Why not encourage him or her to be a good driver in an SUV?

Princess Morgiah

"Round_Midnight" <somewhere@sandiego.com> wrote in message >

Midnight-

I just have to come to the defense of your son because too many posters have
already come to the conclusion he is going to be wreck less and
irresponsible. Not every sixteen year old is a wild maniac behind the wheel,
if your son has grew up with high performance cars I'm sure he respects
their power and performance far more than Joe Nobody who has been in Geos
their whole life. To expand on this, when I was sixteen I regularly took out
my father's Ferrari 308 fiberglass GTB (255hp, 2600lbs 0-60 in 5.6 seconds)
and I never had it over 5500 rpm or 70mph. I also had access to our 1964
Jaguar E-TYPE 3.8 OTS , which I was even more delicate with. Since I grew up
with these cars and learned to respect them at a young age, I knew what they
were capable of and I was mature enough to know the cars far exceeded my
driving skills. I won't deny that I had fun driving them, because did I
ever, but never once was my safety or my passengers safety in danger due to
my negligence or irresponsibility. In fact, I wouldn't doubt that through my
teenage years I pampered these cars more than adults would have. With that
being said, I still wouldn't give it to him.

Some cars (Corvettes?) do have this feature -- a "valet" key which limits the
performance of the car.  However, I've never heard of BMWs with this feature, or
aftermarket kits that provide it.  There's no technical reason it couldn't be
done, but to my knowledge it hasn't been.

Matt O.

You'll love it.  I've said before... it's the most fun thing I've ever done
that was legal and not sex.

Excellent.  Your son is a lucky guy.

I'm not sure there is any way to pull it off.  This by the way was a factory
option on the C4 ZR-1 if I recall, they called it the "valet" key.  Turned
it from 380 or whatevere it had to 245HP or whatever the standard Vette had.
Back to topic...

Anyway your motor is a pretty complex unit, I don't think running it at half
mast would agree with it very well.  You'd probably be looking at fouled
plugs and carbon deposits if you tried anything along those lines.  As
complicated as the electronics are I think you'd be asking for trouble as
the computer would try to compensate for whatever you did.  You might end up
dumping unburnt fuel into your emissions system which can damage your cat,
or carboning up the valves so that they are damaged when they finally are
run at full song -- I saw this happen once in a 320 that was lady-driven,
hubby took it up a long hill and it blew a chunk out of a valve because all
the carbon deposits don't transfer heat well so the valve itself overheated.

I get the odd high school student that tells me my E30 iX is a cool car,
which surprises me as it's about as old as they are.  But (dated) styling
aside, it's a great car to learn how to drive well in.  You could get a
really nice 5-speed M20 powered E30 for him with a kickin' stereo and he'd
probably enjoy it a lot, including on the track when he gets there.  It's
fast enough (0-60 sub 8 seconds and quarter in the 15's) to be fun and safe
but not going to win any serious drag races.  And very shadetree mechanic
friendly -- that can be a good part of the father/son/car relationship if
you're so inclined.

-Russ.

Round_Midnight <> On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 10:35:38 -0400, "Somebody"

You know, a 318 or whatever can still go pretty fast and kids in cars
who want to go fast will always go fast.  With an M3 he'll be able to
stop well too.  If he's a responsible chap I don't see the problem in
driving an M3.  17 is the minimum age for driving in the UK & I can
hardly comprehend 16 years olds driving anything at all.  I doubt
whether there's much of a correlation between youngsters crashing and
having a high performance car.  If anything they're safer to drive
than the poor handling cheapo cars.  Certainly if the M3s got traction
control.

The easiest way to detune your M3 I guess would be to put a racing
style rev limiter on it & you could even restrict the throttle so that
it never goes wide open.   ...but then he won't learn how to drive it
properly.

Checking back in here, I see at least two other good solutions to your
dilemma.  Russ is right for more than one reason.  For less money than
making unheard-of modifications to your beloved M3, you can pick up a
decent non-M E30 or E36.  These offer good platforms for us to teach
him everything he'll need to know before climbing into an M3.  In
fact, we've wishfully discussed getting together a fleet of 2002s, old
320is, and 318s as 'student cars' so we can really *teach* driving at
their friendlier, more approachable limits instead of cautiously
approaching the stupendously high limits of M cars and other modified
BMWs.  Compared to an '02, you've gotta be going *really fast* to get
an M3 sideways.  And, compared to an '02, you can catch a slide as
many times as you need to while, with an M3, the third time, it flips.

OTOH, one poster suggested that your son might be as I've found most
active and involved 'CCA members' kids: respectful and responsible.
For starters, we don't tolerate much attitude.  You'll see that
yourself when you go to driver school.  Take your son along (You'll
need to sign a minor waiver, so check in advance, but I'm sure he'll
be welcome.) so he gets the idea.  Have him help with car preparation;
maybe checking the brake pads; maybe just tire pressures; maybe
someone else will want to recruit him as an extra pair of hands
changing to track tires.  Have him listen to the driver's meeting.  If
there's room, I'm sure he can sit through the classroom sessions with
you.  If he doesn't want to hang around after the first morning,
that's OK.  He'll have seen plenty.

The 'CCA members' children I've seen coming up the way we've suggested
have all done well.  Heck, half of 'em can outdrive their parents, and
that includes some instructors!  They have a true and deep
appreciation of their cars and what it is they're capable of.  They've
seen some BMWs crashed in schools (We usually average one 'sheetmetal
incident' per school.) and they know they don't want it to happen to
them.  It's not a badge of honor; it's an embarassment.

Face it; if your son is intent on self-destruction, he won't need an
M3 to do it.  He won't even have any trouble doing it in a 318.  In my
case, I could just as easily have smacked up my old 'half-a-389'
4-cylinder 2-speed autobox '63 Pontiac Tempest.  In fact, in the
process of learning about the unusual handling characteristics of
*swing axles*, I *did*.  Since it frightened me suddenly discovering
myself in that ditch with my friend lying on top of me (also
surprised; also unhurt), I learned *why* it happened so it wouldn't
happen again.  Now, I can explain it so no one else needs to *live it*
to *know it*.

This is the nature of this group.  You can't be thin-skinned about it.
You don't control who's posting here, nor do I.  You sort it out and
make your own decisions.  If I knew your son better, I might be able
to tell you not to worry so much about it, but I don't.  As long as
you can introduce him to, and make him comfortable with, the 'CCA
community, he'll probably stay away from the 'ricers' and behave
himself.  But if he tries to convince you to slap a fartpipe and a set
of 'bling' wheel covers on the M3, I suggest professional help ...
--
C.R. Krieger
"Fix the lighter." - Jake Blues

One word: Viagra.
--
C.R. Krieger
(Not sayin')