Any tales from your earliest experiences of motoring are welcome. I'd also like to hear how things have changed over the years for the novice motorist.
-How long did it take you to pass?
-Who taught you at home and how did you get on with them?
-Any near misses?
-Funny stories?
Nothing of much interest from me I'm afraid. Got on fine with the old man, passed first time, no crashes. I'm sure some didn't have it quite so easy.
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Boasting but first time car,m/c and HGV.
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It was after teaching me and my sister to drive that my dad decided to become an instructor. Both of us had about 6 months practice and passed first time.
No traumas, the test took about 30 minutes. 'L' plates in the boot, the trip from centre back home included 10 miles of the M1 - my dad's attitude was there was no time like the present to learn the next set of driving skills.
Even now when he gets pupils through the test if convenient he will get them to do a few miles of motorway on the way back from the test centre.
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first time 6 months 12 lessons in 1972 in Triumph Herald convertible with a Polish instructor who had also taught Dad, Mum, uncle and Sister over the previous 12 years.
Practice in the family Vauxhall Viva, mainly with Mum in passenger seat esp last 2 months when I drove the 5 miles to school then she took over. Fairly disagreement free from what I remember.
Sign of inflation, what I paid for 12 lessons would not have paid for 1 lesson for my daughter who passed first time in July.
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My lessons cost £1 per hour. Didn't have many but practiced in the old man's car, too. Passed the test on second attempt three months after I was 17. Can't remember why I failed the first time. Wrote off my BIL's car three weeks after passing test which made me think.
Now I think back I recall I took the second test in Dad's car. He'd been in a traffic shunt a couple of days before and, though perfectly legal and driveable, the car was a little crumpled at front and rear. The examiner's face was a picture when I pointed out the car!
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Passed my test 1st time 26 days after my 17th birthday and with 6 3-hour lessons. My folks were fed up of taking me to mountain bike races on Sunday mornings!
Test was a bit of a nightmare - my examiner was known to be agressive, and I had to defend myself: ("You didn't look left" "Yes I did, a yellow nissan Sunny with a blond female driver"). Most unpleasant. Had a further 2 hour session on the motorway after.
Passed my bike test 1st time after a 3 day intensive course, and haven't ridden a bike since (too many encounters with the maimed meant a loss of nerve).
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Driving test took me 2 months and 29 days, 8 lessons and one attempt. Test was 28 minutes long!
Motorbike test took me a week (intensive course) and one attempt. No idea how long the test was as I was bricking it and concentrating hard. :-)
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Before I joined the Navy I'd been on the move from boarding school to my first job in a racing yard (Suffolk), and then to another job in Sussex and then at home, but working six days a week, for a few months, so after nearly a year in the Navy (and now 19) I could drive perfectly well, but had not taken a test. Unlike the Army, the Navy has no need for drivers apart from a few, so there was no way I could get them teach me.
I knew that my next course was at RAF Leeming (N Yorkshire), so I booked a test in Darlington, and then set about finding an instructor. The local paper had some small ads, so I rang a few. Not many would come to collect me, so I opted for a lady instructor who said she had spaces.
I went to the Guardroom to meet her, and was greeted by a girl (lass in local dialect) in her mid 20s, about as wide as she was tall (5'4") with a battered Morris 1100 sporting L plates.
She proceeded to nag, chivvy and generally set about me with a friendly but persistent approach. Each time we passed a lorry on the A1 she seemed to know them, and waved vigorously.
I took the test, passed, and as she came back to the car she gave me big hug and burst into tears. It turned out I was one of her first pupils, and the very first she'd put in for a test. She then admitted she had been far more nervous than me on the drive to the test.
On the way back I asked her why she had become a driving instructor, and she told me it was because her boyfriend didn't like her spending nights away as a long distance lorry driver!
As an aside, my first solo flight in the Navy was 30 years ago on Thursday. It was about five months before my test referred to above.
Edited by oldnotbold on 18/11/2008 at 16:30
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16 lessons @ 17/6p (87.5p) passed 1st time in Morris 1000 (1964)
Unfortunately my wife passed in 14 lessons which comes up in conversations from time to time.
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I took 5 months start to pass in 1997, one lesson a week. 3 minor faults during test.
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My first lesson the instructor showed me how to do handbrake turns in the Maine Road (old Man City) car park. Then it was my turn. I would not. He also taught Richard and Judy's children to drive when they were still living in Didsbury, Manchester.
He was a fun instructor. Made a silly mistake on first test (won't give details) so took two. But I went on a free two+ hour lesson as his pupil when he got examined. That was more fun until you have to reverse and the giant in the rear is then apparent when you're doing a reverse manouver. He got a 4* rating I think so was chuffed.
The other thing I did was go out with him on the motorway for a lesson.. money well spent back then I still think.
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Took me a few years on and off but this was the year I found a new good instructor and passed first time with 4 minors.
I bought a car last year to practise in, but the engine died after 8 months.
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Bought an old Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible when I was 16 and spent a year doing it up in anticipation of being allowed on the roads.
There was a place in Hornchurch, Essex (possibly the old aerodrome) that had been converted into a sort of toytown road system where you could just turn up and drive your car with no age limit! So the old man would often drive the Herald down there and that's pretty much where I learnt to drive. I've seen a similar (derelict) place in Harlow but I wonder if other such places exist - it'd be good to get my kids learning.
I let my friend have a go of my Herald at the Horchurch place (he was in the process of getting a Vitesse on the road) but strangely he just froze - planted his right foot on the floor and dumped the clutch. I had to take the key out of the ignition and yank the handbrake otherwise we'd have been mush. A year later he managed to spin his car 360 degrees during his test....he failed and never drove again. And 30 years later still has an immaculate Vitesse back in his parents garage.
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I had forgotten about that place, my dad used to take me over there and let me drive his Vauxhall Victor around it, must have been about 1977 !
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Is the old aerodrome still there ?
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>> My first lesson the instructor showed me how to do handbrake turns in the Maine Road (old Man City) car park.
Fantastic!!! :-)
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Failed first test essentially for not making sufficient progress - it seemed insufficient to me to be fair, but I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing...
Second one was also a fail - only one fail point if I remember correctly, failing to take appropriate action at a traffic signal. The signal in question was a temporary traffic light, which went straight from green to red when I was right on top of it - no amber, or pause, at all.
Nobody in their right mind would have stopped, but faced with a red light on a driving test I hit the brakes - very hard. In 1975, examiners didn't wear seatbelts - supposedly to enable them better to perform their special task. Although not compulsory, I was wearing mine as recommended. The result was clipboards and pens everywhere, examiner banged head on windscreen pillar, then said in a strangled voice "what did you do that for?!".
I still feel badly done to!
I felt that the third time pass was luck - I was beginning to feel it was a bit of a lottery.
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In my day, the first thing to do was know which test centres were "easier" than others.
For example Surbiton and Twickenham were considered real B's. and Weybridge was the test centre of choice.
Think it was 12-15 lessons, two per week, 6-7 weeks, passed first time with no minors.
At Weybridge of course in 1972ish, in a red1300xl Mk1 escort
Edited by Altea Ego on 18/11/2008 at 20:37
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I was taught to drive by a physiotherapist of all things.
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I think you mean psychiatrist
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No - apparently I got the massage !
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Started learning on my 17 birthday in the September and got 100% on the theory test back in the days when you coloured the boxes in with pencil.
My instructor was incredibly thorough - I spent the first four lessons driving round and round a business park and didn't go backwards until lesson 10! he had all sorts of wipe clean diagrams of all the roundabouts in the town that he would draw all over. After about twenty lessons I was ready for my test, but went into hospital and couldn't drive for three months. Started again in the April (in the mean time he'd switched from a 4 gear Fiesta to a newer one with five gears which confused things for a while!) and passed first time in on 17 July 1998. Test was at 12:10pm and I got three minors - two for speeding and one for not looking right when going straight through traffic lights.
I hit the kerb on the reverse around the corner but went forwards and did it again. Must have had a nice instructor! Did that and the turn in the road - haven't parallell parked to this day and am very thankful you didn't have to do the reverse park in those days!
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Can't remember how long it took me from first lesson to pass, but I remember that I failed my first test because I nearly ran into the back of a car at traffic lights. I did stop in time, bit of an emergency stop, but the examiner had to move his foot and also, as Manatee, for not making sufficient progress.
Then I had to wait a while for my second test because it was at the time that the first theory tests came in and people were trying to get in while it was just the practical test.
So I had to take the theory (one of the first ones to) and practical and I thought I did worse on my second test but passed with no problems, just a few minors.
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Oh had a few lessons from my dad, Princess and a CVT Volvo 66- my boss at the time in a Renault 16, three or four in a motoring school Mini, many miles in my own Moggie 1000. Passed my test, second attempt (which I still harbour a dark secret) in the physiotherapist's Morris Marina. Which was a good car to learn in - despite its reputation.
Bike test taken four years later on a Honda CB100 - passed first time.
Edited by Pugugly on 18/11/2008 at 20:56
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A memory from my driving test in Sheldon, Birmingham - the examiner and I came out of the centre on foot and he asked me to read the reg of the Allegro down the road. Crikey, I thought, and strained slighly but gave him the number. He told me it was wrong, and I re-read it to him, insisting it was correct. It turned out that I was reading the number of an Allegro about 100 yards away - the car he was referring to was so close I could almost have read it using braille! I think this got me off to a bad start and I failed but passed next time.
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-How long did it take you to pass?
Motorcycle, ages, as there was no need to do it for years. No lessons. Drove about 300 miles for a test booked at another place of residence, on a borrowed bike. A comedy of errors ensued, starting with unwittingly ticking off the examiner first of all. Failed, Drove 300 miles back. Eventually passed on an outfit. This was a hairy machine, and I was quite surprised, considering what happened.
-Who taught you at home and how did you get on with them?
Car - my dad, dreadful experience. Also my mum, OK but too rigid in her seat to teach (this in an old Morris). Next, an old boy 1-man band driving tutor. Fantastic. Bomb-proof. Took an extended course of lessons, passed first time.
-Any near misses?
On M/C test #1 had to do a real emergency stop. Ticked off examiner before starting test. It all went downhill. M/C test#2, went wrong way, round the block, came up behind examiner who was looking the other way up the road. Instructed to re-do course, round and round the block, no examiner to be seen. After about 10 minutes, he popped around a corner. I said "Christ, where did you go, I thought I was going to run out of petrol!" This was OK as somehow a rapport had been established. Passed (after reading correct number plate, not the one 1/4 mile away on the wrong car!). Also, flagged down by shapely female relative, and asked for a lift, when on the test! I think this impressed the chap.
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My eldest daughter took and passed the theory test on her 17th birthday - lucjily it was in half-term.
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I started to learn from my mother when I was in my late teens. (She had taught my father to drive a couple of decades earlier.) I didn't really enjoy it much, and gave up. (What a terrible confession to have to make on a motoring forum!)
About 10 years later, I decided that I needed to learn to drive and used a professional instructor, which was much better. The instructor struck me as a rather miserable type, and I remember in the lesson just before the test, he told me that if I drove like that, I had no hope of passing. Sure enough, I failed. "Undue hesitation" and something else - probably poor observation.
The driving school gave me a different instructor who was a lot more relaxed and cheerful, which I think probably helped. Anyway I passed at my second attempt - very relieved and a little surprised. I remember being so nervous during the test that I could feel my right leg shaking while sitting in stationary traffic.
I suppose that was probably about 10 years after I started learning. Surely that's a Back Room record. :-)
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In my test I cut up a bus, I did a turn in the road in 5 points and got confused in a one way system. I still passed. The bus thing was not my fault and I did signal in plenty of time and I think the fact I stopped before the bus did meant I had passed. My examiner said I dealed with that perfectly, he said most people would have paniced and stopped causing a major major hold up.
The 5 point turn thing was a mistake, I just forgot to take enough steering off due to nerves.
At the end of the test he said "I want you to park here outside the test centre, I have found a nice big space for you, make sure you park slowly though" he then said I was parking slowly. He obviously knew I had passed and would have hated me to fail by clipping the kerb or something at the last second.
My was so convinced I would fail I was just getting my first test done with. My instructor said before the test he would be surprised if I failed.
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My driving instructor, in the little seaside town of East London, was the ex chief traffic cop.
After a dozen or so lessons, went to do the test in a VW Beetle, and passed first time.
Spent that afternnon just driving around for the hell of it, cos I could!
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Friday 13th May 1983.
This was my second test, got the same examiner as my first test 1 month earlier.
I, like oldnotbold, was in the Royal Navy at the time. Based in Yeovilton but test was in Norwich. Got a lift home the night before having had a number of lessons in Yeovilton.
Finally got home around 2 in the morning, Dad took me to test centre. Having passed I had instructions not to take the car out UNTIL I had to pick mum up from work. Well I guessed it would take me about 4 hours to get across Norwich :) Off I went and nearly rolled backwards into another car. Whoops.
As for the test, whereas my previous test had been on narrow roads making the 3 point turn very difficult, my 2nd test was on wide roads and I reckon if I took it now I could swing the car in one go rather than 3 points. I had a near miss with a bus, but was asked about this when I got back and at the end the examiner told me the bus was in the wrong but I should have stopped.
The next vehicle I got to drive was approx 1 week later in Port Stanley. An Argentinian left hooker land rover. That was fun!!! Were the pedals round the other way was the first thought.
Finally got my first car 8 months later when I returned from the Falkland Islands, a Morris Ital 1.7.
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The next vehicle I got to drive was approx 1 week later in Port Stanley. An Argentinian left hooker land rover. That was fun!!! Were the pedals round the other way was the first thought.
Motoring Trivia part # 3562...
Douglas Bader, after his crash, had one leg with an above-the-knee amputation and the other one below the knee.
This made it hard for him to drive a 'normal' configuration, so he had the accelerator and clutch pedals on his car (A Riley?) switched over.
Much to the consternation for the delivery driver!
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Passed 1st time circa 1982 in instructor's Mazda 323 (Mr Davies IIRC, in the Redditch area). Might have been close though; when we stopped, he asked 2 questions:
- Do you run excursions to the kerb? (me- nervous laugh)
- What's more important, your steering or your gears? (me- Er, steering?) Yes, if you knock someone over, they won't care what gear you're in. (I think I fumbled with the gear stick at one point during the test.)
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9th March 1992, first time. Taught by my Dad in his 1982 Visa Super E, took test in the same car - no formal lessons, but many hours spent learning how to drive with my Dad, rather than learning the test routes and manoeuvers. He also taught both my sisters, in the same car, and they both passed first time too. By the time my younger sister did hers in 1995, the car had about 100k on it, the clutch was knackered, and synchro on 3rd was pretty tardy!
I did mine on the Isle of Wight - realised I was in with a good chance of passing when we turned right at Safeway where the traffic lights were broken, then down to the infamous Coppins Bridge rounabout, and up Staplers - all in the first 5 minutes, BEFORE attempting the emergency stop! Conventional wisdow had it that you came back to the centre via Coppins Bridge - but only if the examiner thought you were good enough!
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First test cancelled due to snow in December 1981. Went to Florida for Christmas and came back with a Florida driving licence! Drove on my own for about a month on that.
Second booked test was late January 1982. Different instructor picked me up in regular car, but car felt 'wrong'. We checked the tyres which were low, but after more air still felt wrong, so car swapped from Fiesta to Escort. Had 10 minutes practicing reversing round the corner in much longer car and then went to the test which I passed, with a three point turn on a road so wide I could also have done it one go.
Would I pass now? Probably not without more lessons. Lost knowledge of proper use of gears long ago as I drive mainly automatics.
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Started lessons on my 17th birthday. Had a bit of an issue with my first insturctor, so I ended up changing. Took first test after about 6 months of a lesson a week. Surprised to find myself extraordinarily nervous - not of driving (was fine with my Dad or my instructor) but of being scrutinised and assessed by this uncommunicative stranger. End result - concentrating so hard on doing it right (instead of just relaxing and getting on with it) I drove the entire test collecting only one or two minor faults. And one serious/dangerous (can't remember what exactly) - turned out that I didn't quite have enough nervous energy to keep the concentration for the full 40 minutes. So I failed :-(
That process - almost perfect for 99% of the time but let down by one serious instant-fail fault - repeated for four more tests. Which became very annoying. I enjoyed driving with my Dad and my instructor. I could pass mock tests with the instructor with ease. Just couldn't do it for real. No idea where it came from. I've never experienced it in any similar situation before or since. Finally passed on the sixth attempt (by which time I was starting to recognise a lot of the faces in the examiner community) about 15 months after I'd started.
Relieved to have passed before my younger sister (she's actually 18 months younger, but even so I was worried for a while - she would never have let me forget it). Extremely grateful to my Dad for continuing to fund the whole campaign. And slightly perversely proud of the fact that over all six driving tests together I collected fewer minor faults than many of my friends who passed first time.
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i learnt to drive in the west end in 1973 with the help of a church army captain. best one ever was in tottenham ct road in heavy traffic. driving a mk1 escort. gear lever came straight out of gear box, stuck in middle of the road looking like a right lemon.
black cab stuck behind, eventually he got around us and pulling up on the passenger side directed, well i cant print it, but there was a lot of 4 letter words, until he noticed that is was directed at a church army captain in full uniform.
i still remember his face today, stopped in mid flow and shot up tottenham ct rd at a vast rate of knots, priceless...
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10 lessons @ 2.50, passed first time circa 1986, also passed the motorbike test first time , i think i splashed out about £30 all in
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Took me ages to learn how to drive. Did it over a couple of years as university got in the way so I ended up switching instructors part way through. The test centres I went round to begin with were systematically closed so I'd get the hang of one area then they'd close it so I'd end up somewhere else. One was Leek in the Staffs moorlands which was entertaining as the hills were near vertical so hill starts and reversing around a corner there were quite a challenge.
Failed first time. Had the chief examiner with an overbite. Drove really badly on the entire test due to nerves and got the big X of doom for signalling left at a roundabout and going straight on and failure to make progress. The last I disagree with as it referred to me dawdling around a council estate. Mr examiner decided there was zero risk of children being around but as I lived nearby and knew the grubby little herberts were always running around unchecked I disagreed and argued with that. Pointless really as I had already stuffed it up earlier. I'd still travel round there at 20-25mph now.
Second test was a pass. Thought I had failed it on the emergency stop as I felt the car roll a bit when I either stuck the handbrake on or pulled off from it. Was amazed to pass but rather relieved to have finally done it after the millions of lessons.
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