I believe it refers to a recent council initiative in certain areas to give out stickers for the back windows of cars, reading something along the lines of:
"I'm smug, and a bit of a busybody. I'll be spending the next 10 miles at 80% of the speed limit, mostly in the outside lane, and frowning most sternly at anyone who does manage to get past me."
That may not be word-for-word, you understand.
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Yes, we have those round here. They are issued by the local photography revenue authority and read "BACK OFF! I'm sticking to the limit!" Needlessly aggressive wording - makes me have inappropriate thoughts of sitting six inches off the tail of cars that I see sporting one of these, with main beam and foglights on (although rest assured that I do no such thing), so what sort of reaction these engender in some of our fellow road users doesn't bear thinking about.
Related note: if I see (as I quite often do) a car with one of these stickers doing 50 in a 40, does that mean I can grass them up to the camera people for not obeying their own sticker? ;-)
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Much better to entertain them by driving closer and closer until your 7-litre V8 pickup is touching their back bumper, then floor it up to say 85 before peeling off...
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Like it, Lud....but surely a Dodge Ram V10 with chrome exhaust stacks and the biggest set of bull bars ever would be even more to the point? :-)
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I have a "Back Off - I'm sticking to the limit" sticker on my car, but my car isn't a "pace" car.
It's just a defensive mechanism against people who seem to think there's something wrong with me driving at 30MPH in a 30MPH limit and who then try and encourage me to go faster by driving very closely behind me.
I'm not trying to slow anyone else down, I'm just not willing to break the speed limit so that an aggressive driver behind me can get to the next queue of traffic quicker. Where the speed limit increases, if it's safe to do so, I drive faster.
Terry...
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The trick is to wind up people behind you by sticking to the speed limit. I quite enjoy watching them turn purple when they know where the cameras are and plan to hurtle between them.
1) Let them get really teed off.
2) Wait until you see a speed camera.
3) Slow down slightly.
4) Wave them past as you approach the camera
5) As they overtake, speed up to 30mph again
6) Smirk as they get flashed.
Admittedly, this approach has only ever worked once for me, but the satisfaction was immense. Speed cameras are utterly pointless when the locals know where they are and continue to speed.
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The trick is to wind up people behind you by sticking to the speed limit.
This is the only way to get satisfaction when you drive a car with a double digit bhp output.
I had a guy in an E46 M3 on the M40 a few years ago. Decided to tailgate and flash me as I was overtaking a convoy of trucks in lane 2 quite legitimately. I decided to back right off down to 70, and held him up until the top of Stokenchurch hill. Pulled over and he shot past me at a good 120-130 only to be caught by waiting Plod patrol on the ramp at the bottom of the hill.
I felt good for weeks afterwards!
Cheers
DP
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It's just a defensive mechanism against people who seem to think there's something wrong with me driving at 30MPH in a 30MPH limit and who then try and encourage me to go faster by driving very closely behind me.
Fair enough, but - genuine question, this - have you found that people do keep off your tail more now that you have the sticker, compared with beforehand? If not, then it isn't having the desired effect.
I'm not trying to slow anyone else down, I'm just not willing to break the speed limit so that an aggressive driver behind me can get to the next queue of traffic quicker. Where the speed limit increases, if it's safe to do so, I drive faster.
Which is, again, fair enough. My problem is not with that concept - it is with
a) the wording of the stickers, which (as I said in my previous post) is quite unnecessarily aggressive and provocative. Given the large numbers of people around these days who appear completely unable to control their anger and who explode into rage at the slightest thing, I am reluctant to have any sticker or motif or whatever on my car (or bike) that would antagonise other people. Things that say "BACK OFF!" or similar would fall into that category. Perhaps I am over-cautious - but given that ten years ago I got my car kicked (hard) for no crime greater than having a small sticker with the badge of a football team in the back window, I suspect not;
b) the fact that some of those whose cars bear the sticker do seem to regard themselves as self-appointed guardians of the public morals on the roads. I am no speed demon (I need my driving licence intact, otherwise I can't get to work) but I do not consider it my business to tell other people how to drive. That is why I do not consider these "pace cars" or anything else of that sort to be an acceptable substitute for properly trained traffic police.
And yes, I am aware of (and agree wholeheartedly with) the fact that if only people behaved on the roads we would have no need of cameras or silly stickers.
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How disappointing. I was hoping to read about the special Corvettes and other American cars that are used to shepherd the racing cars around the tracks. Several manufacturers produce limited edition models with "Pace Car" graphics, and presumably, enhanced mechanicals.
A thread about stuffy old busy-bodies pretending to be the moral guardians of the roads by travelling at slow speeds is much less exciting. I think that it would be rather fun to assist them over the limit with the bull bars of a large SUV, if only to see their predictable reaction.
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Still amazes me that when the superhairdresser's Mercedes is hammering round a grand prix circuit tidily but what most people would regard as pretty rapidly, the F1 cars are dawdling along behind it yawning, picking their noses and swerving back and forth in a vain effort to keep their tyres warm...
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How disappointing. I was hoping ....
Yes, I assumed it must be some kind pacer to encourage drivers to go faster in order to break a speed record. Don't distance runners use some kind of system like that, to stop their pace flagging a bit on the long hard straights?
Either that, or it's a Latin word usually now pronounced "pacey", meaning "with reference to cars", or "cars notwithstanding".
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"the wording of the stickers.."
Maybe they should be changed to "Do you mind awfully, but I've already got 9 points so I'm stuck at the limit for the next three years. Sorry to inconvenience you, and all that"
V
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I thought it was about driving that sets out to strike the right balance between the powers of the police and the rights and freedoms of the public.
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Thought it was Latin - 'with due deference to cars' or similar.
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Maybe they should be changed to "Do you mind awfully, but I've already got 9 points so I'm stuck at the limit for the next three years. Sorry to inconvenience you, and all that"
Such a thing already exists (and I'm fairly sure someone on here mentioned it):
ninepointsthatswhy.com/
Or better still, just don't bother having one at all.
/spleen vent mode
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Maybe they should be changed to "Do you mind awfully, but I've already got 9 points so I'm stuck at the limit for the next three years. Sorry to inconvenience you, and all that"
That would be as irritating as "Thank you for not smoking".
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It's just a defensive mechanism against people who seem to think there's something wrong with me driving at 30MPH in a 30MPH ........
Has a Dyane 6 got enough power to exceed 30 mph? ;-)
--
L\'escargot.
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While one can quite understand that an aggressive mimser driving several mph below the limit just to be on the safe side might feel they need a silly bumper sticker to explain their behaviour, it can only make things worse in the real world which is full of people even more irritable than me.
What's wrong with: 'Sod off, I'm a mimser, right?' It would have the advantage of honesty.
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'Sod off, I'm a mimser, right? (Rest of the time I'm a curtain-twitcher)'
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While one can quite understand that an aggressive mimser driving several mph below the limit just to be on the safe side might feel they need a silly bumper sticker to explain their behaviour, it can only make things worse in the real world which is full of people even more irritable than me.
Thank you, Lud - you have explained in 3 lines a point I failed to convey in 15. :-)
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