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At what age did you first get behind the wheel?
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22784
Location: UK

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:51 pm    Post subject: At what age did you first get behind the wheel? Reply with quote

Not necessarily on the public highway, but at what age did you first have a go behind the wheel of a moving driving car, even if only steering? I'd estimate being about 7 or 8 years of age, steering dad's Volvo 121. Proper driving commenced off road in my early/mid teens, behind the wheel of Mum's Mini estate.

RJ
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D4B



Joined: 28 Dec 2010
Posts: 2083
Location: Hampshire UK

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My Dad used to let me drive (steer) his electric milk float on his rounds from when I was 5 Cool
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Riley Blue



Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 1751
Location: Derbyshire

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would have been four or five and living in Lincolnshire where my Dad had a Standard Vanguard RAF staff car. He would sit me on his lap and drive home from the base with me 'steering' for the final hundred yards or so - we both survived...
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Ellis



Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1386
Location: Betws y Coed, North Wales

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was allowed to sit on my father's knee and steer the car from around the age of nine or so but the first vehicle I actually drove was a grey Ferguson tractor on my uncle's farm when I was eleven.
My uncle and father were keen for me to learn and I was taught how to manoeuvre and reverse a farm trailer and do it quite well by the time I was twelve.

I drove a Series 2 Land Rover belonging to a farmer friend of my parents many times on his land and taught how to double declutch on the semi crash 'box.
That was when I was in my early teens and by by then I had been taught so well that I could down change by listening to the Series 2's diesel engine with just one clutch action.

My cousin, a girl, did better than me. Her task at the end of a working day was to park her father's fuel delivery tankers, 4, 6 and 8 wheelers in order of departure for the morning and refuel them.
She was about 13 when I saw her do this and, boy, was she skilful.
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kevin2306



Joined: 01 Jul 2013
Posts: 1359
Location: nr Llangollen, north wales

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was allowed to drive my dads wolseley 6/110 (auto) up and down his uncles farm drive from about the age of 8..loved it.

Kev
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Penman



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
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Location: Swindon, Wilts.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi
At sometime during the period Greenham Common was out of use between WWII and 1950 I had a go at steering a Ford 8 Tudor, on the airfield, sat on my uncles knee.
We were on our way from Bristol to Guildford and I would have been between 4 & 8.
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Last edited by Penman on Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:32 am; edited 1 time in total
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BigJohn



Joined: 01 Jan 2011
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Location: Wem, Shropshire

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Black Rock North wales sands aged about 8 semi sat/stood between the Old Mans knees in a column shift PB Velox. First drove a 100mph aged 12 on an old airfield somewhere near Acaster Malbis, York with the Old Man as a passenger in his very hot Corsair 2000.
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Bitumen Boy



Joined: 26 Jan 2012
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Location: Above the snow line in old Monmouthshire

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aged around 4, steering my grandad's car, he always had Vauxhalls but not sure exactly which model at the time, it wouldn't have been more than 2 or 3 years old (mid/late 80's) along the last couple of hundred yards of the old Great North Road - a bypassed stretch leading nowhere very much, I hasten to add - at Sutton on Trent in Notts. It's amazing how you remember this stuff when you think about it.
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Ellis



Joined: 07 Mar 2011
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Location: Betws y Coed, North Wales

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BigJohn wrote:
in a column shift PB Velox..


That was something else I was taught as well - changing gear on the column shift of our PA Velox from the front bench seat.
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Jonv8



Joined: 28 Jan 2009
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eight,sat on dads lap steering the SIIA Land Rover...
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KevC



Joined: 21 Nov 2013
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Behind the wheel....or handlebars.

My dad had motorbikes (and sidecars) in my early years. My first experience of driving anything was nervously making my way round the back garden on a Vespa/Lambretta or something similar.
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Rootes75



Joined: 30 Apr 2013
Posts: 4173
Location: The Somerset Levels

PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My brother who is a couple years older than I got heavily into Land Rovers when he was about 17. He had two old Series 2's and when I was 14 he let me drive the short wheelbase one around the private lanes etc where he kept them, great fun at the time!
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47Jag



Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Posts: 1480
Location: Bothwell, Scotland

PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My very first job after leaving school at 15 was as a van boy on a local baker's Albion van. It was a Friday and my driver collected his money then. We were driving along and he says "can you drive?" I said "no". "Can you ride a bike?" I said "yes". "Grab this wheel then and steer the van" So I got on top of the engine cover and took hold of the wheel. He then starts to mark up his book as I steered the van along the byways. At one point I got the van onto the grass verge and got a clip on the ear. He said "I thought you said you could drive" I retorted " No! I said I could ride a bike"

Art
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Keith D



Joined: 16 Oct 2008
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Location: Upper Swan, Western Australia

PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I first drove my father's wartime Commer utility when I was about eight or nine around our Essex farm, with a large fat cushion under my bum so that I could see through the steering wheel and reach the pedals with my tip-toes! (Early nineteen fifties)

By age ten I was ploughing with our old pre-war Fordson tractor. (Dad had to crank start it for me!) We had a two furrow plough that used to clank and bang at the ends of each row! No hydraulics on those tractors! How things have changed!

Keith
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lowdrag



Joined: 10 Apr 2009
Posts: 1600
Location: Le Mans

PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I first drove the milk float when I was 5. It was one horse power, if you get my drift. I then progressed to more horsepower at the age of 7 when at the wheel of a V8 Pilot on my Dad's knee. My first car of my own was an E-type at the age of 14 and since we lived in the country we went all over the place in it, untaxed and uninsured naturally. I am though being a bit economical with the truth since while I might say it was an "E-type" it was in fact a Morris Series E 1948 which was my uncle's and which fell foul of the new-fangled 10 year test in 1960 with a rotten chassis. At that age though it was as fast in my eyes as my E-type is today!
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