Out and about today and I bumped into (not literally) my driving instructor. Still teaching, rather greyer than before (no surprise there) and driving yet another Fiesta.
Which got me thinking back - I learned to drive in MkII Fiesta's and a Landcrab 1800. Took my test in my Instructor's razor-clutched Fiesta.
Anyone out there learned to drive/taken their test in something more unusual?
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In my early bus driving days down the coast, (circa 1992) I often used to see a female driving instructor around the Llandudno area, she used to teach in a mint condition
G reg Ford Escort RS Turbo, I can't imagine how much her insurance used to cost, but I was envious of the pupil being taught every time I saw the car!
PP
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Bizzare but true.
In order of use.
A Morris 1000 (mine)
A Mini (Driving Instructor)
A Volvo 66 (Mum's)
A Renault 16 (!)(Dad's)
A Morris Marina (Family Friend - yuk I can still smell it)
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Well, it would be unusual now, but not then - a Riley 4/68!. What's more, I took my test in Scarborough during the holiday season and the traffic was so bad it lasted over 2 hours! But I did pass first time - probably because after all that time the examiner felt like a close friend!
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Ford escort Mk1 - a 1300Xl "F" reg if i remember. And a very sweet little car to learn in too.
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Y Reg suffix Nova - Instructer no 1's car
C Reg prefix Mazda 323 - Instructer no 2's car
Volvo 340 Auto - Mother's car
Though I passed my test in the C reg mazda so I got the A class licence (manual and auto transmission).
First car after that was a Mini 850 UCV 980 H
Happy days....
Hugo
Hugo
"Forever indebted to experience of others"
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Triumph 1300 - the late 60s front-wheel-drive one. I was looking around for some lessons and that was by far the nicest driving school car in Taunton! Instructor Major Felton was one of the good guys too. Also used the old man's Austin Cambridge A55 Mk 2. If you cornered that one hard enough the hubcaps would pop off! Sigh - happy days...
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Triumph 1300 - did the drive shafts click on full lock ?
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My instructors car was a new Mk 1 Fiesta Bravo 950 engine and a razor sharp clutch. My dads cars were a Peugeot 504 family estate (worlds first MPV?) with 3 rows of seats and latterly a Pug 305, My first car bought as an impoverished student in 1982 was a Skoda S100l with the reg plate RTO2R and I was stupid enough to scrap it and lose my rights to the reg number !
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yes they did - and i had to miss a lesson now and again (more than once) while its clutch was replaced - not my fault though...
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Hope you dont think im a racing driver ? But I learned to drive in an "A" reg. Fiesta XR2 , then my 1st car was a very ugly looking Mini 1275GT . I remember when I was driving it many years ago in a very large pub car park in icy conditions , decided to show off and do a handbrake turn ........only to end up mounting the engines sump on a Kirb around a tree ! ! ! !
Things I did when I was a Youngster , I now realise what a "FOOL" i was !
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Dodger,
reminds me of my mate who won £500 on the Premium Bonds and bought himself a brand new mini with it. In trying to emulate Paddy Hopkirk he went to local coach park when it was snowy, did a hand-brake turn or two, hit a kerb and knocked the back wheel off his brand new car. His red face melted most of the snow while we rolled around in it laughing!
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First car I drove was a BMW 735i, which my Dad let me have a go in on the drive, with him keeping one hand nervously on the handbrake... After that had a few goes in a Jeep Cherokee 4.0 but this was still before I could get a license.
Took driving lessons in a Peugeot 306 DTurbo, then a Peugeot 206 DTurbo. Both great cars to learn in due to huge amouts of torque and light controls. Now I'm driving a Nissan Micra 1.0. Had a couple of refresher lessons in a BSM Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 which drove me crazy with its pathetic 3 cylinder engine and intensely irritating indicator beep sounds.
Seen some interesting Driving Instructor cars around lately. Saw a Mini Cooper S in Reading, and a Toyota Yaris T-Sport in Bedford. Also in Bedford have seen a C reg Nissan Micra. Imagine the hourly rates for that are a bit less than the £17 an hour it cost me to learn...
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I learnt to drive & took my test in 1960 in an Austin A40 Farina, I was fortunate to pass first time after only six driving lessons, but had been riding a motorbike prior to the 4 wheels!!!
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1990 G Reg Yugo 55A with a weird gearbox
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Austin/Morris 1100
£1.50 a lesson !
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You learnt to drive in a Yugo 55A? Well......... I owned a 55A GLS in white repleat with bodykit. Great (Fiat) engine. I once saw 115 mph on the clock , Long story but I bought an earler Yugo and complained to the importer that the roof was lower on one side than the other. and .....it was ! the jig had slipped when the roof was being installed so they swapped a rusty 4 year old one for a brand new one! Great deal I had it for 4 years before it was written off fairly reliable too apart from the small creeping crack in the floorpan around one of the drivers seat securing points, and. no rust!
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Ha! The one I learnt in was white with a 'boxy' bodykit!
I wonder where it is/what it is now?
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Only one answer to that.
YRD 546K. Which, by the time I got my hands on it, was a very stately (i.e.,old and rather past its prime) 1622cc Farina-styled Morris Oxford. Four speeds, no synchro on first, steering wheel big enough for a pleasure cruiser and foot-operated dip switch. Not bad for a family hand-me-down.
Actually passed the test in an Escort and then - and only then - was I allowed the occasional foray in his nibs' Volvo. It was a doddle compared to the Ox.
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Morris 1000 held together with some diy fibreglass kit. At the test the examiner walked around the car about 3 times suspiciously before he got in...He enjoyed the ride so much that he invited me back for another drive a couple of months later...
Splodgeface
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Mk1 Escort, a doddle to drive. My first car was a Triumph Herald convertible bought in good nick for £125 and insurance (17 yr old, edge of London, just passed test) was the princely sum of £35 TPFT. Amazing bargain compared to today.
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I learned in a blue Metro and really quite liked it. Easy to drive, good visibility.
There's a couple of driving schools around here running MINI diesels, would be a good choice with the Getrag gearbox (six speeds - to learn!!) but there's also one with a RAV4 - can't think that'd be too easy to learn in.
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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I learned to drive in a blue Mini Clubman (the one that looked a bit like the Maxi at the front). It belonged to my mother and I used to nip home from school at lunchtime so that I could give it a few whirls around the block. This was very naughty but during my arrogant youth I suspect that I thought I was already a better driver than most of the "fools" on the road and I was damned if I was going to wait for my workaholic father or nervous mother to take me out. Didn't actually get around to getting any formal driving lessons and passed first time without a hitch. Tried to get into one some years later and found myself with head jammed against the roof and knees crammed under the steering wheel. Don't know to this day how I managed to manoeuvre
the thing.
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1967 Austin A30. Cost me a fiver, orange dulux had only just dried as I passed my test on my 17th birthday. After 1 year on a bike and many a happy hour driving round in the old mans car on the disused airfields (lots of them in East Yorkshire in the 60's).
Martin
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1.8 Mazda MX5 - not a parent's car, it really was a driving school car!
What a lovely car to learn in, as it was summer I even had the top down, but then some other student wrote it off so I passed my test in one of the school's Micras :-(
Blue
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1934 Austin 10, year 196?. Double declutching de rigueur, crash gearbox. Proudly pick up Cynthia to go see Dr No, the first Bond film...anyone remember that? There were queues down the street to get in to the Plaza Worthing not seen since 1956 and Rock Around The Clock and my drape jacket and drainpipes, ah...but that was then, this is now.
Pimply ego deflated fairly quickly when Cynthia said did I want her to drive, her Dad had taught her double-declutching on the farm (she was 16). I shamefacedly confess I ran this heap for months with no licence no insurance and no tax.......
DVD is it fair to assume the Statute of Limitations has me covered?
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1982 Citroen (what else?) Visa II Super E - my Dad's car. Both my sisters (one older and one younger) and I learnt to drive and passed our tests (all first time) in this car - quite an achivement as by the time my younger sister took her test it had done about 100k (and this was an Isle of Wight car, not a motorway basher!), the synchro on 1st and 3rd was just about non-existant, and I had to make 2 new front doors as the old ones had just about rusted in half. Oh, and it had the Citroen PRN switch system, where all the switches are contained in a 'beer can' satellite to the side of the steering wheel - far superior to those rubbishy 'stalks' we have to put up with these days....
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Not enormously interesting, but learned to drive and took my test in my dads 1980 Opel Ascona.
Essentially tought myself by reading loads of books and listening to the sagely advice from dad in the passenger seat!
Andy
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The first car I ever "drove" was a friend's Austin 7 in a field next to their house, but as I couldn't reach the pedals or see over the scuttle I would hesitate to say I was "in control". The ride lasted about 20 seconds !!
My first "driving lesson" was on a private (disused) concrete airfield in my father's 1952 Mk.VI Bentley, and this was the first car I drove on the road on my 17th birthday. I remember we arranged the front L Plate over the central spotlight with rubber bands - it was the only illuminated L Plate I have ever seen ! Soon after that I got my first car, an A40 Farina, and it was in this that I had two official driving lessons and passed my test.
I still have the Bentley, sadly not on the road at the moment awaiting the time and finance for some restoration.
Regards, Adam
Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble.
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Excellent! I too had a few lessons in a 1949 Mk VI Bentley. Hope yours makes it back on the road: they're great sport!
Also practised in a 92 Honda Accord,a 90 Fiat Uno, took lessons in a Metro (horrible - my size 12s kept hitting brake and accelerator: somewhat confusing for a stupid person!)
First car was a 903cc black Fiat Panda A110KHP, and what sport I had tearing around Truro and Cornwall in it!
O
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My father taught me to drive in his 1937 Morris 8, which later became mine when he bought a 1936 Austin ex-mayoral car with an 18hp body but only a 12hp engine. This had a sliding screen separating the front from the back and it had two sets of seats facing each other, the rearward ones being folding. Dad used to drain the water every night in the winter and refill next morning with boiling water. Even so, and with just a 12hp engine pulling a very heavy body, the radiator sometimes froze up as he drove along!
Back to the Morris 8 ... I took my driving test in this in 1960. The solenoid indicator arms in the door pillars weren't always reliable so I asked the examiner if I could use hand signals throughout, to which he agreed. I must have caught the indicator switch at some point because he had to ask me to cancel it as I was indicating to turn right all the time.
The examiner said that he wanted me to do an 'emergency stop' when he hit his leg with a rolled up newspaper. I saw him glance behind and raise the newspaper and I slammed on the brakes before time. Even though the brakes weren't very strong, I managed to send him off his seat because it wasn't fixed down securely and it tipped over.
Amazingly I passed the test! Perhaps he didn't ever want to see me again!
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Had lessons and passed my test in 1984 in an Austin Allegro 1.3. Practised at the weekends in my mothers Mk1 Fiesta.
First car I drove the afternoon I gained my full licence a 1966 Land Rover 2 1/4 Petrol complete with a bit of string to hold it in 4th!
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A40 Somerset (on an airfield and caravan site early teens)
Proper lessons Mk2 Cortina
then 105E when let loose after test.
All very conventional I'm afraid.
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Morris Commercial 1 ton truck, rather like the one Greengrass drove in Heartbeat, except mine was Olive green with a canvas cover as that was, and still is, the colour the Army use.
Non-synchro gear-box, wire operated, metal arm semaphore indicators. I can still double de-clutch and toe and heel, and how about a down-hill change? Anyone else taught that?
When going down a hill, changing gear could be dangerous because if you were a bit slow on the double de-clutch the truck could run away in neutral and you couldn't easily get it back into gear. As brakes then were really poor, you could be in a lot of trouble.The trick was to apply the handbrake a couple of clicks, just enough to hold the current speed, change gear and then release the brake.
Those were NOT the days!
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Not me personally, but i've seen (not in the last year or two tho - may be ominous!) around Watford a bright yellow Honda Civic, with full sports kit and a big Jordan sticker down the side, yes acting as a driving school car!
A mate of mine knows the instructor, who says since he moved to that from Fiestas he's had three times as many calls for lessons!
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Dodger,
as I had a full bike licence, I taught myself to drive a 3 wheeler (Bond Bug 700ES).
RAF put me on a driving course using Morris Minors (the ones with the wood framed estate backend. (Failed test twice!!!)
3 years later I passed the test on an Army driving Course in a long wheelbase rag topped Landrover in Larnaca Cyprus. (No major faults, no minor faults!)
Who else got their UK licence abroad?
John R
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Nice to see there's a fair number of people the same vintage as me. Learned in 1966 on a Ford 100E Popular (one of the last ones, 1961 vintage), 3-speed box with no synchro on 1st, so like Growler, double de-clutching had to be mastered in order to pass the test.
Lessons were £1 an hour in your own car, £1.50 in the driving school's car. The last I heard my DI was running an old folks' home in Torquay! Scrapped the 100E when the front shockers started pushing their way through the wings, bought an older (1959) 105E.
They were the golden days of motoring.
Terry
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a seven seater Peugeot 504 estate, which had a floorpan like a colander.
didn't do anything for my credibility, but you soon learn where the car's corners are - miles away!!!
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Learnt to drive in a Mk1 Fiesta but failed twice, then passed in instructor No2's car a VW Jetta in 1982.
Continued driving mum's car (a selection of Mini 1000, Mini Mayfair
and then a Mk 2 Fiesta Ghia) until 1990 when after two degrees at Uni I finally had a real job and could afford to buy my first car...a Mk 1 1.3L Escort auto.
Ian L.
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My first drive was in an old Bedford van with the sliding doors & snout-like front. 3-speed column change. First drive on a road was in a narrow country lane barely wide enough for two cars, let alone a van!
He then bought an old Ford Anglia - luxury! 997cc of pure unadulterated adrenalin-pumping performance - not!! As my dad liked a drink, I often drove back from a family night out. He was also a bit of a skinflint - wouldn't turn the lights on until was almost pitch black "to save the battery". Also, when the dip and main beam blew on one side, and dip on the other, he wouldn't replace them.....that was a REALLY hairy drive home for a 17-year old!
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I learnt to drive in a fiesta... hours of lessons in it and then the week before the test, the instructor changed to a newer one that had five gears - cue lots of putting it into fifth when I wanted third and so on!
Still passed first time though, and I know I wouldn't pass first time now even though it was only 5 years ago!
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I started learning in a common boring ordinary Ford Escort. But all my lessons had been in the afternoon and the test was first thing on a very cold morning. All that time I'd had no idea it had a manual choke. Fortunately my Dad's Renault 5 had one too so I knew what to do with it.
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Learned to drive, and took my test in my mini 1000 ... which was left hand drive.
Stu.
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What did you learn to drive on?
1939 Fordson Tractor and 1953 Nuffield 3 cylinder tractor. Started at 12 years of age. Brand new (then) MK 2 Landrover. Passed my test on a Vauxhall Cresta 1959 vintage I think.
Alyn Beattie
I'm sane, it's the rest of the world that's mad.
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Driving school car was a Triumph Herald convertible great visibility with the hood down
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Mk1 Nissan Micra circa 1989.
The instructor clearly wasn't long for this world, his nerves were shot and sometimes he'd panic before calming down after I explained what I was doing. I more or less had to give a running commentary whilst I was driving. It was very useful when my dad gingerly let me drive the family '83 Cav Mk2.
Then the afternoon of my test, he'd taken the car to the garage in the morning and had the clutch adjusted, the bite was really high leaving little room for travel. Still, I passed and the instructor said that 'He knew I would'.
Yeah, right.
I remember as a kid my mum learning to drive is a very nice Dolly Sprint resplendent in black vinyl roof and bee yellow. I bet lessons in that car were fun.
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learnt to drive on a fordson tractor in the fields then onto a standard companion took test in a ford classic 2 attempts both cars were my fathers,happy days.
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Triumph 13/60 convertible but the roof was always up because my lessons were at 5.00pm on Winters nights.But if you couldn't do a 3 point turn in one of those then you were pretty hopeless.You did need to be careful though on absolute full lock because the poor engine could struggle with the front wheel angles and it would stall
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I learned to drive in
1992 1.0 106 - Mum's
2000 1.8? Diesel Fiesta - 1st Instructor
2000 1.2 Fiat Punto - 2nd Instructor
2001 1.2 Fiat Punto - 2nd Instructor's curtosy car
Manage to pass 1st time in the Punto. Quite different cars to drive compared to the 106.
My mum had it easy when she learnt to drive. Her mum and her instructor both had an Olympic Blue MkII Ford Escort 1.3 L!
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i learned to drive in
1988 mg metro turbo - crazy instructor with cb radio as big as the dashboard.
1973 mini - sis in laws, complete wreck but great fun, the car not the sis in law that is, but then again now i think about it she was a bit rough too.
past first time
cheers
Drink Lager Talk Piffle
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1980 Fiat 131 Mirafiori (Dad's)
60's Land Rover 110 Pickup (Dad's)
70's Pug 404 saloon (Grandad's)
70's Renault hatch ? (the one with the umbrella handle gearlever sticking of the dash at chest level, Uncle's)
All, at least 5 years before I could legally hold a license....
Chad.
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I learned on a Bren Gun carrier, whilst in the Territorial Army. It had tracks but, oddly, a steering wheel, which acted as a brake on one track or the other, and a V8 engine. These mini-tanks tended to throw tracks and our crew ended up in a florist's front window once when this happened in town.
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Diesel Landrover! I see a few other folks here with a similar experience. If you can drive a Landy you'll drive anything!
I don't think it had any adverse effects on my motoring career....
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just off to bolt the spare wheel onto the bonnet of my C5. :-)
Graeme
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A friend of mine at Uni learned on one of the first Vivas. His driving had to be seen to be believed!
What did he go on to do? Trained as a helicopter pilot in the navy, ditched a helicopter and wrote it off.Happily, he got out unscathed...Wish he'd taken the hint,though.
Graeme
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Oswestry 1957 in a Army Bedford QL. Who remembers these?.
With an Army Sergeant as the examiner whose every other word and sometimes half words split with french. At least thats what I thought they were.
Good old sort and still remember him with moustache bristling as he cursed everyone and everything in sight and took little notice of what I was doing.
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What did he go on to do? Trained as a helicopter pilot in the navy, ditched a helicopter and wrote it off.Happily, he got out unscathed...Wish he'd taken the hint,though.
You can't blame him for that. If God had meant helicopters to fly, he'd have given them fixed wings like any sensible aircraft.
GJD
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My very trusting father's spanking new Volvo 244 DL.
Superb visibility, amazing turning circle, plenty of torque if the wrong gear was hooked, rifle bolt gear change, and enough presence to make others keep their distance! The assisted steering was also so lifeless that once mastered, you could control anything.
To draw a parallel argument, if I had a seventeen year old today, I'm not sure (in fact I know I wouldn't) I'd let them learn in my shiny new V70 2.4T, even if I could find someone to insure it!
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I learnt to drive in a Daihaitshu Charade (and my driving was better than my spelling!) an F or G reg I think.
But I also got to practise a little in my fathers company car a large Peugeot driving it around the field! Other than the odd rabbit there wasn't anything to hit so I suppose he thought it was safe!
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Monday, December 5th, 1966 - Took and passed my test in an Austin (or was it a Morris?)1100 in Croydon. Forever etched on my mind as it was the day after my 17th birthday - only once been more terrified - but that's another story!
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