Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Morning all,

Did you do any driving prior to reaching the official age to begin driving on the road? Or did you own a car prior to driving lesson age? Did any of your relatives hit the road before the driving test was even conceived?

I had quite a bit of practice behind the wheel of mum's 1967 Mini estate on various fields, which stood me in good stead for when lessons on the road began.

As for ownership, when I was 15 dad bought a Mk3 Spitfire for the princely sum of £25. It was in a bit of a state. First job he undertook on the dismantled Spit was to chop out both sills and floors. Shortly after that, he donated the rusty hulk to yours truly to get on with.

RJ
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[Keith D]

My father learned to drive and obtained a licence before a driving test was needed, back in 1934.

I used to drive our tractor on the farm ploughing long before driving age. I used to drive dad's ex-Western desert Commer utility on very quiet roads even though I needed a cushion under my bum to see over the dashboard!

I was fifteen when I bought and used my first car around the farm tracks at stupid speeds. It was a 1936 Morris 18hp sedan. I removed the mudguards and running boards and raced around with my mates with a mixture of petrol and TVO (tractor vaporising oil was a form of power kerosine) in the tank. This was after warming the engine up with petrol only. Clouds of white smoke issued from the exhaust!

All mates had to contribute five bob (25p) for a gallon of petrol. As a schoolboy I was always broke!

Keith
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1926 Chrysler 60 tourer
1932 Austin Seven RN long wheelbase box sedan
1950 Austin A40 tourer
1999 BMW Z3
Its weird being the same age as old people.
You are either part of the problem or part of the solution

[peter scott]

Never owned a car under age but when I was 15 a retired guy whom I met through dog walking was very kind to me and gave me an LE Velocette motorbike that needed work and one of my big sister's boyfriends and owner of V twin Vincent helped me get it going but I never got to ride it on the road. The retired guy had an XK 120 and used to race motorbikes. I learnt quite a bit from him too helping with head overhaul on the XK.

Peter
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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Phil - Nottingham]

I learnt to control my mother's Goggomobile which had a fierce clutch up and down the sloping drive and around the lawn - and sometimes just on the road when I was about 14 in 1969. I was not bothered about driving cars and had a motorbike as soon as was able to and passed my test in 1971 - I drove a Reliant Regal mk 6 in 73/74 as well and never bothered with my car test till I was almost 21 so had a half a dozen driving lessons to get rid of the bad habits I picked up and use the BSM Ford Escort for the test

Mam never did manage to pass her test and the car was sold in 1973

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwNWlcJkq09CcGJUazQtNU80SDA/view?usp=sharing
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Rover P2
Rover P4
Rover P5 & P5B
Land Rover S2 & S3
Morris Mini Traveller Mk2

[Paul fairall]

[lowdrag]

I was given an NSU Quickly when I was 14 and got it working, and at the same time I had my first E-type. Well, it was a series E Morris 8 actually, which had failed the first MOT with a rotten chassis. My first bike was a Sun 98cc and then many others followed until I got into cars more.

[alastairq]

Hmmmm....Not allowed to 'own' anything more powerful than a Claud Butler racer, in my teens...and that had a frame date of circa 1952!

When about 4 or 5, maybe younger...I do recall my Grandfather permitting me to steer, whilst sat in his lap...he had, at the time, a 'company' car, a Vauxhall Wyvern [LIX]...but only down the 'ten-foot' that accessed his garage [& others] behind their house.

Around the age of 14 or so, I had the opportunity to play around with an Uncle's old Standard 8 softy top...not going very well.

In fact, I was 'driving' a 50,000 ton oil tanker before I drove a car properly.

Rubbish brakes!

[Rusty]

As previously stated I drove quite a few vehicles around the farm solo from the age of 9 and under instructions from dad for a year or so earlier ! They included the 1924 Dodge, International harvester AS 110 ute several Holden utes, a Ford prefect and the farms AR 160 truck, (which I probably didn't get to drive until I was about 14). I also drove 3 different tractors over that period including a 52 Fordson petrol kero , an AWD6 International and a 9G Chamberlain. When I was 12 I ended up driving the 9G Chamberlain with its pto driven GL 200 international harvester pretty much for the entire harvest while dad drove the AR 160 truck to the delivery silo, the harvester didn't have a bulk unloading auger so to fill the field bin I had to learn to back the harvester up to a field auger so I could unload the grain box while dad was away. This was no small feat, and I recon its the reason why I have never had any trouble backing boats, trailers, caravans, ect for the rest of my driving career.

[stevel98]

My Dad's '61 A40 that I would be expected to put into the garage for him when he went off to the pub.

I did that, but not til after a drive around the streets going a little farther each time.

I was 14..

[Andrew1954]

[Rick]