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 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!
We “stole” the Toyota Starlet from the garage of a friend of mine when we were 14 while the parents were not at home during the night. 😀
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.
My first true experience behind the wheel was in my dad’s old Plymouth Reliant. Unfortunately after a few practice sessions, that car blew a head gasket. After that I resumed learning in either the old Ford Taurus, or more importantly the Plymouth Grand Voyager. I was pretty good with city limits and the freeways as I’ve always had an interest in cars and driving. But what about learning / navigating through tighter confines? Read on…
I enjoyed washing cars, but since California droughts taught us to conserve water we’d try to wash the cars over the front lawn. I was still on my driver’s permit and obviously not with my own set of keys. When my parents were out running errands I’d find that AAA emergency wallet plastic key in the office desk drawer and learn to maneuver the van out the garage, onto the driveway, back it in onto the lawn, trust my mirrors, swing wide, 3-point turn, etc. The van’s boxy shape gave me trustworthy lines of sight when squeezing between the other car and the lawn hedges. I learned to be “gentle” with the grass by waxing on / off the steering wheel ONLY when the van was in motion, as to not tear the grass off the lawn. I was probably just as good as those semi truck driver’s backing their 53’s into the loading dock.
A few months later I took my driver’s license test in the van and coasted with a 97/100. However, my parents eventually saw all the grease / wear marks on the AAA plastic key that they ripped me a new one.
I started in a gravel lot, sitting on my dad’s lap shifting gears, when I was 8. Later, I practiced with him sitting in the passenger seat once my feet could reach all the pedals easily. All of this was in the same car (Rocket Hilux longbed with the 20R and manual transmission). The odometer has spun around a few times on that truck, and I’m hoping to pull the engine this year for a rebuild. The only car purchased new that’s still in our family.
There was a closed army base in Tomioka, Japan with a skeet shooting range & waste dump. When I could barely reach the pedal & a few minutes of lessons on driving a stick, my dad threw the keys to his 1965 Volkswagen bug. I drove countless hours around that base learning the car & traffic maneuvers…..in a country that you couldn’t drive until you were 18.
“Just don’t drive in front of the shooting range!
Not sure myself.
I did the thing like in the other poster here said, where he sat in dad’s lap at 8 and you steer and dad presses on the pedals because I was 8. I think there I got a feel for the steering that never went away. The vibrations and weight shifting as the car moves around. Those things I didn’t forget. I knew I wanted to play that driving game on the PlayStation right after that. And I did.
The next memory I have (that I can share *cough*) was probably being 13 or so, just taking mom’s minivan around the neighborhood. Auto-tragic two pedal driving. Easy.
All I did was play those racing games through out my teenage-hood. I had GT2 and GT3; and the other crazy NFS games. I more or less had a basic understanding of driving at this point but never got on a car to drive it. I’m kind of glad however.
By the time I was an adult, I instinctively knew how to pilot the car around. No shocker to anyone or to myself. I missed the shock that everyone goes through driving for the first time. I never had that.
Got my license, asked the license lady if I got any, what are they called? Faults or whatever? She was like “aw nah bud. You ain’t go to worry about a thing.” The people I went with that day, they were all something. Failed something. A missed something. Something.
Some years later, I got a manual. Same thing. Like I had the DLC already installed or something. Gimmie a semi or something. Let’s try that.
What was the question? I don’t know dude. I just did.
Rural west Cork, understanding farmer, Austin Maestro, field, bewildered cows, chased by angry geese, hand brake turns..
Are the last few articles cut off short? I’m not seeing a “Continue Reading” link and each seems to be missing ‘advertised’ information. Very strange!
Sorry about that. It has been fixed!
No worries! Thanks a million, Ben!