Christmas shopping - young James persuades his father to let him drive the AE

[Tony Griffiths]

Christmas shopping - young James persuades his father to let him drive the AE. This leads one to wonder, did anyone drive an A7 on the day they passed their driving test?

[Ivor Hawkins]

I was driving my Austin Seven aged 16 and aimed to pass my test in it, but ended up having to take my test in a Vauxhall Cresta, which was twice the size and promptly failed for crossing my hands over while steering around a roundabout (I hadn’t taken any lessons) apparently I was not in full control of my vehicle….I then took lessons how to pass my test and passed a few weeks later in a much smaller Vauxhall Viva!

[Chris Garner]

My daughter Hazel, on her 17th birthday, drove my '29 RF saloon to a VSCC race meeting at Cadwell Park and back - 130 miles. She stalled it once...on a level crossing in Sleaford!
However, she wasn't quite a learner, having passed her tractor test when 16, after which spending many hours ploughing, grain carting, harrowing etc.

[Peter Butler]

I had my first Austin 7 for my 10th Birthday - allowing me to "drive to school", i.e. we lived on a small farm alongside the main Stafford to Cannock road, the track up to the farm was a third of a mile long, dead straight, so I was allowed to drive down it, park in the hedge at the bottom, remove the ignition key, walk a few yards to the Bus Stop, and then catch the 'bus into Stafford to Primary School!

Peter Butler.

[Tony Griffiths]

Great stories! Do keep them coming...

[Peter Naulls]

I took my test in our Ruby, just as my mother had done 30 years earlier. The first time I drove it (on a provisional licence) was in the lanes of Hertfordshire between John Heath's workshop at Kettle Green and the Seven Workshop at Barwick. 

Incidentally my mother had driven the car for some time without the need to take a test. Driving examiners were temporarily re-deployed to administer petrol rationing and driving tests were suspended. That was 1954 so not post-war rationing; possibly the Suez crisis?

[andrew34ruby]

I took my test in our Ruby, just as my mother had done 30 years earlier. The first time I drove it (on a provisional licence) was in the lanes of Hertfordshire between John Heath's workshop at Kettle Green and the Seven Workshop at Barwick. 

Incidentally my mother had driven the car for some time without the need to take a test. Driving examiners were temporarily re-deployed to administer petrol rationing and driving tests were suspended. That was 1954 so not post-war rationing; possibly the Suez crisis?

I remember the Suez crisis and learner drivers being allowed to drive unaccompanied from November 1956. My eldest brother was learning at the time and I remember my mother being very annoyed with him for driving the bosses car home for dinner one day. He explained about the Suez crisis and my mother was still dubious. We thought it was just to not waste petrol driving around practising for the test. I was a few weeks less than three years old at the time.

Looking today on google..... it seems it was allowed to save petrol and because the testers were dealing with rationing.

[John H]

When I was 14, my father taught me to drive Corky (our 1929 chummy) on farm tracks near Firbeck. It was the first car I ever drove and an experience I remember with much fondness.

[Reckless Rat]

I learnt to drive when I was 9, driving my Dad's Mk2 Consul up and down Ainsdale beach.

[Steve Jones]

When I was about 14 we had a Type 65 that my Father bought in our village for £5 (light green with a red canvas roof). It had a Ford 10hp engine and gearbox as so many others did by then. I drove it round and round our back yard stopping every now and then to reverse direction and go the other way round. It was eventually advertised in Exchange & Mart and sold to two blokes from Lancashire for £10. I can still picture them taking it away. Sadly, I've no record of the registration number as, given this was in the 1960's, I imagine it may well have survived to this day.

Steve