Atomic Orange

Okay, what is it?

I bought my C6 in April and since that time I've had 4 crazy asses wanting to race me.

Case 1 - Old man (I'm old, too) from North Carolina in a 4-door Jag on I-85 North of Spaghetti Junction in Atlanta. Traffic is heavy, I pass him and then noticed him behind me trying every which way to pass me. He passes me on the right and for the next 4 miles or so he maneuvers all over the place to keep me from passing him. I'm amused.

Case 2 - I arrive at red light and stop next to a Ford Contour that is already there. Kid driver in Ford sees my Atomic Orange Vette pull up next to him. He has alloy wheels and a fancy muffler. Light changes to green and the kid peels off as fast as he can, keeps on going and probably goes to his friends and tells them he just beat a new Vette.

Case 3 - I'm following a car at about 45 mph. New Chevy pick-up truck comes up behind me. It's drizzling. We come up to a stop sign, the car who's been in front of me turns right onto a 2 lane highway. After I stop I turn left onto the 2 lane road and the pick-up behind me turns left almost as soon as I did. I look at my rear view mirror and see the pick up spinning around, 1 and a half times he spins, and he ends up in the grassy shoulder facing in the opposite direction he wanted to go.

Case 4 - Last Sunday I come up to a 4-way stop. I wait my turn and then turn right onto a two lane road with a double solid line. The next car whose turn is to go at the 4-way stop is a Firebird (not a TransAm). I am accelerating after making my turn and next thing I notice is the Firebird trying to pass me even when it's a no passing zone (double solid line). A car is coming from the front and the Firebird slows down to get behind me but seeing what could be a bad situation for everybody I braked, slowed down, so the Firebird could safely pass me. The Firebird sees me slowing down so he accelerates again and passes me safely. I told my wife that guy had a bowl of stupid for breakfast.

Because of these events I have named my Vette, "The Instigator". None of this happens when I'm driving my F-250.

Hoosier Vette

Welcome to the club.

Sometimes I hate driving my vette because of the idiot factor.

400Reasons

Yes, you are now a "kill" story on the Contour forums. There are D@ucheb@gs everywhere and from time to time, they dont react well to a Corvette. Many people admire the car, some want to see what the car has under the hood, and some feel provoked by driving next to it so they make a statement by blowing past you.

Ironically, I get the feeling that Corvette drivers have a reputation for not showing off the speed, and that irritates the rice crowd. There was a post in here not long ago of a C6 doing the 1/4 where a non-Corvette owner commented "finally somebody thats not afraid to hit the gas in one of these things"

whatta ya do?

ben dover

When I'm casually passing someone on a two lane road they feel obligated to make a race of it.

djvesuvius

The funny thing for me is that I have had more people in beat up pieces of junk wanting to test me. They'll pull up beside me and rev up their engine and then goose it when the light turns green . I just look at them like they're stupid and ease on.

vetdude

99.9% of them are kids. they want to try me...until they see the badge on the front fenders.

BLK06VETT

The first day I picked up my vett a guy in a wrx sti tried to jack me off a light. I just got the car so I gave it 1/2 throttle off the line, and he was giving it all he had. You know the poop pipe making all that lame noise. I left that guy like he was parked, and my vett was shifting a 4000 rpm. Now I just point and laugh, boy does that **** them off.

ohmy

Must have been a goofy driver, usually STIs will give you a run for the money...

cadguymark

I had a guy about 30 in a 911 that had just picked it up earlier in the evening want to race me, when I told him downtown Minneapolis on a Friday night was not a good idea he asked if I knew a place we could do it

Brainard International Raceway was my reply

I have yet to have someone in a Mustang or Vette want to race, they have all been ricers or Dodge pickups , and one kid in a GTO

driving a Vette you don't have to race, you've already won the race by owning it

400Reasons

Maybe this dude added the STI stickers and forgot the Turbo and Intercooler

OregonC6

Yes, I think vette drivers do have that reputation. I also think it's mostly due to age and experience. Being a passive aggressive type myself I enjoy the attention. NOT racing on the street and ignoring all the fools is FAR more enjoyable for me that actually doing it would be.

Of course I sometimes let the engine do it's thing but only when I am alone on a deserted rural road or interstate with nobody else in sight. At other times I like the pure feel of the potential power under the hood. Just the knowledge of what I could do can be very satisfying.

My advice is to be careful how you handle the fools. When first at a light for example with another car beside me I always count to three before I even slowly start to move forward. If officer friendly is watching I want it to be perfectly clear that I was not the one racing. 'cause here's the thing...in a racing situation where the officer can only stop one of the cars....my bet is it's the vette that gets stopped most of the time.

I don't want a ticket just because some fool can't control his testosterone level.

The first post in case one used the word 'amused'. That's a very good word to describe my feelings except that caution must be taken to avoid getting hurt or ticketed due to jac*a*s behavior of punks no matter what their age. It's amusing and so very predictable.

Wayne O

I'm more amazed you've only had four instances since April. Just get used to it because it will happen with some regularity. The Corvette is an American icon with a well-deserved reputation as one of the fastest U.S. production cars. Accordingly it's a target...many gearheads want to test their car against the best. Unfortunately, they generally want to do so in a dangerous manner...on the street.

Let them go and do not encourage them. I recall the C6 owner that knew there was a speed trap...when kid next to him started revving his engine the C6 driver did so as well...encouraging the 'race' and hoping the kid would go for it and be caught by the cops. Well the kid took-off and the cop busted him. The C6 owner got some perverse satisfaction for getting some poor kid busted (which is lame in itself) but the fact is it could have resulted tragically had there been an accident.

Do what you're doing....just let them go (or offer to see them at the track).

Lebowski

I don't get too much of it, but some.

Most recent story - I usually drive pretty fast on the highway (85-90mph in a 70 zone), and a couple months ago I was driving north on I-75. Some idiot in a WRX would NOT leave me alone. Buzzing around all around me, passing me, pulling in front of me and then slowing down, speeding up to pass me at 100mph+ and then slowing down, being a PITA when I tried to get around him. At one point he pulled up next to me, rolled down his window, and gave me a thumbs down. This went on for probably a half hour. I controlled myself pretty good, not letting him get too much of a rise out of me, but man was that annoying.

BLU-BY-U

it's not any better when they see a z06 badge. I routinely get soccer moms trying to race me in nissan muranos (this is no lie). It's very annoying and can be downright dangerous at times as they usually feel the urge to pass you and then get in front of you (for no apparent reason). If I find an open section in the left lane, I won't oblige a race, but I'll certainly put on a 3rd gear pull exhibition they soon won't forget.

dgrant3830

I get lots of this at night on my way home from work. Either in my '99 or in my '07, they seem to want to race me. I usually just shake my head no and keep on going. Sometimes, depending on the "Stupidity" factor, I may totally ignore them. I had one guy in a possibly souped up Camaro who did his best to get me to go for it. He probably knew he would loose, but I was in my '99 with its current 291K miles on it and frankly, I don't think its such a hot idea to push it that hard these days and of course, he had no clue about my car.

viperZ06

The "idiot want to race factor" was much worse in my Viper GTS than it is in the vette. Everyone for old ladies to ricers revved their engines at stop lights, speed around you, etc. Bottom line, never fall for it no matter how much they are asking for a race. Someone gets hurt and you are screwed!

Abomination

A guy pulled up next to me with a mustang cobra and was gunning the engine at the light. I had my windows down and he yelled "go on green!" I looked at him and said "sure". When the light turned green he floored it and left a nice cloud of smoke.. I then politely moved over when the cop that was two cars behind me flipped on his lights and grabbed him.

I was laughing the entire drive home.

SXY-TME

There are two cases. 1. These people envy you want to be like you. They can't afford your nice car so the closest thing to it is to attract your attention thinking you care about them.

2. The people who want to challenge their moded cars using your car as a benchmark.

Both are stupid! Don't give attention and if they pass you, you'll usually notice they'll try to see if you are looking from their side mirror. The best thing to do is to look at the oposite traffic direction. This will tick them off real bad knowing that you didn't even give *** about what they just pulled. The more you give attention, the better they'll feel.

thetopdog

Sometimes people just appreciate the car and want to see what it can do. I remember back when I was about 16 or 17 I found myself in my mom's 4cyl Camry lined up beside an Acura NSX late at night at a stoplight. I wanted to see the Acura in action, so I revved my engine and when it turned green the NSX left me behind like I was standing still

I had no intentions of beating him, I just wanted to see that car do what it was built to do. A lot of pepople are sports car fans or Corvette fans and just want to see the car in action

User 020720

Personally I find that most of these people, soccer moms included, aren't worth the extra gallon of gas it would take to pi$$ them off.