Club Arnage

Following on from Dr Sconefingers wonderfull first motorsport thread, I thought I'd tell you about my first driving experience.
Quite a late starter at eleven years of age compared to many but very memorable.
How many other people can claim their first time time driving behind the wheel of a car was in the crater of a volcano. At the base of Mount Teide in Tenerife.
The only problem was avoiding the bolders, Needless to say it was a hire car.
 

Sitting on my Dad's lap, steering the old Anglebox round a disused airfield somewhere near Leeds, with him changing gear!

First driving experience - ... don't remember, may be I was drunk ;D

Driving my buddy's 3 litre Ford Capri around Stonebarrow (near to Charmouth) in Dorset, late at night  ;D   

Not sure how old I was - perhaps 14 or 15 so positively ancient by most folks standards I imagine! 

Aged 4 or 5 letting the handbrake off my Dad's Camper while on the circular ramp at Harwich Port. Rolled backwards and I steered it round the corner until Dad grabbed the handbrake! ;D

Probably around 3-4 years of age in the much revered Austin J-40.

I'd just like to point out that it was not new when I had it as a boy, but not far off....

Wish I still had it.

Could have been at Rufforth Debs, near Wetherby, sadly now all gone. They also used to have club meetings there IRCC

Eyup Termie- ar tha a good old Yorkshire lass? My first was in an old van we had on the farm. I was supposed to be at a friends house but I waited in the bushes for dad to take our kid to the match and took it for a spin up the lane. Terrified me- it looked so easy! I was only 10. Very naughty ;D

It wasn't Rufforth - I know this for sure as I spent many a happy weekend there.  I see it's actually still there although not open to the public.  Would love to sneek back in one day!  I honestly cannot remember where it was and can no longer ask my dear old Dad who would have remembered.  But I do remember an old concrete runway with grass growing through it.  It can't have been very far from us (Alwoodley) as we used to nip over there on a regular basis for a spin!

Dr S - in fact no, I'm from the other side of the Pennines originally (as a good Yorkshireman, you probably won't speak to me again now!)

in a Citroen visa van, (van blanc) in a hauliers yard behind my dads workshops. He told me all about the clutch and the accelerator.

So I drove the van directly into the nearest wall.

As you do when you're nine years old, and no one's ever mentioned the steering wheel or the brake pedal. ;D

Apparently the tears were coming straight out of my face, rather like the spitting image puppet of Gazza. Dad admits it was foolish to tell me how to go, but not steer or stop. IIRC the van was less than 1000 miles old. New wing, bumper, bonnet, and drivers door.

Oh I forgot. And a headlight. And indicator.

C reg Renault 5 campus in a field at the farm when i was about 10 and then crushing it with the massey tractor when i was 12  ;D superb fun for a kid. us farm children were brought up driving and then giving the instructor a headache with all our bad habbits.

I had a peddle car when I was 5 ! Then a BSA bantam at about 9 my first car a Ford 100E in about 67 or 68 First race car Formula Ford at Thruxton in 75, first rally car Mini 970s in about 71 or 72

Always did little manouvres at car parks when young, but I must have been about 13 when my dad let me drive his brand new Ford Sierra - somewhere '82/'83. I remember him not being happy bunny as I did about 70 mph on a (fairly straight) B-road, trying to catch up with a moped :-\
He probably thought I didn't do all that bad after all, as he let me drive a bit of motorway a year later ;)

I was 8 years old when my father used to take me to a big parking lot, early Sunday mornings, to take some driving lessons in an MG 1100. Saved him loads of money for my driving lessons 10 years later, so I can recommend it to anybody with kids.

Must have been my electric powered motor cycle with side wheels at the age of 2 ;D

Maybe Tockwith Termie, I took my own daughter there a few years ago, you now have to pay, but it was well worth it to get her up and running as it were.
She is now just about to take her 3rd test :-\ Costs a bloody fortune with the instructors car nearly £100 a go :-[. Still when she passes that could save a few taxi fares ;D

It could have been one of a number of places - I've been looking at this fascinating site
http://airfieldarchaeology.fotopic.net/
and have a couple of thoughts although the least-photographable (Sherburn) is the most likely, given where it was.  As my old Dad had been in the RAF during the war, it was certainly a place he had known, rather than somewhere which was officially open to the public - as I do remember we just used to sneak in through some ancient ill-maintained gate to get there, and we invariably had the place to ourselves.  Lovely times.

There is now a flying club there on part of the old site. the other parts were converted into an industrial estate, originally the old hangers were used as factories. My dad used to work there, I remember that one of the units bought old buses, refurbished them and then sold them on mainly to India.

Another lovely thread!  First time in control of something with 4 wheels was the traditional DIY-built wooden go-kart, built from spare wood in the shed and proper old pram wheels.  Launching from the top of the hill at home was swiftly followed by the brake snapping and a high-speed entry into the garage block at the bottom of the hill....The Mk2 had better brakes.....

First time in control of something with an internal combustion engine was aged about 11, learning to drive and then driving the tractor at the Gliding Club, to retrieve the tow line after each winch launch - was a great introduction to the whole thing, on something that was really difficult to break, and got me a couple of free flights every day I did it.  Thereafter, it was after I'd reached the grand age of 18, as Dad wouldn't let me near any of his cars!

MG Mark

Does having a steering wheel on your carseat as a baby count?  I would turn like my Dad and it had a horn that beeped.  Alot like Pieter, my Dad took me to a large vacant parking lot and let me go.  I also recommend that method to first timers.

Termie, Did you know that Sherburn was used as a motor racing circuit. I bought a book last year that claimed to cover every motor racing circuit in the land even if it was used only once- such as Catterick for example. It has no mention of Sherburn- but amongst my collection of crap as the wife calls it I have 2 programs from events that the B.R.S.C.C. ran in '57. There were 7 events per meet of 18 laps with Le Mans type start. Jerry Burgess set FTD in a Cooper Climax.   

sh*t, this brings back memories.

Did your's have working headlights? mine didn't but the lad nextdoor had. And he had inflated tyres as well. But mine was quicker and used to drift around corners if you kept peddaling really hard and leaning into the bend.

sh*t, really great days of the 50's, where kids learnt not to fall out of trees by falling out of them!