Might as well start with some fun here. So this is about testing for your first drivers license.

The year?
What car did you use- make model, etc?
Did you pass the driving test the first time?
If not, did you use the same car the second time?
Did you pass the second time?
How old were you the first time you drove a car or truck?

It was 1961. For me. the first time I tested was with my moms 1959 Chevy Biscayne 4 door, 283 with an Powerglide tranny. A major land slug. I did not pass my first try at it. I failed because as I stopped for a red light, traffic creeped forward and so did I. That was the reason I failed. I had to wait 2 weeks before I could test again. I thought, screw this garbage, so I went in the car that I built- a 1934 Ford coupe with a punched out CSB, Lincoln Zephyr 3 speed, a 3" drop front axle, a 40 Ford 1 ton rear axle with enclosed drive shaft with 3.78 gears, headers, cam, and scavenger pipes. I think the DPS officer was so impress that a 14 year old could build something like it that I could have run down a pedestrian and passed the test. He never looked at my driving but just looked the car over from the passenger seat. My mom thought it was crazy, my dad thought I was using my head. I thought it was both as I got my license. Considering I drove alone to the test with no license, I should have failed but we lived only 3 blocks from the DPS station. I had been driving since I was 8.

So that's my experience at the first drivers license. Statistically, over 50% fail their first attempt at a drivers license in the USA.

 

1971.
Took the test in my mom's 1961 Plymouth Belvedere.
First thing the tester asks, "Young man aren't you going to put on your seat belt?"
"Uh, sir this car doesn't have seat belts."

Driving training taught the 10 -2 grip and cross over turning technique, not so easy with a rectangular steering wheel. Thanks Chrysler!
The speedometer was some kind of miniature sideways barber pole. It spun and little boxes filled up with red the faster you went, problem was it stuck sometimes.

Tester, "Young man, how fast are you going?".
I bang on the top of the dash like I seen my mom do a hundred times,
"uh, I'm not really sure sir."

At least the transmission was a piece of cake, push button on the dash.
You chose your direction same as you changed a radio station.

I passed the first attempt, out of pity I guess.

First time behind the wheel I was around 13 or so.
My dad had a car in the driveway that wouldn't start and wanted to push it into the back yard. The back yard was sloped with a culvert at the end.
He wanted me to sit behind the wheel and press the brake when car had rolled to end of the property. He asked me if I knew which one was the brake.
I knew the long one on the Right was the gas and the brake was on the Left.
As indignent as a kid can sound I told him, "Of Course I Did".
So, I'm behind the wheel like Mario Andretti and off we go. I can see my dad huffing and puffing in the rearview mirror. We are over the hump and I pull away, picking up steam.
Being the excellent driver I am, I decide to brake early glance down at the floor board and What's This? Three pedals? Brake you idiot! Brake! The brake is on the left!
So, there I go. Screaming and frantically pumping the clutch to a rendezvous with my very first wreck.

 

I went on my 14th birthday, in August, 1957. I drove the family car, a 1953 Buick Special, no air, Dynaflow transmission, no power steering, no power brakes. I passed the first time and then went to work that afternoon driving a 56 Chevy pickup delivering auto parts to garages and service stations. I guess I was about 12 when my dad first let me drive.

 

Birthday April of 1999. Dad picked me up from school and we went to the dmv, he had a 1994 Ranger Ext Cable 5 speed but didn't bring his truck. He decided I would take the test in a bigger vehicle. He Grabbed the keys to a tire test truck, 1996 chevy 2500,crewcab Longbed, 454 with a big ol front and rear Ranch hand bumper.

I scored a 96 on the drivers test and a 94 on written. Parallel parking was a tad difficult but I got er in there (barely)

I started driving at 11 years old, we lived in VA on the family farm and had a 3 mile long dirt road to the house. Dad would park the 86 Mustang at the end of the road if it was raining or snowing, when the school bus would drop me off I'd get in the car and drive it to the house.

 

Around 1978- I didn't get my license when I was 17, I actually had my license suspended when I was 14. In my neighborhood all my friends were 3-4 years older than me and they all started getting their license and would always let me drive their cars. One night a friend of mines mom let him borrow her Cadillac and gave him $20 to fill it. Well he picked me up and his girlfriend and we spent the money on beer, cigarettes. They drank and got it on in the huge back seat while I drove them around all night . At the end of the night we were almost out of gas and money so my friend decided we should siphon gas from other vehicles so his mother wouldnt kill him. He siphoned gas from about 2 cars on this quiet dark road, as we pulled away and leaving the neighborhood I got pulled over and we got busted. Someone had called the police.

Around 1982- I was 18 and finally able to get my license. I went their with my moms 1977 mercury cougar xr7, that thing was such a boat I barley was able to get it between the cones but I did. I did everything great but my instructor for some reason everytime I came to a stop sign he would say make a right, next stop sign he'd say make a right, he did that a several times until finally I got the nerve to ask him why all the right hand turns. He said, you don't know what your doing? I said, no, he said I wasn't making complete stops and I said oh I know that's because there's no one coming . Well he let me do it again and I stopped and stood there for about 5 seconds every time then I'd leave.. I ended up passing first shot

 

I took the driving and written exams together on the first day possible after my 16th birthday back in MO. The only option I had for the test vehicle was our lime green 1973 Ford Gran Torino station wagon. Man, that thing was a beast. The only points taken off on the driving portion was for parallel parking. LOL!

 

Took the road exam the day I turned 16 in 1983. I had already completed the written exam a few days before. I was anxious to get my license since I had my car for 6 months already.

I don't even remember the car I took the test in. Back then you could take drivers education through high school for cheap and it would reduce your insurance rates too so that is what I did. The test car was some 4 door early 1980's econo-box.

I passed the first time. The only deduction she gave me was my tires touched the center line once when I rounded a corner. She was impressed that I could parallel park in one try, she though it was a fluke and made me do it again.

I was pretty young the first time I drove. My dad let me drive in the mall parking lot when it was closed, I think I was around 11 or 12. I had up my learners license a few months after I turned 14 and started driving legally then.

 

I took drivers education so I never took a driving test at DPS

I got my Permit in 2000, and License in 2001

 

I turned 15 1/2 and got my permit and could ride a motorcycle legally on the street in 1967. Took my 250 Honda Scrambler out to look for a job 2 days later. Turned 16 while I was on surfing trip so I didn't go for the full driver license until about a week later. Mom took me to the DMV in our 63 Country Squire station wagon (big, long, and wide with a 390 in it). I think all of us old guys took the test in some kind of behemoth, that was all that was on the road, unless your family had a Fiat or Simca or some such thing. Passed first shot and didn't have to parallel park, but I could. About 2 weeks later I had a second job and was saving for my own car/truck. 6 months later I was the proud owner of a 66 Dodge van complete with a 273 V-8 and auto trans, I drove it fearlessly until it's death!

First time driving, I was around 9. My Dad would put us on his lap and let us steer (on public streets). By the time I was about 12 he let us push the pedals AND steer! Those were the good 'ol days!

BTW I still have that old Honda Scrambler, going to restore it some day.........yea right!

 

Better get at the CL72! I have a CL77, my first bike that I restored some thirty years back, parts were relatively easy to find and cheap. Front fender stays are getting really hard to find and expensive.

So on topic I started driving in 1961 at 14 with a learner's permit in a very new '62 Ford Fairlane, 260 2v, fordomatic. Had been driving a 1945 JD B with hand clutch and manual start on Granpa Frank's farm for several years prior to that.

 

1979 on my 16th birthday. I remember it was a Friday, because we had a football game that night with the other HS in town. I wore my jersey that day and the instructor said, my son plays for Corvallis (I went to Crescent Valley) and he asked what position I played and told him defensive end. His son played on defense too, but I don't recall the position..

Anyway, drove MY 1971 Ford LTD 2dr for the test. Passed the first time. He docked me for not slowing down enough for a RR crossing and I changed multiple lanes too fast one time..

He wished me luck in the game after he told me I passed. I thanked him and was able to drive myself to the game that night.. (we lost to Corvallis that night, but I had my drivers license!)

I had been "driving" since I was around 12 years old, but that was just backing the car in the driveway to put it in the middle to wash it... Sometimes, I ventured out on the street and did a quick loop around the cul-d-sac...

Then we moved to a rural part of town, and I was probably 14 when Dad would pull over once the road turned to gravel. He'd slide over and I'd get behind the wheel and drive the rest of the way home of about 3 miles. He'd also let me drive to the dump. This was in his 1971 F250 (that he still owns BTW). I'd driven tractors, motorcycles, carts and the like all the time too.

Mitch

 

I grew up in NJ, where you had to be 17 to even get a learner's permit. I took my test in mom's 66 Pontiac Catalina station wagon, passed the first time. I think I was 15 the first time I actually sat in the driver's seat and drove a car other than up and down the driveway.

 

I took the test in 1960 when I was 16 yrs old. I had very few hours behind the steering wheel when i took it. I failed it the first time because I couldn't parallel park the thing, a 1955 Chevrolet with a 6 cyl engine and a 3 speed manual. Went back 2 weeks later and passed. They eventually did away with the parallel parking requirement presumably because so many people failed. When the tester told me to stop as quickly as I could safely when he said "Stop", I hit the brakes quickly enough and hard enough that he slid into the floor! Ha! No seat belts until a few years later.

 

I was 14 and taking driver's ed in high school. My baseball coach was my instructor. We used a '62 Rambler 4 dr like the one pictured. 6 cylinder with a 3 speed on the column. I was able to catch a little rubber from speed shifting to 2nd gear and coach was not all that impressed! He threatened to flunk me if I did it again. This was in late 1962 and received my license at 15 in January 1963. I started driving with my dad in a 1954 Desoto at 13 yrs old and have had many a happy mile since.

 

I was driving tractors, quads, dirt bikes ect. before I was 7. One night after my mom went to bed when I was 12 years old I decided it was time to try the "real deal". I found the keys to her Mitsubishi Galant and and drove around for hours. I did that for maybe 6 months, until one night my neighbor busted me.......I didn't get behind the wheel again until I got my license at 16

I did pass my first time. I used my 96 F150 to take the test.