Club Arnage

There we go, im all set for LM08, well partly  >:(
Now on the road though, which helps!

Nice one! will one be taking a "hot" machine down to LM next year?

Many Congrats to you, that was the first hurdle for a CAer.

All you have to do now is just open your eyes and view the world in a different light.

Jerry

Very well done as I said in LM you would be OK now the real driving starts!

I'm 4.0 (all fails) after a good run of first passess,  got another today and one more tomorrow all have had "blonde" moments and failed their tests, but here its stopped raining.... well for a few minutes. See you soon regards KK

Fantastic!! Well done kiddo - you are a star ;D

You'll make 2008 no problem...if you got there this year, next year will be a breeze...

Well done! ;D

Well done, have fun and drive safely.

Just got to save for the insurance now, I presume.

Congrats, a major hurdle to life in the fast lane overcome .... well done (http://www.dervhead.com/xmb/images/smilies/posts/thumbup.gif)

well done mate, now just need to find a sweet ride to drive to LM08

Nick

Well done.  Positively one of the most stressful things you'll ever do.  Now you can enjoy the fun. :)

James,

Very well done ;D  From personal knowledge of your ability to blag your way into (and out of) almost any situation, forget your Plan A of acquiring some sensible BMW diesel truck thing.  I fully expect to see Plan B enacted, with you driving down in an Aston next year - after all, you are an Aston Martin Team member......aren't you....at least that's what you told people in the pits.....

Look forward to hearing about what you get in the end and seeing you at LM08 in it.  Top tip for you - remember that for a period after passing, it will only take 6 points to get your licence revoked and bring about the need to fume for a few months until you can retake the test.  Just ask Matt ;) as - it only took two cameras on the same road doing 40 in a 30 limit......

MG Mark

James,

Congratulations and well done.  Once you have wheels, you will travel,,  all first cars have a certain style, no matter what they are, because they are and always will be the first as far as you're concerned.  Good luck in finding a vehicle.

congrats!

Big Well Done, not many people pass on their first attempt!! All you've got to do now is keep your nose clean for the next two years, easier said than done!

...and what he's not said is its only 3 months and about 2 weeks after his 17th birthday which these days is pretty darned impressive!   ;D

As long as he's 18 by next June (minimum driving age in France) that's all that matters! :)

Yeah, but he;s one of these whizzo kids who have been driving round in karts since the age of minus 9 months.... ;)

MG Mark

Yeah im going to be 18, dont worry ive checked everything, ! am legal to drive in france for LM08!!!
At the minute, it looks like a 1.6 megane sport  >:( , time to have words with Mr Aston Martin! Im sure something can be arranged!

As Piglet said, we were there this year, and next year should be easy......

Oh and just if anyone is interested, in this months karting magazine, there is a full report on Lewis Hamilton and how he progressed through karting to cars! Dont know if any of you guys are big fans but its pretty interesting!

Take care

I gave up racing 100TKM a couple of years ago as everytime I went for a gap some young git got there before me!! I decided I was too old and too heavy to keep up any longer. He sure has done well, and there's a few more on the way through the ranks to join him !!

Well done you.

Coincidentally, I passed my Direct Access bike test on Wednesday - first try although had my car licence for 40 years. The examiner handed me the pass certificate, and he said knowingly...

".. be careful out there, its dangerous !" 

Too true.
Take care and don't get too cocky!

Best wishes
BryanC

congrats all round to the new license holders!

they don't?   they must be pretty poor drivers then..  or put in for their tests by money grabbing driving instructors..

Written by a man who took a test 20 years ago I imagine  ;D

The test now is tricky and its very easy to get it wrong and whatever your view on quotas there are some pretty perverse decisions made. 

Surely money grabbing instructors would NOT put their pupils in for tests - they don't get the test fee and there is always the risk the pupil will pass  ;D

Well done,
When I passed my test in 1978 (aged 17) my mum refused to let me drive on my own for another two weeks. I'm pretty certain that saved me from having a big crash as I was a cr*p driver and far too cocky and over confident. I was just a bad driver who happened to pull it all together on the day and pass the test first time. Now obviously I'm a great driver and not cock or overconfident at all :angel:

Congratulations James.

After passing my test in 1981 (aged 17) I bought a beaten up Cortina.  I was fine doing the driving forward and back thing (and reversing around corners) but was totally crap at parallel parking against a brick wall.  I managed to scrape a fair bit of paint off the wings of that Cortina before I mastered it  ::)

Congratulations James.  How was the first drive solo???  I remember well that strange mix of anxiety, confidence, pride and nerves that I felt on the first legal solo drive . It was in an Austin 1300 

Mine was a Viva HA

Jeez my first legal drive...

Must be my fathers Vauxhall Astra (locally known as an Opel Kadett) sedan, with a wopping 1.7 diesel engine in it... Those good old days!

(First car I owned myself was a 1981 Kadett/Astra with a 1.2 engine)

My first legal solo drive was my Dads Mini. A 1966 'D' reg.

He used to fully inspect it everytime I came home!!!!!

Jerry

Well done!

Remember my first car, a 'black cherry' coloured Mk1 1300 Escort. First big memory was the debut time I passed someone on a single carriage way road, very exciting and my palms were pretty sweaty!

A 21 year old mini I paid £100 and sold five years later for the same amount.  You never forget your first set of wheels.

Congrats, best thing in the world when you pass, freedom of the road! Enjoy it but take it easy!

My first car was a Mk 1 Lotus Cortina with no engine, dad went apeshit and i sold it and bought a Mk 1 Escort Mexico- white with red stripe, loved that car, sold it and bought a Mk2 RS2000 which I kept for 8 years. Couldn't afford one now- gone through the roof.   

I feel lucky to have a Megane 1.6 at 17 for my first car!
Having had a moped for a year I understand the roads and im pretty careful! Tommorow will be the first test, driving to lincolnshire to give some instruction to a young lad whos just started karting! Hopefully will make it there and back.....the car that is!
Have a good weekend!
James

 :-* :-* :-*

A man after my own heart - I shall have my MK 1 Essy for next years Le Mans

Deposit on its way to that nice man in Scotland who re-builds them!

Lisa
 :-*

I passed mine in my dads Anglia, a 105E and the first car I owned was a Daimler Conquest Century purchased for the princely sum of £30, lots of money then !!

Gordon,

Did they have 'driving tests' then?

Jerry

My first legal solo was in a Honda Acty van, all 545 cc and was only half a mile but was scary as hell.... then I progressed to the height of international transport... HOT769L... a Turquoise AUSTIN 1100 donated by Grandma Q (top lady, spent her teen years in Bermuda so would not like the uk now!)
Rusty old heap.... still drive em now... new cars suck.... and my Jetta diesel ran all last summer on cooking oil! Somerfield have now stopped their value oil..... I wonder why? Taxi drivers ruin it again!

My first car a Ford 100E Van, followed by a much newer 105e van, then a mini traveler, the 100 E van had only three forward gears and reverse but in a standard "H" so reverse was where first would normally be and first was where second normally lived, good training for the ZF boxes used in later life in rally cars...Somewhere I have my old "red book" driving licence with my pass sticker in it.

RS2 Babe- whos the nice man in Scotland who rebuilds Escorts then? I'm hurt- there's a nicer man in Northumberland who rebuilds them!:-( Will it be going down for the modern or classic Le Mans next year? Don't think I have seen a Mk1 at Lm before. Hope it goes well!

Hi Keith. What rally cars have you had?

"My cars" 1340 mini clubman GT , Hartwell Imp with a 1150 wet liner engine, MK1 Lotus Cortina with a special cosworth 1740 engine, MK1 escort (LVX958J) RS1600, and BLG99K another MK 1 RS 1600 ex Chris Slater Scottish RAC winning car, TR7 V8 4500 litre beast ex (Tony Pond) car Rover SD1 ex (Tony Pond) car. But "only" sat in the left seat in works RS200, Porsche 911 SC and Metro 6R4 they were fun........had a "few" laps in 4X4 sierra efi around the ring and at Boreham test ground

Some 'proper' rally cars there Keith. Always prefered the older stuff- these modern jap things although fast leave me cold. thats why I went into historic Rallying, the cars are much more entertaining!

Keithk,

Do you remember the vacuum wipers/

Jerry

After my Mk1 I had a pale blue (nordic) MK2 RS2000 (EWV 75V). Full Janspeed system and a bigger Carb sitting on slightly bigger than std 205 tyres.

Without doubt the best car i even owned. How I wish it was in my garage now!

There was a Mk1 bubble arched RS2000 at LM this year. I saw it a couple of times and then again at the tunnel terminal

I do, trying to go up a hill in the rain was taking a big risk, you could either take your foot off the gas to see or keep it planted and hope to get to the top before you needed to look through the screen.
Kids these days will never experience the days of such interesting methods of travel, and you were lucky to have a synchro box !!

Nordic. Have to agree that out of all the many wonderfull cars I have been lucky to own the RS2 has stayed in my heart. Its 14 years since i sold it and still dream about it. I'd love to get it back- SUM 180W where are you now? It was a standard looking white custom with choc fishnets and 7" RS alloys, but with a  2.1 Holbay twin cam, 48's, vents all round, baby atlas axle etc. all in mintest rust free shell you've ever seen. It was a flyer! Last known whereabouts was Bradford in late 90's

yes "real" LVX958J was a sister car to Clarks RAC winning car LVX945J he had a BDA full works 2 litre mine was only a 1600.. The TR7 was the most powerful about 330 brake at the wheels... The 100E was fun yes those old vacum wipers stopped up hill and went twenty to the dozen down hill... my first mini didnt have self park wiper just stopped where you switched em off....

I remember them vacuum jobbies very well.

My current 1973 GT6 convertable has wipers that dont 'self park', it's anoying but novel. It also has a choke, I asked my son one day to go and start it!!!  'Whats a choke Dad?' He flooded it.

They were the days. Everything rather agricultural and basic. Any very easy to work on.
After 25yrs away, I am re-learning to be a mechanic as opposed to a 'fitter'.

Jerry

Well done James!

Here's my first set of rubbish wheels-
(http://home.versatel.nl/g.vogel/photos/r12tr.jpg)

Swiftly follwed by one of these-

(http://www.rotativementvotre.org/gs-gsa.org/yourcars/ricardo-baptista/GSX-II.jpg)

And you wonder why I dislike the french?  ??? ;)

I knew there was a soft furry little Francophile under that Frenchie baiting exterior Zarse.   You little closet garleec muncher you!
 Top marks for presentation by the way- very nice and clean examples and a Citroen should always be photographed in (or rather on) its natural environment!

1967 vauxhall victor with the bench seats and 3 gear column change.. what a boat!! but for £150.00 it was cheeeeep  ;)

Thats a cool car to pass in matey. Mattress in the back nudge nudge wink wink?

My first car, VW Beetle - 6V - What a nightmare. Lights where no better than a miners candle powered lamp

Paid £20 for the car and brought an engine for £40, which I had to fit - good bit only 4 bolts holding it on.

The best bit was the battery 6V, would not start it, so use to have to bump start it. With a girlfriend once, who when we pushed it backwards to bump started -car started but the engine went up in flames,  leaking Carb, opened the boot and said "quick give us a hand !" So quick as a flash - she gave me a big round of applause  ::)  - Left me to put the engine fire out - by blowing on flames - It went out.

When your young - you have to laugh  ;D

No mattress in ours either, but in the late 60's, a few of us asked a lanscape gardener mate to take us to Nottingham Goose Fair in the back of his Moggie 1000 van PROVIDING he cleared it out of tools, plants, cuttings and the like.

When he arrived to pick us up, he proudly threw back the doors to reveal ........................a freshly laid turf lawn, carefully cut and fitted to the wall, all for our ever-lasting comfort and travelling pleasure.

I did my apprenticeship in a small bodyshop in the late 80's and one day a local builder brought in this tired old Transit for welding and paint. It was full to the back doors with junk- or to my silly young eyes it looked like junk.  I asked the gaffer what to do and he said tidy it out. Most of it was old wood. It was a cold winters day and we had old oil drums out back for burning rubbish in. So I spent a happy afternoon burning over a grand's worth of lovely Parquet flooring! He was not a happy bunny!

That is a classic.

Well done on the driving test.

Sum180w I have just purchased about 2 weeks ago from a man over Allerton way as not been on road since 2001