What did you learn to drive in?

[Esprit]

Was chatting with Snoozin' and we were talking about the cars we grew up with and learned to drive in, and it struck me that I'd not seen this topic on NZH before.

When I got my learners/restricted, I drove around in the car I still drive daily today, my '87 spacewagon. Shortly afterwards though I got my family hand-me-down '77 Hillman Avenger... that car was SO great, used to love it and it was so much fun to drive, I would consider another one as a daily when my Spacewagon gives up the ghost. It was white, slow and smelled like cat's piss whenever it rained.

I also have fond memories of my early driving days in my dad's old '76 Ford Escort work van. The thing was loaded up with about 900kg of tools in the back most of the time so it sat pretty much on the bumpstops all the time. If it got going sideways you really had to watch out! I remember the gearstick was broken on it with just a stub left behind, so in true plumbers fashion it had a piece of 1/2" copper pipe over the top for a gearstick. Only problem was, after a week or so, the copper would fatigue and you'd lose the bottom 2". So the gearstick got shorter and shorter until you were driving with a stub, at which point you'd have to pull over and rummage around in the scrap bin in the back and find another piece of 1/2", cut it to size and then continue on your journey with a shiny new gearstick!

Aah good times.

Bonus memory of my mate's dad's identical work-van in which the floorpans had rusted through so they'd bonded in some of his mum's old oven trays with liquid-nails.... they still had the burn marks from batches of scones on them too... and the bloody thing still got WOFs!


Share your stories.

[DURTYEF3]

Im only 20 but when i first learnt to drive @ 13 it was the old mans Honda city Turbo in the backyard. Wish i hadda known what a turbo was and how cool they are now back then lol

Other then that my first car wa a EX lancer. learnt how to flat shift (crap shift) in that car 8)

And i used to drive my older bros Hyundai Pony to school and think i was the shit, with my AM radio up loud with that whole Frequency crap sounding like a turbo spooling lol ops: and a corn beef can with holes as a tip :ph34r:

Ahh the good ol days :wink:

[VTAKYO]

First drove my mums old EG8 when I was 12ish... Just up and down our driveway, learning the gears and stuff. Then started to drive in dads '01 Maxima and Mums 99 CRV, both auto, just before I got my learners, just up and down the main street at the lake when we were on holiday... about 2 or 3 cars per hour traffic flow. As soon as I turned 15 I got my learners and my first car, an EG4 MX, to learn in around town.

[berman]

I was learning to drive in a rusty mk3 coathanger round the house while mum was out, and then a 69 mini thou in Taupo with my mate, he had a 1.2km gravel drive up Palmer Mill Rd that I nearly put it down a 100ft cliff trying to get it sideway's like the rally guys do :thumbsup:

My 1st two car's I fully owned were a 75 Vauxhall Viva (nicknamed the Boxhole Beaver) and a 74 Billy B... bloody english cars

[CRX_VTiR]

My mum took me for my first driving lesson in her immaculate 1987 BMW 320i Automatic. I scared the shit out of her and probably the car too, and she told me to buy my own bloody car- a 1987 Daihatsu Charade Turbo, for which I paid $1000. Brilliant wee thing- kept it for two and a half years.

[AccordB20A]

lol 1940 something morris minor. 850 whole cc's. but that was in a paddock when i was little. On the road was a 1977 hillman avenger. Still have the car to this day. mum gave it to me. its a project waiting restoration.

[CRZYSi]

the car i learnt to drive in when i was about 12 i think was a
1965 Toyota Corona RT40

[Vader]

1970-something Billy Bunter, otherwise known as Hillman Hunter.

[98vtir]

Learnt to drive at 13 in a paddock in a 1964 EH Holden with fibreglass front end.

Learnt to drive on the roads in my Mums 1969 HT GTS Monaro, such a tank to drive.

[mit5u]

1980 something datsun ute

column change

[bmgjet]

89 lancer MX then a integra XSI for my learners and restricted.

[Sleepy]

I'm young - 18 in a week so it was 92 Auto Primera, my first car given to me by my grandparents, a free car!

Although I was/am an ungrateful bastard so I hated it, even though it was tidy and had low k's. ops:

[Reaper_2000]

i learnt in a toyota ops: ops:

[MMJA]

Learnt to drive in my dads 1990 Toyota Corona automatic, drove around in that for 2 years, installed head deck and a 15" sub in it so I wasn't complaining.

Then I wanted to learn a manual so I went on trademe and got myself a 1972 Morris 1300 no wof no rego for $110. The exhaust fell off on the way back because there was pretty much no fluid in its suspension that it's sacked to the ground. The ride was the stiffest I've ever felt it's basically like no springs. Anyways drove around my neighbourhood in that every day (just around the block) to learn manual, pissed my neighbours off too since it had no exhaust and must have punched out 110dB easy. Then eventually I was driving around my mates factory when it ran outta gas. Mate went back into the factory and got a can of 'gas'. Poured it in then tried to start but started pissing out with white smoke. Then my mate smelt the can and said 'uh oh, diesel...' So basically I put it on trademe for parts and ended up selling it for $100.

My next car was a 1986 Toyota Corona 1.8L GL sedan manual which I bought for $800. I just wanted a manual car at that time and basically was an impulse buy off trademe. That car lasted me about 6 months until one day some random asses threw a rock through the right rear window. They did it in the night and when I got up for work the next day I just saw glass every where and the rock sitting on the back seat. Bloody pissed off because they didn't even take anything. Anyways I left it off the road for the month and one of my mates was interested in taking it off my hands. He took it for a wof in which it failed spectacularly on rust pretty much everywhere. Basically to fix it all woulda cost too much money so I put it on trademe and ended up selling it for $120.

About a year or so after that in October 2006 I got my ITR 8)

[zerone]

1986 2nd Gen Mistubishi Lancer
Lancer EX Turbo GSR
which i think had manual 4 gear trans which involved going revers by pressing hard down on the shift knob.

panicked once forgot about break and clutch and all I could see was my dad screaming at me for going past the nuns in the catholics school at 100+ km/h.
(we were practicing in the parking area)

[Sleepy]

Originally Posted by MMJA

'uh oh, diesel...'

fkin lol

[Trivium]

I learnt in my first car...an AE86 that I brought off an old man when I was 12 for $900....didnt know what it was at the time..appart from the fact it did skids blew it up 2 years later (where i grew up dad was the cop so didnt really need a licence lol) and was amazed at someone who paid $3k for it with a blown engine ops:

If only I'd have known what it was and what it was worth

[Kiwi XTR2]

HR Holden 186 Special

Then my Datsun 180B that I had aircraft landing-lights installed in the hi-beam mounts

[lowproz]

toyota cressida was what i first drove in the backyard
then a 1989 accord, 240000ks and no cambelt changed lol

[Nicknamed_13]

Learnt on my moms VW golf mk2 manual back home. It was on some country roads. That was when i was 12 or 13. Can't remember.

I got my learner licence and drove a Honda Civic VTI auto.

[EURO R]

1985 S12 Silvia, thena 95 MMC Diamonte....

[Danielle]

First car I ever sort of drove was my brother Toyota Cressida (auto). He took me to a carpark in Henderson and told me to put my foot on the gas and turn the steering wheel full lock haha. So I did.... and didn't again after that ops:

The car I actually learnt in was a Mazda mx6 (the old as ugly ones) and it had a digital dash so I thought it was cool. Gimmie a break, I was 15! So yeah I mounted the kerbs alot in Glen Eden and then about 3 weeks into my learning how to drive, Mum wrote it off into a parked car... lol? So the I waited and waited until my birthday when dad helped me buy my very own first car.... a 1986 Toyota Corolla liftback - it was 2003 and the numberplate was so flukey... MS2003 :wink: Drove it to the ground.

So yeah that's my long car story.

[Remax]

1972 Volvo 144s; it was bright yellow.
Had my first crash in it too; rear ended a Corolla (write off) and I drove home with a crooked headlight and slightly twisted frnder.

Picture this; in butter yellow:

[garg]

Out on the farm in an old school Massey Ferugsun 30??? or something when I was about 10 or 11. Finally got my frist car when I was 15, an old Toyota Corona diesal station wagon, it was a beast. Then shortly after I turned 16 I sold the station wagon and a one of my cattle beasts and bough a DA6...

Oh the good old days!

[Snoozin]

I learnt to drive PROPERLY in a Bedford J1 truck around age 10-11. No power steering, no synchro, just plain awesome spec. Once we carried a 2.5 ton septic tank on it, I recall dad having serious concerns about getting up a certain steep hill near home with the load on board! Was an ex-Telecom tow truck, still had the stripy front bumper and the beacon on the roof. I loved that beacon!

I was driving a Fordson Dexta tractor prior to that, but it didn't really count, as due to being young and not overly strong I needed assistance to push the clutch in on that thing!!!

Next I moved on to what would become my first car, although I bought it before I had a license... a 1981 Datsun 720 flatdeck ute. Road legal and everything! Taught me the art of sideways (big paddocks ftw!) and how to successfully hook 2nd gear doing standstill burnouts, with a column shift. Resplendent in beige, with bullbars and mudgrip rear tyres. Epic rural spec.

Other awesome cars of the folks I managed to drive, included mums VK Commodore Berlina wagon, which I got well and truly busted doing smoky skids around the roundabout in the middle of Rongotea while mum and dad were out for a night. Dad had a 74 Leyland Marina 262. This thing was such a sleeper, Aussie assembled 2.6l inline 6, his had triple SU's, headwork, big cam, high compression, headers and exhaust... around 200hp from that sucker. 3 spd manual made for epic drag race victories, as 1st gear was longer than Ron Jeremy's schlong. I recall dad sitting in the passengers seat and encouraging me to "drop the clutch when the revs get to about 4" at the intersection of Waitohi Rd and Taipo Rd. Ahhh those were the days.

Man I sound like a bogan.