THE FUTURE OF CLASSIC MOTORING
Why wait until someone is 17 to introduce them to driving? We meet the new generation of fans who are getting a head-start in classic motoring
Many of us will remember being infatuated with cars from an early age, whether it was Matchbox toys, the one that your dad owned or bedroom posters of Italian exotica in motion that served as the ‘spark’’. However one thing that we all have in common is that we needed to pass our driving test in order to enjoy driving – and that still remains the case for the next generation of classic car enthusiasts.
Of course, there are far greater challenges for today’s learners, not least with the UK government’s latest statistics highlighting that there are 41.3 million licensed vehicles meaning that our roads are far more congested than when most of us would have passed our test. Undoubtedly this makes that first lesson today more intimidating.
Young Driver’s managing director, Ian Mulingani, wanted to do something about that. He founded the organisation some 13 years ago, inspired by a study led by the Swedish government, which showed that a group aged under the age of 17.5 (Sweden’s legal age to start driving lessons) who had the opportunity to learn to drive early were involved in 42 per cent fewer accidents once they passed their test than those who had learned to drive at the ‘normal’ legal age.
Ian explains: ‘Most instructors whom we employ teach 17-year-olds in the week and they’ll tell you that a kid who’s 12 or 13 will learn in half an hour what someone who’s 17 will in an hour or two on the road because the kids are like sponges.’
Young Driver allows ten-17 years olds to receive tuition from government-approved driving instructors behind the wheel of dual-control Vauxhall Corsa on private roads at more than 70 venues across England, Scotland and Wales. It’s delivered more than 1.3 millions lessons to date and Ian is adamant that time acquainting youngsters with driving early makes all the difference: ‘We track the accident rate of our kids when they get to 17 and its less than four per cent compared to the national average of 20 per cent.’
Although most of the lessons take place behind the wheel of Corsas, there are some alternatives. Ian revealed how a fleet of recently developed, all-electric Firefly sports cars allows children as young as four to be introduced to the exciting world of driving, while ten-17 year olds also have access to a W12 twin-turbo Bentley Continental Flying Spur, an ex-service Dennis fire engine and one of three classic cars. These include a 1963 Vauxhall VX 4/90 based on the second-generation Victor, a 1959 Morris Minor Tourer and a 1934 Austin Seven two-seater special – the latter two being available at a recent Young Driver event at Bicester Heritage, where CCW was invited to see just how well a
