When I'm tailgated in my RX-7, I will do a "berkeley off" rev- I speed up a little when I have space, clutch in, and rev the engine all the way to the warning buzzer. The guy behind me will usually back off. I'm guessing they're surprised at how loud my car is at WOT!
I also rode along with a guy who has an FC3S RX-7 Turbo II and the cat. converters replaced by a downpipe/racepipe. That thing will spit flames out the exhaust on a hard downshift! He says its perfect for shaking off tailgaters. 
When people tailgate me at/above the limit, I just drop two gears and accelerate away suddenly. Straightens 'em up every time.
Nobody tailgates or cuts in front of me when I'm driving the Samurai though. Probably has something to do with the exposed structural elements on both ends
RexSeven wrote: When I'm tailgated in my RX-7, I will do a "berkeley off" rev- I speed up a little when I have space, clutch in, and rev the engine all the way to the warning buzzer. The guy behind me will usually back off. I'm guessing they're surprised at how loud my car is at WOT! I also rode along with a guy who has an FC3S RX-7 Turbo II and the cat. converters replaced by a downpipe/racepipe. That thing will spit flames out the exhaust on a hard downshift! He says its perfect for shaking off tailgaters.
maybe you are shooting flames.
When I was in school, heavy rain on a 4 lane road. only one other truck like mine behind me. We were doing 55 and he was less than a length off my bumper comming up on a red with no one else around. He could have gotten over, but chose to stay behind me. I downshifted from 5th to 2nd and popped the clutch to downshift locking up my rears for a second. After the initial slow down, the light changed. I accelerated and went back to the speed. He stayed about 100 yards back after that.
Not cool, but was fully insured and had 8 feet of steel between me and him.
Tailgaters - 95 Golf Turbo Diesel - drop down a gear and floor it. They have to back off they are choking!
Opus wrote: maybe you are shooting flames.
Two precats and a maincat clogged with 23 years of pollutants will stifle flames pretty well. So no, I'm not shooting flames.
What's that meow?
Ah, Tailgaters. My favorite is just to drive normally, until I'm sure they're there to be annoying. Then I let off the gas and coast. Usually around 25 on an interstate they'll give up and go around. 
EastCoastMojo wrote: What's that meow?
I don't meow? Do you meow?
There was a nasty accident near Andrew's Air Force Base today, and I had to go through that area to get from Waldorf to Silver Spring. Of course, people didn't want to wait in the traffic queued up at the ramp to get on the beltway. A, wait for it, Dodge Ram decided that he wanted to get forward approximately 10 spaces (I watched him pull out of the line a bit back), and he thought that he could bully me into letting him in front. Well, the Miata may be small, but my vocal offer to open holes in the side of his tires got him to back off. Guess that's one advantage of having a car so low.
96DXCivic wrote: People who blast down a lane that they know closes in a few yards in the middle of a traffic jams. People who go like 25mph over and then sit 3 inches from your rear bumper (I noticed they were all driving Dodge Rams).
When they had big lane closures on I-81 in Pennsylvania they'd get those electronic sign boards encouraging people to use both lanes to the merge point, and at that point another sign said "merge here, take your turn". Seemed to make sense to me, but I will admit that I am not wound very tight and 95% of the time on the road I'm a nice guy who'll make a space for someone trying to merge.
I don't like tailgaters, period. My ride home from work takes me on a two-laner with no passing zones, marked 30 MPH but you can get away with 40, but no more than that. Normally when I'm going home I'm not in a hurry but it seems everyone else is, sometimes they pass on the double-yellow, sometimes they tailgate. I had someone so frustrated the other day that he twice just leaned on the horn for my benefit, but I was already doing 40 and I know police like to set up camp on this street. People like that tailgater are the ones who you hear about having heart attacks at 39.
Cotton wrote:96DXCivic wrote: People who blast down a lane that they know closes in a few yards in the middle of a traffic jams. People who go like 25mph over and then sit 3 inches from your rear bumper (I noticed they were all driving Dodge Rams).I normally block those people.....esecially when I'm in my beater Dodge Ram dually.
That will get you shot in philly.
btw.. I'm that guy. Why should I wait in line like a "good person" when I can drive around you and win... LIFE IS A COMPETITION.. I WIn.. I WIN AT EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!111!!!11111!!!11111
I am not about to try one of those brake check things on someone tailgating esp. if they are in a big pickup. Big pickup+little Civic=not good for me.
I will let people in if they are making an honest attempt to get over but if you go speeding down the lane and try to merge at the last minute I am not about to let you in.
I dont get why people want to be pace cars and not let faster drivers (tailgater) by , or when you do use the right hand lane to go around they speed up not to let you go by. George Carlon once said :ever notice people driving faster then you are maniacs and people driving slower then you are idiots ?
Hi jefmed2, glad you joined the board...
now since thats out of the way, if you use the closing right lane to blast ahead and bully your way in, that makes you an a*&hole. Wait in line. If you hopped the line at that at the movies or the grocery line, youd catch crap from everyone else, so why does it make doing it with a metric ton of steel and flamable liquid acceptable? Dont be a douche. No one here refuses to let someone pass, that also makes you an a@$hole. But some asshats out there just drive like inbred swine because their life sucks and the only enjoyment they get out of living is pissing off the rest of us. Those are the people that make poking holes in their radiators with your ball hitch/choking to death with your diesel exhaust/melting their front bumper with your flamethrowing wankel/threatening to liberate the trapped air in their tires fun.
I've noticed a few different tactics based on different areas I've lived in.
Maryland was simple. Stay to the right because the slow moving traffic will be on the left and the police speed traps generally hit people from the left lane.
PA/DE area its a bit more complicated. Most people will follow the normal "stay right rule" with the random exception of a few people that think they have sovereign right to the left hand lane and will travel only in that lane. They will do so at whatever speed they feel like and that creates a few unique obstacles.
The "Mexican Standoff" where multiple drivers are going the same speed in different lanes leaving no room to pass and holding up traffic behind them. I could see how this might happen on a 2 lane stretch of road, but 3 and4 lane? Yep.
The "Lemming Squad" again purportated by the Left Lane Squatters, a few might line up behind one another. People farther back might think its a Mexican Stand Off and wait for the slower car to get passed but it never comes. So you have a line of a half dozen cars waiting to pass a car that was never there to be passed in the first place.
In reply to jefmed2:
I meant those people who tailgate while you are passing a semi. If I am not passing someone, I get right.
"The "Mexican Standoff" where multiple drivers are going the same speed in different lanes leaving no room to pass and holding up traffic behind them. I could see how this might happen on a 2 lane stretch of road, but 3 and4 lane? Yep."
I slalom behind these people...ya know, just to keep my tires warm
Then this comes on the radio:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7vCww3j2-w
You have not found anger, fear, and loathing until you've towed 8,000 lbs of Bobcat around Chicago. Merge signs made me sure I was capable of murder. And I put more than a few of the "Run up a screw the trailer guy" people in the ditch. Small victory for years off my life.
After seeing some of the idiotic moves people put on truckers, I am 100% positive I could not do that job. Within a week, y'all would see me doing that 'push the Renault sideways' type thing, only it would be on purpose.
I had a 60 mile commute to work for 10 years,and had my share of lane hogs I generally dont tailgate but i did get frustrated with the hogs. I didnt think I was a speed demon traveling no more then 10 mph over limit and would get stuck behind cars for miles.traveling the speed limit or less. As far as merging i have been caught off guard and passed the end of the line and had to merge somewhere else but not as a general rule .
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