Flynn can’t believe his luck. Autocar’s photographer needs a picture of the 12-year-old at the wheel of the Vauxhall Corsa as he steers it around the driving route laid out at Kempton Park Racecourse in Sunbury, Surrey.
The thing is, the lad has only just returned from doing the same thing – a gift from his dad, Steve, who bought the 30-minute driving experience offered by Young Driver, an organisation that offers 10-to-17-year-olds their first taste of driving in a dual-control car. In the company of a qualified instructor, Flynn and his fellow youngsters follow a route on a closed circuit marked out with cones and road signs and which, depending on the venue (there are 70 across the UK) might also feature a hill start and other technical challenges.
Flynn returned from his first drive cock-a-hoop at the experience – “I got the car to 26mph in third gear and did an emergency stop!” – and now he’s being offered another go, which, frankly, has stunned him.
I’ve dropped by Kempton Park this hot Saturday morning to see a Young Driver experience for myself and to find out, against a backdrop of conflicting attitudes towards the car, what today’s youngsters – the drivers of tomorrow – think about this mode of transport and, crucially, its future. Obviously, the many youngsters who, over the course of the day, will guide Young Driver’s 17 Corsas around Kempton Park are already sold on driving, but even so, their views are bound to be nuanced. I’m expecting to hear Greta Thunberg’s name mentioned…
By the time the youngest drivers at today’s event begin their driving lessons on the road at 17, the current drift to EVs will have gathered pace and their instructor’s car could very well be an electric model with an automatic gearbox. That’s fine if mum and dad can afford to furnish them with a new or used EV when they pass their test, but most will have to make sure they learn in a manual car to take advantage of the many thousands of used petrol models that will still be around at lower prices. They can always step up to an EV later.
Not that Flynn is thinking EV. “My favourite cars are the Mazda RX-7 and the Koenigsegg Agera RS,” he says. “I like the old petrol cars with their big engines, but I think that when I pass my test [in 2025 at the earliest], around 50% of new cars will be hybrid or electric, so I had better get used to the fact that when I’m older, I’ll be driving one.” His acceptance is borne out by the 2020 RAC Report on Motoring, which found that people aged 17 to 24 are almost twice as likely to consider buying a pure EV than older drivers.
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What ever the views we are told are held by young people, all those offered driving lessons at 17 seem to jump at the chance, and as soon as they pass they would have a car but for the cost of insurance. They are not mainly enthusiasts, they just see the freedom they bring to their lives, something the rest of us are keen to hang onto as long as possible.
This scheme sounds an excellent idea, and if i had been given the chance to do it, i would have loved it, although my father bid take me to an old airfield and let me 'have a go' well before i was 17.
It may not be what the greens want to hear but for most teenagers the car is a VERY important part of their future