Zafira scared the living **** out of me today

ShadowHearth

Hey guys, just got a really scary situation just a few minutes ago, just whanted to share my experience with opel zafyra :eek:

I drove 2:00 at night to dublin airport, and on the way back i just couldnt believe what happened...


I drove from Michelstown to Mallow, some people here will know this road, they will also know that this road is not the moust safest or friendlyest road for speed.
When i entered to 50km/h zone ( there are a few mini towns ), some zafira jumped on my arse.he was clearly unhappy that i was doing 50km/h on empty road at 7:00... As soon as the 50km/h zone ended there was a very small part of two lanes. I stayed in main lane and started to accelerate, but it looked like i wasnt accelerating fast enought! :rolleyes: He jumped to left lane and couldnt overtake me, so started flashing lights!
Well i just continued on around 90/100km/h speed, droping it even lower on some bends. Zafira was so close on my arse i could even see his nose hair!
Eventually there was a a car in front which was making a right turn, so we had to fully stop. As soon as the car got away i accelerated prety quick, but sticked to 100km/h... Zafira came back on my arse in no time, then jumped on really really dangerous part of road to ovetake me, while i was allready doing 100km/h!!!! He even crossed solid line!!! there was only gap of few cm between our cars!all that part of the road was in potholes, so a little jump, and we would crash! :eek:
Only thing that i sow after was him going in to turn on HUGE speed, allmoust with two wheels in air! I havent seen him after, and i was trying to do solid 100km/h, which is really not easy on that road!

I do like speed, and i am not saint, i did had gone over a speed limit, and not once, but there is allways a place and time where you can push a little bit more over the speed limit. Road from michelstown to mallow is not the one thought! I barely can do 100km/h on that road, and my car is biuld for speed, and some lialia on 7 seater was allmoust going sideways there and allmoust coused a crash!

I dont bash zafira drivers, just this one prick. I know its imposible to change opinion about sports cars in ireland, but some people should look at theyr own driving, before judging athers.

I dont know why he acted like that, maybe he just sow modified car, then tryed to prove me something, or maybe he was just late somewhere.... i dont know, but this just scared the living **** out of me... from now on when i see some minivan ill just drop speed and let them pass... my car and my life is worth alot more to me...

i just really hope there were no kids in that car...

p.s. sorry if its hard to read, or theres alot of spelling mistakes, i am really tired after long driving... ill go to bed, and fix later.

Cookie_Monster

zafira

Sports car
Is it not an mini MPV?

I stayed in main lane and started to accelerate

I don't get this bit either, surely you should always keep in the left lane, was it a climbing lane or something.


There are douchebags all over the place, best just try and ignore them until you can find somewhere to let them overtake before they wreck themselves and you

R.O.R

There are some right c0cks out there and sometimes it's better to not get caught up with them and just slow down and pull over as much as possible on a straight, so they can overtake you safely. Let them away with it and hope you don't see them further down the road in a hedge.

I drove that stretch of road a couple of weeks ago, and while it's not as bad as a lot of people were saying, I wouldn't fancy having someone up my tail being aggresive like that.

Also in really bad need of resurfacing in parts - not much fun with M-Sport suspension on 19" runflats.

ShadowHearth

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Sports car
Is it not an mini MPV?



I don't get this bit either, surely you should always keep in the left lane, was it a climbing lane or something.


There are douchebags all over the place, best just try and ignore them until you can find somewhere to let them overtake before they wreck themselves and you

cant get any sleep now, too much redbull . Thing is, that slow lane is just appears from left, and then goes back in. So it was not really efficient for me to go there, a didnt knew that he will do all that! And when i sow him in slow lane flashing it was too late for me to go in to slow lane, as i didnt knew what to expect from him :eek:.

vectra

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Eventually there was a a car in front which was making a right turn, so we had to fully stop. As soon as the car got away i accelerated prety quick, but sticked to 100km/h..

Sounds to me like you were trying to have fun with him with your "sports" car
Maybe the guy was late for work and you were infuriating him by holding him back.. Maybe the poor guy had to push harder to get to work on time because of you holding him back?

Maybe those "Kids" you mentioned could be without thier dad because of you having you "Fun" at the end of a long night

You had at least two occasions when you could have let him pass but decided to "Show him whos boss"

I know that road alright.
Not great

ShadowHearth

R.O.R wrote: »

There are some right c0cks out there and sometimes it's better to not get caught up with them and just slow down and pull over as much as possible on a straight, so they can overtake you safely. Let them away with it and hope you don't see them further down the road in a hedge.

I drove that stretch of road a couple of weeks ago, and while it's not as bad as a lot of people were saying, I wouldn't fancy having someone up my tail being aggresive like that.

Also in really bad need of resurfacing in parts - not much fun with M-Sport suspension on 19" runflats.

yup, surface on that road is lethal! And he overtook me on the patch which was really really bad! was really scary...

ClutchIt

The Zafira guy was a complete wánker alright. As above it's best to just whip into the hard shoulder (if there is one) even if your doing the speed limit. Just don't get involved with lunatics like that

ShadowHearth

vectra wrote: »

Sounds to me like you were trying to have fun with him with your "sports" car
Maybe the guy was late for work and you were infuriating him by holding him back.. Maybe the poor guy had to push harder to get to work on time because of you holding him back?

Maybe those "Kids" you mentioned could be without thier dad because of you having you "Fun" at the end of a long night

You had at least two occasions when you could have let him pass but decided to "Show him whos boss"

I know that road alright.
Not great

so if you late, is that an excuse to drive like that? Trust me,i had really no interest in playing around with him, specially after on road since 2:00. I had enought fun on empty motorway.

thing is i didnt knew what to expect from him. i did drove of fester there, but just to show him, that i do have power, but i really wount use it on this road. I really didnt expected him, to show that his zafira is waaaaaaaaaaay quicker...

Davidth88

OP... I would have let him pass somewhere ... just not worth playing with twits like that

Cookie_Monster

vectra wrote: »

Sounds to me like you were trying to have fun with him with your "sports" car
Maybe the guy was late for work and you were infuriating him by holding him back.. Maybe the poor guy had to push harder to get to work on time because of you holding him back?

Maybe those "Kids" you mentioned could be without thier dad because of you having you "Fun" at the end of a long night

You had at least two occasions when you could have let him pass but decided to "Show him whos boss"

I know that road alright.
Not great

What, its just prudent to get back up to speed quickly. now if he floored if off and ignored the limit that'd be different but sounds normal enough to me. otherwise you are just presenting a danger to others on the road by being a stationery or slow moving car on a 100kph road

vectra

ShadowHearth wrote: »

thing is i didnt knew what to expect from him.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i did drove of fester there, but just to show him, that i do have power, .

There is your answer to the first part..
You wound him up..

Not saying you were wrong or anything.. If it were me I would gone ahead of him and not play with him


But as you said on your original post.. "You will know better next time and let them pass"

E39MSport

... takes 2 to tango there pal and you certainly danced.

Pull over and let knobs be knobs. You had a chance to do so and didn't. You contributed to a dangerous situation imo.

ShadowHearth

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

What, its just prudent to get back up to speed quickly. now if he floored if off and ignored the limit that'd be different but sounds normal enough to me. otherwise you are just presenting a danger to others on the road by being a stationery or slow moving car on a 100kph road

Well bouth of us had to fully stop, as there was a car in fron of us taking time to make a right turn. well i got up to 100km/h and didnt go a bit more. And he flew past me, while i was doing that speed allready.

i did this before( accelerating, to show tailgater that you have power, but you wount be using it on dangerouos road), and it allways worked, people would just stop chasing me..

but trust me m8, from now when i will see some lialia like this, i will just jump to left as much as possible and let them pass, a good lesson for me aswell.

ShadowHearth

E39MSport wrote: »

... takes 2 to tango there pal and you certainly danced.

Pull over and let knobs be knobs. You had a chance to do so and didn't. You contributed to a dangerous situation imo.

indeed i could have acted differently, but i speeded of to make bigger gap between us. I dont think i made a dangerous situation by doing this.

i do admit, i needed just let him pass, my bad.

vectra

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i speeded of to make bigger gap between us..

Go on..... Admit it ... you were just showing off :pac:

ShadowHearth

vectra wrote: »

Go on..... Admit it ... you were just showing off :pac:

okay okay, just for you :P . thought this showing off ussually helps

vectra

ShadowHearth wrote: »

okay okay, just for you :P . thought this showing off ussually helps

LOL
I knew you were acting the Mi*key with him
I would have done the same only he wouldn't have caught up

ShadowHearth

vectra wrote: »

LOL
I knew you were acting the Mi*key with him
I would have done the same only he wouldn't have caught up

well, if seriuos, i wasnt trying acting mickey with him, specially in beggining. i did speeded away from him to make a gap and show off, that car can shift, but there is no need for it.

thought damn... didnt expected that from him :eek:

If you have a tailgater slow down a bit briefly, last thing to do is accelerate. And give them room to overtake.

Tefral

Used to do what you did when I first started off driving now I realise that it's just easier to pull into the side and leave them pass. You usually
meet them at the next set of traffic lights anyway. Only you have gotten there safer, used less fuel and less wear on your car.

Anan1

ShadowHearth wrote: »

When i entered to 50km/h zone ( there are a few mini towns ), some zafira jumped on my arse.he was clearly unhappy that i was doing 50km/h on empty road at 7:00... As soon as the 50km/h zone ended there was a very small part of two lanes. I stayed in main lane and started to accelerate, but it looked like i wasnt accelerating fast enought! :rolleyes: He jumped to left lane and couldnt overtake me, so started flashing lights!

You knew he wanted to overtake you and yet you blocked him in the one place where he safely could have? I hope you've learnt your lesson.:)

pa990

drive in the left lane, unless you're passing traffic, and you might have less problems with tailgateing

shogunpower

probably was a zafera vxr, and he wanted to show you his car had alot of power too.

ShadowHearth

Anan1 wrote: »

You knew he wanted to overtake you and yet you blocked him in the one place where he safely could have? I hope you've learnt your lesson.:)

well i did said in one of posts, that i really didnt knew what to expect. i started accelerating from 50 zone, and he just jumps in to slow lane and starts flashing! that slow lane is really short and it it on bend aswell. People who know that road will confirm this.

so i could have slowed down on right side, and let him over take me from inner side, which really looked dangerous. i couldnt move to left as he was in there behind me. i will say it again, i didnt knew what to expect m8. When you get in such situation very tired in the middle of the night your brain wouldnt be so fast to react...

when i speeded away second time, it was al happening on a road which had solid line, really wasnt expecting him jumping in to ather side, even at slower speed.... well atleast i wouldnt if car in front of me doing atleast 60km/h... a solid line there is for a reason

testicle

I can't make head nor tail of what's going on. The OP is impossible to read.

Anan1

ShadowHearth wrote: »

well i did said in one of posts, that i really didnt knew what to expect. i started accelerating from 50 zone, and he just jumps in to slow lane and starts flashing! that slow lane is really short and it it on bend aswell. People who know that road will confirm this.

You knew in the village that he wanted you to overtake, why didn't you simply keep left when the road divided into two lanes?

ShadowHearth wrote: »

so i could have slowed down on right side, and let him over take me from inner side, which really looked dangerous. i couldnt move to left as he was in there behind me. i will say it again, i didnt knew what to expect m8. When you get in such situation very tired in the middle of the night your brain wouldnt be so fast to react...

If you'd been in the correct lane then this wouldn't have happened. If you were too tired to deal with this then (with respect) you were too tired to drive safely.

ShadowHearth

testicle wrote: »

I can't make head nor tail of what's going on. The OP is impossible to read.

i am sorry for that, my english skills not the best. i wrote in a rush and small stress.

thought alot of people still managed to understand it... :rolleyes:

keithclancy

If theres a knob behind you, just pull into the hard shoulder (even though its not allowed) and let the tool overtake.

He/She can piss someone else off up the road !

r3nu4l

Yeah in fairness, you played with him but underestimated the psychotic nature of the driver Sounds like he would have done anything to pass you and could probably have killed himself or oncoming traffic. I know how I would have felt if my playing with another driver resulted in an RTA that caused serious injury or death

BTW, I've also been guilty of playing with other drivers in the past so I'm not on a high horse here

/One other thing to remember is that you don't always know why someone is attempting to drive so fast or acting the assh0le. I didn't think about it until a friend of mine had to drive his own MPV at horrendous speeds in the middle of the night because his two-year old son had stopped breathing, then started breathing again but was still unconcious. The ambulance service told him he would be quicker driving to the hospital. He told me himself that he acted like a madman on the road that night but the alternatives were to have his son die by driving too slowly to the hospital or potentially die in an RTA trying to save his son by driving fast. Not a nice choice imo.

ShadowHearth

Anan1 wrote: »

You knew in the village that he wanted you to overtake, why didn't you simply keep left when the road divided into two lanes?


If you'd been in the correct lane then this wouldn't have happened. If you were too tired to deal with this then (with respect) you were too tired to drive safely.

ah i know it was my fault in this situation anyway... poor zafira driver... i should find him and apologize.

i told you, that he jumped in to left lane. would be amazing if i jumped in to left lane and then he hits me from the back...

TheZ

I have noticed some male MPV drivers who seem to drive them fast and aggressively - not sure if it is because they feel emasculated driving an MPV?

Anan1

ShadowHearth wrote: »

ah i know it was my fault in this situation anyway... poor zafira driver... i should find him and apologize.

If I were you, i'd just learn from my mistake and move on. Good drivers are always learning.:)

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i told you, that he jumped in to left lane. would be amazing if i jumped in to left lane and then he hits me from the back...

He wanted to overtake you, if you'd moved into the left lane as soon as it appeared then he'd have overtaken you on the right and that would have been the end of the matter.

Honestly, the two things i'd take out of this are;

1. If someone wants to overtake you, do your best to safely facilitate them.

2. Don't drive when you're too tired.

ShadowHearth

r3nu4l wrote: »

Yeah in fairness, you played with him but underestimated the psychotic nature of the driver Sounds like he would have done anything to pass you and could probably have killed himself or oncoming traffic. I know how I would have felt if my playing with another driver resulted in an RTA that caused serious injury or death

BTW, I've also been guilty of playing with other drivers in the past so I'm not on a high horse here

/One other thing to remember is that you don't always know why someone is attempting to drive so fast or acting the assh0le. I didn't think about it until a friend of mine had to drive his own MPV at horrendous speeds in the middle of the night because his two-year old son had stopped breathing, then started breathing again but was still unconcious. The ambulance service told him he would be quicker driving to the hospital. He told me himself that he acted like a madman on the road that night but the alternatives were to have his son die by driving too slowly to the hospital or potentially die in an RTA trying to save his son by driving fast. Not a nice choice imo.

well you right m8. I once got a phone call from misses: she was crying and heavily breathing. The only thing she said: i got in to car accsident, i am at xxx location, please help. then connection got lost... you cant even imagine what was happening in my head... I did drove fast to the location, but it wasnt mad mad fast, i did 140km/h on location which was 100km/h, it was staith lines moust of the road. I was stupid and reckless aswell, but atleast i was not in big bulky 7 seater, but in small agile roadster....

Even he was rushing to hospital etc, he could have killed himself, person in his car, and kill me?

ShadowHearth

Anan1 wrote: »

If I were you, i'd just learn from my mistake and move on. Good drivers are always learning.:)

He wanted to overtake you, if you'd moved into the left lane as soon as it appeared then he'd have overtaken you on the right and that would have been the end of the matter.

Honestly, the two things i'd take out of this are;

1. If someone wants to overtake you, do your best to safely facilitate them.

2. Don't drive when you're too tired.

well lesson learned, i am just happy it didnt turned the ****y side. and we didnt made the hot topic in corks newspapers

Pkiernan

vectra wrote: »

Sounds to me like you were trying to have fun with him with your "sports" car
Maybe the guy was late for work and you were infuriating him by holding him back.. Maybe the poor guy had to push harder to get to work on time because of you holding him back?

Maybe those "Kids" you mentioned could be without thier dad because of you having you "Fun" at the end of a long night

You had at least two occasions when you could have let him pass but decided to "Show him whos boss"

I know that road alright.
Not great

An example of an incredibly lame post, written just to take the opposite side with no consideration for reality. Keyboard "warriorism" at it's finest.

sideshowsue

You should have moved over to the left lane when you had a chance and let the idiot behind you get by. Whilst the guy behind you was a moron, you're not entirely blameless in this story either.

ShadowHearth

sideshowsue wrote: »

You should have moved over to the left lane when you had a chance and let the idiot behind you get by. Whilst the guy behind you was a moron, you're not entirely blameless in this story either.

i can see so many people saying and highlighting that i had to move to left, but not many can see that he:

1. went extremly fast speed in dangerous spot.
2. crossed solid line.
3. allmoust killed bouth of us.
4. He was driving dangerously fast in a car, that is not ment to be driven fast. Car was not safe for such stuff!
5. He provoked dangerous situation.
6. he was tailgating at its finiest.
7. after the dangerous situaton, he speeded up with huge speed, withouth any regrets.

Yes, we bouth did mistake, but it is really weird how people making " not getting in to left side" bigger problem, then stuff listed above...

sideshowsue

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i can see so many people saying and highlighting that i had to move to left, but noy many cant see that he:

1. went extremly fast speed in dangerous spot.
2. crossed solid line.
3. allmoust killed bouth of us.
4. He was driving dangerously fast in a car, that is not ment to be driven fast. Car was not safe for such stuff!
5. He provoked dangerous situation.
6. he was tailgating at its finiest.

Are you a law enforcement officer? If not, it's neither your job nor your responsibility to police the roads. Your responsibility as a motorist is to drive safely, act responsibly and to avoid causing accidents. Full stop. It's not to take issue with how, where and what some idiot is driving.

TestTransmission

You should of just let him overtake, he wanted to drive faster than you. It would of been the safest option for yourself.

kodute

You should have pulled over to let the guy pass. He is the guards/fire service/ambulances problem then and you wouldn't be.

In fact, pull over and make a quick call to Traffic Watch maybe?

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I once got a phone call from misses:then connection got lost... ... i did 140km/h on location which was 100km/h, it was staith lines moust of the road. but in small agile roadster....

Mate, if I got a call like that 140 is the minimum I'd be doing on a straight road.

Anan1

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i can see so many people saying and highlighting that i had to move to left, but not many can see that he:

1. went extremly fast speed in dangerous spot.
2. crossed solid line.
3. allmoust killed bouth of us.
4. He was driving dangerously fast in a car, that is not ment to be driven fast. Car was not safe for such stuff!
5. He provoked dangerous situation.
6. he was tailgating at its finiest.
7. after the dangerous situaton, he speeded up with huge speed, withouth any regrets.

Yes, we bouth did mistake, but it is really weird how people making " not getting in to left side" bigger problem, then stuff listed above...

You're missing the point. All of the above are reasons why you should have moved left.

ShadowHearth

Anan1 wrote: »

You're missing the point. All of the above are reasons why you should have moved left.

move when? when he was allready in lefT? i thought you read it? or i needed to put on indicator 2 miles before the actual slow lane?

Anan1

ShadowHearth wrote: »

move when? when he was allready in lefT? i thought you read it? or i needed to put on indicator 2 miles before the actual slow lane?

You should have moved into the left lane as it started, and allowed him to overtake you on the right.

ShadowHearth

Anan1 wrote: »

You should have moved into the left lane as it started, and allowed him to overtake you on the right.

okay.... thats it i give up. i wount try to say anything, specially when i know someone with itchy ban finger....

notel70

sounds like an asshole, but at that hour you should have just let him go when he started overtaking you after the town

Anan1

ShadowHearth wrote: »

okay.... thats it i give up. i wount try to say anything, specially when i know someone with itchy ban finger....

Enough of this rubbish. No mod can ban anybody for disagreeing with them. Posters can be infracted/banned for breach of the Motors charter at the top of the page, that's it. If you feel that a mod is abusing their power then bring it to the attention of either the mod in question, the category moderator (kbannon) or the admins, via the report post, PM, or the HelpDesk. Do not bring it up or imply it on-thread, as that will earn you a ban as per the charter.

Now that that's out of the way, exactly what part of drive left overtake right are you having trouble with?:)

el dude

A tale of two nobs really.

mickdw

As I see it. Zafira guy was driving up this guys ass. As soon as this 2 lane section of road appeared, Zafira expects OP to pull over as is reasonable to expect. When this doesnt happen very quickly, Zafira goes left to demonstrate appropriate action still hoping that OP will go left. OP meanwhile sees zafira go left & feels that he is about to zoom up his inside.
It appears to me that although the Zafira was driving aggressively, the OPs reading of the situation was very poor. Any driver must be able to see whether it is safe to pull over left infront of another car, both cars were travelling relatively slowly so there should be no problem in being able to go left especially given that OP was in a more powerful car. Just quick squirt of power, get in in front of zafira & then let him do as he wishes.

Anan1

el dude wrote: »

A tale of two nobs really.

Less of the personal abuse, thanks.

vectra

Pkiernan wrote: »

An example of an incredibly lame post, written just to take the opposite side with no consideration for reality. Keyboard "warriorism" at it's finest.

And of all the poster here that said he was wrong, You picked on mine and accuse me of keyboard "warriorism"

Take a good long look in the mirror I say. :rolleyes:

JJJJNR

r3nu4l wrote: »

/One other thing to remember is that you don't always know why someone is attempting to drive so fast or acting the assh0le. I didn't think about it until a friend of mine had to drive his own MPV at horrendous speeds in the middle of the night because his two-year old son had stopped breathing, then started breathing again but was still unconcious. The ambulance service told him he would be quicker driving to the hospital. He told me himself that he acted like a madman on the road that night but the alternatives were to have his son die by driving too slowly to the hospital or potentially die in an RTA trying to save his son by driving fast. Not a nice choice imo.

Got a phone call myself once and had to do the same thing, it put me off speeding for life.. every time after if i have to drive fast I get a flashbacks.. wouldn't wish it upon anyone.