Stress from driving at the speed limit

Wow! Great find, Tony. Very interesting. I know it seems more than ever that we are moving into a Big Brother state, but I have always maintained that it is only those who have something to hide that want to hide it.

I had 4 people return courtesies yesterday and only one tailgater.

Richard Whennell
855 T5 1995
VOC member

I wonder if those of you who drive other makes of car as well as Volvo find different reactions to different makes of car.

My wife has a 1988 Vauxhall Nova, held together with good welding and blutack. She has tailgaters too, claiming that a woman in a 16 year old shopping trolley is not a thing to be seen behind.

I really am thinking about removing the little T5 badge and throwing a couple of hiviz vests in the boot. Not in any way trying to pose as police, but possibly to increase my rear end space. (no jokes)

Richard Whennell
855 T5 1995
VOC member

[v6en]

On the one hand, you may think you are doing the right thing, and perhaps you will prevent an accident if you manage to keep the traffic behind you ticking along at the speed limit; but in reality i think it only means that people behind you get so frustrated that they pull silly manouvres to overtake you whether it is safe or not. My advice ( if you care that is) would be that if you are in this situation again and a few cars are harrassing you to get past, then just pull over and let them go when it's safe to do so.

jacqueline.

[foggyjames]

Now most people tailgate me (and who line up against me at the lights) thinking I'm a typical '340' driver. I learn them in two ways.

1) A 360 is hardly fast, but it only has 1100kg for its 105bhp and wide torque curve to lug around, so its not that bad.

2) Just because I'm driving a fairly slow car doesn't mean I'm a slow driver. "A good driver is worth 100bhp". Did I ever post about the time I nearly smoked a guy in an EVO6 at the lights simply because he wasn't expecting it? Good thing it was a long run-off, as by the time he had realised, built some boost and caught up, I was doing 40mph+ and most of the way to the lane-merge.

If someone has been on my backside in a 30, on hitting a 60 I'll take a couple of swift trips to the redline. That tends to get the message across. Worked on a taxi on the way home tonight in fact. I find it interesting that twin exhaust exits help - I'd have thought the opposite would be true. Maybe I should fit my 'turbo intercooler' badges (from a 740) a little before I do the engine swap...

I'll admit to doing a little unneccessary braking on occasion, but only when I'm confident that the tailgater is paying attention and capable of reacting. A friend of mine is playing dangerous games, as he regularly hoofs the pedal when being followed too closely. Great fun until he's being followed by another friend in his escort with tiny brakes and no ABS...

cheers

James

[Dan F]

>My advice ( if you care that is)
>would be that if you are in this situation again and a few
>cars are harrassing you to get past, then just pull over and
>let them go when it's safe to do so.
>
>jacqueline.

I believe the Highway code says something along those lines....

Dan.

[v6en]

...And what the Highway code doesn't mention is that you can always give them a discourteous signal as they go past ;)

jacq.

[adieu]

Only just found this topic and thought i'd add my 2 pennys worth....I have found since fitting GPs to my car that my speedo reads about -5mph at 30 and slowly reduces as my speed increases (disused runway at 100mph)the speedo and GPS are almost the same. So all i'll say is that if you think your doing 30 you may only be doing 25....So is it just Volvo's or do other manufactures have these huge diffrences in Speed readings?

As for tailgating I HATE IT!!!!...

When you have kids in your car and your doing 40 in a 40 there is nothing worse...

And does anyone know why people insist on pulling in the lane next to me at traffic lights to try and get 1 car ahead? (even white van man) Is it just because i drive a Volvo? who knows...

well essay over...

drive carefully all

All speedos in all cars read less that the actual speed. GPS systems give you a far more accurate speed. Speedos read incorrectly for saftey reasons. They are designed to read less than the actual speed. Also, remember that changing tyre size affects your speedo readings.

A chap in Sweden recently killed the rear differential on his old 740 and then got hold of a very nice rear axle with locking differential from a 1998 940. Of course, between 1984 and 1998, Volvo added ABS to their cars and so the old 12 teeth speedo wheel in the rear axle now has 48. Hence, connect the new 940 axle to the 740 speedo and hey presto, when you are doing 30 mph, the speedo reads 120 mph.

Gotta 'ave some fun, eh!

George

[link:www.ttsservices.co.uk/my%20volvos.htm|http://www.ttsservices.co.uk/Signature.JPG]

'95 940 Polar LPT estate (B230FK/AW71)
'87 740 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler estate (D24TIC/ZF22)
'79 262C (B27E/BW55)