Unofficially I had some training off my old man who's ex traffic police, didn't stop me writing off my mini before I was 17 though
That reminds me...
Once upon a time I was driving my BMW along a twisty country lane near Didcot power station and I came up behind a mini. Evidently the driver saw me in his mirror and thought he'd show me a thing or two, so he started to go quite a bit faster. So fast, in fact, that I thought "He's not going to make it around that next corner."
He didn't. Fortunately for him the road was on an embankment about ten feet above the fields, with no fencing, so he just went down a rather steep incline and came to rest up to the axles in the mud.
I stopped at the bend, got out of the car and looked down at the scene. He'd got out of the mini and was looking a bit annoyed at it.
This is how the conversation went:
Me: "Going a bit too fast, were you?"
He: "No, the corner was too sharp!"
No kidding, that's exactly, word for word, what was said.
Anyway I always keep some rope in the boot so I tied it to his back bumper to pull him out. The bumper came off. Ooops.
He said "What am I going to tell my dad?" Ooops again.
So next try I wound the windows down, tied the rope around the door posts and pulled the car out sideways. That worked fine but I don't think it did the tyres much good.
Never heard any more about that one.
Quite a while later, after a long day working on the computers at Leyland DAF, I left my car on the road in Sutton Courtenay and went to bed. I was awoken at about 5am by a big bang outside. I looked out of the window, but I couldn't see anything wrong except there was a bus that looked a bit close to my car. I went back to sleep.
About half an hour later there was a knock on the door. I went to see who it was.
The man at the door said "Is that your BMW?"
"Yes", I said.
Well my son's just driven into the back of the bus that was parked behind your car, and he's pushed it (the bus!) into the back of your car!
Ooops. Him again. Some people never seem to learn.
He must have been doing seventy in a thirty limit. He pushed a 40-seat coach about ten feet with his dad's mini, and then all he can think of is to go to the nearest 'phone box and get his dad out of bed to pick up the pieces for him.