[rwg1138]

Hey -

So yesterday (5/7/08) I was driving along what I call the "American Autobahn" - Taconic Parkway in Westchester Co NY heading south through Briarcliff or something. Traffic was light, but as is typical of the Tac in that area, there were about 4-5 of us bunched together in the fast lane at standard speed for that road.

Somebody must have pissed somebody else off because all of a sudden I hear tires squeal and white smoke, and the car in front of me is getting bigger - FAST.

I stand on the pedal of my 06 C280 4Matic, and the car simply responds "Jawohl!" and practically drops anchor. The guy behind me in a red Japanese thing can't match my deceleration so he starts to ditch into the left shoulder. I (still braking hard - no lockup, no ABS even) move to the right side of my lane to avoid being rear-ended - even then no shimmy or anything.

Red thing finally comes to a stop about my rear left door on the shoulder - he missed me. In fact, nobody hit each other. The guy who started this whole mess takes off, and the rest of us resume highway speed - quite a bit more spaced out and a bit slower.

I never did find out what started that. I think the lead car got ticked about being tailgated and decided to yank the e-brake. Gotta love New Yorkers.

It's funny even with some of my brakes needing to be replaced (front or rear, I forget), the car still stopped safely and I was able to maintain control to avoid an accident.

While I've always been a German car fan, I've pretty much determined Benz is the way to go from here on out.

Thanks for letting me share.