Free wheeling...

There are lots of things you can fail your test for which people do every day though. Coasting used to be regarded as dangerous when braking systems were very much less reliable than they are now. Hooking one's thumbs over steering wheel spokes was also regarded as a surefire way of breaking your thumb(s) but steering systems have moved on somewhat too.
 
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Yes they did, and they were brilliant. Once you had moved off, you could change gear without using the clutch. You just shut the throttle, and let the engine idle whilst changing. There was a dog clutch to lock the freewheel if you wished. They were introduced on the first Saabs with 2 stroke engines, to avoid snatch on overrun, as 2 strokes will misfire then. The freewheel was kept on the early Saab 99 models as far as I remember.
 
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They were introduced to overcome a problem with the 2 stroke engine which relied on upper cylinder lubricant (Red-ex) being supplied to the cylinder with the fuel. Therefore without freewheel you would get the engine doing thousands of RPM, and getting very little upper cyl lube when going downhill with the throttle closed, ie in overrun
 
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