Morris Minor Owners Club

Manchester.

I wish that road was still as quiet today.

I learned in one.

It was a Traveller, so great visibility for reversing and three-point turn

When I bought my Traveller in 1979 I only had a motorbike licence. A family friend took me out for driving lessons in the Morris. After one long lesson driving around Trowbridge I pulled up at the side of our house. We heard a click sound from somewhere at the front but we both shrugged it off. "Do a reverse around the corner and park the car," he said. I put the Traveller into reverse and eased the clutch out. as soon as it began to bite....The front left wheel folded under the wing. My friend jumped out so quick shouting, "we could have been killed!" Changing the king pins was my introduction into Minor mechanics.

Does passing my driving test in an A series engined car count?
I passed in a newly introduced Austin Metro, which actually cut out at the traffic lights and took a while to restart.

The Ritz on Whitworth street I think Saturday night was grab a granny night

My Uncle gave me my Morris to learn to drive in the late 60's - he thought I would pass it on once I had passed! Still got it!
I never had any official lessons, my Dad taught me, we used to do miles most evenings. This was the time when it was quite common to see abandoned dumped cars which we used to stop at suitable models to obtain spare parts!
I can remember on 'test day' I started the Morris whereby the tester said proceed when ready, to which I replied I was just letting the oil pressure come up!
Passed first time though.

Alan

I took my driving test in a Datsun Cherry. Glad I passed first time because it would probably have dissolved before I rebooked...they were good at rusting.

Took my first test in my own Mk.1 Mini with sliding door windows which wouldn't lock. Very wet day. Windows slid open during the emergency stop, and the examiners clipboard got soaked. Needless to say, I failed!

palacebear wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:47 am Took my first test in my own Mk.1 Mini with sliding door windows which wouldn't lock. Very wet day. Windows slid open during the emergency stop, and the examiners clipboard got soaked. Needless to say, I failed!

Should’ve been given extra credit for an effective and brisk stop.

I failed my first test for speeding. Actually went through a radar trap and got nicked. 35 in a 30 zone. Examiner got ticked off by the police for permitting it. Got in a huge row with them as he said he could not evaluate me if he didn’t let me make mistakes. I thought it was hillarious which upset everybody of course. That was 50 years ago and never had a ticket since!

Liverpool city centre one Friday afternoon in 1964 in a BSM Morris Minor. Then bought my first car which was a 1958 Traveller which cost £245.

I don't get to drive many modern cars but will sometimes hire one where I'm going somewhere I'd rather not take a car of my own (I don't mean Helmand Province but somewhere where you might have to leave the car for a while, at risk of a car park hit and run). When I drive modern cars, I find that they have no feel to them and that whilst they might be essentially competent, you get the feeling that over their limit, there is little between you and an accident. Due to the lack of feel (The steering feels like the steering of a fairground roundabout ride), I don't know that there would be much warning that the car was going to let go. As such I suspect many modern drivers are just leaving it to the car.

I can't help feeling that you might become a better driver if you learn in something older, which has more feel to it. I also feel that drivers should have more idea of what is going on. Some will let the car labour, in a high gear, because they assume that's how you save fuel. I knew someone, who used to turn the engine off and freewheel the last half mile or so to his house, which meant turning right across the oncoming lane and then negotiating a tight junction. He didn't seem to realise that he had less control over the car (It had servo disc brakes, which wouldn't have been very clever without the engine running) and it seemed plain daft to save a few teaspoons full of petrol, at the risk of shunting the car. The insurance claim form would have been worthy of being read out by Jasper Carrot.

My first car was a 1961 Clipper blue 2 door.I bought it from a retired district nurse in 1982 in the Guilford area.
I replied to the advert and arranged to meet at "The fox and Hound " to inspect the car as the lady selling it lived down a dirt track that was very hard to find.We waited ages in the car park and she didn't come .So back to the phone box ( those were the days) and spoke to her husband I was at the Fox and Hound in one village and she was at the fox in another!! Bought the car and my mate sat in the passenger seat and taught me how to drive it.
On the day of the test the examiner came out of the centre he was about 6 foot 2 and very strict ex military looking .When he got in the first thing he asked was "does the seat move as his knees were touching the dashboardWhen I turned the key he said "O dear a non starter " to which I quickly replied "It's ok you have to pull this thing as well".
By the end of the test he was quite enjoying himself and told me so as well and I passed!!!

I think those separate starters are actually better. I like to turn the engine over a tad before cold starting, to get the oil moving and a separate starter is good for that. I tend to just turn it over without pulling the choke out (The Midget has twin 40s and that just needs a few pumps of the accelerator pumps to start from cold).

My mother had to consider a foible of the car she took her test in; my father's Austin Mini Countryman. I remember the sliding windows of early Minis were awkward, as they were prone to twist and stick. My mother's test was in October or November of 1962 and as hand signals were part of the test and as the windows could be awkward, she left the driver's window open for the test. The examiner asked if she was OK with it open and my mother said "Yes". Anyway she passed and recalls how, at one point, it was necessary to get bottom gear on the move and it was still a crash bottom on Minis then. She had to double de clutch......I wondow how that would be viewed these days. I know when I did my test (In 1982), all that was frowned upon and I had to make an effort to change down by slipping the clutch and not synchronizing the revs.

Have you had Minors ever since? I had a Mini as my first car, then the Midget (Which I still have) and then another Mini. I liked Minis and if I could have got a Clubman estate, when I had the second Mini, in 1985, I would have got one but there was nothing about. I never gave a Minor Traveller a thought and sometimes ponder that if I had bought one then, I may well have still had it. As it was, I had to wait another 18 years or so!! I suppose it gave me some experience of other cars and maybe I appreciate the Traveller more as a result.

Back in the 60,s both my parents were driving instructors and I vaugly remember my mother used a Morris Minor ..... Not just any old minor, she used a minor million. It was a few years later before I was old enough to learn to drive by which time they had moved on to minis.

Murrayminor wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 8:49 pm Does passing my driving test in an A series engined car count?
I passed in a newly introduced Austin Metro, which actually cut out at the traffic lights and took a while to restart.

Classic 70s/80s Austin