At the age of seventeen in 1958 I bought a 1937 Austin Seven Ruby convertible. I drove it around insured, but without L plates, for several weeks. I never had a problem.
Before my test a couple of months later, I changed the semaphore arm turn signals, for those, "new fangled flashing indicators."
The examiner didn't like them and told me to use hand signals throughout the test.
Changing down required a slow gear change and "double de-clutching."
There was only about two inches of travel on the clutch pedal. It wasn't quite in or out," but close!
With the hill start, I was very careful. So I was a bit slow. The examiner made me do it twice. I guess he expected me to make a hash of it the second time, but I didn't. I don't think though, I did it much quicker.
As for the theory part at the end of the test. He only asked me two questions.
"What follows the amber?"
"What governs your speed at night?"
I got those right and he told me I'd passed.
I think they make up their minds sometimes, quite early in a test. The main thing they are looking for is the ability to drive with confidence.
From then on, sometimes my car had L plates on as I was acting as the "experienced driver" when my best friend drove the car. We were out in it most evenings.
One Saturday morning, I was about to leave our house, when there was a knock at the door and there stood a policeman.
"Is that your car outside?"
He didn't ask if it were my father's (he didn't drive at the time).
Obviously the police had been told by a nosey neighbour that they'd seen me driving it, sometimes with L plates on and sometimes not.
He asked to see my driving licence. Those back then were the little red card ones.
He looked at it said, rather triumphantly, "This is a provisional!"
"Yeah...but look in the back."
Where he found a tatty bit of pink paper. This was my pass slip.
He looked a bit crestfallen then.
You didn't need to pay for a full licence until the provisional had expired.
His attitude immediately changed as he'd come on a wasted journey.
He'd probably had to walk to our house.
I was a bit annoyed that someone had grassed me up. Maybe they were a bit jealous, as there were few car owners in our road.
So I said, "Is that it now, as I'm going out?"
He smiled and said, "If you're going out, could you possibly give me a lift back to the station?"
So I did.
