how can i make my 1.9 d belingo be faster really slow to drive

[notsofast]

I have many times seen a car on the road mid-afternoon or at closing time driving very carefully just under the speed limit - in fact so carefully they draw attention. On a close study, you can often see micro-corrections going on all the time, just as if the driver was pished, knew they were pished, and were trying to appear to be driving normally as if they weren't pished. Trouble is, most unpished drivers driving normally don't often care much for speed limits or good road manners!

You're right, I try quite hard to stick within the speed limits, and often get people behind me being impatient - some even flash their lights even though I can't legally go any faster.

The police around here have a mania for mobile speed cameras - usually they set up on a downhill stretch just inside a 30 mph zone, so it's easy to get caught out.  My dad got done for doing 31 mph downhill  in a 30 zone.  He wasn't happy - pished off, you might say!

[Gryffindor]

I also keep in the limits as much as poss, and also get the same nobs behind me as you do. I don't see limits as limitations or restrictions; I see them as protection - if anything happens it is much less likely to affect me or be caused by me. It's stupidly easy to drive fast but takes great willpower to drive slowly.

When i drive trucks, every setting I set on its controls is recorded and can be recalled later if need be. I often set the cruise control to 1-2mph or so under the limit rather than at the limit, in order to be able to prove that I wasn't 'pushing it' let alone actually speeding.

As a truck driver I don't like rear view mirrors anyway - they distract me at best - so the one in my car points up at the ceiling; that way I don't get intimidated. Second, remembering the 2-second safe gap principle, if the driver behind me can't manage it for the two of us then I will, by slowing down even more to a speed appropriate for the distance the other driver has set between our cars. If I ever have to, I will explain this to PC plod, but it's amazing how effective it is as a daily tactic.

The other way to look at it is that we all drive at a speed we personally find okay, and can handle a bit of variation either way and still be within our comfort zone. If a driver behind pushes you to the upper limit of your speed comfort zone, you have a choice of speeding beyond your comfort zone or slowing down back into it again. That choice is yours not the other driver's even if they forced it on you.

Other things I often think of doing but haven't yet: 1. Get a piece of very shiny white melamine faced hardboard and hinge it to the top edge of the inside of the rear window, with a pull-string so I can release it whilst driving. It will then fall down and cover the rear window, reflecting any intense light coming from behind back to its source.

More realistically, 2: get a big dash cam and mount it obviously in the rear window, so it cannot be mistaken for a mere reversing cam or the secondary cam of a 2-cam dash cam setup, along with a big CCTV sticker (having that allows any footage to be used as legal evidence - the same rule is why there are speed cam signs by the sides of roads and CCTV sign in shopping centres etc).

[oilyrag]

I have a picture of my Mother-in Law in the back window - seems to work!

[Gryffindor]

I bet she's touched by it every time you give her a ride!