Your Driving Test. What do you remember of it?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Newbury test centre, Oct 2003, passed first time in a Renault Clio II 1.2 16v.

Blimey. Was the test centre on Newtown road then?

[BusmansHoliday]

Applied for my test as soon as I was 17 back in late 1973 but there was a 6 month wait then so was June 74 before the test. Had plenty of practice on a Hunter and Avenger but I'd been driving buses on an airfield when I was 15. Most common comment from the instructor was "what's the speed limit on this bit of road" followed by "and what speed ARE you doing".

Test centre in Sheffield was the one next to Hammerton Road nick in Hillsborough, walking distance from home. On the test I remember the examiner saying when he hit his clipboard on the dash he wanted me to do an emergency stop. When he did it was just as we approached a steep bit of hill in Lower Walkley, took my foot off the accelerator and the Avenger had almost stopped without the foot brake.
Passed and applied for my Advanced Driving Test, took the attitude (helped by my dad not loaning me his Cortina) of "learning properly". Did various Sundays (dad would loan me his car for this) and took the test just as they were phasing out the requirements for you to constantly talk to the instructor telling him all the hazards you saw and why you were driving like you were.

Guessed I'd passed when coming back into Sheffield around Hunters Bar roundabout onto Ecclesall Road and there was a black bloke using the pedestrian crossing. My examiner turned to me and said " doesn't count against you if you hit him on a black section"
And that really is true !!!!!

PSV, took on preserved Sheffield Regent V 874, no real dramas, not like I hadn't driven a bus before.

[SiC]

Newbury test centre, Oct 2003, passed first time in a Renault Clio II 1.2 16v.

Blimey. Was the test centre on Newtown road then?

Yeah. Mrs SiC also passed there a few months later after I did too. That site in Newtown Road moved only a few years ago and I think has closed down completely to be based fully at a test site down in Greenham.

Did you have an instructor? I had Jim Garden for 20 lessons - he's is (was?) quite popular for around Newbury area and was teaching for many years. I think he even was my Mother-in-laws instructor (she's probably a decade older than you). I was supposed to use his car for the test (Ford Fiesta 1.8D of zero power) but he was on holiday. Instead I used my car and probably worked out for the better as I had driven it far more.

I remember the site well. The parking bays had handy numbers in the middle that you could line up when looking backwards. I got one minor point from the chief examiner for not looking around enough when doing a reverse around a corner in Wash Common. Pretty sure he gave that to me as couldn't possibly give a 17yr old kid zero points on his first go. In reality I was one of the first to do the "new" theory test with the hazard perception video element. When I did it, it was only the 3rd day of it starting. I failed it and had to take it again, which delayed me doing my driving test. Thus got more practice in before doing my actual test.

My test was also the first day where there was a show/tell element. My questions were how to check the horn and washer fluid level. Horn is straightforward to test - even though it did alarm my dad waiting in the test centre, who thought I failed right at the begining
Washer fluid tank on a Clio II is completely enclosed on a Clio II, so a bit harder to check the level. So I said you could either dip a stick in to tell or just fill it up and you'll know when its full. Examiner must have thought they were acceptable answers.

I think I said it before but I spent a chunk of my childhood growing up in/around Newbury. Moved that way in the early 90s (1993 iirc?) when my Dad left his job at one Racal divison to their well known telecoms division just after it got split off, that is still based in Newbury. I didn't move away from the area until I went to Uni in 2005.

[fraser]

I also taught my ex missus to drive, and my daughter. Both passed first time.
After my wife had taken my daughter out for the first time, she came home and said she didn't want her to try and teach her ever again, so I did it all.
My Auntie failed her driving test, as the instructors car caught on fire, and my sister failed because the examiner had to take control of the vehicle to prevent an accident.
My sister in law failed 6 times before someone took pity on her, and passed her. She's written off 5 cars in the last 20 years, all he fault, yet her husband bought her a 911!

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[DodgeRover]

She's written off 5 cars in the last 20 years, all he fault, yet her husband bought her a 911!

The more suspicious amongst us might assume that he is paying for a hefty life insurance policy on her.....

[fraser]

She's written off 5 cars in the last 20 years, all he fault, yet her husband bought her a 911!

The more suspicious amongst us might assume that he is paying for a hefty life insurance policy on her.....

His dad is a self made millionaire, so the 3 kids got great opportunities in life. He tried 4 businesses all financed by his dad, before he struck gold consulting for the NHS, to give them a service they didn't need. Now a partner at KPMG, he managed the nightingale hospital installation at the NEC, and got a £100k bonus for his troubles. I wonder where that came from.?

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[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Newbury test centre, Oct 2003, passed first time in a Renault Clio II 1.2 16v.

Blimey. Was the test centre on Newtown road then?

Yeah. Mrs SiC also passed there a few months later after I did too. That site in Newtown Road moved only a few years ago and I think has closed down completely to be based fully at a test site down in Greenham.

Did you have an instructor? I had Jim Garden for 20 lessons - he's is (was?) quite popular for around Newbury area and was teaching for many years. I think he even was my Mother-in-laws instructor (she's probably a decade older than you). I was supposed to use his car for the test (Ford Fiesta 1.8D of zero power) but he was on holiday. Instead I used my car and probably worked out for the better as I had driven it far more.

I remember the site well. The parking bays had handy numbers in the middle that you could line up when looking backwards. I got one minor point from the chief examiner for not looking around enough when doing a reverse around a corner in Wash Common. Pretty sure he gave that to me as couldn't possibly give a 17yr old kid zero points on his first go. In reality I was one of the first to do the "new" theory test with the hazard perception video element. When I did it, it was only the 3rd day of it starting. I failed it and had to take it again, which delayed me doing my driving test. Thus got more practice in before doing my actual test.

My test was also the first day where there was a show/tell element. My questions were how to check the horn and washer fluid level. Horn is straightforward to test - even though it did alarm my dad waiting in the test centre, who thought I failed right at the begining
Washer fluid tank on a Clio II is completely enclosed on a Clio II, so a bit harder to check the level. So I said you could either dip a stick in to tell or just fill it up and you'll know when its full. Examiner must have thought they were acceptable answers.

I think I said it before but I spent a chunk of my childhood growing up in/around Newbury. Moved that way in the early 90s (1993 iirc?) when my Dad left his job at one Racal divison to their well known telecoms division just after it got split off, that is still based in Newbury. I didn't move away from the area until I went to Uni in 2005.

I was there 83-88. I can’t remember the name of my instructor but he would have been in his early thirties then. He took me for my test in the 213S - I learned in that, an MG Metro and my own Mini with my dad.
I bet the old test centre has been built on now.
I lived in Bucklebury Slade.

[Asimo]

First test in this old Riley a few months after I turned 17.

Screenshot 2022-07-10 at 08.26.55.png (3.11 MiB) Viewed 583 times

It wasn't an ideal car for a driving test; no syncro on 1st gear and none left on second, so double-declutch, right-hand handbrake made everything a bit of a shuffle, the brakes grabbed a bit sometimes and the electrics were a bit Lucas. There was a block of wood in the boot to whack the fuel pump if it stopped ticking.
During the test I had a bit of a brain-fart and swapped right for left so every time the examiner gave me a direction I went the opposite way. This didn't seem to worry him but did make for extra 3-point turns. It was raining slightly and I got a bit sideways on the greasy road during the emergency stop and then the wipers stopped working. I explained that the wipers had broken but said I could still see ok. The indicators had also broken, (no tick and no green light) but I decided not to mention this in case I had to complete the test on hand signals.

Passed. I was amazed. A few hours later I took a car-full of mates for a spin. And spun. (No blood, no dents.)

[SubPar]

Oh god, trauma!
BTW I learned to drive quite late, this century. Some thing I think most of you d realise is they teach you not to use your gears to slow down unless you really need to, as some body worked out that brake parts are less damaging to produce for the environment than clutch parts. Eco friendly driving.

Which is of course exactly the opposite of what you would expect and probably the reason people have issues with brake fade when getting out of a car that will virtually drive itself

I haven't driven a car with brake fade for more than 40 years. Things are just so much better made nowadays.
I've adopted the "new" method of not changing down through the box as I come up to lights and junctions - it makes sense to me. The old method was taught in an era of single circuit drum brakes so I don't really think it applies unless you're driving something really old with marginal brakes.

I guess I drive like someone twice my age then.
I'm always gradually blipping down through the gears on the approach to junctions or roundabouts or whatever.

The 323i sounds particularly good with a bit of heal-toe then it burbles down on the overrun.


I notice a lot of people who don't seem to understand engine braking at all now. Flashing the brake lights even on really gentle corners, when all I do is lift off the throttle.

[LynehamHerc]

It could be that they think that you're following too closely.