How old when you learned to drive?
 

Here's me... :D

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17--after I got my license.

My parents didn't let me take driver's ed until I was 16 and didn't let me get my license until 17. They were always too busy to take me out for practice. I ended up taking my driver's test with about 5 hours behind the wheel. I failed the test three times.

I didn't actually learn how to drive until I had license in hand and my own car.

I remember that I had to go back home on the day of the test because I only had my permit and not my birth certificate.

I needed the birth certificate to get the permit. Why do I need it again?

I will never figure out bureaucrats.

About 13 on Holualoa Rd (Kona) in a 1977 Toyota Corolla stick. My dad really had balls to let me try that road, not to mention the legalities. :cool:

Age 15. Learned in a Morris Minor with a "crash gearbox" that had no syncromesh. If you can shift that fine, then most everything else is a breeze.

After that and when I have my license my old man took me to Colorado and sat in the right seat in a parking lot teaching me how to drive in the snow. Brave man... and a very good teacher.

Lived in Tennessee at the time and got my license at 14.

First time solo, with my dads consent, was 1966, I was 10. I drove our 1957 Plymouth Savoy on a dirt road beside a ravine that my dad and brother were hunting pheasants. I couldn't reach the pedals and see out at the same time. Honest to God, a trooper drove by but I saw him in time and yanked the ebrake and slid over to the passenger side. He just drove on by.

I was obsessed with driving as a kid. Many uncles owned farms so I drove tractors, trucks, and even combines before I was a teenager.

Very young. Probably 12-13.

My father and I would hunt in northern Michigan. At times dogs would get lost or chase deer and my father would go after them. He would ask me to drive the truck and listen for the dogs. He would chase the dogs on foot. It was nuts, but when you are 12 year old kid wanting to hang with the men, you step up and do it. By the time I was 15 I could drive on the road without a thought. Took my parents car many times at night without their knowledge.....

EDIT: for the record, the truck was a Ford F100, 3 on the tree.

12 (including learning how to double clutch into non-synchro 1st - and also how to shift up & down the gears w/o using the clutch. My old man was cool :)).

15 yrs old. I learned on the 'jitney'. An austin or similar stripped with 2 seats & a wood platform behind. No brakes. You just stalled it to stop . . .

There is a rumor of me going backwards down a hill between 2 trees & smashing into a rock cut . . . all lies . . . but at least I steered around the camp's fireplace . . .

Ian

About 8-10 years old. My first drive was a Cat bull dozer on our farm. Couldn't pull clutch levers until I was 10, played with what I could at 8. The next was an old chevy 6 cyl pickup truck. Drove on the farm and on local dirt roads. Drove many other trucks and cars before I finally got a permit at 16 in NY. Went thru a radar trap at over 150 Mph at age 17. No ticket, but they checked my taillights, shocks, signals, ... every time they say me for the next couple years.

I went back to visit from college and went thru a radar trap at about 130 Mph. Next door neighbor was local judge, just got a simple over 5 mph ticket for it. They put my fathers name instead of mine in the paper. He never let me forget, but it was worth it. Judge went on to NYS supreme court. He is dead now, so I can say this without any harm to him.

I had my kids, 2 girls, driving at age 10 on private roads. Racing school at age 16. Permits at age 15.

Damn, Driving is FUN!!!

Also at age 15 in a Morris Minor with no synchro in 1st.

Spooky.

LOL

me - go karts @ 8. road car @ 16

NO cars had 1st gear synchros when I learned.

My dad taught me how to drive stick in the 924S when I was 14.

I was in 8th Grade (14 years old). My friend & I both had paper routes. One day, he comes over and wants to know if I can go out - it was about 6 pm. We walked up the block where he had a 1963 Buick Riviera that he bought with his paper route money. In hind sight, I sure it wasn't registered of had insurance.

We and a few other friends drove that thing all over San Francisco. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 4 months. We were driving to Sausalito and going thru the Marin tunnel when the car broke down.

We had to leave it there because we all knew we would be in deep $H!t if the cops came, so we walked home - about 10 miles.

Fortunately (and a big fortunately), he had a 66 Chevelle in about two months. That car was way better......ahh, the good old days.

15, driving my friend's mother's '62 Valiant station wagon on muddy roads in the hills, getting sideways and taking out swaths of coyote brush with the rear quarter panel.

Better training than I got in town behind the wheel of a '77 Plymouth and a PE teacher for an instructor.

I just saw a Chevelle for sale for $24.5K. The good old days, indeed.

15. My dad bought a '44 military Jeep, welded a half I-beam bumper on the front & said, "OK now I'm going to teach you to drive." That was a great vehicle to learn on.

11. We had a '58 El Camino with the "cats eyes" that was our manure truck on the ranch. My job was to deliver the goods to the various growers in the area, all private dirt roads.:cool:

14. I learned on a 63 Chevy p/u with 3 spd on the column. Not the easiest vehicle get started on.:D

Was driving B John Deere's at 5, '52 Savoy in the government acres and around the farm by 10. Would drive dad to town occasionally before 14, remember switching places once for a (rare) checkpoint.
'NO cars had 1st gear synchros when I learned'
+1
Jim

I can remember driving my grandfathers farm truck. He passed away when I was 12 so it was before that.

I had a mini-bike before I could pull the pull start. And when I rode my cousins dirt bike I couldn't touch the ground. I would start it while it was on the kick stand. Get off and put the kick stand up, let the clutch out and jump on when it'd start rolling. I could just reach the foot pegs to be able to shift. I was still jumping the field drive...

I have already started teaching my 12year old step-daughter.

13-14, my dad and I had bought a 73 VW Beetle so he could teach me to wrench (this was around 1994, so it was an antique) and he would pick me up at the bus stop at the end of my street (about 3/4 mile from home) and let me drive it home. Learned to drive stick in no time!

16.

I was 12. Learned to drive in a '67 VW squareback in the parking lot of my Dad's company. Lot's of stalls that day... A couple weekends back I surprised my 11 yr son with the same driving lesson in my Audi TT. I'll keep this up as a reward system. He loves it and so do I. ;)

I was about 11. My dad says "push in the clutch". I am like - what is a clutch??

Still have the old truck - a 1951 Willys.

motorcycle? 7 in the desert. 4 wheels - age 12, vw-based dune buggy in the desert.

I have fond memories of the desert...

Both my kids, 15 and 13, have been driving my five speed Tacoma for years around the farm. They also have a good handle on the tractors:cool:

First time I drove on the interstate I was 14...the guy who helped us get alfalfa hay was sick the day we needed to get the hay. My Dad was desperate since we were getting a great deal.

We left very early in the morning, headed north on 101 down the Conjeo Grade into the valley, about twenty miles one way.

My Dad led with the Ford truck and flat bed, I followed in the El Camino with a small trailer. We made two trips.

That was in 1970/71. I can't even imagine doing that now!

I was 11...in a Chrysler Newport 1971 with the famous 383 four BBL.

I was 15, 1971 f100 3 on the tree. No P/B No P/S.

driving at 15

parking cars at the beach club at 16

bar boy at 16

bartender at 18

got laid at 16. First orgy at 25

was pushed off a dock for the first time in SCUBA at 15. Training consisted of reading Dacor regulator instructions. Sunk right to bottom and walked out.

Sometime around 10 years of age, too darn light to get the clutch in on the MF 35 tractor in the hay field, so had to get both feet on the pedal and use the steering wheel for leverage to get the thing to stop (on level ground).

Around 12 or so I guess I 'graduated to the Chev Cheyenne p/u. Dad would say, "Back the truck up to the garage.", so learned to use the mirrors from the start. Sister 4 years older, so we would practice starting, shifting and backing up in the driveway while she was brushing up for her license.

When I took drivers' Ed., the biggest thing I had trouble with was keeping that big old Mercury with the power steering from twitching all over the road, as everything I had driven before that had 'Armstrong power steering".

Skipped a geometry test so I could keep the appointment to take my drivers' test.

Les

Had my first wreck at 5.
Dad had a 57 /58 Chevy conv. baby blue + white..the kind that goes for stupid $$ on Barrett.
He was working BOTH sides of the blackmarket.
So in 1959 I climbed thru the back window (zippered ) vroom, play with stick,pull those levers.
Took out a haybarn, lots of farm equipment and beaters by 14.

Rika

One day maybe I'll learn. Right now I don't seem to get enough seat time.......

OK. So maybe I know just a little......

I started offroad at 12 and on road occasionally with increasing frequency as I approached 15 in Dad's 1961 Corvair pickup truck and his 1971 Volvo 164. I really liked the 164 but he got smart and sold it before I turned 16. One of his favorite things to do was make me stop on a hill and restart without killing the engine. I sure wish I could take him for a drive today :(

Hell, I couldn't say for sure. Honda 50 at five yelling for dad to come out of the garage and get me stopped when I was done (too short to touch the ground...so no stopping until dad came out).

My best buddy and I drove farm trucks and beater cars in the field at a very young age when my buddies dad was not home (probably 10-12).

first bike at 9 (moped), licensed at 14 with first car by 15(Simca). 15-20 bikes and 200+ cars since then. about 5 or 6 my mother left the keys in the car, I got in, turned the key and since it was in gear, drove thru the carport wall. funny thing is, decades later, while working on my 911, I reached thru the half open window, turned the key to spin it over thinking it was in neutral which it wasn't, and drove into the same wall.

I drove a car for the first time in the summer of 1981.

1980 chevrolet Chevette. Me and my dad started building radio control model airplanes in 1979. My dad, electrical engineer for Detroit Edison....actually learned to fly. He qualified and was accepted as a member of the Toledo Weak Signals Model Airplane Club. That club is fairly prestigious....primarily because of the show that they have every year. In model airplane land, this is the "holy grail" of shows.

Well, as a 13 year old I always climbed into the passenger seat of dad's car. Until that day in 1981:

"I want you to drive" he said to me.

"holy ****" and all went through my mind. At the same time, I wanted this new challenge, and though I would have never considered actually taking my parents cars for a drive, outside of a serious emergency...I wanted to try it out.

We carefully backed the car out. I was curious about how easy it was to get the "feel" of this incredible 65 horsepower device.

I did what dad told me, and suddenly...I'm at the controls of a 2000 pound vehicle traveling 45 miles per hour up a country road in Michigan. It was a Saturday morning, and I am pretty sure that a Dodge Aspen went past us. When we got to the flying field, 4 miles from my home, my dad had to direct me in the proper backing of the car so that we could unload the model planes from the yawning chevette trunk.

-I didn't just learn to drive from that chevette; I learned to fly. I have a Boeing 747 type rating [one of 1900 in the world, according to a magazine~], and 1500 hours in type, most as Captain. But that little car? I learned to drive in that thing. It was the vehicle that taught me that I have proprioceptive senses, something that not everyone has. I am indeed doing the correct job!

I was 12...the car was a '62 VW beetle.:)

13 in my sisters brand new CRV. it was fun