Jump to content

What Car Did You...


Eric
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Administrators

...Drive when you took your first driver’s test, to get your license and when was it?

Me, 1985 and I was driving my green and white 1963 Chevy Impala 4-door. That car had power windows, power door locks and A/C. It was equipped with a 327cid engine and a Powerglide trans.

It was a great old car. It was also a boat. I drove a Chevy Celebrity in driver’s ed and learned to parallel park in it. Then, I parallel parked the Impala in the driver’s test. It was a bit of a challenge and I got marked off 3 points. I did everything else correctly though.

I took a commercial driver’s ed class, to get my license sooner. The Instructor was a character. He was an old-school Cold Warrior and he wasn’t shy with his opinions. I learned early on that a fun alternative to sitting through boring driver’s ed lectures was to mention anything Cold War-related, early in the class. He would be off to the races and the time just flew by. :biggrin: 

How about you?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1963 Pontiac Tempest in 1966.

NB back then, driver's licenses had no photo, They were just a flimsy printed card.

 

I had 1965 Plymouth Satellites for driver's education.

The power brakes were so touchy you could be in a four-wheel lock-up just by breathing on them.

Edited by tous
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was a Golf Mk2 Diesel, back in the late 80s. The car belonged to the driving school. It only had 60 HP. I remember trying to impress the instructor by driving very slowly, for the most part he was reading some news papers, until he had enough and asked me to step it up. I did in the years after. Collected tickets worth a few grand. It took me a while to get it out of my system.

 

I think it was this color... 0-60 must have been around 17 seconds.

1200px-VW_Golf_II_front_20080206.jpg

 

 

Edited by crockett
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1946 Chrysler with Fluid Drive.  That meant you could shift through three on the column, or leave it in one gear and it would shift into the next when you lifted your foot off the throttle.

So when I took my Driver test, some times I used the manual shifting and sometimes I used the fluid drive.  I did it just to see if the examiner would say anything under the category of "Use of clutch".  He didn't. 

When he had me do a U turn in the middle of the block, the street he chose was a little wider than the norm for our town. So instead of going forward, then backing up, then going forward again to make the turn, I whipped the wheel around and made the U turn in one shot. He said it was "unconventional".

 My father had been letting me use the family car alone around town since I was 12 yo. It was a 1942 Packard sedan.  I always drove from MN to Chicago, IL for him every year for vacation, so I was pretty comfortable driving.

When my father took me to the Registrar's office to get my DL, the clerk knew him and when she saw my name was the same as his, She laughingly said, "Well I'll put "Jr." down so you two wont be confused.  Some of my trash mail, to this day, shows up with  my name and "Jr" after it.  So I immediately know to trash it.  The state motor vehicle Bureau sold my information to  spammers.

For the remainder of my life I keep trying to get the state to eliminate the "Jr" from my name since it isn't my name and is not on my Birth certificate. They haven't succeeded yet.  I'll soon be dead and it'll be a moot point.  But I like to stir them up when I can.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TBO said:

I think it was a Plymouth Horizon.
Shorter length gave confidence for the dreaded parallel parking test.

Sent from my Jack boot using Copatalk
 

Can’t say for sure as I don’t remember 100% but pretty certain it was in the same vein as a Plymouth Horizon. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

'67 Beetle. 

When the tester asked me to parallel park, I said "Does it matter which end goes in first?"

He laughed and said "No."

I whipped in, front first, paused, he said "let's go." I pulled out. Never touched reverse.

Edited by BamaBud
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1984 Chevy Citation. Had a front seat like a sofa. My aunt drove me down for the test about a week before I left to Fort Benning.

The physical D.L. was paper, and by the time I left Georgia, it was pretty tattered and illegible just from being in my wallet.

Replacing it was one of the first things I did when I took my first leave "home".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, KWalrad said:

1984 Chevy Citation. Had a front seat like a sofa. My aunt drove me down for the test about a week before I left to Fort Benning.

The physical D.L. was paper, and by the time I left Georgia, it was pretty tattered and illegible just from being in my wallet.

Replacing it was one of the first things I did when I took my first leave "home".

I recall my original license being paper also. It did not even have a photo of my ugly mug on it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was in the Navy in Charleston, SC. in 1956, of course we always went out drinking.  One guy said that he had an Arkansas  DL so that if the local authorities took his home state license away, he would still have one to drive with.

 

I got the details, and sent a letter to an Arkansas representative (I am from MN) telling him I lived in his district and I needed a DL cause my old one was lost.  I included 50 Cents for the fee, and got it in the return mail.  It was about 2 inches square and flimsy perforated paper.  The 50 Cents was more important than the DL to them.  Almost everyone on the ship had one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2003, I waited till i was 18 so I did not have to do the classes.. It  was in my grandmas 1985 honda. she was terrified because we had to drive over the bridge and she made me do it because she only drove up and down the street to the store.. To say the least it was an adventure bringing grandma out, but i passed, even though i ran over a cone... I got home and jumped in my 1989 Cadillac Fleetwood that i was saving until I was ligit...  oh man the cops hated that car full of kids, I must have gotten pulled over every other day....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Please Donate To TBS

    Please donate to TBS.
    Your support is needed and it is greatly appreciated.
×
×
  • Create New...