When did you first get behind the wheel?

[Witchfinder]

I was thinking back the other day to when my dad took me on Tesco's car park on a Sunday afternoon, and let me drive the old Volvo. I was 14 at the time, and I remember loving it - it made me feel "like a man." However, I never took proper lessons until I was 25, when I took my driving test.

Now my eldest is seven in January - perhaps a little on then young side to be throwing him the keys to the ST220, but I imagine some PHers started driving at not much older than that. How old were you when you first got behind the wheel, and what are your memories of it?

[TommyBuoy]

I was 14 too and had a go in the pool car at my Dad's office - a diesel mondeo, in brown...

I dropped the clutch with so many revs that I buried it in the gravel car park - had the clear the gravel away to get out!

By the way, I passed my test first time when I was 17 so I consider it a hiccup...

[pstruck]

It was probably sat on my father lap doing the steering only around various car parks etc when about 10.

As for proper driving, not sure, maybe 13 or 14. Again with my dad on old airfields and big deserted car parks. He also taught me how to handbrake turn around the same time - this was all in his company car (hope the boss didn't find out)

[sean19]

I was about 11 and my dad let me drive 'stall' his pride and joy Carlton 2.0 CDX on an industrial estate on a Sunday afternoon. Finally managed to get the thing moving and hit 10mph until I stopped and forgot to dip the clutch - stalling yet again!

[E36GUY]

14 for me. Learned on a friends farm in an S1 Landie. Once I'd mastered that I used to occasionally potter round the village in my Dad's automatic 928 S4. Naughty Guy.

[Muzzer]

My first driving experience was my first driving lesson, on my 17th birthday.

It was a frustrating wait in a minor way as my Dad had a car repair workshop with a bit of land on which he could have easily taught me the basics of driving around but he never had time.

[mpm1987]

I was about 14, must of been in about 2000.

I remember driving my dads car on the beach at Weston Super mere.

[kit_kat]

I was 10 and I drove a 405 Mi16 over Salisbury Plain. When I say drove I didn't change gear but I pressed the clutch in and Dad did it for me. I didn't drive properly till I was 17.

[12gauge]

Probably about 14. On holiday with parents in France, chateux we stayed at had a very very long private road going up to it.

Dad also took me to this place when i was fifteen. Very good for learning. http://www.thelocalweb.net/index/DSL/tlw_214776.ht... Not sure if its still open, probably a tesco or executive studio flats now.

[SWH]

Sitting on my Dad's lap steering an old VW Beetle round our field when I was, err... ~5yrs old I think. Had a go-kart at the same time which was basically a frame with steering/seat attached to the front of an old Suffolk Punch - blades removed of course; used to splash petrol on my shoulder I seem to recall.

Properly driving a car, think that was a Morris Minor aged about 12, down a farm track, then a Land Rover... then various field cars in my teens, gets the whole 'how does a handbrake turn work?' out of your system long before you get near any tarmac as well.

[RobM77]

I remember changing gear for my Dad from the passenger seat at a young age, and sitting on his lap and driving along farm tracks and around fields too. I do distinctly remember the first time I drove a car; it was up a long private road in my Dad's 1988 Cavalier I've no idea how old I was though; all I remember was getting told off for taking a bend "far too fast" - nothing's changed!

[GravelBen]

RobM77 said:

all I remember was getting told off for taking a bend "far too fast" - nothing's changed!

Similar story here, learning to drive in a paddock at about 14 and getting told off for trying to get sideways.

[Kitchski]

14 but don't tell my dad!

[ExPatDownUnder]

After nagging my dad for ages one holiday in Tenby, he eventually agreed to let me drive along pendine sands. I must've been about 14 at the time. I think it was just about the only place he trusted me not to crash his beloved citroen BX (non turbo) diesel estate! It took about 2 miles to accelerate to 70(ish) mph. After a bit he told me we should go back to the slipway where my mom and younger brothers were waiting for us; "just check behind you, slow it right down and do a u-turn if there's nobody coming up behind us" was roughly what he said.

He never mentioned rear view mirrors though, so in my excitment at driving at 70mph (my mates would never believe me!!) I turned around in my seat (as you do when reversing) to look behind me, slightly dragging the steering wheel to the left and causing us to swerve across, front wheels digging into the sand and ending up in a massive arcing skid across the beach!! Luckily nobody was coming up behind us on the left, and we were well away from any obstacles. We ended up facing back the way we'd come, stalled, with sand all over one side of the car.

I never did get to drive back the other way, he insisted (quite angrily) that we swap seats and he'd drive back! Unfortunately by the time I was next in south wales Pendine was closed to traffic, so that was my first and only drive there.

EDIT: Admittedly I had already practiced driving up and reversing back down our driveway when my parents were out. My dad did seem quite surprised that I could change gears ok!

Edited by ExPatDownUnder on Friday 3rd September 14:57

[Chris71]

I think I was about 14. It was on one of these:



(I hasten to add, that's just a random photo, not me in the rather fetching hat)

Next came motorbikes (also off road), then driving my mum's Triumph Spitfire around the yard, then my driving instructor's hateful hateful Mitsubishi Colt.

[Mark_Karting]

I sat on my grandpas knee and steered, with a little help, round a caravan site age 6 or 7. I first properly drove age 12 when i took an off-road driving lesson in the local racecourse's car park

[RobM77]

GravelBen said:

RobM77 said:

all I remember was getting told off for taking a bend "far too fast" - nothing's changed!

Similar story here, learning to drive in a paddock at about 14 and getting told off for trying to get sideways.

I had no idea what I was doing of course

I had mowing the lawn removed from my household chores list when I was about 15 for getting the ride-on mower sideways. I was leaving marks on the grass apparently.

Another amusing story was my Dad teaching me how to hang off the edge of my tricycle when I was tiny because I used to keep rolling the thing. All I wanted to do in/on anything was to go as fast as possible, and on this particular tricycle I used to spend hours flying down the hill where we lived and then trying to take the bend at the bottom of the hill as quick as I could. My Mum got sick of me rolling the thing and scraping my face raw, so I had to be taught about getting my knee down to stabilise it What happened then was I was taking so much speed through the corner I couldn't stop afterwards. Once I ran straight into this ginger kid who was playing in the middle of the road and remember his Mum going psycho at me. My poor parents must have dreaded me getting a car!

[Snoggledog]

12 or 13 iirc in my fathers Lancia Prisma.

[lankybob]

I was 13. My Dad took me to his friends field where they had made a track and were having time trials. I was driving an old Volvo 240 which got very sideways at one point. I held it in a great slide of the type I am 90% sure I would not be able to hold now!
That same day I also drove a Series 2 Land Rover properly off road.
That was a good day.

[LeeThr]

When i was about 5 or 6 i was sat on my dad steering his p&j 405MI16 (the 2 litre one tuned to 240bhp if i remember correctly) around the campsite we were staying at down in barmouth. I dont remember it that well i do however remember almost running into somebodys tent untill my dad hit the brakes.