Mazdaspeed 3 takes on BMW 335i

Wow. What a jerk. And that's for the BMW driver. The Mazdaspeed gave him PLENTY of room. I can't imagine anyone would ever complain about that. I would never in a million years call that tailgating. What a moron.

LessisNevermore wrote: »

WAAAAAAH!

He got punked. Good for the BMW owner. I wouldn't want some pos up my tailpipe either.

Are you watching the same video I am? He was a good two car lengths from being up the BMW's tailpipe. And even if he was tailgating the guy, stopping in the middle of the twisty, two lane road and cussing at the guy??

Yeah, he's a moron.

billbillw wrote: »

You're kidding. Did you watch that? He wasn't even tailgating. The Bimmer driver was a total ****. If you noticed in the beginning, the Bimmer pulled out in front of the MZ3 driver and practically cut him off. What a douchebag! Does he think he has a private road or something?

audiobliss wrote: »

Are you watching the same video I am? He was a good two car lengths from being up the BMW's tailpipe. And even if he was tailgating the guy, stopping in the middle of the twisty, two lane road and cussing at the guy??

Yeah, he's a moron.

Wow, you guys are wound a bit tight tonight!:p

The BMW driver was a tool, I thought that was a given. I did watch the video several times, and never saw the mazda's front end dive, or heard the brakes lock up. I promise before the week's out, some tool will cut you off as bad, or worse.

To be fair, the BMW sped up. At no point did the mazda driver have to slow down any further. (I mean it is possible the guy didn't mean to pull out in front of him, right?) Looked to me, like he saw the mazda after the fact, and got on his horse to put some space between them. At that point the mazda driver saw he was "driving briskly" and decided to "dance".

Sure the BMW driver overreacted, but the kid in the mazda was tailing him trying to provoke him. Mission accomplished, and he almost got his **** kicked for it.

BTW, count the time between the cars, it was 1 second or less most of the way. That can make some people pretty uneasy. Not a lot of reaction time, especially for a young, and probably inexperienced driver looking to pick a race.

If that's called tailgating I must be riding right on top of drivers in front of me. Around here, leave that much space between you and the car in front, the person behind you will pass you and move in that space. The Mazda guy did nothing wrong, he actually was driving at a safe distance.

Guys... that was way closer than it looks on video. Wide angle lens screws with distance pretty badly.

No, i still don't consider it tailgating, and yes, i think the BMW owner follows all of the great stereotypes that we're all familiar with. But yes. He WAS provoked. Some people just don't want to play, and that's fine.

Kudos to the "POS" driver for handling the confrontation well.

What you don't see is the train of ricers behind him..lol. Get out of your car here like that and you're bound to get your **** kicked.

billbillw wrote: »

He was 2-3 seconds behind the BMW for most of the video. A few spots he might have been close to 1 second behind, but I don't consider that anything to get uptight about. I have people tailgate me at less than a car length (@70mph) all the time. I politely tap my breaks to send a message, but I would never get so upset that I would stop and get out of the car.

That BMW driver is an unstable maniac. Its not like he was tailgating/chasing him for 10 miles, the whole 'chase' was for less than 1 minute, which probably translates into less than a mile.

IMO, the MZ3 driver did nothing wrong and he should have called the police to report that BMW driver.

Agreed on all counts. Was just saying that the video makes it seem like the BMW is far off in the distance. Doing stuff like that, i don't really want anyone 1 second off my tail, but as long as they aren't being blatantly dangerous, i can live with it. If i can't, then i do as you say, tap the brakes.

What i meant by him being provoked was that possibly in his state of elevated paranoia that comes from driving the "Superior driving machine," he wasn't comfortable with the thought of another car driving in a spirited manner behind him.

I run into this a lot every time i go out to Tennessee US 129 area. (Deal's Gap, Cherohala Skyway, Devil's Triangle, etc etc etc) There's always that guy that thinks he's qualifying for a Grand Am race and wants to be 3" off my bumper. One brake check, and they usually get the hit. If they don't, then i pull off and let them wreck ahead of me, rather than into me.

The MS3 driver was perfectly courteous.

billbillw wrote: »

I politely tap my breaks to send a message,

I downshift. No brake lights.

And there is really no politeness to tapping brakes. It's a jerk move to brake check someone. Although tailgating at a downright dangerous distance is a greater jerk move.

shawn474 wrote: »

And it's not a jerk move to downshift and suddenly slow down without warning? Just saying.......:p;)

Didn't say it wasn't. But slowing down isn't quite the same as jerking the car to a slower speed or a full on stop. At least the vehicle is still moving and lessens your chances of hitting it. Then again, if you are following that close that a downshift causes you to defaecate in your pants then you're the one with the problem.

Besides, ever since I upgraded the brakes with cross drilled and slotted rotors as well as braided lines and ferro-carbon pads, it can stop it's 5,000 pound mass from 60 MPH in just under 100 feet. Most cars out there can't do that and I watch my rearview when I have to stop hard on a highway or in rush hour traffic. I've moved out of the way of other cars who can't stop due to following too closely on many occasions. Thank God for the hard shoulder!

exalted512 wrote: »

I don't consider brake tapping and brake checking the same.

I brake tap people...just tap the brakes 3x rapidly enough to where the lights come on but not enough to slow down really.

That works 90% of the time.

After that, I slowly drop 5-10mph and speed back up.

If that doesn't work, I brake check them.
-Cody

My personal fave on a stick shift is to disengage the clutch and move the stick into reverse. White lights get them off my tail pretty quick. No one wants to follow a crazy driver like me.

Yes you can. Some makes may stop this.

Press and hold clutch at all time. Shift to neutral, now shift to reverse, back to neutral, and back into gear.

edit: tailgate me if you don't believe me. I did it often enough on my old nissan sentra.

bobman1235 wrote: »

Um.... what? You can not shift a car into reverse while cruising along, clutch or not.

You can on some cars. Not great for the synchros, but you can.

It's the same vein as "You can't move the stick into 1st gear if you're going faster than 15mph or whatever."

I can select 1st gear in any of my cars going triple digits if i wanted to. Now, will i take my foot out of the clutch? Nope.

I am certainly not as knowledgeable as a lot of people when ti comes to cars, but knowing even the basics of a transmission, I'm really surprised you can physically get the gears to align while moving forward, trying to shift into reverse. Learn something new every day, I guess.

It's still an idiotic thing to do though.

^This.

And most cheap manual transmission equipped cars don't have synchros in 1st or reverse, or at best, they share a synchro. At least through the 90s. Don't know about cars in the last couple years.

BMW owner said he was mad at the tailgating, but like many people before him, he was angry at something different


it's simple, he drives a BMW and thinks he's king of the road, he did not like the Mazda even being in sight and figured he could drive the Bimmer hard and put on distance.

problem was, that was a Mazdaspeed3 and that car is no joke, and can move like stink and handle well, likes full on sportscar well

that Mazda might have been edged out in a drag race by the bimmer, but in the twisties the car will hang

not to mention the Mazda owner was a driving enthusiast and prob a better driver than the bimmer driver.

bimmer driver got frustrated and melted down. he's probably has a small **** too