Today, March 16, is Driving Instructor Day, an occasion to honor those who teach others how to drive. As this 1960 photo from Minami Fukuoka Driving School shows, it can be a dreary existence repeating the same meandering route many times a day. During my first on-road lesson, my instructor and I came up on a cop that had pulled someone over on our route. “Slow down,” my instructor said, rolling down his window as we neared. As we passed traffic stop he stuck his head out of the car and yelled, “Fuck you!” as he gave him the bird. It was quite the education.
How did you learn how to drive?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Who in the automotive community would you like to say thank you to?“.
Well, despite Ben wanting to to give it to Nihonnotekko right away for thanking him, we still had to tally the votes from the rest of the staff.
Nor surprisingly, important figures in automotive history received much-deserved gratitude. Soichiro Honda was thanked by james, Akio Toyoda by Ian G. Enzo Ferrari by BlitzPig, Mr K was thanked by both Franxou and John M, and ra21benj made an excellent case for Keiichi Tsuchiya that everyone should read.
Some words of appreciation went out not to specific individuals, but a general category of people. Rotor Nutcase gave a shout out to the purists in car companies that push through the sports cars we know and love. Negishi no Keibajo lauded the designers of beautiful cars not watered down by committee. And much to Ben’s chagrin, this week’s winner was 4non, who acknowledged the unsung heroes fighting the good fight.
This is a general thanks.
To anyone who prioritises smiles per gallon over miles per gallon,
To everyone who doesn’t want to make something that is just loud, or announces itself, but something that works and works well.
To anyone who recognises that the mundane can be enjoyable.
To everyone who frowns at a schematic of something generic and cost effective and thinks, “how can I engineer this better?”
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
here in the Netherlands a license is between 2 and 5k…so more than a pretty penny for a late teen.
It’s common to fail on your first try and the DMV has a waiting list for exams in the multiple months, then there’s the theoretical exam and the practical one…
Lucky for me however I’m a decent driver and during my exam run a driver ran a red light which the instructor didn’t catch…but I did.
we narrowly avoided a collision and the instructor immediately ended the test…which usually only happens when you fail MISERABLY…so i took the car back to the DMV lot in sunken spirits, dreading the extra expenses and having to do another exam in a few months i went into the waiting room and when the instructor came back I PASSED!
It was pretty straightforward when I first learned to drive- Started with my mom’s automatic Fit and my dad’s manual Civic, passed my driving test with no problems…
Somewhat related though- I was one of the lucky ones when I got my driver’s license in Japan. And by lucky, I mean I only had to spend 2 full days at the Prefectural Driver’s License Center waiting as they processed my paperwork.
For some reason, my home state of Ohio is one of the few US states which has reciprocity with Japan, so I didn’t have to go through the typical 5+ failures before passing, and I got my 400cc bike endorsement as well. It felt like kind of a waste that I only left after a year!
Also while I was waiting, I met a couple visiting from Oklahoma. The wife was Japanese and was renewing her license while they were in town. We chatted all afternoon and they invited me out for yakiniku the following day. All in all not a bad experience, and I’ve still got my (long expired) Japanese driver’s license.