Ever made a car friend in traffic?

I saw a guy in traffic. Had the same car as me. Had wheels and other mods to tell me he was really into his car. So I followed him and when I caught up to him I flagged him down and decided to compliment his car and shoot the breeze. The guy was weirded out. This has happened numerous times. 
 

I'm starting to think I'm crazy. The only reason I do it is that wouldn't think anything of it if someone (driving the same car as me!) came up to me and started talking about it. Am I the crazy one here? FYI- I'm a super approachable guy. My general demeanor is calm and fun. 
 

anyone here ever make an actual car buddy in traffic?  

_ said:

anyone here ever make an actual car buddy in traffic?  

Nope. Nothing more than passing acquaintances.

There is a guy around where I live that every time I am out in my e30 goes crazy trying to catch up to me and talk. He is weird, literally. I thought it was cool the first time but after 5' of talking I realized this guy has serious problems. 
 

I now know where he works and avoid that area. I avoid crazy Gary as much as possible. 
 

Don't be crazy Gary. 

My Samurai with almost no bodywork, a spring-over lift, Super Swampers and gutted interior got me into dozens of conversations.

I was involved in a group moment of solidarity.

Headed to The Cape (Cod) one summer weekend day. Stand-still traffic and everyone was being patient. That is until every now and again, somebody would think themselves too good to wait and started to fly up the breakdown lane only to push and shove  their way back in a 1/2 mile up.

Without any signals, "we" in the slow lane all, in a moment of solidarity, pulled up within literal inches from each other's bumper, pulled to the razors edge of the breakdown lane and stranded these people where they sat and as far as I could see in my rear view mirror, did NOT let them back in.

I can still remember the pride we all must've felt doing our part in keeping the natural order of things

My wife calls me a "Miata Cult Leader", so I might not be the best resource for the OP's question.  

I was autoXing an MGB in the early 80s and headed, top down, to Santa Barbra via the 101 with a couple other cars. Around Thousand Oaks or so I came up on a VW Rabbit with a woman driving. A small tattoo on her left shoulder caught my eye and her passenger caught me eyeing her friend. Conversation at 75 mph was attempted. I then motioned to get off at the next exit. Chit chat ensued and they followed to the autoX.

She, Linda, thought autoX was kinda cool and phone numbers were exchanged. The next weekend we did the date thing and 2.5 years cohabitating ensued. She eventually did occasional autoX in the MG including Lone Pine. I often worked on her Rabbit and quickly learned to . . . hate it.

kazoospec said:

My wife calls me a "Miata Cult Leader", so I might not be the best resource for the OP's question.  

wait. Is that What autocross is?

When driving my B2200 I occasionally come across somebody driving a similar vintage B series. We wave and nod, or give thumbs ups, but no convo afterward. However, if I am loading stuff into her at the Home Depot I always encounter folk wanting to chat about it and inquire if I want to sell it. No one believes she has almost 300k miles on her. Even had one guy poke his head in to verify the odometer reading. LOL

I had a married couple customer with a 122 Volvo in about 1983. They met in Boston traffic when they were single and both had gray 122s. Passed each other in opposite directions for several months, and one day traffic stopped when they were both in left lanes along side each other.

I feel like this was more common before the internet since you needed to network more in your own community in order to share knowledge, buy parts and all that.

I once did a u-turn and followed a guy home. He was driving an 86 Buick Somerset Eurosport 2dr. I had never seen one before. Talked to him and left my number if he ever wanted to sell it. I was in my 91 Buick Century 4dr at the time.

While at a gas station in my gray 90 Buick Century Custom Sedan, I saw a guy in a gray 92 Buick Century Custom Sedan. Drove over and chatted a bit and exchanged numbers. Turns out his boss lives down the street from me and had mentioned to him that someone on his street had the same car lol. Several months later he texted me about selling his car and I ended up buying it from him.

Those 2 times are the only times I've made an effort to talk to someone I saw in traffic about their car, other than the frequent "hey, you're brake light is out" etc when parked at a red light.

I'll wave or give a thumbs up, but have never tried to get someone to pull over.  If someone tried to pull me over I would be very weirded out.  If we happened to be parked that would be different.

For some reason folks want to talk about our '05 Grand Marquis, mostly just at the gas station.  There are several donks in our area of town.  Next door neighbor has a '76 4 door Impala on 22" rims. I don't fit the typical donk demographic, but the Grand Marquis seems to get respect.  When we brought the Grand Marquis home, my neighbor said, "I shure do like that one," without taking his eyes off of the car the whole time I was telling him about it.  I've gotten similar comments at the gas station.  I feel like I accomplished something.  SWMBO actual asks me if I "made any friends," when she knows I've gone to the gas station in it.

When we brought the Nash Metropolitan home, it drew a crowd at the gas station, and it was on a trailer in peices, behind the truck.  I suspect we'll have to plan ahead when it's on the road again.

There's the "Jeep wave," though I never initiate it I'll usually reciprocate a wave.  Though I've noticed JK drivers rarely wave at TJ drivers.

I've had people follow me into parking lots and my driveway when driving the zephyr. 2 of them thought it was a Malibu wagon and wanted to know if it was for sale. One old guy knew it was a zephyr as he drag raced one in the early 80s and offered to buy mine on the spot. We are still friends and I do the maintenance work on his 52 Ford he takes too car shows. The last guy actually used to ride in my car as a child. His grandparents were the original owners. It was neat hearing the story's, but he was also a bit full of E36 M3 when he talked about how fast it was. The 200 was factory rated at 88HP. 

Stopped at a long light in my F-150, an older Benz roadster pulled up next to me.

"Hey, nice truck".

Thanks, it's worth it to go out west.  Nice car!

"Yeah, bought it new in 1979".

Want to swap it for a nice truck?

"No, no, no, nice truck though".

Maybe not that nice.

We laughed, the light changed.

We have a Corvette, a Wrangler, and a Miata. Each car requires that you wave to another similar vehicle if you see one. My wife and I have ended up having one "wave" for all three cars. It drove us nuts trying to do the "Jeep wave", the "Vette wave", or the "Miata wave." They all get a "V for Vette" now.  It didn't fix the problem of trying to figure out what car you're driving when you see another one and if you should wave or not, though.

_ said:

So I followed him and when I caught up to him I flagged him down and decided to compliment his car and shoot the breeze. The guy was weirded out. This has happened numerous times. 

You have to assume they'll be weirded out.  Approach slowly and read the audience.  You can't go full car nerd right out of the gate.  

This isn't advice...I'm just talking to myself right now.

Maybe 4 or 5 years ago I was out doing some errands in the Mini. I noticed a newer BMW 5 series seemed to be tailing me. When I pulled into my final stop and parked, they stopped behind me and when I got out the guy started talking to me. Told me about all the Minis he'd had over the years. Turns out he was buying some newly powder coated Cooper S reverse rims from a friend of mine up in VA as part of his Moke restoration he was working on. Also turned out that the next weekend I was driving up to that part of VA, so I ended up picking up his wheels and bringing them home with me, then delivered them to his house a couple days later. Haven't talked to him since, but he lives about 10 minutes away.

Back when I had my 4th gen Crammit and SWMBO was still living in DC, I was driving down to see her one Friday after work, and was stuck in stop and go traffic on 495 (as always.) Ended up next to some dude in a really clean 02 WS6, who rolled down his window and motioned at me to do the same, so I obliged. A braggadocious, middle aged fellow embodying a number of F body owner stereotypes, we had a nice little chat about our cars and mods done as we were creeping along. I think he had a pretty typical street-strip type setup - heads, cam, gears, ect. - and was claiming something like 450 whp. He then proceeded to do like 2-3 massive burnouts in the DC rush hour traffic, which was pretty great,  and eventually we parted ways.

Not sure if you guys watch Counting Cars or not but (and I'm assuming this is faked) if a pair of guys tried to wave me over or followed me for very long with obvious, semi-aggressive interest in my car, I'd be pulling into a well-lit parking lot with my hand on my right "hip".

I think there a fine line between showing genuine interest and putting a guy into "alert mode" following him around.

I have given a thumbs up many times.  And I’ve gotten many compliments when driving my Spitfire.  

Many years ago I had a guy in a  Bugeye Sprite chase me down when I was driving my TR3.  

In reply to Shadeux :

The infamous Jeep Wave used be understandable in the 80's and even 90's. Now every 5th vehicle is Wrangler. Your arm would get tired 

I was taking my 72yr old mom to a Dr appointment in the Abarth a few yrs ago, another Abarth pulled up next to me at a light.  He would have talked my ear off for 30 minutes if we had the time.  Younger guy, curious what I had done to mine.  My mom was like "do you always make car friends on the street?".

Shortly after moving to Ormond Beach (1987) I was doing an errand with my Elva Courier when I realized I was being tailed by a very plain large GM sedan. I got real nervous, the Elva was not legally tagged. It also wanted to run hot, so run & hide wasn't a possibility. When the headlamps started flashing on the tailing car I just pulled over and figured I would have a problem, but deal with it. The driver exited the sedan, a really tall guy, and began circling my car saying "an Elva Courier, I don't believe it, driving down the street" repeatedly. Turns out it was the late Rick D'Loughy, and we stayed friends till his (too early) death.