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The other night, as I drove up the M6 from a trip to Bristol, something happened that made me smile.
I was in Lane 2 going past a couple of lorries, and up ahead there was another lorry in Lane 2. I was travelling at about 65 according to my GPS speedo, so faster than the lorry but nowhere near thrashing the car - it was a gentle cruising speed. I looked in my mirrors, saw there was a largish gap in Lane 3 coming up.
I waited a couple of seconds for the car next to me in lane 3 to clear past me, checked my mirror again - the gap was still large, and hadn't noticeably shortened, so I dropped into 5th, indicated right and pulled out. At this stage I was still a decent gap behind the lorry, the car in front was just drawing level with it, and the car behind was still a reasonable gap behind me.
Within a split second, though, the car behind had decided that he didn't like my manouevre, and booted it to appear a few feet from my rear bumper. I was still in 5th, so I accelerated fairly rapidly and reduced my gap from the car in front to about as close as I was happy with - the car behind sped up again to stay close to my rear bumper.
As soon as I got past the lorry, I moved back gently into lane 2 and was heading back to lane 1 as the car that had been on my tail sped off in lane 3. I thought to myself that he must have been in a hurry after all; even if he had appeared fairly laissez-faire before I pulled out in front of him. Perhaps he just saw the red of my car and that annoyed him?
This was all over in a matter of a few seconds, I was if truth be told a little amused by it all - how pathetic must your life be if you allow yourself to be annoyed by a car being in front of you for such a short time?
Anyway, as the car went past, I saw that it was a silver Merc - the "Sport Coupe" model (the one that Auto Express described as "not really a coupe, and not very sporty either"). He was followed at a similar speed by a dark coloured Audi.
So, back in lane 1, pootling along at 65 - 70 as per usual, about a mile further on I see the dark coloured Audi and the silver Merc again. This time, however, they weren't moving. They were stopped on the hard shoulder. The dark coloured Audi had some interesting additions showing though - blue flashing lights at either end!
It's at times like that where you need an extra horn - one that plays the Nelson Muntz "Haa Ha" laugh!
Anyway, I chortled away, wondering what was going through the Merc drivers head - as he realised that he had chosen the moment that an unmarked traffic car was right behind him to aggressively tailgate another car, then speed off at excessive speeds!
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