Non-pedal powered vehicles you drove

[postman]

I have driven this one round the bend over the years.

 

[Black Sheep]

I've driven this, it's currently owned by my uncle (who had nothing to do with the video)

first thing I ever drove was a Land Rover 109 with a V8 wedged in and jacked up suspension. Drove it round Tong woods too (off road site)

driven a friend's triumph spitfire, mini and a scary hillman imp (V8 where the back seat should be) and many many different 'transit' sized mini busses.
the list of what I've driven is quite wide and varied due to borrowing so many cars or just test driving them when looking to buy so I'll cut to ownership:



Gran owned this one since I was little - it replaced her Maxi. After I'd been driving for a few years she gave it to me. 1.3 ghia with sport engine and twin-choke carb. It moved quite quickly! Did a few road trips in it during the summers from uni. It got laid up in her garage due to needing body repairs to the underside, I didn't want to use it and make it deteriorate. I had no money or skills to do the work myself, and no-where to keep it where I lived so sold it to someone looking for an easy project. Wouldn't have another as it wouldn't be the same.

When I met her, the wife had a 1.0 suzuki swift, It remains the smallest engined thing I've ever driven on the road! Bought a weekends insurance and drove from Coventry to the Lake District for the weekend with only half a radiator in as it had rotted away (didn't realise until we were there) Drove it though lots of flood water and back again, then spent a week replacing the radiator. Kept it for a few years after we'd married until it died.

pinched the car that dad had owned when I learnt to drive, was owned by the family for 10 years before I got it (cousin learnt to drive in it too) Mazda Demio, fantastic design of small car, can't remember finding that I couldn't transport something in it, although I did used to take rope and roof rack if I went to Ikea, ended up having all the bearings in the gearbox replaced, was finding gearboxes from broken up cars with 1/3 of the millage that ours had! Was sad to get rid of it, but I was getting more and more convinced that I was going to find it sat on the pavement one morning unable to move, we had pretty much worn it out.
If I could get another one in nearly new I'd have one - but they stopped production in 2004 I think. It's still what I look for in a car "small, estate, with roof bars" which seems to confuse car salesmen.

So, we have our current Seat Ibiza ST (sports touring, estate to you and me) it does the job quite nicely and is fairly future-proof as we're hoping on having a family. The boot space is regally used, especially with frequent trips to B&Q and the dump.

And finally, my little bike, yes it actually is a 125cc, but I figured for commuting though Slough centre and into Uxbridge that having a bike that didn't make me look like a teenager new to the road was probably a good move. Decent touring bike for it's engine size, although struggled a little with hills coming up through the peak district, but that could be down to the rider.

It's not quite so exotic as Night Train, or even Arch's lists, but hey, not bad really.

 

[rikki]

I've driven this

and this

I've never driven one of these, but I've been the monkey passenger.

 

[ColinJ]

I worked as a factory labourer for 5 years in my twenties, including one year on a night shift to save extra money before going to university.

I had just started work one evening when the night foreman came over to me and said that the fork lift driver had phoned in sick, so I would have to operate the fork lift truck. I told him that I had never had any training so he gave me the 3 minute course - that key to switch the engine on, this lever for netural/forward/reverse, that pedal to move, that one to stop, that lever to raise and lower the forks, that one to tilt them forwards and backwards, don't go too fast, don't stop too quickly, don't bump into anyone or anything, don't move far with the load raised, tilt the load back slightly before moving ... simples! (None of your namby pamby training courses, certification and proper H&S in those days! )

It was fun and beat working at my usual job! I enjoyed shifting stuff around the factory. But then I started to be come overconfident ...

I had been stacking pallets of finished product against one wall of the industrial unit. The lorry was not coming to collect the consignment until the next day and space was running out. I decided that I could just manage to squeeze in another row of pallets between the top of the others and the roof of the factory. I succeeded in stacking 4 or 5 pallets up there but the last one was going to be a very tight squeeze. I went for it ...

So there I was, an untrained driver with a half ton load balanced on forks at maximum extension and about an inch to spare between the top of the load and a girder supporting the factory roof. No problem!

The inevitable happened ... The load caught the girder and so I tried to reverse out of trouble. The top of the load was stuck and the pallet rocked alarmingly on the forks, 20 feet above my head!

I thought it was going to fall back and land on top of the fork lift tuck and was considering getting out and running to safety. I stayed put and the pallet stopped rocking!

I looked around and nobody had spotted my mistake so I very gingerly extracted the pallet from its confined space, and stacked it safely somewhere else ...

 

[User482]

EF Schumacher said that "Small is Beautiful". Hmmm.

Our one caught fire.

 

[dan_bo]

My first drive was a

Wheelspins in reverse anyone?

 

[swee'pea99]

I had to admit defeat and give it up when the passenger door fell off.

I was parking my first car - an ancient Triumph Herald (I loved that car!) in a busy road, when suddenly the whole horizon tilted by about 15 degrees. Passers-by were casting glances at my front nearside wheel. Even from the driver's seat, I knew what had happened: the wheel had fallen off. I couldn't just sit there, obviously. I had to open the door, climb out, walk round the front and look down along with everyone else, making my best 'ah, the wheel's fallen off' face. It's quite a hard face to make if you've never had to make it before...

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I've driven gocarts too

 

[swee'pea99]

While working on a tomato farm in Australia, I was asked if I'd like to have a go on the tractor & trailer. Picking tomatoes was back-breaking, so of course I leapt at the chance. Very odd experience. Easy peasy going forwards, but when you're reversing, you have to sort of steer anti-intuitively, swinging the back end of the tractor the 'wrong way' to make the trailer go the right way. I never quite got the hang of it, and after clanging into the shed support I got put back on picking. Swizz!

 

[Black Sheep]

ah, forgot about the small tractor I used to drive as part of summer job at a water sports park, had a little 6X6 thingy also.

 

[Night Train]

The scariest car I drove was Dad's mk1 3.0l Capri. Scary fast but no steering over 30mph!

 

[monkeylc]

 

[Recycle]

I have driven one of these (but not with that insignia). A Sexton self propelled 25 pounder artillery gun.
I have fired it too . Wouldn't mind it now to even the odds against a few BMW drivers.

 

[BrianEvesham]

I am a freelance driver hgv psv and have been driving commercially since 1985. I have driven most that you see on the road.
This one is one of the more recent trucks I have driven:

 

[Ian H]

When I was about 14 (totally illegal, but the milkman, a neighbour, for whom I worked was tolerant).