I was out and about the other day and came across an all Black touring 350z with chrome wheels and dark tinted windows.

It caught my eye because my RX8 is all black with chrome wheels and dark tinted windows.

As I passed him he sped up and pulled up on my left and stayed even with me as we both exchanged glances. For a moment I thought he want to race since we were basically the only ones on the highway, but he did not edge forward or anything.

So of one moment, I forgot about whose car was better and why and just enjoyed the fact that he had a sharp car, one like I would have bought and perhaps he thought the same for me.

I stared him in the eye after about 10 to 15 second of each of us checking the other out and give him a thumbs-up and a head nod that he had a sharp car. To my surprise he did the same to me and both of us kind of uncomfortably grinned for a second or two.

Then I sped up along my way and he eased away, and I just thought that's the way it should be. Just a kind of weird happening I wanted to pass along.

Good post mmjames. Nice to know some people just appreciate cars without having to get into some 'my car is better than your car' ego-trip.

Driving to dinner last night a BMW pulled up beside me and I see three sets of heads in the BMW turn around and stare. The driver looks right at me and mouthed:

"That's a NICE car". The other two game me grins and thumbs up.

I believe you participated in a ritual called 'Mutual Respect'.

Nice to hear, and thanks for sharing.

i had the same thing happen yesterday with a brandnew convertible corvette. theirs was silver and here i was in my sunlight silver rx-8. they came up on my right then got in behind me as we passed someone. when i went into the right lane again they came up on the left and i thought they were gonna need to show off how fast their car was but they just hung with me for a minute or so as we looked over each others cars then pulled ahead a little to look at the front of my 8. then we were beside each other again and they gave smiles and thumbs up and i did the same. a couple of days ago a guy in a bmw z4 stopped at a light next to me and had me role down the window. we talked thru the red light, him "nice car" me "thanks,yours too" him "are they going to make a rag top?" me "not right away". "have you seen one of those crossfires yet?" etc etc. again as it should be. i guess this "mutal respect" thing isn't a myth after all :)

awesome
that is really nice
all the z's Ive ran into in cali just hit the gas hard when they see me

funny how i experienced the same thing mike, 2 BMW's tried to out corner me in the 2 lane freeway entrance. Unfortunately I went 80mph on the curb and left them behind. When we went in to the freeway i slowed down and they sped up but it was over the 8 out cornered both the Z3 and the other 4 door BM.