Yes, I only had 7 lessons with a driving instructor too. Although my dad didn't have multiple cars at his disposal he did let me drive his Hillman Minx on every opportunity, including driving us both to work every day, 30 miles there and back, driving down to Orpington in Kent and back a couple of times (no M6 back then), must have driven over 5,000 miles I reckon. The lessons were just to iron out my bad habits, like not using the mirrors, etc.
Pete
I only had 6 lessons with an instructor, I couldn't handle my instructors constant chain smoking and terrible attitude so ended up parking up half way through lesson number 6 and after telling him what I thought of him gave him the sack and just practiced driving on quiet roads in my cortina with my mate sitting in the passenger seat, (he had a full licence so it was legal) until I felt ready to take my test