I resemble that remark, so don't talk to me peon!

Actually the car made me feel comfortable because I knew a kid that had gone to that school and drove his parent's hand me down POS and he ended up leaving because he felt uncomfortable.

 

A 16 year old does not have the sense to handle a performance car.

Period.

At that age, I had access to a 59 Chevy with a 3 on the column, 4 doors and an in-line 6 WHEN I could beg it from my father. I still crashed it and the two subsequent cars due to poor judgement. At the time, I worked for a guy who's dad bought him a 427 Cobra, one of the originals, not a kit car, the real thing, when they cost about 10,000 1966 dollars. He, at 19 or so, was lucky to walk away a from putting it in a phone pole and still salvage the car.

An S2k, or any performanbce car or bike is too much for a 16 year old.
Curmudgeon mode off.

 

not all of us young ones are that bad

 

i use scholarship money/military money to pay for it

 

I have two sons ages 6 & 3 and they each have karts . Emmick baby karts. The 6 year old has two races under his belt already. He also has a pocket bike and dirt bike. By the time I buy them their cars for the street they will have had thousands of performance driven miles. I will buy them whatever the current flavor of sportscar is at that time. Driving well will be second nature to them by that time. What is beyond stupid to me are the morons who when Jr is 6 months away from getting their drivers license, will spend a few hours in a POS glorified station wagon (SUV) "to teach their supposed beloved off-spring how to drive" when they themselves most likely have never had any performance driving skills. Then they make Jr drive some POS ecnobox or worse yet SUV (big car to me says we know you suck at driving hopefully this big thing will allow you to live when you crash) with crappy steering, lousy brakes , mushy suspension (even a Civic or whatever will still do 100 mph), and with a straight face will tell you no sportscars for my kid. I guess giving a kid a car with great brakes , good steering reponse , tight suspension is so wrong , WTF? Driving for the most part will be the most dangerous thing most people do. Why are parents so cheap and will not invest the time and money to train and provide best possible car for their supposed love ones . To me if you cannot fund these things you cannot afford to have children plain and simple. Why would I drive a decent car myself yet make my child drive a POS. To me this is saying I deserve this, you can have this POS for you are less than me. Do you go to dinner and order Kobe beef yet make your child eat hot dogs ?

 

"Do you go to dinner and order Kobe beef yet make your child eat hot dogs?"

YES, if they're only five. They are too young to appreciate Kobe beef, and actually prefer hotdogs to most any other food at that age. There is nothing wrong with wanting to give your children the best, but by giving them everything you think they should have as your child, you are going to make them miserable later in life when things don't come so easy. Your child may be old enough to legally drive a powerful sports car at 16, but it won't mean as much to him as the sports car he works for and buys himself. Do you really want to take any sense of accomplishment away from your child just to satisfy your own ego?

Tell yourself your kid's gonna be Ayrton Senna all you want, just remember Ayrton Senna died in a car wreck.

 

You forgot the powerfull engine that allows quick acceleration and speeds and higher likelyhood of loosing control.

 

I agree with having our children put some sweat into their car purchase. A few years ago, I was crossing the ferry and this very young man drove onto the ferry in a very clean and sharp black Vette. He was in a tux so I imagine he was heading to the prom since it was mid-May. What shocked me was when he stepped out of that fine car, he used the bottom of his shoe to shut the door. He just kicked it shut. I was floored!
From my observations, buying a high performance sports car for our kids invites disaster. Kids will be egged on by their peers to "show us what it can do" and it's hard not to abide. Maybe that has something to do with why insurance is sky high for young people.

 

True, but not because of driver error. His car lost all downforce in a curve (due to the design of the cars at the time) and that was that. He had no control over what happened.

 

you are exactly proving his point.....this dad can train and teach his kids all he wants but you just watch, he buys his son a corvette or something and the kid is gonna get into a crash 100%....and just like you said..."he had no control over what happened". So your son may be the best driver but if you are teaching him how to drive performance oriented you know he's goiing to go out to the public roads and show off to his friends when you ar ento there and what if a deer runs into the road that your son is traveling down at 80mph and he crashes? think man think

so do your kid a favor and dont buy him a sports car...if you want to show everybody how wealthy and what a great parent you are why dont you buy your kid a luxury car? maybe it will be someone you know who's life you will be saving.