Morris Minor Owners Club

hi everyone
does anybody know of any land in warwickshire that i could practice driving my moggy.??????
im 16 so not legal to drive thats the only problem. so by practising i will get an head start hopefully!!
and just one more thing is the goverment thinking of uping the age to 18???

Grave yards are great places to practise, you not kill anyone and lots of twisty turns and wee roads!!!

best thing to do is ring an hgv training school ask them where they teach the hgv drivers,when i was taking my hgv we went to an old air field in sheffield and used to practise reversing there plus all the driving schools go there

Empty factory car parks can be useful, so long as you get permission. I gave a single seater racing car its first run in a factory car park. I take it you'll be learning in a Minor????

andrew.searston wrote:and just one more thing is the goverment thinking of uping the age to 18???

That rumour has been going for many years, don't worry about it.

well thats ok
unfortunatly i wont be learning properly in my moggy as the pervisional insurance will be stupid money.
anybody know of any factorys in my area????

well so long as no one practises driving in my factory carpark

Why noy go upto the shopping mall on Tachbrook Park either early mornings or Sunday afternoons - I guess there will be a quiet area you can find there.
18 to learn to drive....? Should be 25 !!!!! ;-)

so its gone up to 18.???? im born on 5/10/93 if that helps might just be able to quilify for 17
my dad wont let me drive unless i have permision??

PSL184 wrote:18 to learn to drive....? Should be 25 !!!!! ;-)

To a degree, I agree with you, it would make the roads a much safer place to be with a much more mature attitude to driving. However, it would not remove inexperience.

If I hadn't been able to drive until now (currently 25) then I would probabally be unemployed as I live in the back end of nowhere with no bus service to speak of.

I'm surprised that Minor insurance would be silly money (Or rather more silly than normal). They are not usually driven by boy racers and relatively, they are not costly to repair.

My first car (1982) was a 1974 Mini 1000 and that cost me £148 TPF&T. I think, relatively, things have gone up since then.

I can still remember the "Young driver" stuff. Yes, we have lots of boy racers, who drive "Prattmobiles" locally and they are a menace. However, when I was 19 years old, I saw a complete idiot, trying to overtake over a brow, on a three lane road, into a roundabout. I had not long joined the road and the joker concerned was a couple of cars in front. The white line was against him but it didn't stop him trying to overtake and having a near miss. As I approached the brow, I saw him pull out again and disappear over it. Then I saw tyre smoke and as I got to the roundabout, he was on top of it. He reversed out, nearly collecting a car that was coming round and drove off erratically. The driver was 65 if he was a day. I have never forgotten that and it just goes to show, you can’t always judge a book by its cover. Yes, if the car has silly over the top plastic appendages, those woeful “Ponse” lights, that boy racers seem to fit to the rear of their cars and a two gallon tail pipe, then that might be a clue but a pretty obvious one.

i just want some where to practice clutch contol????
my bro passed on tuesday and bought a pug 106. non modified and its going to stay that way he says.
anyone own or no of anyone with land??

Blaketon wrote:I'm surprised that Minor insurance would be silly money (Or rather more silly than normal). They are not usually driven by boy racers and relatively, they are not costly to repair.

basically the cheapest way to ensure a classic is with a classic car insurance company, these do not expect to have to insure many provisional drivers so are not, shall we say, 'prepared' for it. Normal companies than insure provisional drivers on modern cars are less likely to give you a good deal on insuring a classic.
I too found that I couldn't get provisional insurance on my moggy, it gave me all the more determination to pass my test.

andrew.searston wrote: my bro passed on tuesday

Andrew, please pass my congratulations on to Steven. I'll make sure I never drive anywhere near Kenilworth again.

ha ha
like wise
anyway back to me post
im not having much luck with this one. my dads won the battle at the min
as long as i can find some land and have the owners permision then my dad will let me????
anyone

Probably stating the obvious, but wouldn't you be better off asking friends / neighbours or having a look around your local area for suitable places? Not many of the regulars on here will have an in depth local knowledge of Kenilworth.

the only problem is getting permission other wise my dad wont let me drive it. because you havnt got a come back if i crash or damage anything. plus kenilworth isnt that bigger place of finding areas that are open.

If you're on private land, driving under 17, with no license, you're unlikely to be insured anyway, so if you damage it, you pay for it (or repair it ). You're right to seek permission, it wouldn't be sensible just to head for the nearest car park.

I did it quite a lot, driving vans and trucks around the yard, it did help clutch control and general parking/manouvering.

Maybe find a friendly farmer? Or is there an under 17 driving school near you? (expensive, I know, but maybe worth it, what you learn now, you won't have to learn on the road).

I know what you mean, it'd be great to hit 17 with a good, practiced grasp of the mechanics of driving. In my view, it should be encouraged in a safe environment.

Hope you find somewhere.

Andrew

i dont think theirs a driving school near me but looking at the prices of some it pricey
my theory is the more i learn now the less i need to learn in the future and their for less lesson to pay for which are £25 for an hour

Good Evening Andrew. My Son - in - Law (to be) wanted driving lessons. I gave him my old clapped out Astra and took him to our local High School. He drove around and around for hours. We practiced hill starts, Clutch control, reversing and parking. We must have spent at least a month just in the school car park. He took his test test and passed 1st time. Although he has been driving for two years now. I still get very uneasy when he want's to get behind the wheel of my Morris. He has got the "Classic Car owners bug" and is now restoring his own Morris.
As long as you have the right attitude to safe driving you will do fine. You will notice that time will go fast and your birthday will soon be here.
Good Luck.

I remember trying to do hill starts. I just couldn't get it right at first (In my mother's VW Polo). She was not the most patient and in the end (I knew how to do a racing start), I just built up the revs and dumped the clutch. I didn't roll back or stall but I did squeal the tyres. She wasn't amused .

My father then took me out and in one lesson, I mastered it. We went up a local mountain road, where there was a reasonable straightish peace of road. What he got me to do was not a hill start as such but to play around with the clutch and the throttle and get the car to roll back, then go forward and then stay still. We had to watch the temperature gauge and you have to realise that done too much, it would kill the clutch. However, that one lesson was enough. The car was about nine months old and my mother owned it for another few years. The clutch was always OK, so we couldn’t have done too much damage.