What'd you learn to drive in?

My buddy is building a 68 caddy with a 472 right now. I just pinstriped it a few weeks ago and went to his shop to do his air tanks for the airbags tonight. Theyre pretty cool cars!

 

1969 Pontiac Tempest, 350 -2bl, automatic

 

1962 Econoline with a 170-6 and a three on the tree. Grabby clutch, extremely vague steering, poor brakes and the wind pushing it around like a leaf. I'm teaching my 12 year old son to drive these days in my V10/auto F250. He doesn't know how good he has it...

 

1928 Model A. Department of Motor Vehicle guy who rode with me never even paid attention to my driving skills. He just kept telling me to turn here, go there, and keep driving. When we got out of the car, I asked, "Did I pass?" He said, "Uh, oh yeah." He admitted he was taken with the car and forgot to fill out the paperwork.

Cops used to stop me, not to give me a ticket, but to check out the car.

Ernest

 

In Dad's '59 Volvo coupe at Vallejo Square.

 

an old corvair with no doors, brothers and me would take one that uncle would bring back from the big city and we would terrorize the neighbors field back in the early 70s

 

1978 Buick Regal:



Learned a stick shift on a 1980 Chevette:

 

1953 Plymouth 4 door. My dads old work car. Learned driving on the head lands around the corn fields.

 

1970s Vauxhall Viva

 

my pops 55 chevy belair 2dr 235 3spd column shift in the late 60s. still have it with a 400 sbc and turbo350

 

1958 Chevy Brookwood with a 3 speed (on the column) in 1997. Also drove it in high school.

My classmates were thoroughly confused.

 

my 49 styleline. drove it to the end of our one way gravel road. on the way back it died and i had 3 or 4 of my neighbors backed up behind me while i was trying to get it started again... man my dad was PIST.

 

In 1965 I passed my test in a '60 Falcon. Looking back, I wasn't a very good driver at that time. Later my Mother bought a brand new '67 Camaro that I taught myself how to really drive. I would take it out on country roads in the evenings and finally got the feel of an automobile under me.

 

Willys CJ2A.

 

A 1965 VW Bug I had to fix the droped valve in #3 cylinder before I could drive it. I must have been 14 or 15.

 

My older sisters 58 Ford 4 door V8 w/ auto tranz.(time frame 1963-4) The kool thing was that she had to travel for her job, so when she had a day trip planned, I skipped school and got to drive as soon as we left the city. I probely had 2-3 thousand miles of experience by the time I took my drivers test on my 16th birthday. I drove the instructor about 2-3 miles and he said " you passed" and just how long have you been driving? How things change. All my kids had Driver education at school $ and had to take private driving lessons $ and have the instructor sign off , before they could take the test. It was worth it, they all survived the early years of driving, way to many kids don't. John

 

My first car was a 1951 Ford Rag top. Took it back to school south of Buffalo in a winter storm that took me 11 hours to get there on my own

 

The old man had a 50 ford pickup , I remember him bragging about the Merc flathead he put in it ,Anyways I was about 12 , I guess, and we lived a couple miles south of Libby, Montana , so Dad let me drive the 50 . I was always the shortest kid in my class , always right up front in the class pictures , So I'm hanging on the front edge of the old bench seat so I could reach the pedals , first gear was brutal , bucking like pro rodeo , second was a little better , and once we got to cruisin' speed , maybe 40 it went well, I made the first green light , but, the second light was red , and I braked and killed the engine , Dad had to reach over and push the starter button, (New technology in 2012, my ass) Any ways I was flustered again , starting out , and buckin' in first ,Granny, .... wasn't til I drove a few dozen miles , he said "you can start in second

 

1963 Dodge Powerwagon. It was my uncles farm truck and back in the early seventies when I was about 10. My job was to drive the truck while the farmhands mended the barbed wire fence. So that meant the truck was in low 4x4 and granny and just crept along the fence at walking speed no matter how steep or rough the terain was. that was my first experiance ever and soon after I was able to drive it on the road but only around the ranch/dairy while doing daily chores. I stayed at the farm in Idaho for the summers and was the best time of my life. Now there is no farm no ranch no land and nobody left alive, just 2 houses and a few of old delapidated barns full of dust.

 

I learned to drive in two cars. A Hornet Kart with twin Clinton A 490's, and a Mac Kart with twin Mac 20's. I was so surprised when I got my licence to find out that people out on the street weren't paying attention like the guys I was racing with!

 

Wow, some cool cars to learn in. Mine not so much. I had two, a 1984 Lincoln Continental that was my first 4 wheel road experience, and the I took my test in an extended 1990 Ford Aerostar that we got after trading in the Lincoln.

I'd been riding Honda and Suzuki dirt bikes for some time prior though.

RSD

 

'54 Ford 2-dr with a 223 six and OD trans....

First automatic I owned was a '69 Torino GT fastback. Much prefer a manual trans....

 

Early summer 1968, I was 7. Mom and dad just devorced, dad was working at Chevy garage in Dodge City and bought a '64 vette roadster 327 4-sp. He picked me and my little brother up for the week end, ended up crusin Wright park sat afternoon and down the cruise path along the river. Aske me if I wanted to try it. HELL YAH! Slid the seat up all the way, stuffed his jean jacket behind me, coached me through 15 kill its, then success. "Don't tell your mother, or we will both be in trouble." Still remember how
pissed little brother was, all he got to do was sit on his lap and steer. Oh man that brings back good memories.

 

Lol, me too.

 

This isn't what I learned to drive in so much as what I learned to drive a manual transmission in...I think most hear heads never really learn how to drive, only how to drive better. Most gearheads just instinctively know how to make anything w wheels do stuff most other ppl can't. My pops threw me in 70's Duster w 3 on the tree and a really bad carb, he put me behind the wheel, on a hill and told me " Don't stall, don't touch the brakes and don't roll backwards!" Don't remember how long it took but I also learned how to start a flooded car that day too!! Lol


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a '56 Ford big window PU and a '55 Desoto Fireflite/Firedome 4 door sedan. ...and maybe a '61 Plymouth Belvedere sedan just before I got my license exam. That was just too many years ago to remember! My Model A was not on the road yet.

 

My dad let me drive his 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass in the parking lot at the old Ontario Raceway. I drove around for hours as he sat in the passenger seat with a twelve pack and a bottle of vodka. He eventually got sauced and passed out so I had to drive us home. Great influence he was I loved that car, though.

 

My parents bought a 1964 Sprint Hardtop in 1979 for $900.00. The friend of my family, who sold it to them, had just installed a new front suspension, steering and brakes. The Sprint was intended to be a first car for my sister and me to drive, but it looked so bad my sister didn't want to be seen in it. I collected parts for the Sprint from all of the wrecking yards in Hayward, CA. My parents eventually signed the pink slip over to me as a 21st birthday present. I drove that car every day for 18 years, having it repainted and reupholstered three times! I eventually had or rebuilt almost everything mechanical on the car. I still have that car, but it now only gets driven on warm rainless weekends.

 

"63 VW Beetle !

 

VW for me too...a VW bus. At least for my earliest experience behind the wheel, on my Dad's lap. He let me steer. I was just a little kid at the time. Dad: "Now you don't have to fight the bumps in the road too hard...just hold the wheel kind of easy-like. Ok, a little to the left..."