Prius Clover (And Other Stuff)

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I know. It’s an oxymoron. Prius drivers are almost always Clovers.

But not because of the car.

Because of how they drive.

And not because they drive slowly.

That’s ok – not Cloverish. As such.clover lead

The problem is using your car to force others to also drive slowly. By refusing to yield when you are driving slowly. That’s what defines a Clover.

Like the guy in this video. I got caught behind him on the Blue Ridge Parkway – where the speed limit is 45 but this Clover was trolling along at 32-ish.

That, by itself, wasn’t objectionable. But the Clover rolled by three overlooks/turn-offs. He had to have seen them. And also had to have seen the cars (including me) stacked up behind him, while he took his time enjoying the scenery.

Mark that. His time.

The time of the people caught behind him, obliged to waste their time because of Clover, didn’t matter to Clover. A person with any regard for other people would have pulled off, to let the other cars by. This is basic etiquette when you are driving slower than other cars, impeding them – but driving well below the posted speed limit.

But Clovers only care about themselves. Their time. Their convenience. What they want. Which they don’t mind imposing on other people.

And that is what makes a Clover a Clover!

Other Stuff: 

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24 COMMENTS

    • Good stuff, Aljer!

      Of course, Clovers can be found behind the wheel of just about any kind of car. I expect this when I see a Prius up ahead. But I’m often surprised to find myself behind a Clover in a 300-plus hp sport sedan. They’re even more annoying, if such a thing is possible!

      • Heading down I-20 one morning, traffic is real light for some reason. Got the Pete set on cruise against the speed limiter and not in a great mood since it’s gonna be a short day unless something changes. The young fatty(dammit,Tx. girls used to be the best looking women there were and men from out of state would say it all the time)in a new Toy or Nissan SUV with huge power is entering way out in front of me but she just jacks along instead of simply accelerating to 75 like I know she’s gonna drive. I just stayed in the slow lane and she got right to the end and had to slow and then go around me. Sheeeit, she was hot, she rotated her fat ass around and gave me a big bird and nasty look and was cussing to beat the band. Sun is behind me and sometimes Pete’s are hard to see into(a good thing) so I put both hands on the windshield and made sure she knew I thought she was number one too, two. Now she’s blazing along much faster than I can go and without signal or anything else, exits. She had no need to even get up on the interstate and could have been to that exit just as fast on the service road. Clovers, where do I get an airhorn that’s really an RPG?

        • Good one P. Viagra for Prius, NO2 and a replacement motor that runs on half current.

          My old college buds with schoolteacher wives decide 4 years ago during the height of all the carbon footprint(hoofprint, since bullshit doesn’t follow feet)to buy a Prius. It was one way to hang onto your racial biases, your Republican base pretending to be Libertarian, and try to convince people who knew you you weren’t what they though(and it doesn’t work……but they’d be the last to know even though I used to tell them and that made them mad and extremely defensive).

          A year later one of them commented he saw a Prius with some aftermarket “rims” on it and it looked “good”. I pointed out you can paint a pile of shit or lay a hubcap over it but it’s still the same pile of shit. This elicited me being called west Tx. redneck(thanks, I appreciate) with no tastes(appreciate that too if you’re speaking of what I have better sense than to step in and call shinola), a trailer house dweller(2/6 walls with R37 factor and a foot of insulation in the attic that’s come through two tornadoes with little damage), and a clod jumper(thanks again, proud to own my farm) along with a nasty diesel driver(thanks again, you just made my retort for me). They left off grease monkey, meal fabricator, hot rodder(since I consider it my duty to have at least 400 hp in any engine I replace), hunter, fisherman(they don’t…..although they’re NRA through and through) connoisseur of hot women, pit bulls good pot, beer and bourbon and a guy who’d rather push a Peterbilt than drive a Pegasus(since the drivers have a habit of falling off…..even if it is”the wagon”)and will stand on the brakes to hit a honky tonk they would walk in.

          • Eight,

            Picture this https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KRug1mC7pk4/hqdefault.jpg
            with mirrored Detroit Red Wing emblems between the wheel wells and the tail lights.

            Replaced the 305 with a 350 4 bolt main, towing cam, and kept the 700R4, added Cragars with real tires (30×9.5 front, 31×10.5 rear) and repainted factory colors (several times).

            Loved that fucking truck, in fact, I loved all the 78-87 Chevy/GM trucks and vans. Owned 5 of the vans at the same time. I could fix them on the side of the road if need be. Swapped a few transmissions in the snow bank if you know what I mean.

            My R10 -had almost 700,000 miles on the body when I moved from the mainland. Rust was the only thing that gave me problems. Fenders, fuel lines, and the clips to hold the fuel doors tight pretty much needed service every other year or so. As you can see in that picture.

            The 87 was the only one that had TBI. I thought that thing was magic. I never did anything but spray carb cleaner in it. Almost 700k and the only times I would touch it was when I sent the intake to be cleaned at rebuild time. Fucking Quadrajunks were a pain in the ass.

            I don’t know how it is that Eric finds those things so easy to work on.

            I eventually learned to go to Commercial Carburetor on Davison in Motown. They claimed to be the first carb repair shop in the world. I don’t know if that is true, but for sixty bucks or so they would hand me back a nice clean, correctly set Quadrajunk. Many times I got same day service.

            But my question for you, Eight, is why do you like the post 87 body style?

            • “Quadrajunks”

              The NHRA US Nationals is currently underway.

              One of the many qualifiers in Stock Eliminator is Jason Line with his 1970 Buick in C/SA: 10.27 @ 127.78 in the quarter.

              That is one very bad Buick …with a Quadrajet.

            • I thought the curved front and swept back windshield with the very smooth lines on the side were very nice. I still have an ’82 3/4T 4WD(red) with a 454 and a one ton rear end. I thought the 78-87 were nice body styles too, even going back to the 73 when they changed to that type. Now and again I see one that’s all original and looks great and frequently see some that are shaved and repainted and look great too.

              It was the fast, smooth look that made me like the new body style. And speaking of that Quadrajet sound, those first TBI sounded almost just like that. If you changed the air cleaner housing so it was more open there wasn’t much difference in the sound. I love all those old GM pickups and have friends with over half a million miles on the original engine. Not much in west Tx. to mess them up except the sun. If you keeped them waxed they don’t ever change.

              Yesterday I had to retrieve a week-old litter of kittens out of my ’77 El Camino SS and it made me have that need to fix it. I have all new chrome, lights for both ends, a non-findable now NOS SS grill, springs, hood springs, coated headers, new end gate cables and much more I can’t even remember right now. I’d love to get the floorboard fixed and then install a crate motor with the new aftermarket TBI learnable system and an OD transmission. That was one nice, quiet, great handling ride. I’d put an aftermarket tilt, telescope steering column in it and keep the swivel buckets. It even has a black naughahyde tarp to match the black SS stripes that fits really well. It looks fast just sitting there with a tarp on it. I might not even use the new springs and go with bags and an aftermarket rack and pinion. I’d just replace the T/A WS 6 pieces on the front and use an aftermarket rear sway bar to match the trailer towing package.

              The one thing I’d throw away is the awful cruise control system on it. The big space under the bed is the perfect place for a killer sound system. I always carried the spare tied down in the bed so there’d be plenty of room for Cholley Jack after I made the floor flat and level with the hump. It has some choice pieces still in it. Plenty of room in the underhood compartment if you wanted to install an intercooler with a turbo engine.

  1. I’ve seen numerous priui drivers doing 90 or more on I-294. So they all aren’t slow. Somehow I don’t think they get 40mpg at 90mph.

    If this works removing cookies, commenting on my own test post, getting the error, then reloading the page, changed the error to ‘comment too short’ which it was because it was one word, ‘test’, made things work again.

    • I actually used to get 42 ish mpg with my Gen II at 85-90 ish. I usually drove around 55-60 though (RIGHT LANE!), which would return around 65 mpg. 70-75 was the “sweet” bad spot around 46-48 mpg.

      The thing that’s sad is that the Prius is brilliant for fuel economy if you know how to milk the hybrid drivetrain. My lifetime average for my Gen II was 68.8 mpg over 10,000 miles, mostly L.A. city driving, but few people who care about cars bother to buy a Prius, so they routinely burn out battery packs and get 35-40 mpg.

      I really miss the car itself, but I don’t miss the pre-judgement from “anti-Prius” people.

      • I don’t know if this is considered pre-judgement but my problem with a Prius has always been its looks. I realize beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lots of cars were nice looking that weren’t worth a damn and vice versa.

        • Hey Eight, & Eric,

          I think most new cars look like shit. Big ugly cars.

          I remember something sci-fi about big ugly cars vs. prettier pastel cars on this site. The big ugly cars would come out and try to destroy ones like the 57 Chevy.

          You guys remember that story?

          By the way Eight, I looked up one that I read from time to time that I think you will appreciate. Don’t know if you’ve already read it, but I think it is a good story and fits in with the philosophy here.

          http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php

          • Tu, I read a couple chapters and intend to finish it. Thanks. These people are much like myself when those who think more of themselves than others address me.

            And I agree with you about cars, ugly fuckers nearly every one. Back in 1988.5 when GM debuted the new pickups I was pleasantly surprised. They were rounded in front and sleek. The only thing I didn’t like was no vent window. First drive I was hooked. As they morphed into the 2000’s they weren’t as slick but close although I didn’t care for the interiors that had less room. Then Ford came out with that really square, ugly Super Duty, playing on a name that had once meant something. GM followed with their own square, ugly thing and that was it for me, the end of nice looking pickups, friendly to people less than 7 feet tall. Just like everything else on four wheels, I simply want to go back at least 20 years.

            If you’ll notice, two brands of big rigs but mainly Peterbilt still builds a truck that looked like it did 30 years ago and KW isn’t far off on one model either. They could make an old 359 Pete brand new and I’d be in hog heaven. At least their new 389 is almost a clone of the older models. The new fuel friendly models of every brand are difficult to tell apart. They’re plastic and suck.

  2. I was down your way on the Parkway last Friday and Saturday near Floyd.

    I routinely waved bikers around me even though I was over the limit most of the time.

    Then down near white top on 58 I was trapped behind a bike for miles. And I was only driving a crappy Highlander. The ‘wing was dangerously early apexing and running wide on most corners even as it creeped over the mountains.

    Idiot clover.

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