Getting a little OT but that reminds me of a crazy guy I worked with long ago. He’s a Russian guy from South Africa. We’ll call him Ivan (not his real name). Similar story. Kinda. So we had to travel to Cincinnati from Ft Wayne for a meeting. In those days such things were ties and sport coat. Ivan liked the finer things so he paid to upgrade the rental car to luxury class.reminds me of my favorite traffic story.
I'm driving to Chicago for a conference. I see a carload of "youts" messing with other cars. They would match speed of a truck in the right lane for a while, preventing traffic from passing, Then they would pass and let a car go by. That car would get past and move back into the travel lane. Kids would get in the passing lane and pace their target vehicle, causing them to slow down and fall back when they got to the next semi because the youts would also slow down to match the semi for a mile or two. This goes on until the target gets off around Lafayette.
Then I become the next target. They keep this up for miles. somewhere as we are approaching Fair Oaks, they appear to get bored and suddenly floor it and speed off at 95+. On the way by they flipped me off, laughing and pointing. Oh well. They really werent pissing me off too badly. I was feeling only slightly annoyed because they werent holding me behind the slower traffic, they'd just keep my pace and pass so I'd have to fall in behind them. They werent really slowing ME down, just making me slow slightly to change lanes.
So I see them go up the railroad bridge at a blistering pace, and I see "construction zone ahead. 45 MPH." The zone started at the crest of the bridge.
I get over the bridge and guess what I see? A state trooper was sitting at the base of the bridge on the other side, and he is now hauling ass to catch up to them. As I approach, he has them pulled over and is getting out of his car. He slams his door, slams his trooper hat on his head, and then gives it an extra tug and then marches toward the car like a mix of the bulldog from Tom and Jerry, and A drill instructor. His body language was evident from 100 yards away that he is PISSED.
I may or many not have giggled like a school girl and bounced in my seat clapping as I drove by.
I probably shouldnt though. Poor kids were probably walking home because 90+ in a 45 probably meant it was leaving on a wrecker.
So we attended the meeting and headed back up I-75. Ivan has a lead foot and is quite impatient. We came up on two cars taking up both lanes side by side going the same speed...slow. One was a Camaro, in the passing lane. The other was a Yugo (that it was still on the road gives you an idea of the time period) in the right lane. A few moments of observation told us the youths in the Camaro were harassing the Yugo driver.
Obviously the Yugo can only go so fast. So Ivan decided to let the Camaro dudes know that he wasn’t happy. So he tailgated them. Still didn’t budge. So that pissed him off. Growing more impatient, he finally said something like I’ll take care if this. He swerved over as he accelerated in between lanes, to pass in between both cars.
Now, Ivan liked his fedora hats, and being dressed in suit and tie, driving in a luxury car with three other dudes dressed in suits, may have made Ivan look a little like a gangster. And he sold it as he drove between the cars, looked over at the dudes in the Camaro as he passed, pointed at them with his right hand shaping his fingers to mimic a gun, and then dropped his thumb as if pulling the trigger. We passed maybe a foot away from them. It was really close. The look on their faces was priceless. They may have **** themselves.
I think the Camaro driver locked his breaks up because the Camaro dropped behind us very quickly. I looked over at the Yugo driver as we passed him, and he was laughing his ass off.
Ivan is a hothead. He was a road rager for sure. I googled him a few years ago just to see if he’d ever been locked up for road raging. Nope. He was in prison for murdering his wife!