Tuesday 3rd February 2004

When did you first Drive?

Lots of kids know someone who's driven underage

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A new survey released this month reveals a quarter of teenagers under the age of 16 know at least one friend who has driven illegally (they might all know the same kid of course ).

Additionally 17 per cent have already been involved in an accident when they or their underage friends have been driving, this figure rises to 22 per cent amongst boys.

The organisers of the forthcoming The Sunday Times Motor Show Live are addressing the issue of underage driving. For the first time at an international motor show, teenagers from the age of 14 upwards can get their first taste of driving in safe and legal conditions with experienced driving instructors over a specially designed circuit.

Link : www.motorshowlive.com

[powelly]

First drove (on my own) when I borrowed my dads 1275GT Mini for a 'quick run' up and down our road.. on the third run, after master how to change into 2nd gear, I passed a rather bemused and red faced man who looked remarkably similar to my dad.... who had finished work early!!!!

Needless too say I received red ears!!

I was 12!

[craigw]

15, Mercedes 190 Duchatelet with a cossy engine, 120 (what a d1ck!) passed my mums friend, who instantly grassed on me.

[jacko lah]

Me and 3 mates (2 now in the police force and one in the army - he's a MP) bought a lambretta 200 off a mod for 30 quid. Then we sold all the chrome to his mate for 40 quid then we pushed it (lots of times) to the local woods where we then headed for the beach. It eventually gave up about a mile out from the dunes and my mate set fire to it as the tide started to come in. We were 13 at the time.
I was down the beach a few weeks ago and my 10 year old son pointed out a rusty framework in about the same area that the lambretta was destroyed.

[ian d]

when about 14 in a field, got the jist of the controls, under instruction from my old man when out night shooting rabits, great fun.
when i got to the "public" roads at 17 & a bit, just had to learn to avoid the other traffic.

[murcielago]

Well I've only driven our car in our car park, not on the road yet

[unlicensed]

My grandpa has taken me driving around an abandoned army base quite a few times. first time i was 12, i think.

[gnomesmith]

I first drove motor cycles when I was 8 and moved to a 500 Norton the next year, following year i started driving cars, all on private ground of course.

I took my son for his first driving course at Silverstone when he was 10.

I don't think you can start too early.

[burriana500]

14 years old - Either Range Rover, Merc Estate or Opel something or other, whichever happened to be in the car port at the time - always took about a fiver to bribe the cops if I got stopped... we were in Nigeria at the time

Eventually got rumbled by our driver as the Rangey's tool kit was scattered across the rear load bay after some rather enthusiastic cornering

Oh, one of my mates also took us home from a club in his Mums clapped out Beetle... and promptly ran into a lamp post trying to get round a roundabout at 40mph... and I was in the front

oooh! we also got 9 of us into a Fiat 126 aswell one night! Oh the fun we had

[agent006]

" a quarter of teenagers under the age of 16 know at least one friend who has driven illegally"

No, a quarter of them know someone who has spouted a load of bollocks about driving illegally.

[Rob P]

I was a good little boy and learnt to drive on an airfield

(dis-used may I add!)

[gary_tholl]

9 years old, 1965 Ford 3 ton grain truck... Hey, I grew up on a farm, needed all the help we could at harvest. I couldn't push the clutch in, so I just left it in 1st and used the key to stop and go.

After a few days, I was used to it, so got dad to put it in 2nd for me, it rolled alot farther once I shut the engine off, very nearly put it into a water run.

By the time I was 10 (IIRC), I could use the clutch, but when I pushed it in (using the steering wheel to hold on), I couldn't see over the dash.

We still have that truck (17 years later), it's great, learned to double clutch, downshift blip, no-clutch change, two-speed axle shift, all sorts of neat stuff from that one truck. Because of that truck I almost never turn around to back up, just use the mirrors. That can freak some passengers out

This was all done on private land (no, really), I first drove on public roads (with my mum) when I was 13. '67 Ford half ton.

Gary

[thirsty]

I grew up in rural North Florida, and driving on back roads (b roads) at a young age was not a big deal. I learned how to drive a VW beetle at 10, and by 14 was driving my dad's barge around to friends houses within a several mile area.

That is a lot different than driving the family merc around London. However, by the time I tested for my license, I was an experienced driver. We need more places (old runways, or even race tracks) for young kids to start learning.

[thepeoplespal]

I was allowed drive a tractor on my own at 7 years old when I could reach both clutch, side-brakes and hydraulics at the same time, was very keen on scraping out cattle sheds as you could get the wheels to spin in the cow shite. Had a very long apprenticeship though, as I was in tractors almost before I could walk.

Car driving started at 8 years old with a succession of cars, ranging from a Mk1 Ford Cortina, a Ford Anglia, a VW Beetle, Citroen Diane & 2CVs. All the driving was done off-road in the fields as it was much easier to the cars to go sideways. The petrol I used was paid for by working on the farm for it.

I think the Health & Safety Executive would throw a fit these days though, not to mention Social Services for working too early.

[dejoux]

First drove a column change nissan navara on a farm when I was 14
First time on the road was when I was 15 in a ford laser (basically a japanese escort). You can drive at 15 in NZ so that dont proove much though.

[Racefan_uk]

Moved my Dad's hot-rod and rally cars around on the drive and front lawn from the age of 8. Had my first 'lesson' as such on private tracks around the area from then on and first did some 'speed' driving on an old airfield when I was 15 in my parents old Fiesta XR2. (Under parental supersvision, of course!)

[p_green]

i first drove when PETROL WAS CHEAP!!!!

>> Edited by p_green on Thursday 5th February 01:49

[unlicensed]

My goal is to drive a super(ish)car before i can legally drive. Might happen this year hopefully.

[james_j]

Age 11 on a motorbike, in competition and around the garden. First drove car around garden age 13 weaving around the trees (some sort of old Renault)!

[86turbo]

Some parking lot in Sacramento, I was 14 and my dad just kind of pulled over and told me to drive. It was a 55 Chevrolet (not the one in my possesion currently) with a 350V8 that wasn't quite running right, I came away with the impression that driving was much more like piloting a boat than I had hoped. I did a few laps around the parking lot, it was an automatic so I never really had the chance to kill the engine. Fun stuff at the time.
Dan

[Mark M]

You guys all started so young... and in such nice cars!

Hillman Imp, Disused airfield. 1979 aged 14(just).

Got told off for spinning it. I didn't know it would do that!