6 replies to this topic

[mariner]

Autocar Uk has this article about a young man owning a classic Minor to learn on.

 

https://www.autocar....year-old-morris

 

As the article says eeh insurace for him on a classic is way, way cheaper than the silly prices for a new car. The RAC estimates it costs £2,500 to learn to drive!

 

There are two disadvantges 

 

1) you stil obvuoly need lessons 

 

2) I don'tt hink you can takethe  test in classic as it doesnt have head restriants which I think is illegal due to examiner H+S requirements

 

I learnt long, long ago when the roads were less crowded and fewer rules but I do agree that the ned to respect the poorer brakes etc on classic would help a learner -and yu can usually see out the back of them!

[Ray Bell]

I agree that it's a good basis for learning to drive...

 

It's a manual and will require a lot of concentration to drive in modern traffic, all good lessons.

 

Fit aftermarket headrests if they're available, or make some, substitute another pair of seats, it wouldn't be impossible. It should have outside mirrors on both doors for the sake of safety and I'd hope it's fitted with indicator lights rather than the old semaphores.

[BRG]

It should have outside mirrors on both doors for the sake of safety and I'd hope it's fitted with indicator lights rather than the old semaphores.

As shown in the pictures, it has both.  Changing the seats would be a good idea anyway as the original Minor seats were pretty basic.  Do that, then turn up for the test and the examiner would probably be so charmed by the old car that you would get a pass more easily!

[Catalina Park]

The examiner probably won't be allowed in any vehicle without modern safety features or any safety features.
A Minor probably won't even have engineered seat belt mounts.
 

[Sterzo]

The rules about the car used for the test are quite straightforward:

 

Rules about the car:

• There must be no warning lights showing.
• There must be no tyre damage and meet the legal tread depth on each tyre – you must not have a space-saver spare tyre.
• Your car must be roadworthy; for example, have the right amount of engine oil, all lights must work, and all windows must be clean. See the full list on the Gov website.
• You must have an extra interior rear-view mirror for the examiner.
• The vehicle must be fitted with a passenger seatbelt and a passenger head restraint for the examiner (slip-on types are not allowed).
• The car must be able to reach at least 62mph and have an mph speedometer.
• You must have L-plates (or ‘D’ plates in Wales) on the front and rear of the car.
• You must have 4 wheels and they must meet the maximum authorised mass limit (MAM).

 

Source: https://drivingtests...l-driving-test/

[Odseybod]

I think the lack of seatbelts - and more importantly, proper seat bet mountings - would be the main stumbling block. Our 1962 Minor wasn't required to have seatbelts fitted or worn by the front seat occupants - I think that's still the case in UK law. And, even though it was a 4-door saloon, the front seats were also free to tilt forward without any catch to release, as they were with the 2-door saloons, travellers and vans to allow access to the rear - the examiner might not be too enthusiastic about a possible nose-dashboard interface during the emergency stop element of the test.

 

A shame, as any learner would be all the better for coping with a Minor's non-servo brakes, non-assisted steering and sometimes recalcitrant gearchange with its non-synchro first gear - though it might make any 'modern' they subsequently graduated to would feel distinctly woolly by comparison. Issigonis designed a very capable small car.

[Ray Bell]

Plenty of pre-1963 cars were fitted with belts which came with kits using large underfloor washers...

 

62mph, however, might require some special treatment.

 

Unfortunately the link won't work for me so I don't know what model the Minor is or some of the other detail.