Come Sunday, my 16yo son may be a qualified racing driver...

TimmyO

TimmyO said:

:-/ based on first stint he thinks he'll fail - struggling with changing down coordination - came past frighteningly fast though lol 

Spoke to the instructor - seems a fail (on the drive part anyway) not imminent - he was indeed ropey at first but apparently picked up all the input quickly and managed to apply it - he's effectively had a *very* expensive driving lesson 

TimmyO

out on track for his final practical test session - my nerves are shredded lol 

stickyfiddle

Has he driven a "real" car before at all? An M2 is a mighty beast for a first driving lesson!  

boogieman

Fingers crossed for both of you. 

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

Has he driven a "real" car before at all? An M2 is a mighty beast for a first driving lesson!  

2 X "underage driving lessons" in a Mini a year ago 

TimmyO

He passed 

proggy

Brilliant. Well done.

drofluf

Congratulations 

Rocker

Congrats and well done

Kittyfrisk

Wow! He'll be wandering around without his feet touching the ground for a while yet  

VimFuego

awesome, as a reward you should totes let him drive home.

RaymondLin

Congrats!

danishbacon

Amazing, congratulations

YellowLedBetterMan

Well done the lad! That means he's already better than a certain Haas driver in my eyes, not that that's a high bar to beat.

TimmyO

It was really hard for him - first session in the BMW he wasn't up to snuff - he knew, instructor knew, and he was really thrown by it. Mentally very tough. But he took the feedback and in the next session was much better and felt better about it, but the instructor was still pointing out what a big ask.it was "... For a non driver to turn up and do 120 mph round Silverstone..." so we weren't certain he'd do It.

Then the 3rd session he was just on it and he carried that over to the test.

As part of the day he also got training in the skid rig and drifting in a Caterham. 

Mentally and physically drained lad. (and Dad) 

not_the_dj

Great result. Listening and acting on the feedback, and then getting the result is a great sign. 

Well done lad. 

stickyfiddle

Brilliant!!

That sort of improvement over a day has to be a good sign. 

At what point do I need to give my McLaren-employee cousin a call..? (Genuine question!!)

roundthebend

TimmyO said:

It was really hard for him - first session in the BMW he wasn't up to snuff - he knew, instructor knew, and he was really thrown by it. Mentally very tough. But he took the feedback and in the next session was much better and felt better about it, but the instructor was still pointing out what a big ask.it was "... For a non driver to turn up and do 120 mph round Silverstone..." so we weren't certain he'd do It.

Then the 3rd session he was just on it and he carried that over to the test.

As part of the day he also got training in the skid rig and drifting in a Caterham. 

Mentally and physically drained lad. (and Dad) 

Very pleased to hear the successful outcome.
Can you help me understand what this is all about? Your son has only a tiny amount of driving tuition yet has learned how to hurl a powerful car round a track whilst paying attention to the various rules and signals given to him? From your OP I thought he perhaps had experience driving on private land and/or some kind of unregulated motor sport. This is just something that I'm naive about, so my questions are out of curiosity and I am genuinely chuffed for you and the lad.

thumpingrug

Massive congratulations.  To go from a novice driver to passing a racing driver test in a few hour is a huge achievement.  Whats next?

Nitefly

Fantastic result!  Well done to your boy. 

Just got to get your bit done now - best wishes for that.