Learning to drive...

digitalscream

Well, this is it - test day. And, of course, I've been at A&E with the mother in law until 2-3am for the last two nights (wife couldn't lift her), and the frigging dog woke us up at 5:30am today and wouldn't shut up.

This does not bode well.

ThePrettyDamned

digitalscream said:

Well, this is it - test day. And, of course, I've been at A&E with the mother in law until 2-3am for the last two nights (wife couldn't lift her), and the frigging dog woke us up at 5:30am today and wouldn't shut up.

This does not bode well.

Nah man, it'll be fine. You can already drive, this is just some stupid test. You'll pass or fail, and that will be that. Just try to relax, take deep breaths and it'll be over before you know it.

Best of luck, mate.

ICBM

digitalscream said:

Well, this is it - test day. And, of course, I've been at A&E with the mother in law until 2-3am for the last two nights (wife couldn't lift her), and the frigging dog woke us up at 5:30am today and wouldn't shut up.

This does not bode well.

Good luck, hope it goes alright.

ThePrettyDamned said:

To be honest, I'd not worry much about power. I never had problems with the puma - nippy can be useful for slip roads. 

However, there are *very* few cars that accelerate too slowly to safely do slip roads. I drive a 1 litre aygo and its perfectly fine - you just need to know how to drive it properly. The reasons for more power is not so much acceleration as it is smoothness, quietness and ease of use.

The only car that's even remotely modern that I know of which genuinely does not have enough power for safe motorway driving is the Citroën 2CV - which I've owned a couple of - and less because it doesn't have enough acceleration for slip roads than because there are some hills on motorways where it can't quite maintain 56mph in top gear - and which is slightly too fast to leave it in third gear really - so if you're mixed up with a lot of lorries it can get a bit hairy. But to be fair, it was designed in the 1940s, the engine dates from the 60s and it was last made nearly 30 years ago, so 'modern' is probably stretching a point anyway.

The much bigger problem is twits who don't know how to use slip roads...

digitalscream

Cheers, guys

On the car thing...as noted elsewhere, I've ended up with the 1.8 MG ZR 120. It's got more than enough "go" to it...in fact, possibly a little too much. If I pass, I'll probably fill it up and go driving for the afternoon to get used to it.

If not, I'll just sit in the garden with a bottle of gin, staring wistfully at it...

stickyfiddle

Good luck! Just relax. I was terrified for my first test. Spent pretty much the whole thing in silence and failed on a major right at the end. Suspect the examiner knew I wasn't quite ready and was looking for something to fail me on because I didn't have quite enough minors.

Second test I aced - much more relaxed, and chatted with the guy about cars and music most of the way round. A much better approach!

boogieman

Good luck ! 

proggy

Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine.

Just stay away from that gin when you pass, we don't want a Tiger Woods on our hands

octatonic

Good luck.

mellowsun

ICBM said:

The much bigger problem is twits who don't know how to use slip roads...

Equally the twits who decide to suddenly  accelerate into the gap in the traffic that you identified to safely join at speed.

monquixote

Good luck fella

snakemanStoo

Good luck dude

57Deluxe

shame you weren't learning to fly cos I could've dumped this here instead of Madness!




https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HAhFGUK80nk/hqdefault.jpg

speshul91

Good luck man. 

digitalscream

Fuck me sideways, I passed!

ICBM

mellowsun said:

Equally the twits who decide to suddenly  accelerate into the gap in the traffic that you identified to safely join at speed.

I had that happen to me last week while changing lanes too. The space was plenty big enough until the twat at the back of it tried to accelerate into it to block me. He failed…

digitalscream said:

Fuck me sideways, I passed!

Well done!!

proggy

digitalscream said:

Fuck me sideways, I passed!

Well done geezer.

stickyfiddle

Woohoo! Well done fella. Now don't crash the MG before christmas

ThePrettyDamned

Woohoo! Congrats mate, drive safely and enjoy the gin! (do those things separately). 

And if I get cut up by a 1.8 mg, I'm coming on here and publicly shaming you  

Brilliant news! 

speshul91

Well done man. 

boogieman

Well done that man.

Have you driven on your own yet? From memory that was a disconcerting experience the first time: suddenly there's no one beside you to tell you what to do or what to look out for.