Driving Test failure

Mine started at the test centre.Instructer said can you read that car in fronts reg plate,I said what car.

 

She failed. It’s part of life. Get over it. Unless you want everyone passing who makes major mistakes.

 

When I took my driving test I actually swore at my examiner (extenuating circumstances). and still passed. After being parked up the test centre after my pretest lesson The examiner came of the office and followed me to the car. The damn thing wouldn't start. I tried several times. Then waited to avoid flooding the engine and tried again. She kept looking at her watch and I was aware that after a certain time the test would be abandoned. She then said .."Try the choke"( they were manual in those days. By now I was cra**ingmyself thinking the test would never happen so I blurted out.." That's no bloody good, the engine is already warm". She looked at me and said.."try one more time and miraculously it started. However..every time I braked to a halt the engine stopped. I had to resort to heeling and toeing ( heel on brake and toe on accelerator to keep are revs going so it wouldn't stall. The turn in the road was a nightmare as it stalled twice. The rout then took me up York Street
which was a favourite for examiners to test clutch control. Just before we did she asked me to use hand signals only until further notice. So there was me .. top of York St holding position on clutch right arm sticking out of window indicating a right turn praying the thing wouldn't stall. Overall in 30 minutes I had to restart 5 times. I was gob smacked when she said.. "I am pleased to....( I didn't hear the rest.). She had a chat with Cyril my instructor while waited in the car which was unusual. He seemed pretty pleased when got back but wouldn't tell me what she said. A few short years later I took the driving instructors practical exam which is an hour and a half long and that is a nail biting experience. You have to stay focussed and produce a perfect or near perfect drive. I got an emergency stop instruction downhill on a newly tarmaced/loose chippings surface. It took forever to stop without locking up ( no ABS back then) I was convinced I had blown it but I passed.

 

Aah, the good old days when cars had a mind of their own. I remember well my Ford Fiesta with manual choke. Bloody thing was happy to start, as long as it was between 10 and 20 degrees, dry, not foggy and no damp in the air. Flooded the engine many times.

 

My Mum had a Renault 5...she had quite a long fairly steep drive...if you parked it at the top of the drive, leaving room to bump start it, it would start...if you forgot and parked at the bottom with no room to bump start it, it wouldn't start.

 

Failed my first test due to a simple failure to process instructions. Came out of the old test centre in Pontefract, heading towards the racecourse and the examiner said I should "follow the road". The left hand lane bends off to the left and the right hand lane carries on to the racecourse. By the time I had decided he didn't mean straight ahead when he said "follow the road", and he meant for me to follow the road round the bend, I had not reduced speed for the bend and took the bend on 2 wheels with a noticeable screech of the tyres.