There used to be an old tale going around among us young motorcyclists in the 60s and 70s, that some mate of a mate had heard of a case where the examiner jumped out in front of an oncoming bike, but it was the wrong bike and the rider ran into the examiner....

 

Almost certainly an apocryphal tale, but we all heard someone tell it in my day.

My father-in-law is eighty eight & took his motorcycle test about seventy years ago. He tells me that when the examiner jumped out waving his clipboard he hit the brakes so hard they locked up & he fell off & failed. He subsequently passed a re-test.

My 1st examiner followed me in a land rover and directed me where he could not follow, I spent 1/2 the test sat by the side of the rd waiting for him to catch up, failed me for hesitating at a junction when afaik he was no where near??

 

Following month i retook the test and passed but had worn my glasses without realising the weak lenses had popped out (nhs john lennon frames).

At the end of the test and i discovered the no lens frames and laughed, the examiner looked relieved and said 'thank goodness i dont have to pass a nutter!!', the odd looks and side glances ever since i spent 2 minutes working the glasses on with the helmet on and squinting at the distant numberplate when asked to read it instantly made sense.

The local driving test centre was roughly 400yds from where my parent live, long gone I believe, it was in a small strip of shops with small car park for about 4 cars.

 

I needed glasses to read the board in school however never wore them apart from in class, we'd seen instructors a few times over the yrs doing the license plate read test at certain distance, it was either one in the small car park or one parked on the street near to test centre.

 

Day of my test there was one car in car park and only one parked on street so I memorised them both. Sure enough I was asked to read the one on the street...PASS!

 

My mum trumps this, she passed her test back in the 1970s and spent 20mins in a traffic jam on High St, drove less than a mile in total and passed!

My car test started with me reversing up the kerb on the way out of the test centre car park, In my mind i had failed automatically but the test didnt start until we left the centre apparently.. I lost all inhibition and at one point turning the corner to meet the back end of a bus pulling to a stop, I just dropped into 1st and sped around the slowing bus raising the examiners eyebrows as he turned and stared at me monitoring mirrors.. hell i had failed, might as well get some practice in..

 

My jaw hit the floor and stayed there when the word congratulations left the examiners lips...

My dad never had a test. He was a travelling salesman at the time; first company car collected in South London. They showed him the gears, and he drive it to North London.