Rear ended! Nearly>.......

[spookypt]

My rant for the day! I finally got my car back on its wheels after a long periodic detention from use due to "over-tinkering" and decided that I'd take my lovely wife for an afternoon ride up to Sovereign Island after all the Brisbanites had gone home for the weekend...

From my place to S.I and back is about an hour leasurily cruising... Anyway I lost count of the wackers that were tailgating me as I pulled over and let em pass.. Probably about 6 all up on the way there. I was doing the speed limit give or take...

On the way home I let 2 people pass and then had a old ute behind me (too close as usual)... Suddenly out of my peripheral RHS a kid rode out on his bike on a zebra crossing and certainly didn't look never mind check to see if I could stop.... He was going! I caught it just and managed to break and pull left a. to miss him and b. to help avoid the bum sniffer behind me ramming me... Well he just... and I mean just avoided my RHS rear.... and pulled up alongside me.... Crap old ute, bad tyres, no brakes, stupid driver.....

All I can say is the car was to be sacrificed had there been an accident... I wouldn't have hit the kid.... our necks would have been OK as we have head restraints on our seats....and cars are replaceable.....sorta...

Geez, it really took the wind out of my sails thinking a leasurely drive could be so annoying and almost a very near accident....

Just proves... in the scheme of things racing on a track is far safer....

Thank god Scotty and I have that race car... How we fix the road toll when accidents like this can happen so easily has me buggered...

Thanks for reading my rant!

SpookyPT

[boxhead]

Not a Rant Matt,

I have my car on the road at the moment, and I will admit I love driving it around, but cars do get awfully close behind you as your cruising.

I find myself almost watching the mirrors as much as looking out the front.

But when I get out of town and on the open roads, then I can enjoy the drive.

[sambo]

Spooky, glad to hear you're OK. Does every Cobra driver experience tailgaters? It's one of my pet hates on the road.

Boxhead, I can see too many hiding places for revenue collectors!

[boxhead]

Sambo, luckily there are not that many of them in town, and what we do have are kept busy with other maters.
Plus they make more money cruising around in the 80 zones than seeing 1 car every 15 minutes on the highway.

I was pulled over yesterday in my wifes Ford Capri doing 64 in a 60 zone, he let me off with a warning but I found it odd that they would pull me up for that speed, must have been a slow morning? Yes, I know that 64 is still over the limit, so I could not argue with the guy as he was only doing his job.

And it is a 130 zone once you get a few kls out of town.

I wish the open limits would come back.

[stephen low]

Agree no rant there but a timely reminder to all of us to maintain a far broader defensive driving awareness, particularly with respect to other drivers just admiring our cars and not concentrating as to where they are going.

Mate of mine is just about finished his 30-something Chev and has deliberately added a high level brake light as modern drivers don't know how to look down for the stop lights now.

With our cars, only the driver immediately behind is going to see a cobra high mount stop light but the gawk effect is still the same that my mate has seen happening within the hot rod fraternity.

As to my mate's car, I think the reflective effect of his paint will blind other drivers first. Have a gander at the finish on his low budget effort in the pic attached below and you will get the idea.

He hadn't polished the car yet in the pic below and I gather now after using Meguires products it has lifted to yet another level of reflection.





Cheers

[NASSTY]

It's not just tail gaters. Cars passing you have a habbit of drifting into your lane especially if they are passing on your rhs. It's similar to L platers steering where they are looking.

[Rebel1]

Originally Posted by spookypt

decided that I'd take my lovely wife for an afternoon ride up to Sovereign Island

SpookyPT

I did warn you that getting married is baaaad juju.

[Merv and Sharon]

Boxhead where is that open road? In the Kimberleys???

Merv

[boxhead]

That is the road from the west Mcdonell ranges to town, I live about 12 kls (most direct route) from town.
With the permit I had I wanted to make the most of it so I chose the long way to get to town.
The pic is about 10kls from Alice Springs CBD

[BMK]

Boxhead

Mmmm open roads and 160 limits..

[boxhead]

We still have the open roads Bernie, but sadly we went from unlimited to now be 130kph on most of the highways.
Closer to town it is 100, and the Lasseter highway (one to the rock) is 110, too many tourists who do not now how to drive fast.