Where did you have your first drive?

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
08/24/2019 at 23:14 • Filed to: None

For me it was Avenue Bernardo Quintana. It was 5am in the morning on a school day I was maybe ten. I had convinced my grandmother to let us drive along the avenue before leaving. She wasn’t quite willing to lend me her Audi A6, so instead we took my (then recently deceased) great uncle’s B13 Nissan Tsuru.

It was only a few minutes, I can’t even remember if I steered the car or if I just had it go in a straight line until reaching a return and giving my grandmother the controls.

I went there yesterday to a friend’s house... and I can only remember how much the place has changed.

DISCUSSION (23)

AestheticsInMotion > Spanfeller is a twat
08/24/2019 at 23:26

A socce r field. My dad had just transfered the title of his Datsun pickup to me (illegally I think, as I was like 13) and we drove to soccer fields nearby. He handed me the keys, and proceeded to show me how to spin the tires, and do donuts. For the life of me, I can't recall if the truck was auto or row-your-own...

fhrblig > Spanfeller is a twat
08/24/2019 at 23:26

The day I got my license (in February of 1992) , I picked up my best friend and a couple others and we drove all around Colorado Springs. We were gone for 5 hours. This was before cell phones, so it freaked out my mom a little bit.

We didn’t have any real destination, just wandered all over. I know we went over to the West side near Manitou Springs, because we found this weird shrine some guy built for his mother. It was surprisingly well done, but he had all these signs talking about how she should be sainted. She seemed like a good woman, but I don’t remember seeing any evidence of miracles, LOL.

It was the most fun I'd ever had. And this was driving a shitty Pontiac Phoenix, mind you. It started a long habit of just hopping in my car and going for aimless drives. I still do that. I also drive 60k+ a year for work. I think I like driving a little bit...

fintail > Spanfeller is a twat
08/24/2019 at 23:31

Smallish town in eastern WA. When I was maybe 9, my dad still had his Horizon, and one day thought it would be fun to have me try to drive it. A stick, of course, which I was interested in because I liked the routine of shifting (but I didn’t understand how a clutch worked). You can imagine how that went, I was able to lurch the car along a little, but I didn’t really drive properly. This was great spectator fun for the neighbors, who thought my dad was pretty cool for letting me do it (very lightly traveled street, small town , no risk of hitting anything but a curb). That experience became a family tale for years.

The Horizon was replaced by an S10 Blazer my dad was never happy with, and I also drove it a couple times, it was 80s GM in all its glory.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Spanfeller is a twat
08/24/2019 at 23:34

Kinja'd!!!

the road behind me parents house

nothing but trees and cows back there

(edit.... also i can tell this pic was taken by a cyclist...well off into the side even tho theres no traffic)

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Spanfeller is a twat
08/24/2019 at 23:36

Kinja'd!!!

It was in the hills above where my parents still live; they’ve been there for 39 years now. It was the early eighties, and almost all of these streets were empty. One by one, custom houses went up on those lots, but at the time there were just a couple here and there. Lots of step hills, and all of the cars in the family had manual transmissions, so I learned how to deal with that first thing.

Mom is the one that taught me to drive, and I don’t know if I ever practiced with my dad. She even had some advanced training; I can remember when she was learning to heel-and-toe downshift in a friend’s Lotus Cortina. She was the one that taught me how to use the handbrake when starting on hills. Earlier this year, when I went in for surgery, mom had to drive my car, and it was the first time in nearly 30 years that she had driven a manual. She had to give it up when she destroyed her knee in a skiing accident, but now that the knee was replaced she can drive manual again. We went to a local park to practice, especially with hill starts. She said she didn’t know the technique using the handbrake, but I could have sworn that she was the one that taught me ...

BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo > Spanfeller is a twat
08/24/2019 at 23:49

On an empty country road in Colombia in THE blue Mazda 2™.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 00:13

It was a dark and stormy night...

Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 00:42

Not counting pulling out of the driveway. A long stretch of recently built but uninhabited road was where the old man took me after leaving the DMV with my learner’s permit. It was a one mile stretch of four lanes with a small median, and we paper-clipped it for a solid half-hour. The two focuses were shifting (I learned on manual), at which I was pretty good seeing as I often practiced clutching and shifting on my own while parked in the driveway; and changing lanes. My dad was super procedural, and ran it as a nonstop drill. U-turn, accelerate until 4th gear, then mirror-signal-blindspot-move over, again and again until the next U-turn. I probably did well over a hundred lane changes that day, and if I missed a step, he’d reprimand me.

My current car has blindspot monitoring and alerts, but the urge and habit to look over my shoulder are still deeply ingrained in my driving habits.

glemon > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 00:50

C ountry roads north of town in a Volkswagen Beetle, about half the people my age that I know learned to drive with a Beetle, they were cheap second cars in middle class families, and I suppose parents didn't worry too much about them getting buggered up.

ST80MND > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 01:00

Do golf carts, go carts, atc's, dirt bikes ect. Count? Either way, it was in a field.

jminer > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 01:27

First thing I ever drove would have been a Ford 8n tractor in a field - I was probably 9.

First car would have been the Econoline conversion van my Mom drove us all around in down in rural Mississippi on a gravel road - I was 11.

First bike was a 74 Kawasaki F7 175 two stroke enduro when I was 12.

Growing up in the sticks on a small farm had its benefits.

m-b-w loves his SUBAROO > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 01:29

In a cemetery. My mom and I took out my grandmas 2011 Hyundai Sonata, and I practiced with all of the intersections in the cemetery. My mom figured that it was the safest place since everybody else there was already dead.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 04:36

out in the boondocks

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 06:39

I did circle work in a carpark with my Mum in a Nissan G60 Patrol.

OneSlowScion > jminer
08/25/2019 at 07:04

Same here, tractors long before cars.

KnowsAboutCars > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 07:17

In the parking lot of my home city’s amusement park.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Spanfeller is a twat
08/25/2019 at 08:51

Kinja'd!!!

Quail Run Drive in Centreville, MD. My grandparents lived on this street, down near Sycamore Point. When I was little (about 3) my dad would let me climb into the drivers seat and stand between his legs and “steer” while he worked the gas and brake (and steered, or was at least ready to steer).