My 16 year old son driving the 968

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - Printable Version

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My 16 year old son driving the 968 - 968Syncro - 02-10-2008

So...

He has been driving alone for about 6 months. Last night somebody cut him off by turning right on red when he was turning left with a valid green arrow. He panicked, spun the car, and it ended up in a deep ditch / drainage channel! Ouch, my 3rd Porsche, and finally had one see some damage.

The pics are from a cell phone camera which doesn't perform well at night. (attachments, I forgot to insert the pics)

He is fine, nobody injured. Car has a number of lower body panels that got sraped, a few came off. The trans fluid plastic reservoir broke and it all leaked out (tip). And you could now grow tomatoes in various parts of the underside until the dirt and grass gets cleaned out.

Don't worry, I didn't cry, maybe my beloved 968 will better with the needed repairs! It is at a shop now and they are very, very good and will make it right.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - 968rz - 02-10-2008

Great no one was hurt, cars can be fixed.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - PorscheDude - 02-10-2008

Glad he is ok. Probably crushed is young ego (that hurts)

But it is JUST A CAR.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - gryphon - 02-10-2008

Bad luck, Synchro, but at least you son is physically fine.

Although I don't know the details of the event, this is probably as good an example as one can find to point out that there is no substitute for having a few years of driving experience under your belt when it comes to accident avoidance. If only I could convince my 19 year old son that he is not invincible just because he can drive, turn, and stop his car.

Tom

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - PorscheDude - 02-10-2008

I was invincible until at least 25. I also know it all. Now I dont know sh*t from Shine ola. If that even how it is spelled.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - 968Syncro - 02-11-2008

Thanks for the kind words everyone. In the end he likes to blame the idiot who upset his driving plan. However I spoked with him at length that he was going too fast in the first place if he didn't allow room for some unexpected event. That is the main problem I found with my kids driving, they don't look / think 1/4 mile ahead. The only look/think about 100 ft. ahead or on the bumper in front of them.

This papa will certainly be continuing the child driving lesson with an increment of caring force.

In any case my miss the 968. Most refined Porsche I ever owned, the kind of car that can do it all.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - rhudeboye - 02-11-2008

I ran my 1st car into drainage channel as well. Heading to my girl friends house one night and noticed a escort GT (Who even remembers those things?) running up on my Celica GTs bumper. I floor it and run the car up to good speed then looked in the r-view to notice the lights of the Escort falling back fast. This put a grin on my face until i focused back on the road IN FRONT OF ME only to notice the double yellow line quickly go to the right <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> I Brake and turned the wheel hard right. yeah, I know! The car had the scariest and most violent slide Ive ever been in. Sliding down the concrete drainage channel quickly subsided my speed and paint and suspension and quarter panels etc.. I learned at the tender age of 18 that my driving was indeed novice level.

I walked away with a nice size bump on my forehead and crushed pride.

I'm a dad now myself and should my son, when he's able to drive, have to experience such a thing I'm prying for the crushed pride. Glad to hear your son is OK and I hope that your talk gets through to him as well.

David

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - badberry68 - 02-11-2008

Keep talking to him about safety and that he is'nt invincible. Maybe he can get acceptance of this a little earlier than age 25. Having three boys of my own, stories like Doug Herbert's (drag racer) scare the hell out of me. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/sad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> My first ride was a Renault 12--I won't do that to my boys, but I also won't hand them the keys to a Porsche.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - Chris Vais - 02-11-2008

Rule #1 if you have a teen who is a driver or who is about to be a driver. Don't let them drive your daily driver or your weekend car. Instead go buy a beater for them to use, something safe, new enought to have airbags, just not a concours winner. Carry liability insurance only, no collision or comprehensive and explain to them that if they crash or abuse the car there will be no insurance to cover the cost, nor money from The Bank of Mom and Dad to repair it, and that they'll be back to walking until they can raise the month to pay for the repairs. Worked great for me. My kid took his car out one day and decided to drag race a friend and blew up the clutch and the transmission. It cost two months of walking and $1600 and it put an end to the street racing. Best advice I ever received from my insurance agent.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - 968rz - 02-11-2008

My son will soon be driving (less than a year) and I think I will follow Chris' idea. Money from the pocket seems to speak louder than words from Dad's mouth.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - flash - 02-11-2008

and absolutely send them to a performance driving school - that weekend will dramatically improve their skills, and help prevent problems later on

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - PorscheDude - 02-11-2008

+1 on performance driving class. People think this teaches "performance" but it teaches reaction, planning and car control.

I think PCA also has car control clinics. Check with your region.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - flash - 02-11-2008

yup - bmw is good at providing those too

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - ether_joe - 02-11-2008

[quote name='968Syncro' post='47227' date='Feb 10 2008, 08:23 PM']Thanks for the kind words everyone. In the end he likes to blame the idiot who upset his driving plan. However I spoked with him at length that he was going too fast in the first place if he didn't allow room for some unexpected event. That is the main problem I found with my kids driving, they don't look / think 1/4 mile ahead. The only look/think about 100 ft. ahead or on the bumper in front of them.

This papa will certainly be continuing the child driving lesson with an increment of caring force.

In any case my miss the 968. Most refined Porsche I ever owned, the kind of car that can do it all.[/quote]

I think the best thing I learned from drivers ed, I had a pretty good teacher, was that there were always going be idiots and rather than blame them for my troubles, it was my job to make allowances for them and drive extra defensively.

I agree with everybody saying driving experiences are a good thing. . . let the kid get his rocks off in a controlled environment.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - gryphon - 02-11-2008

I don't know if my father was cheap, or wise, but the first car he bought me was a 4-door Rambler.

Tom

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - rhudeboye - 02-11-2008

[quote name='Chris Vais' post='47276' date='Feb 11 2008, 11:30 AM']Carry liability insurance only, no collision or comprehensive and explain to them that if they crash or abuse the car there will be no insurance to cover the cost, nor money from The Bank of Mom and Dad to repair it, and that they'll be back to walking until they can raise the month to pay for the repairs. Worked great for me. My kid took his car out one day and decided to drag race a friend and blew up the clutch and the transmission. It cost two months of walking and $1600 and it put an end to the street racing. Best advice I ever received from my insurance agent.[/quote]

ingenious

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - PorscheDude - 02-11-2008

[quote name='gryphon' post='47311' date='Feb 11 2008, 05:32 PM']I don't know if my father was cheap, or wise, but the first car he bought me was a 4-door Rambler.

Tom[/quote]

Thats great for the ego! But better for the id.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - Chris Vais - 02-11-2008

It might be obvious to some, but let me add something to my original post. You can't avoid carrying collision and comprehensive insurance on a car that is financed, so the kid's beater, in addition to being servicable and safe needs to be cheap enough to be a cash purchase.

BTW I concur with the idea of sending them to a performance driving school.

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - rob76turbo - 02-11-2008

Another thing our local PCA chapter (Mav Region / N. TX) does is to offer Auto-Cross 101 geared towards teens. I think that is a great way from them to learn car control and the only thing they can hit is a cone....

My 16 year old son driving the 968 - kodomokid - 02-14-2008

When I was 16, my parents gave me their old 77 Toyota Cressida to drive around. You can tell that I am not that old. One thing that it wasn't was a sports car. I had to slow down quite a bit when turning. I figured that out after my first little accident. I turned a corner and hit my friend's cousin's car. No dent on his car but a small one of mine. After that I learned to be a lot more careful. Never told my dad about it. But the experience on my own was enough to make me wake up.

Glad your son was not hurt. I'm sure that he will be tempted to "improve" his technique, but remind him that he was lucky, sometimes things don't go as smoothly as that. He's lucky to have a very understanding father like you. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />