Thread: 13 yr driver!

I was driving my father home from the pub at 13-14 from the Pier Hotel in Coffs Harbour up through Bruxner Park. The worst part was through the banana plantations as it is a winding road and there wasn't a lot of room if there was an on-coming car and it made for anxious moments at night. I did learn a lot about night driving from those drives.

I had been driving farm vehicles and tractors for some time before that and of course riding dirt bikes all over the place with the only proviso from my father that I wasn't to get caught.

I think I was about 8 when I started driving on the farm. When I went for the driving test the sergeant and dad, who played cricket together, had a little yarn, I drove the cop around the block, and had my licence. Those were the days!

The other morning when I read that about the 13 year old driving and the **** weak excuse as to why he was allowed to drive...…
what ever happened to good old fashioned discipline.
I am not against kids learning to drive at a young age, actually I am all for so that when they finally get on the road they can perfect their roadcraft, instead of having to think about how to change gears etc..
But this incident was on a very major road during one of the busiest and most dangerous times of the year.

Cheers, Mick.

My uncle was a keen shooter and every opitunity he was some where in the mid lands of Tassie shooting his vehicle was an ex army WW 2 jeep, spot lighting and shooting from the Jeep was a specilaty and at the age of about 12 I soon became his driver low range 1st gear with more practise I was able change up to 2nd I did many mile in 1st and 2nd then one night he stoped at the Maypole hotel and came out a couple of hours later and said I could drive home which was at the top of a very steep hill in Moonah and we were in a twin spinner ford coustomline I have been driving ever since When the Tasman Bridge was built he had 4 x 8 ton tippers and 1x 12 ton working out of the Hobart quarries many a time I was allowed to drive from Montagu Bay back to the quarry during school holidays Twice we were picked up by poilce with me driving once near Campania and out the back of Oatland but we never were charged to my knowledge One SAturday morning I went to his place and no one was home so I took the jeep for a drive up the bush behind Springfield when he came home the engine was still hot It was the only time that I got into trouble from him They were great days.

Hodgo

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I think I was about 8 when I started driving on the farm. When I went for the driving test the sergeant and dad, who played cricket together, had a little yarn, I drove the cop around the block, and had my licence. Those were the days!

Gotta be a record, license at 8 ⛟

Originally Posted by RobMichelle

Gotta be a record, license at 8 ⛟

Perhaps he was born on Feb 29 and therefore only was able to celebrate a birthday every four years !

I was 14 yo when I rode my Yamaha 200 to a country pup, just finishing a beer when the local copper come in,sat at the bar and brought me a beer, had one himself. Then told me he was heading out the road and would be back in 10 minutes. I never went in that pup again until I was eighteen. Also used to drive the tractor between farms when about 10yo onward. started driving cars on country rounds with dad when about 13 when we used to go shooting.

I have to go against the grain here and say I wouldn't worry about a 13 yo driving .. with his mum as a passenger.
In fact, I think kids should be learning at a earlier age, even down to 13, if they want(or feel the urge) and learn for longer.
I reckon at 13 they're easier to 'brainwash' .. or teach them the perils of being stupid whilst driving.
a 13 year old is much more impressionable, and hence more open to learning, than a normally rebellious 16 yo is!

Of course (at the risk of being the devils advocate here) I also started joy driving at 13(actually very late 12) .. dads SIIa first(hence my LR tragic-ness!) and then his Caddies!.. 67 Coupe Calais, and then the 73 Sedan Deville.
I drove illegally on and off till about 16, preferred the SIIa over the caddy, the caddy was a fun cruiser, but boring.
Dad hated my guts .. drove him insane. I had my own keys cut .. but he never did anything about it.
Mainly drove to the local '40 acres' for a bit of fun in the IIa. Not far from Bohica, as I grew up in Williamstown.

At 15, one trip back from Adelaide in the 73 DeVille, dad got tired and got me to drive home from Horsham back to about Laverton, he had a sleep in the back.
My brother(the D2 owner) my front passenger, and mum with dad in the back dad sleeping off the night before party.
I think he just resigned to the fact that no matter what he tried, I'd still find a way to drive, so he eventually caved in!

In all the times I joyrided, I never ever did anything stupid.
All I wanted was to drive around .. 40 years later still do!
Used to take my school mates for trips to the 40 acres, in the IIa, sometimes in the Caddy .. for a cruise.

Ony ever issue was one of my last joyrides in the IIa, where coming back home, it ran out of brakes. I had to drive through the main shopping street in Willy with no brakes.
Luckily dad had a old slow diesel engine fitted to it with made it stop better with engine compression braking then it did via the brakes!
But the hard bit was coming to a stop at home.... where dad parked it. Had to be in the exact spot, or he'd know I drive it .. even tho he always kept a track of the odo.
But sisters boyfriend had parked his Valiant too close, and the only way I thought I could bring the Landy to a dead stop was to rub the curb guttering.
Almost worked, but I didn't factor the 750 tyres running up the gutter and not just against, and just clipped the back of the valiant with the flat steel bullbar it had. .. oops!

May sound stupid, what I did, but having not only survived it, I reckon I was quite 'mature' in being immature(in what I did).
BUT! .. I still reckon getting them out and into it early will help to reduce two things.
Over a 5 year period, they'll probably get it out of their system .. the need to drive. They'll experience more crap/carnage/stupid idiots doing the stupid things we see them do every day.
Hopefully they'll learn not to do those stupid things themselves.
And the second thing it'll hopefully reduce is the 13 yo joyrider .. we hear about so often. If they're allowed to start earlier, maybe they'll just do it in a more legal manner.

Some folks are just not cut out to drive, and my older sister is a classic example of this: She totally destroyed the Caddy's passenger side running into a wooden light pole. She had the idea if younger brother can do it, she could!
She still drives like an idiot .. 40+ years later!

Funnily I was well known as the 13 yo driver in my family circle, and one day we were 'laughing' about it at a family gathering. An uncle then told me the story how in Greece back in the 30's 40's they all drove, where they could, or had the means, and he started at 9, driving my grandfather's old 1903 Chevy pickup! .. he had too to get the job done ... moving stuff to the farm paddock and so forth.
he never saw it as joyriding .. it was his job, give to him by his father to go do it.

I've always found it strange that this arbitrary limitation for driving in Aus.
In the USA they drive at 16 .. only 3 years later than this kid did.

I'm like Geedubla .. I reckon I learnt more having driven so early in life, than I may have having done the 'right thing'.