On the ride into work this morning, I was behind a black Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. I didn’t know what it was immediately; I didn’t even know it was a Ferrari until we stopped at the next traffic light.

It’s not a bad looking car, but for $260,000 it didn’t exactly stand out either. Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson mentioned that, “the car isn’t really noticeable compared to other Ferraris.”

As we’re sitting at the traffic light, I notice two things:

1. The car has dealers plates on it. So this quarter of a million dollar car probably doesn’t belong to him, but rather to the dealership he a) owns, or b) works at.
2. That the asshole driving the car is not only smoking in his car, but is throwing his cigarette butts out the window onto the ground.

As a guy who rides everywhere I go — and with a half face helmet (no face shield) — few things piss me off more than having to dodge the burning embers of a lit cigarette that has been thoughtlessly tossed out of someone’s car in front of me.

I’ve been hit by flying cigarette butts twice in the last year alone. One hit me on the left cheek just below my glasses. The other hit me in the chest.

First of all, it’s littering. Secondly, more than one serious grass fire has been started in precisely this manner. And third — and most important to me — is that you obviously didn’t look in your rearview mirror before you flicked your cigarette out and hit me in the face. Or if you did look, you just didn’t care.

I had recently read this post from another Austin blogger (The Liberal Capitalist) who had dropped his cigarette butt out the window of his car while he was stopped at a traffic light, only to have a guy in the truck behind him get out, pick up the litter, and thump it back through his still-open window at his face.

I thought it was pretty funny that this guy had his cigarette thumped back at him, and am thinking that I’ll do that next time, rather than pull the person out of their car and educate them on the importance of not throwing lit cigarettes at bikers.

Sitting behind the guy in his $260,000 Ferrari, I thought about getting off my bike and picking his butt up for him. But the light changed before I could — so I just flipped him off instead.

________

After I flipped the guy off, his reaction was to race and weave through the heavy traffic to get away from me. He was pretty easy to keep up with:

• Ferrari 612 Scaglietti: 0–60 mph in 4.5 seconds.
• My Roadliner : 0–60 mph in 3.86 seconds.

• Ferrari 612 Scaglietti: quarter mile in 12.6 @ 116 mph
• My Roadliner: quarter mile in 12.24 @ 108.45 mph

• Ferrari 612 Scaglietti: 10 mpg city
• My Roadliner: 43 mpg city

• Ferrari 612 Scaglietti: $260,000
• My Roadliner: $11,600 (stock)

I hope it wasn’t his car. I hope he isn’t supposed to be smoking in cars his dealership is trying to sell. I hope his boss reads this (how many black Ferrari 612 Scagliettis could there possibly be on Hwy 360 this morning). I hope his boss fires him.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Monday, October 8th, 2007 | Trackback |