½mv²

I've heard people bring this up in passing every once in a while, but I've never seen a thread dedicatated to the discussion of it, and searching brings up every thread in the database since the keywords are so common.

Sorry for the repost, but a lot of new members have joined, and I'd like to know if the newbies are encountering this same problem, and if the old members are still encountering it...
...Does everyone outside of your car always think you're traveling 20mph faster than you really are?


I don't know about you, but damn near every cranky old person, overprotective parent, school crossing guard, neighbor, and parking lot rent-a-cop gives me **** for driving way too fast.

Maybe I get it more than anyone else here because I like to drive rough, even when it's not really neccessary. I brake a little to hard, I give it a little extra juice, and I push it around EVERY turn... but I'm not reckless in the least at the same time. My motto is "As fast as possible, as slow as neccessary." I've been driving RXs since I got my license, and I've driven hard since day one, and I've never even had a close call/near miss.
If a turn's visibility is bad, I take it slow.
If there are kids around, I slow down.
I drive with the CC as much as possible, and keep my foot prepped over the brake pedal for as much of the trip as I can.
If the weather's bad, I anticipate my stops.
I never tailgate.
I always signal.
Long story short - I'm a good, defensive, curteous driver. I don't think I'm perfect, and I know I do quite a few stupid things, but based on the number of accidents I've avoided as the direct result of my over-cautiousness, I think it's safe to say that I'm (at least) a damn safe driver. Apparently, however, I look like the most reckless ******* on the road!

AM I THE ONLY ONE HAVING THIS PROBLEM?


Some short examples of what I mean (all occured in the past 30 days):
Turning into a McDonalds -
Visibility is perfect, no cars in the lot. Before I make the turn, I see a family exiting. I take the turn fast and immediately hit the brakes after straightening out. Despite the fact that I am a good 6 or 7 carlengths away from this family when they notice me (and at this point I am now coming off the brake, traveling close to 10mph), the parents will damn near dislocate their kids' shoulders YANKING them back onto the curb. 8 seconds later when I've finally crawled my way into earshot, mommy and daddy start screaming pofanites at me for my driving!

Driving through my own neighborhood -
Speed limit is 20 (yeah right!). I see cars FLYING through my neighborhood at 35-40mph all the time, and I always think it's some dipshit high schooler trying to be cool in his mom's car. Wrong. 80% of the time it's one of the parents rocketing their SUV through the neighborhood. I don't drive 20 because that's rediculous, but I never get it over 30. On *MANY* different occasions I will see a parent happily wave to an SUV passing by at 35, and then re-create the McDonald's shoulder-rape-manuver on their kids as I crawl by at 26 (once again accompanied by profanities)

This past Sunday in a Wal-Mart parking lot -
I'm driving around looking for a place to park. It's pretty crowded, so I'm not even looking for openings to take fast turns and/or accelerate. I keep it in first gear as much as possible becasue I like all the weird looks people give when they hear what sounds like a vaccum cleaner drive by. I drive normally and casually, like 90% of the other cars that have graced that lot on that same day, find a spot, park in it, and when I get out my car the golf-cart security watchman stops me and tells me I need to "take it easy before [he] calls the cops."!! I'm BAFFLED to say the least, so I ask what he's talking about, and ask if he's confused me with someone else. He thought I was just being a dick on purpose and threatened to tow my car!! Needless to say, I'm not going back there ever again.

And this is my favorite:
Lost on a *dirt road* somewhere in bumfuck Texas. I'm on a road with THICK trees on either side, barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass by each other, and there are big dips and mud puddles everywhere. The sun is just starting to set, so I'm driving about 20-25 mph, and I'm kinda swerving around and braking irradically to avoid the plentiful muddy potholes. Once every 2 minutes or so, a truck (usually with a boat or some horses) in tow would come from the other direction. The road was pretty much straight, so I would see these trucks a good 20-30 seconds before having to get all the way on the edge of the road and pass them. Well, apparently in those 20-30 seconds as I crawled my way around the terrain, I gave off the aura of a rally racer, because EVERY LAST DAMN ONE OF THE 5 TRUCKS I PASSED felt the need to yell at me for driving like a manaic and/or SPIT ON MY CAR (thank God the car was already filthy).




So what is it about my car? Do the Black 8's just look like they're always going fast? Is it all the colors? Is it just my unfortunate luck in encounters? If anyone here has been having/has had similar occurences please share!

ken-x8

is probably the reason. You're drawing attention to yourself.

Some time ago I had to accompany my daughter to family traffic school. Four or five very long evenings, with about 15 minutes worth of excellent advice embedded. One of the nuggets was to not do unexpected things. The collective body langauge of you and your car should let others know what you're up to and are going to do.

By zipping around, you're presenting a "Hot Rods from Hell" image, even if your speed is reasonable and you're not actually running anyone down.

Not making any judgements on you...just giving an answer.

Slow down, punk - this is a neighorhood!

Ken

Detrich

damn. u need to work for encyclopedia britanica... lol

that said- yes. black 8s are the fastest. (no bias here.)

dmp

My HOA put up "10mph" signs on the street. I drive faster JUST BECAUSE...to spite them. Try driving 10mph for 500-600 yards. :-/

It's people being ninnies, really. People looking for a reason to bitch.

Nemesis8

iTrader: (3)

And to top that off, our speedos read about 2MPH higher than your actual speed. So you are really going slower than you think. I think everyone is just jealous of the 8, and it's their way of being mad at themselves, (for not owning one), by spewing forth their ignorance at you.

Zoom with confidence

dontfeedthenerd

I don't know if you have an aftermarket exhaust system or anything, but maybe your car just sounds meaner/faster.
Maybe you tend to rev higher (who wouldn't in an 8), but who knows maybe you just sound scary coming at them at 8k RPM or something.

VRZOOMZOOM

Haha, i can like empthasize and sympathsize with you on these things. esp the neighborhood comments, always someone walkin their dog who happens to be like walking along the sidewalk or grass, nowhere near my car.....always seem to want to comment for no apparent reason even when you are going slower than some of the people who fly by the neighborhood....always with the comment.....slow down!!! and I never got these comments when i wasn't in an 8. So i tend to think there are a few people who are enamoured with our cars and want to own them but it seems like their sports car fix time has passed or the fact that you are young and actually driving a sports car. So i think 1) is part jealously/envy 2) i think its the design of our car.........its sort like exotic in a german/italian way........it looks fast when its parked, looks even faster when its in motion regardless of speed. I think there was a special road and track edition mag that came out for the RX-8, and how the designer intended to combine the RX-8 looks with german and italian flair. How they said German cars look good in motion and italian cars look great standing still. 3) Could be the color of your car drawing the attention, color draws you in, then they see the design of a sports car....then they make their pre-conceived thoughts and notions that you are some a-hole driving faster than everyone....when really its an illusion.

Also.........with SUVS and other bigger cars than an RX-8.........most people are pretty dumb and will overlook their sensation and perception, bcause the bigger the car......the less speed visually it seems to carry, so people dont perceive them as going fast compared to an RX-8 which is pretty smooth and small by comparsion.

In addition to all this, the RX-8 has a unique grumble even in stock form that has people taking notice........this might add to the attention that you might be getting.

Also, i hate to say this but half the people in our society really dont know how to communicate when they like what they see........again kind of goes back to whole jealousy/envy thing.........so instead of tryin to start a nice convo with you, they shout something dumb.........to try to befriend you or that is their way of trying to interact with you cause you have something that is unique that they kind of like cause theyre staring at it.........and when you dont interact with them......its sort of like they feel that they are inadequate/frustrated.......kind of sad.

Anyways thats my perspective of the RX-8 so far after 6 mo. ownership. I tend to not worry about what people are yelling anymore, but just attribute to some type of jealousy/envy cause its really like nothing out there on the road.

NoTears316

Mendossa

+1 everything

I can be crawling in the street, struggling to engage 2nd cuz the tranny is cold and end up lugging in 3rd and some random guy will yell "slow down you crazy maniAAAc! this ain't yo personal race track!!!". Serious. They should see me removing the carbon deposit once it's warmed up.

Oddly, I never got scowled at when driving the car hard... I think there's some sort of "primitive" reflex that makes it easy for people to yell at something that COULD be threatening but is not at the moment, kindof a defensive measure. And when you're approching fast, making a lot of noise and sending an image of "aggressiveness" people don't want to attract attention to themselves and prefer stepping aside and wait until you've passed.

Redpit10

I was an advertising major in college, and for that reason I pay more attention to commercials than the average person. As soon as I saw this post I knew I had to find a string of commercials that aired a few years ago. "Sports cars" looking fast and people saying things due to the looks has been around since they first started making sports cars. These commercials capture this theme perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZnz0KBRnKI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-srzxrKCXlg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xu-LdnIe8

CarAndDriver

Haven't had a problem yet and someone mentioned this very same topic a month or so ago.

dmc27

a time or 3 over a year of ownership. fudge em.

½mv²

Well, I live in Texas, so I really really doubt it's a jealousy issue. I've parked my freshly waxed & detailed 8 next to a dirty, faded, red, Ford Superduty truck with chrome rims, and heard some passerby girls comment:
"ooohh..........
......
................that's a really hot truck"



And as for "telegraphing" bad automotive body language, that really only explains half of these occurances. The McDonald's incident I can kinda understand, in a state where tall & topheavy is the way to go, a little black "exotic" darting around in the corner of your eye can lead to suspission.
However, driving through the neighborhood the cruise control is on - I'm doing nothing sudden or unpredictable. And as for your bigger-looks-slower theory, ZoomZoom - it's actually the other way around. Motorcycle saftey courses and defensive driving classes both discuss the "smaller looks slower" principal. The last video I watched showed a side-by-side view of an 18wheeler and a motorcycle driving down the same road at the same speed. The motorcycle looked like it was crawling despite the fact it was approaching just as fast.

My 8 is bone stock, and I don't care what anyone says about the 8's sound - rotaries have always (and will always) sound comical to me. They produce no "grumble" at all - they sound like those wind-up cars that you'd have to rub on the carpet several times to get the gears spining before letting it go. I like keeping it in low gear in crowded places because people give me the strangest looks; 95% of the people I drive around are rotarded, and have no clue why such an exotic looking car sounds like it's driven by an electric motor or vaccum cleaner. No obnoxious rumble, no ricer buzz - just an angry wirr of a clogged wetvac.
[side note: the only time I think the renesis ever sounds "mean" is if you bounce the revs between 5k & 7k. I don't know if all 8's do this, or if it's just mine, but if you rev up to 7, let it drop to 5 and then floor it for a second, the car let's out a deep, throaty, sexy (I swear to GOD I did not pick those adjectives to be funny - that's really how it sounds!), roar that is accompanied by a series of backfire "BA-BRUB" sounds, and the car rocks around like an old muscle car... it's.... quite nice :D]



And C&D: I figured as much, but my visitation to the forums is pretty random so I guess I missed that thread. I recalled seeing a few comments about it here & there in other threads, but searching for the keywords "appearance", "looks", "faster", "complaining", "pedestrians", "comments", "other people", & "too fast" bring up damn near every thread in the database.
If you can remember the title of the thread, or provide a link, I'd love to see what the previous comments were!

Drkdelfi

Hehe, My VR and I once got a cross guard to wave to slow down, thats about the extent of it

LiveBlues

I haven't really had any problems like that, but this past weekend, I was driving through a country club on my way into town. The speed limit is 25 (even though it is a country club, it is still a public road), and I usually do the speed limit for the most part. As you get to the end of the road, there is one turn that I always take at at least 35, just because it is so fun. It could easily be taken much faster in the 8, but I don't, as it is pretty much a blind curve. As I come around the turn this time, sitting on a small bridge in my lane were about 6 people on bikes, in their cute spandex suits standing there straddling their bikes, just chatting with each other. I had plenty of room to slow down and go around them at about 15 mph in the other lane, and nobody was ever in any danger. I did truely enjoy the look on their faces though. They shouldn't have been there in the first place.

As for speeding in a residential area, I won't do that.

Razz1

Rough is putting it nicely.

Fact is................Erratic driving.

One day you will get a ticket and it could be for wreckless driving.

DarkBrew

I got reported at work for speeding in the parking lot... LOL
I was in first gear at about 4K RPM so the people were reacting to the engine sound not the speed.

½mv²

Razz -
While I doubt I'd ever get charged with something as extreme as that, I won't deny the fact that it's a possibility. If it ever happened, I'd fight it - like I said, I like it rough, but I'll be damned if I ever push the bounds of safety. LiveBlues pretty much described what goes through my mind before a turn to the letter - as hard and as fast as I can while still making sure I have time to react to a "worst case" situation.

I'm actually suprized at how few have responded to this - I was expecting a lot more "OMG YES ME TOO" responses.

dmp

I figured out the problem. It's insecurity and Ego on the part of the yeller. They JERK THEIR KIDS out of the way with a PASSION only to find out they've over-reacted. Thus, to save embarrassment, they create a false motivation for their ninniness...and yell at you.

dmp

And if you had a cat-delete, your car would shoot fire at those times

MazdaMonkey

There is your problem. Target/Coscto FTW!!

But I used to have the same problem in my bright blue IS300 with chrome wheels. Visually it stands out and attracts a lot more attention. I used to turn pretty sharply and the body roll certainly made it appear to be traveling fast, even if I was going the speed limit.

I am sure the loud engine and squeaking brakes of the RX-8 add to the effect.