Bumper Stickers - There Is Allot More To Them

I had a realization Yesterday.

I was coming down I90 in to Boston in my 924s and managed to zig and zag properly to get though a bottleneck in the traffic. Mind you I was not speeding nor was I weaving like the stereotypical racer want to be you so often see on YouTube. It was a simple lane change at the right time and I was by.

I then noticed that there was a dark blue ford pickup (newer one probably a 2005 or newer) that was coming up fast weaving through traffic cutting people off no signals etc. All I can think is I have 6000 lbs of truck that looks to be driven out of control coming at me. Then I realized that it could be a state police officer as they have been using this exact truck as an unmarked for some time now. In either case I am a tad nervous. I hold my lane/line as I pass by slower cars. Twice the truck darts to the right lane and tries to run up past me but due to relative speeds of the two lanes and the density of traffic he can not get by me before running out of room due to traffic on front of him and the speed differential. It is obvious to me now that it is not an police officer. I can however see him looking in the mirror debating if he should put the squeeze on me. After all he is a full size pickup and I am a small sports car. I am all too aware of this tactic. Size does matter no matter what anyone says!

By now you are probably wondering what does all this have to do with bumper stickers? Well there was one and only one sticker on the back glass of the truck. An SCCA sticker!. I laughed and was saddened at the same time.

I have always felt that if you advertise that you are a racer you need to take the lead in proper driver etiquette. This does not mean that you can not have a brisk drive. What it does mean is that you should know the limitations and have situational awareness that is better then the average driver and you should act accordingly. I also think it means that you should be extra courteous to your fellow driver.

Realizing all this as the truck came up for a third time in attempting to get in front of me I was saddened. This also made me think about my evolution as a driver and how racing has affected me. The first and foremost is that when I was young I felt that having a competition license gave me a license to drive fast. Ya I know. All of you reading this will deny that you ever felt this way but I am willing to venture and say that everyone under the age of 25 that gets a competition license will have those moments where they feel that they have the right to be driving fast! You tell everyone it makes you a more responsible driver and there is no dough that it give you better car control but it also was became a sub conches license to be a jerk (and yes I was one as well!). As I have gotten older and saw what the result of a mistake on the street can do as well as what it can do on the track you eventually come to the realization that there is no reset button to make things all better and those concrete walls really do hurt! I also found my self with a wife an kids and this makes you re think things as well.

I can now see that the driver of the pickup is really getting animated at the car in front of him and I realize that he may put the squeeze on me so he can "win". With this I back it down and let him in front of me. I then watch as he tailgates the car in front of me till he is just past the car on the right. He then darts in and out of traffic cutting others off. Through it all that bright white and red SCCA sticker is glaring at me. I could read it for what seemed an eternity as the truck darted though the traffic away from me.

I actually felt a little sick. One crash and you know the media would put that sticker all over the news!

I will admit I am older and slower both on the street and on the track. Having fun and racing another day have taken a front seat to winning. The drive to win is not gone it has been tempered by wisdom.

I am not really sure what the point of this whole story was. I guess there are probably several.

My realization was like it or not if you have bumper stickers on your car you are associated with that group and you are effectively an ambassador for it. This is a responsibility that should not be taken lightly.

Thanks to stereotyping I am sure that there are a whole bunch of people that were driving in to Boston yesterday morning that are thinking that “SCCA” is a really bad thing and that any one associated with it are jerks.

This makes me sad.

Can this go into the readers letters column?

it needs to

I've found that when I'm driving the Targa Miata around town - complete with blatant FLYIN' MIATA stickers visible from all angles, numbers and my name above the door - that I tend to be much more aware of how my driving is affecting other people. I'm not anonymous, I'm very accountable. Sure makes a difference.

1 second matter a lot at the track. 1 minute doesn't matter for crap on the street.

I drive like a grandma in my RX-7. It's loud, bright, and has numbers/stickers on it. I know people are looking/judging so I don't need any reason to piss them off. Then again, I drive like a grandma in the P71 as well so it's probably a moot point.

100% agree on the OP though. Definitely makes you think and it should be printed in GRM!

I don't drive like a grandma, but I dont drive like a Shiny Happy Person either. I drive alot worse in my Aspire than I do it the race mustang, or my TR-7, mainly because they attract alot more attention.

yes, and I try to avoid the typical stereotype of most BMW drivers being complete happy shiney people when behind the wheel. Most times I am MUCH slower than those around me

dean1484 wrote: ...... I was coming down I90 in to Boston ....... .

Having been raised in private schools where uniforms were required, we were constantly reminded that we represent the school when we are in public in our uniforms. Oddly enough the military says the same thing about wearing their uniform.. Anyways, this is a very simple concept, the sticker bearer represents the organization and all their actions reflect towards that.

I like to visit NE and Boston whenever I am able, its a great place and I have some great family and friends in the area.

However drivers like that SUV driver seem common. 90 and 3 can be scary and exciting, I always feel like I'm in someones way. Being an out of state driver I thought ALL of you drove like that. :)

I doubt anyone not affiliated with the SCCA who saw that sticker knew what it represented.

Track driving actually slowed me down on the street. I remember coming back from my first track day - as I pulled out of the track at the end of the day, two other cars that had been PARKING all day pulled right past me and sped off. At that moment it struck me how dumb driving aggressively on the street is - there's nothing to be gained, and you just look stupid...especially when you do it leaving a high performance driving event that you DIDN'T have the guts to sign up for.

After a couple track days, I pretty much lost the motivation to drive fast in traffic. Now, a weekend blast on a deserted winding road is a different story. For that, I apply an "I'm not speeding, I'm qualifying" sticker to the back of my car along with a Calvinpissingonwhatever decal and let 'er rip.

daytonaer said: I doubt anyone not affiliated with the SCCA who saw that sticker knew what it represented.

You're probably right, but I bet if they were mad enough they'd google it, and then the damage is done.

I wonder if people would be more curtious if their licence plate number was also their phone number?

I concur. When I drive my NYG Neon, (complete with vinyl numbers and mfg/sponsor stickers) in traffic, it would be difficult to convince the officer that "that wasn't me". Highly visible has it's down side.

It's important to behave in public traffic, especially with all the fools driving out there. I get the testosterone out between the cones, and that's enough for me.

speedblind wrote: Track driving actually slowed me down on the street. I remember coming back from my first track day - as I pulled out of the track at the end of the day, two other cars that had been PARKING all day pulled right past me and sped off. At that moment it struck me how dumb driving aggressively on the street is - there's nothing to be gained, and you just look stupid...especially when you do it leaving a high performance driving event that you DIDN'T have the guts to sign up for. After a couple track days, I pretty much lost the motivation to drive fast in traffic. Now, a weekend blast on a deserted winding road is a different story. For that, I apply an "I'm not speeding, I'm qualifying" sticker to the back of my car along with a Calvinpissingonwhatever decal and let 'er rip.

The dumbest I saw was some guy in a nice new Mustang that had been modded by one of those popular complete outfits (Roush or Saleen or some other). He discovered there was a track day at Thunderhill and proceeded to cruise through the paddock a couple of times, revving his engine randomly. Congratulations moron, your right ankle apparently works.

I'll have people try to pull on on me on the street... and I don't care. Yeah, your Evo almost certainly has better acceleration than me. Who cares? You don't actually use it where you can take advantage of its performance. If you did, I'd blow you away because I spend my money on track time.

I find driving fast on the street more scary than exciting. The environment limits your speeds far more than your skill or the performance of the car does. I know what 10/10ths is like, and that's exciting and fun. In a controlled environment it's reasonably safe. Driving on the street gets dangerous at about 7/10s. 7/10s doesn't excite me too much, so why not just keep it at 4/10s where I can be safe and comfortable?

Sounds like typical bs boston traffic. Didn't take me long to get used to it, though! I'm glad I'm either at work by 5:45 am or not until 2 pm. I deal with a lot less traffic that way. I don't go I90 or I'd be on the lookout for him/her/whatever. Dean, do you work in Boston or were you just visiting? I work in Dorchester right on Mass Ave.

NYG95GA wrote: I get the testosterone out between the cones, and that's enough for me.

Heh heh.

Joey

I work in Boston. I do the I90 from 128 to Boston virtually every day. There is the usual aggressive comuter driving that I guess I am use to but this knucklehead stood out as one that was out of control. I call it seeing the pink mist.

chickenhawk wrote: Sounds like typical vs boston traffic. Didn't take me long to get used to it, though! I'm glad I'm either at work by 5:45 am or not until 2 pm. I deal with a lot less traffic that way. I don't go I90 or I'd be on the lookout for him/her/whatever. Dean, do you work in Boston or were you just visiting? I work in Dorchester right on Mass Ave.

You could have stopped at "So I was driving down I90 near Boston..." and for anyone who has driven, lived, or otherwise had to deal with that cursed road would know EXACTLY what you were going to say :)

That being said, I too know what you're going through, although I'm only 27, the second I bought my pickup and started building the track rat, I went from a 'spirited' jerk on the road to the fella in the RH lane puttering along a mere 5-10MPH over the limit. I now reside in ATL and have to drive Atlanta Super Speedway, i.e. A$S, formerly known as I-285 (at 60-65MPH trust me that's like walking speed on this 55MPH posted road. I'd say the average is 75MPH, with the LH lanes doing 80-90MPH, this is not a joke).

Ha ha! Pink mist, that's great. My demeanor changed dramatically after doing track events, too. I usually cruise in the middle-to-slow lanes about ten over the limit. Far cry from setting the cruise at 120mph on the Pennsy turnpike at 2am...

joey48442 wrote:

NYG95GA wrote: I get the testosterone out between the cones, and that's enough for me.

Heh heh. Joey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Gsc89TUXg

Ive learned this lesson too, but in a slightly different way. The first car I got with a manual trans was my 95 corolla. 1.6 liters of NA econobox, 98HP, family hauler, 4 cylinder fury (ha ha get it). It was by no means a fast car, but I owned it outright, it had a decent clutch, and when there was no one or nothing else in it, it was respectably fun to drive. 4 wheel independent suspension, a surprisingly flat torque curve, and decent throttle response. That was the car I learned about modifications and volumetric efficiency…fancy talk for add a short ram intake and an aftermarket DIY axleback exhaust, and enjoy the new better sound and better fuel economy. Toss in a strut tower bar, an underdrtiving pulley, and some BF Goodridge G-Force sports, and there you go. Probably ~107 horses in the stable. This was by no means a bahn burner, but it was mine, it ran like a top, and made my right foot and butt dyno happy. Quick enough to 60 to be fun, but not fast enough to be dangerous. I could go on and on.

I had made some gearhead friends in the past. I had some of those friends pass on because of their cars and their driving habits. The rest of us learned the lesson from their mistakes I.e. its fun to drive quick, but dangerous to drive fast. Quick means redlining through 2nd up to 45 and then shifting into 4th, rev matching on down shifts and heel toe-ing corners. None of which is dangerous to anyone else on deserted streets. Busy streets mean driving like my schools librarian. Fast means ripping through the gears and driving 96 on the freeway until the limiter kicks in, on I-75 through downtown Cincinnati, at 5:30 pm on a Friday.

That has all been a preface to my real comment – an aftermarket exhaust is the single biggest advertisement to other drivers. My COROLLA is not a Mustang 5.0 , a Vetec Prelude, or Chevelle SS. Yet somehow, everyone driving one of those seemed to think that by me having a “fart cannon” strapped on back meant that I was automatically looking for a challenge. I have personally seen 3 accidents because some guy in a insert sports car with sport package here thought the guy in the debadged corolla wants to “go”, and then drove at 12 tenths for just a moment too long. Sad thing is I know in at least on of those incidents, there was a fatality as I watched one of the cars roll and I statyed to try and help, and watched as the paramedics started CPR, and then stopped . Its these incidents that give “ricers” a bad rap. Im not saying the tool in the civic with the 3’ wing, horribly ill-fitting body kit, E36 M3-ty paint job, heavy alloys wheels, undercar neons, annoying sound system, bouncing down the street on his bump stops revving his motor at everyone passing by isn’t doing a fine job of ruining the image of the modified car enthusiast for us all, but taking said crap-mobile and then driving like a burro is worse. Looking like a fool by yourself is one thing. Driving like a fool around innocent people is another.

I guess my whole point is – advertising with a sticker(s) is one thing. Youre easily identifiable as a part of a group. And that whole groups name is on the line when youre in public. But driving any modified/Hi-po car is pretty much the same thing. At least once a week I see a news story about how “street racers” caused such and such accident and the city/county/state is taking x action/creating x task force to help “combat the growing street racer” problem. This can be loosely translated into “cops will be on you like stink on E36 M3 because your car is lowered”.

This is getting long winded, but essentially Im saying that driving any modified car makes you an ambassador for all the rest of us. Please stop for one moment to consider that the next time some turd has his dads TSX type S or the new to him ‘94 5.0 gooses it next to you in traffic, you have a choice, and I hope that choice will be to yell at him “meet me at the track”.

Well said!

Not sure I can follow that one, so I'll simply throw in a +1 on the fact that nothing tempered my bad driving habits like actually competing (autox in my case). I'm never more calm and relaxed than the drive home from an event. Dare I compare it to the chemical concoction of endorphin and seratonin that follows the horizontal mambo? I think I just did.

Sorry for cutting you off, dean. I was just trying to get home before my buzz wore off!

I wish someone in the DC metro area would have the determination and initiative to drive aggressively. I'm continually held up in traffic by meandering-crackberry pecking-prius driving-ninnies...

when I'm on my goddamn bicycle!

When I got a 50cc scooter I figured I'd be in everyone's way. Nope. People in 300hp cars hold my fat middle aged self up on my thundering 3hp scooter.

An almost identical letter was in the BMW CCA Roundel a few years ago...