Miata Mailing List: October 1998, Message #235

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Peter Brusa <repete@hotmail.com> said this:
>
>While I do not condone road rage, I have found something very 
>interesting yesterday.  You see, ever since I have owned my '91, it 
>seems that people in "other" types of cars (especially SUV's), seem to 
>always treat my car as a bump in the raod and try as they might, always 
>tailgate me for some reason.
>

I have noticed this, too, ever since owning my Miata.  Having thought about
it, though, I am not convinced that people are actually following me any
closer that they do when I am in any other car.

Here is why:  In your standard sedan you have a back seat  and a rear end
behind you.  On one of today's average sedans of about 180 to 190 inches,
figure about 90 inches, or 7.5 feet from the driver's seat to the rear
bumper.  I measured the Miata's distance from the rear of the driver's seat
to the rear bumper (center) and on my car it was 54", or 4.5 feet.  Next,
figure that the "tailgater" is one average car length behind your bumper,
or about 15.5 feet.  That means that if you are in your family sedan, the
car behind you is about 23 feet behind you head.  In your Miata, the
tailgater is only 20 feet behind you, or 13% closer to you head.  Compound
that with the fact that we are lower than most everything out there,
especially the SUV's, and it looks like we are about to get run over.

I would like to see the following experiement to prove or disprove my
theory.  Take three Miatas and park another Miata, a BMW 5 series, and a
Lincoln Navigator about 15.5 feet behind the bumper of each one.  Let
driver's sit in each Miata and report which of the vehicles appears to be
tailgating the worst.  Repeat the experiment, except this time sit in three
5 series with the same three cars behind it.  Repeat a third time with
three Navigators.

I think you can see where I am going here.  I don't think most drivers
follow Miatas closer than they do other cars, I think that Miata drivers
just happen to sit closer to the car behind them.  It would be interesting
to see if drivers of MGBs, Capris, and other similar sized convertibles
have experienced the same phenomenon.

Feedback is encouraged and welcome. :)

John


John Frost
'96 Montego Blue, PEP, "Yoshi"