Need some of your opinions here

[todd@bsaw]

Per driving schools, head to Skip Barber in Elkhart Lake, WI. If Pops has the cash to buy you a set of wheels, he should be able to pay a few hundred dollars to make sure you don't wreck it in the first week. I took their Formula driving course and had the time of my life and I now consider myself the best driver I know. When you get that confidence behind the wheel of a vehicle, you can handle anything with 2-/18+ wheels. I now have my SCCA license, motorcycle license, and Class A CDL and have driven anything from a Dodge Formula car to Ducatis to Vipers to a Mack truck.

IIRC, you can take a Beginner 3-day Driver Course (don't let the name fool you!) where they teach you the basics of driving (ala drivers ed) including a skid pad, maneuvering, accident avoidance, etc. The final day, they allow you to drive the Road America course in a Viper.

As for the new car selection, find something small (and Evo is an excellent choice). One of the hardest things to learn being a new driver is knowing where the corners of your vehicle are, and that comes with time. That's one reason I still prefer small handling-minded cars over large power-heavy cars. I'll take a Porsche 911 over a Viper/Corvette anyday!

[GrayHawk]

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value."

--Thomas Paine, 1773

[blackcaraddict]

Your Dad truly doesn't care about you if he's getting you a Viper at 18. You'll have 3 beers, catch a slight buzz and want show the car off to your friend. At 120 mph, you'll catch a bump in the road and a tree will split your car in half - worst case, you kill someone else, best case, you die. All your friends will be real sad for a while but eventually get over it. Unfortunately, your parents never will. Dude I've seen it happen with a kid driving a 150 hp Corsica, nevermind a supercar.

Don't be stupid - be a man and tell your father 'thanks, but no thanks, maybe down the road'. He should respect you even more for that, and appreciate that your just that much ahead of the curve of all the other punks who would pop a boner and take the car.

Patience is difficult to exercise, but do it and you won't regret it.

[mikebai1990]

Series1, I think the Evo should be a pretty good choice for you. As others have said, I don't think you want to get too powerful a car until you are more experienced.

Since you want to learn stick shift, you can look up a forum that I frequent, at How to Drive a Manual Transmission. We can probably help you out a lot with any questions you have You can learn all the stick driving techniques (double-clutch downshift, heel-toe)

[Accumulator]

Heh heh, as I'm sure todd@bsaw will agree, good training is addictive

Originally Posted by todd@bsaw

Per driving schools, head to Skip Barber...

Yeah, or Bondurant in AZ.

My wife and I started at Skippy School back when they were at LimeRock..that was in '93 and I'm still getting training all these years later. Wish I'd gone about 15 years earlier.

Go for a multi-day course, the longer the better. "Total immersion" is usually the best way to really assimilate such stuff.

Originally Posted by blackcaraddict

Your Dad truly doesn't care about you if he's getting you a Viper at 18...

Uhm, well...I wouldn't go that far; IMO this is more like parents buying teenagers sportbikes and so on...it's a little short-sighted perhaps, but I like to think it's not a genuine lack of concern for his well-being. IME a lot of parents have somewhat unrealistic notions about the way their kids will behave when it comes to stuff like this- "not *my* son!" and they only get the wakeup call after there's been a tragedy like the ones you and I have both known.

[3puttjay]

Wow an 18 year old asking 30+ year olds ( I'm guessing) for advice. Unheard of. I think spending some money on a driving school is spot on. When my son turns 16 I will take him to one of those before putting him behind the wheel, same for his siblings as well. I learned stick shifting on a diesel VW rabbit ( 0-60 in 25 seconds, woo-hoo). Like most things, it takes practice. So practice, practice, practice and practice some more before getting that viper. You might start with a porsche boxster or an audi A4. If it was me, you would be getting a Volvo. Good luck with your decision.

[Hondaph00l]

Haha, Im so confused why you guys think it would be hard to drive a viper. It seems like as long as your head is screwed on the right way, you could handle it. If he's 18 he would have to be driving for atleast 2 years? I would also say it would be worthwhile to get a cheaper vehicle that isnt as exotic and more manageable concerning maintenance etc. Like someone said before, you could have alot of fun with a wrx, and if 30k is your price range theres tons of other stuff. Or hey how about a nice car and new r1 or gsxr? haha, everybody is gonna hate that idea.

[todd@bsaw]

Originally Posted by Hondaph00l

Haha, Im so confused why you guys think it would be hard to drive a viper. It seems like as long as your head is screwed on the right way, you could handle it.

Have you ever driven a Viper?

[Strokin04]

Originally Posted by todd@bsaw

Have you ever driven a Viper?

+1 for the above statement/question, the Viper is a car that is not forgiving and if in inexperienced hands equals disaster.

[Accumulator]

Haha, Im so confused why you guys think it would be hard to drive a viper. It seems like as long as your head is screwed on the right way, you could handle it. If he's 18 he would have to be driving for atleast 2 years?

Leaving aside my never having met an 18-year-old whose head was screwed on the right way when it comes to mega-horsepower cars... two years of driving, in the absence of professional instruction, doesn't make for very good driving skills; often it just makes for some ingrained bad habits. Most people in their *30s* or older, even "car guys", can't drive worth a [crap]. There's a reason why cars like Vipers (along with certain motorcycles, airplanes, and boats) are called "doctor killers"

If nothing else, IIRC the Vipers (at least, IIRC, the ones Series1 was referring to) didn't have ABS. While plenty of us learned to drive without it, few of us really *mastered* braking (as in, spot-on consistency when threshold braking in emergent situations) until we got professional training in a controlled environment.

And anybody driving a Viper *is* gonna have to do some pretty skillful braking some day, or else they're not using the car for anything a [regular car] couldn't do just as well

Oh, and another argument against a Viper- the sidepipes get *HOT* and passengers won't appreciate getting their calves/ankles burned (think you can tell a young lady it was *her* fault because she wasn't careful enough? Heh heh, good way to have all-male company ).

[todd@bsaw]

Originally Posted by Accumulator

Oh, and another argument against a Viper- the sidepipes get *HOT* and passengers won't appreciate getting their calves/ankles burned ...

Viper = 1
Todd = 0

Been the victim of this the first Viper I drove. They even have a warning sticker in the door sill.

[Corey Bit Spank]

Originally Posted by series1

I have decided that I will go with a Koenigsegg CCX.

bahahahahah

why is anybody taking you seriously...