Picture the scene, if you will.
A young lout passes his test and decides to purchase himself a nice little Citroen Saxo. Not content with a nippy little runaround that is reasonably comfortable, safe for the road and runs well, he then decides to remove the badges, drop the suspension, fit 18" wheels and a big bore exhaust system thus destroying the nimble frugal runabout and making it into something uncomfortable, unsafe for the road and in a very poor state of tune.
Well i encountered one of these people this evening and followed him for 5 miles along a stretch of road with a national speed limit of 50MPH. Conditions were clear and there wasn't another car on the road.
Well his exhaust was popping and banging, the engine sounded like a bag of nails, he couldn't keep the car in a straight line because of the ruined suspension and ridiculous wheels. He was bump steering all over the place and could barely reach 35MPH.
I wouldn't say i was in a hurry although i did have to be somewhere but i was getting really annoyed with him holding me up so as hard as i was trying to keep my distance, i kept finding myself getting closer and then having to ease off again.
Once we cleared the open road and turned off into an unlit lane, he started plying silly buggers. First he switched on his rear fogs and then proceeded to slow right down almost to a halt and then pulling off before braking again whilst blipping the throttle etc
I considered the idea that he was trying to either cause me to run into him or was trying to find an excuse to stop me and get me out of the car. He seemed really angry.
Rather than rise to it, i hung back and let him play his silly games alone.
So my thoughts were, Why?
Why can't he drive sensibly? Why does he feel the need to try and intimidate other road users?
I know he is not the only one of his kind and there are people all over the country that behave like this.
But that's really annoyed me...
I had 4 lads in a VTR Saxo trying to get me to race them last Saturday evening. The previous owner took the badges off the back of my Vectra so I don't think they realised that it was an SXI.
From pulling off the round about at about 30 mph I easily pulled away from them and I didn't even have to change down to do it. They then decided to tailgate me all the way up to the next roundabout where after I exited it I again pulled away from them really quickly. They finally caught up and overtoke me. If I wanted to overtake them I could have easily done but it wasn't worth the potential points and fine so just let them go.
What I don't get was, what was the point of this all? I showed that my standard Vectra was far quicker than them and while doing it I bet I was getting about 15mpg more than them at least. Overtaking me when I stick to the speed limit doesn't really prove anything other than they are prepared to break the law.
I think in my instance, they were annoyed that they had spent out money to 'improve' their car and then some bloke in a Kiddy carrier (me) comes up behind them and is struggling to keep a sensible gap because they can't push their car to do any more than 40.
Problem with my Scenic is where you sit up high, 50mph feels like 30mph and i can be going along in 4th doing 35 and you just apply slight pressure to the throttle and it feels like it wants to take off. I was constantly having to brake to leave a sensible gap.
If i had been in something sporty or renowned for being fast then they probably wouldn't have behaved as they did as they would have seen it as more of a match to their magnificent spectacle of engineering beauty 
