What cars did you drive before you were old enough to legally drive?

[andy18s]

At 5 or 6 I was running around the garden on a bright green Malagutti,always on it till the only way to keep me off it was to hide the fuel.....

Moved onto geared bikes,which got me into a few brushes with Da Law....

My old man used to run a wood treatment preservation site which involved a lot of forklift trucks so at 14 I was helping him out driving a Bonser flt,with a 4sp manual gearbox ect

This progressed into shunting hgvs around the yard.

Every now and then we would spend the weekend up at Black Rock sands in N Wales,which allowed driving on the beach. Which was fun.....

At the time I was driving us back and to the yard in a Vauxhall Viva,mostly early mornings and being out in the sticks meant no police presence

1st road "legal" vehicle was a DT50 at 16, with an 80cc engine fitted.....next was a Ts125x with an Rm125 engine for mucho wheelies.....

[Noel Tidybeard]

on the fields whilst we were on holiday

allegro 1500super

renner 12 estate

friends dads saab 99 auto

 

used to sit in pas seat and my dad would let me steer the renner on holiday and at home- grandad who was following some of the time said he knew when i was steering as the car was un-naturally close to the left, lol

[EssDeeWon]

On private property way back when I was 15 I drove a Toyota Spacecruiser.

 

Also I seem to remember having a spin in my older cousins mk2 Fiesta 957cc when I was probably 15/16.

[Royale80]

Wolseley Six auto, OHJ 917M

Used to drive it around the factory grounds where my father used to work when I was 15 ish upwards. Used to have a go with the caravan on the back as well.

Did slide it on snow once into a banking but the car was so strong it bounced off with no damage.

 

Steve

[Timewaster]

A 1300 Allegro and a Chevette.

 

I thought the Allegro was okay to drive but the Chevette had a really sharp clutch and I bunny hopped and stalled allover the place.

 

More proof if it were needed that all Vauxhalls....

[AlsoMike]

First car I ever drove was my dads Toyota Corolla in about 1994/5 when I was 12ish, on private land like, with him in the car. Still a hoot tho. Then prob a mates Mk2 Fiesta that he bought when we were about 15, that all ended when another ex-mate of ours managed to run him down with it tho... Don't play with cars kids!

[mercrocker]

First thing I ever drove was an Anglia van which belonged to a school-mate's Dad.  

 
I was 12.   It didn't go well - the driving that is, the van went like a bloody rocket.    Very nearly up the arse of his Dad's P5, after taking out his Mum's little wire milk bottle holder - one of those with a little dial to show milky how many pintas to leave.   I always remember that - she waved its mangled remains in his face (he took the blame) but luckily the old man was out.   I still don't know how I stopped in time.  

 

At 14 I was bombing round a disused quarry in a Herald that a mis-guided youth leader had let us play with before he broke it up for spares and around the same age my Uncle used to come over from Finland and always gave me a few lessons in his Fiat 128.     This was practically brand new, LHD of course and loads of fun.  

  

There was also an episode in my last summer at school when I was the only person of a group who could take some piss-head's 3 Litre Capri home for him (I think the reasoning was as I didn't have a licence I couldn't get banned....) 

 

All of this paled into insignificance when I found out the new American kid at school not only owned, but had driven, his own Plymouth Fury back home.   Coming to England to finish school must have been a right downer.....

[DVee8]

77 R reg 1.6L

Mk1 Scorocco 1.6.would love to still it,but rotten as a.

 

Mk2 escort van 1.3

[New POD]

A Lambretta 200 was purchased in a crowd funding exercise by 4 mates (all 14 years old) who paid £5 each to a MOD who was investing in a Vespa. We removed the lights and mirrors and flogged them to his MOD mates obtaining £22 in total.  

 

We removed the side panels and pushed it through the woods to the beach, and then proceeded to rag it across the beach.

 

Over the weeks it became clear that it was getting hard to start, and eventually we couldn't get it going. It was left in someone's shed.  I have no idea what happened to it. The reg document was never sent off.

 

It's a nice beach. These days Miseryside Police have 2 quad bikes and Sefton Council have a Landrover and they tend to attempt to catch people on motorcrossers and  the like.

 

Here are some pictures I took whilst out the other week

 

 

[Partridge]

I don't know how young I was (probably very) but the first car I ever drove was my Dad's Citroen Xantia estate.

 

When I was about 10 I drove my grandparent's friend's XJ40 around the drive way.

 

I drove the same gentleman's 205 Junior into a hedge on the same drive way when I was 15 and broke an indicator. He was OK with it, and only scrapped the car last year.

[Vince70]

I had two Escort 1300 gts before I was old enough to have a licence and would occasionally drive my fathers Ambassador after my mate taught me to drive in his 1100 mini special.

[Captain Furious]

First ever was a friends dads G reg XR3i, this was circa 1994 and I'd have been about 15 or 16, so the XR3i was a 'pretty tasty mota' still, in my mind at least. Had a blat round an old airfield that they were in the process of turning into an industrial park. Was just about the most exciting day of my life up until that point, until security came round and told us to bugger off.

 

Around the same time a couple of older mates had a thing where they'd buy a 'rashmobile' and take it down some remote back roads to give it a good 'rashing' inevitably it would be an old mini, because this was when they were considered scrap and could be had out the local paper for £50 'spears or reapers' Of course, I wanted a go now I'd driven the XR3i and was therefore an experienced driver. So I get in and go roaring off up the road, only this mini had a quirk where the back brakes worked and the front brakes didn't so much, causing me to promptly stuff it in the hedge. We quickly extracted it using the road legal support vehicle and went home before any passers by notified the five-o

 

I didn't do any driving on roads again until I was legal, I was properly bricking it about being caught.

[PiperCub]

Being a good boy, I never drove on the road before my 17th birthday though this might have had something to do with living next door to a traffic cop of the more officious variety (he wasn't all bad just never off duty). So my early driving was all off the road, the victims - ie: dad's cars - from the age of 12 when I went from short to tall were: Fiat 128, Wolseley Six, Fiesta 1.1 and Mk1 Cavalier. Also throw in a tractor or two at a mates farm and a couple of off-road (OK, more like 'Field-bike' if you recall the once commonly used term) motorbikes. 

 

There were few places to drive off road where I grew up so that meant I was inspired to pass my car test ASAP after my 17th (about four weeks later - it was possible in 1983!). Did my bike test some time after that. 

[DodgeRover]

Growing up near a pit tip aged 12 I successfully pestered my cousin into giving me his 250cc Bultaco trials bike. Following a engine rebuild it was quiet and reliable, a mate had a 350 version and we used to ride down the abandoned railway lines linking the old pits. We managed the other side of Sheffield down to near Nottingham one day

[Cheggers]

A Mark 2 Escort van around the yard behind the car spares shop where I had a Saturday job aged 15.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Faker]

33 years ago when I was 12 in a gold simca 1100 vrm KIA5533.

 

That progressed to a Chrysler alpine - MIA7178 at 13.

[Lacquer Peel]

A 1300 Allegro and a Chevette.

 

I thought the Allegro was okay to drive but the Chevette had a really sharp clutch and I bunny hopped and stalled allover the place.

 

More proof if it were needed that all Vauxhalls....

 

I drove my mum's Chevette as soon as I could reach the pedals, at age 7, I was a tall boy, I don't remember it being awkward to drive. There's a long farm track leading to my granny's house and I drove all sorts of crap up it.

[UltraWomble]

 

This - which eventually became my first car at 17.

[fordperv]

The main one was a red 1990 1.6L sierra which was my dads pride and joy the car was relatively new at around 4 years old, this was the first car i ever kicked the back end out on, he used to take me on private land and let me drive around, i remember the day he told me i was learning car control, he told me to drive then turn and clutch kick it, then control the skid, this was so much fun for a 13 year old lad, when he was confident i had the ability to drive when him and my mum went shopping he used to leave me the keys so i could drive around the carpark while they were busy, i have so many happy memories of that car

 

There were others on private land a 1978 e21 316 that my dad bought me to tinker with, a 1983 1.3 metro that a lad gave me for lending him my playstation for the afternoon, im not counting cars that i drove on road with L plates, i rode lots of bikes on the fields by my house, i taught my mate to ride a bike on a honda c90 the worst thing he did was rev it right up then knock it into 1st gear he fell off

[xtriple]

Was allowed to sit on parents/grandparent lap and steer from a very young age on the main roads as well! Loved it. Had a Jaguar 3.4 'S' type bought for £60 which got ragged everywhere and was frequently on the roads around the villages where I lived. The nearest copper was about 10 miles away... Then progressed to underage motorcycle riding at which I was most proficient! Being underage I mean... That culminated in BIG accident and much trouble...

 

Fortunately I was in hospital so the fall out sort of missed me and by the time I was anything like fit, they had abandoned the case! So I got away with it.

 

I taught Kyle to drive the same way I learned: sat on my lap on the (genuinely) private road where we lived. When he got older/bigger we used to swap seats at the top of the road just through the gates and he'd drive us the mile home. Granted, most of my cars were autos so no gear changing. His first lesson in gear changing was at the outlying road at the track event we were just about to do in in my Porsche 928 S2 with a dogleg box and vicious clutch. He was fine and enjoyed his drive in a rally prepped MG Maestro much more than my orrible Porsche!

[Skut]

Ford Cortina Mk1

HA Van 

Cortina MK4 1.3ohv

Granada Mk2 2.8 GLi Auto Estate

Lada 1600

Marina 1.3 SDL Coupe

Chevette 1.3 L 3dr

Corolla Liftback 

Tredia 1600 8speed

Celeste 1400

Celeste 1600

Lancer 1200

 

 

Blimey.

 

Surprised to see someone else started their underage driving career in a Celeste.

 

Celeste 1600 GSR

Fiat Panda 1000CL

[maxpower]

Dark blue H reg mk 2 cortina...even used the teachers car park

[puddlethumper]

"Back in the day" around 1965, when I was twelve, I was driving tractors on a farm right out in the sticks in The N.E. of scotworld. Either a Massey 35 or a 35x with attached machinery, trailers, baler, spud digger etc,. Didn't seem any difference between the two apart from one had a different cab. 

My mate at school, who lived in the nearest village, his dad had a scrapyard and my mate used to drive wrecks round the yard. In the summer hols of 1968 when we were 14 his dad said he could have a car to drive, bugger about with, round the tracks where we lived, and there were quite a few. We went down the yard to "prep" our machine one weekend which entailed ripping bits off it that we thought we didn't need. The first one was a Morris 8, I think, and we took the mudguards,  running boards, doors, boot lid, back seats, all the glass, except the windscreen, and anything else we could get shot of to lighten the load. His dad put another smaller tank on it so we could run it on Paraffin. Had to start it on petrol till it was warmed up a bit, then it was all systems go in our stripped "hot rod".

Needless to say we "had" to go on actual roads now and again to get to the next track but they were all back country roads and we new the local plod who basically didn't do much. We used to have to drive down through the village to get to the first off road bit and nobody bothered about it.

Needless to say all the money we could get hold of was spent on Paraffin. Pocket money, deposit bottles we begged, borrowed and erm "acquired". 

The following year we moved up to an Austin 10. Two extra horse. Man that thing moooved!  Well, to us it did. 

Nearly three months of school hols bliss. Totally shagged car by the time we had finished with it.

Nowadays, who would let their 14 year old disappear all day like that? No seat belts and  no doors and no clue where they were?

It was absolutely fookin brilliant.

[hennabm]

On an old deserted parade ground I drove my dad's Reliant Regal Supervan III. LVL 937J

 

Then at the age of 15 I started work and started driving 7.5 tonnes around the yard and progressed up to Artcs before I passed my car test.

[JayW]

Drove literally everything on the road from the age of 13. The very first was an '83 blue Cortina Crusader which had belonged to my recently deceased brother in law.

 

After that it was just a plethora of everything and anything. Police didn't give a shit, at least you were keeping out of trouble!