How old when you learned to drive?

[WolfeMacleod]

Here's me...

[legion]

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.

[sketchers356]

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.

[96740]

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.

[Joeaksa]

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.

[Hugh R]

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

[TerryH]

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.

[HardDrive]

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.

[DARISC]

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 ).

[imcarthur]

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

[snowman]

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!!!

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

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.

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

Spooky.

[JV911SYDNEY]

Originally Posted by legion

17--after I got my license

LOL

me - go karts @ 8. road car @ 16

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by Dottore

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

Spooky.

NO cars had 1st gear synchros when I learned.

[gprsh924]

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

[Tidybuoy]

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.

[ckissick]

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.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

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

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

[Evans, Marv]

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.

[Seahawk]

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.