievably quick. Such a curse word for thrapping it like that on a busy seafront though.

[MiataMark]

Mar 8, 2015 8:36:33 GMT willowandmikey said:

I know of a friend who was in his work car when someone did similar with loads of wheel spinning. His work car just happens to be a unmarked police car!!!! Luckily he found it amusing and words of advise were given.

Err been there done that in my younger(ish) days, was bored took off from lights with traction control off, hadn't noticed the police car pull up behind...

Probably the best was driving an Escort van (Mk3 I think) people forget that an unloaded van with lower gearing is quite fast from a standing start.

[Deleted]

Yessssss. My stripped out Bedford CF2 with a double barrel Weber was insanely quick at pulling away. It was a rasper by 60 and done for the day at 70/80 top speed, but it could really move sub-40mph. I must confess that in that thing I did used to oblige other vans who fancied having a go at the lights, but then most vans are fwd diesels and loaded with stuff so it wasn't difficult and probably didn't even constitute fast/dangerous driving by car standards. I do miss that van.

[fordperv]

When I was 18 i was driving a modified sierra with a few mates in and I was sat at some traffic lights with an arrogant gent at the side in his bmw e36 coupe revving, i revved back then i noticed a cop car at the junction a short way away whose attention had been drawn by the sound of revving, the lights turned green i pulled off slowly and the gent left the lights in a big hurry wheels spinning and his car fired up the road, the cop car whipped out of the junction and pulled him, we drove back around and went past laughing.

[Deleted]

Hahaha, brilliant.

[Thrasher]

As I've got older. People tend not to bother me.

In my slammed '70 bug - Everyone used to get mortally offended when I overtook them
In my slammed T25 panel van - Everyone used to get mortally offended when I overtook them.
In my slammed ( pattern emerging here ) BMW E28 Everyone used to smile and nod - then get mortally offended when I overtook them.

In my mk1 golf(s) - Everyone smiles and nods , says " They're worth a lot now " then get mortally offended when I say its not for sale and overtake them.

In my mk4 Golf TDi - Everyone's just offended full stop. Lots of surprise torque etc ;-)

Generally though I don't race people, just keep pace with the traffic flow, if folk want to get in a tizz about it that's their problem.

I'm just happy to have cars that I love driving. :-D