Dad Getting 488, Son Getting License

Perhaps after he has demonstrated enough to gain your confidence to let him drive any of the cars alone, you can be in one of your other cars and do a 2 car convoy. That way you can still “be there“ without being in the same car. It’s also a fun father-son mini rally. And you can correct him if you see any behavior you don’t like. Signing up for a performance driving course is also good for improved safety.

 

My daughter also loves sports cars. She always insists on coming with me to the Ferrari dealership ever since I picked up my 458 italia and her favorite of all my cars is no question the 488 Spider. She’s 10 now. Good luck with your son. All teen drives make bad decisions. I’ll be getting both my girls autonomous cars until they are out of high school and use track days to get them into real machines. Distracted driving and DUI injuries are just too common no matter how responsible the kid is (I speak from personal experience).
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In my experience it doesn't matter how mature and skilled teens are at driving, there is always the risk they will succumb to the pressures of being a youth and make a bad decision.....there is no going back from a bad decision that results in accident. I know, I lived it. There is also no way to equate an apparent skill in a video game to the perils that exist on the streets. There is no way my Son's will ever drive any of my Ferraris before graduating college, but that may just be parental paranoia, not sure.


Jim

 

Surely autonomous cars will encourage exactly this - if they are not focused on the road they will be texting or whatever

 

All good suggestions and I’ll only add that so long as your son understands that real world damage to any car is nothing like damage to Forza virtual cars (which I have no doubt he already gets), you are on the right track. I will only add that proficiency at Forza can translate to assistance with the learning curve for real world driving. Nissan proved that with its successful recruitment of gamers to its Nismo real world racing team. Getting him into an instruction course with skid pad and track time (with you; may as well improve your own skills and have fun also) would help him figure out quickly the differences between the gaming world and real one. It would also be a good father-son thing.

As for him going solo in the Ferrari (without you in another car immediately ahead of or behind him) it’s up to your level of risk tolerance and trust, but while I wouldn’t categorically say no because none of us know your son like you do, I would still err on the side of making him wait. You probably did not get a Ferrari at his age, and it’s not just a matter of driving skill and risk of accidents, but the sense that a special car like this is something to be worked for and earned.


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Congrats on the 488 and I will tell you from personal experience that playing racing games on a gaming console has saved my life on a race track twice. For example, once I was on a tail of another car, who was trying to prevent me from passing, and then in a split second in the middle of a turn, they spun out and the the next thing you know, you're looking at the other vehicle's headlights. Where games truly help you is in reaction time...

As a start, why not try an event like Xtreme Xperience, where you can have your son drive a 488 (which belongs to their company) for him to hone his skills and be acclimated with the car? When I was a lot younger, I couldn't afford a car, let alone a Ferrari, so can only imagine what peer pressure/friends can do to one's judgement.

 

Make sure he understands responsibility and to be defensive.

Regarding control of the car, from my observation, it’s loss of traction that causes most tragedies in supercars. Usually going into a corner too hot.

 

My 19-year-old son drives my 2011 Porsche Turbo S solo and will take it out on the town, but I cannot see my allowing him to take the 2018 488 Spider. I think this would put him in a very vulnerable position on his own, both from harassment problems from strangers and peer pressure problems from friends (how fast does it go?). I am not even sure I trust myself with this car sometimes! Can you tell this is my first Ferrari?

Having said that, your son sounds much more experienced with high-end cars than mine does, and he sounds very mature. As his parent, you can judge his situation much better than I can. Good luck!

 

There was a kid in CA who drove a 430 Scuderia in high school, as well as a 599 GTO and 612 Sessanta.

 

Please don’t ever try to be!

 

I let both of my sons drive my 430 (They haven't drove my 458 yet). But my youngest has tracked (with instructor at Mid-Ohio) his new WRX a number of times so he has learned good driving skills. My oldest has not tracked a car but has good driving control. Although they are older (20's), I will always be in the car with them...always. Regardless, the best thing to do, is get them on a track with a professional instructor and learn to drive. This will go so much further than just taking them for a drive.

 

As a kid, I had the privilege of learning how to drive on my dad's Alpine A110, and subsequently been allowed to drive his F Cars alone as early as 19 yo.
I was taking them whenever I wanted to.
Typically, I was taking the cars to go make a spirited drive all alone, in the small mountains next to our city.

I have experienced the type of harassment you get from jealous people (France) when you are young and drive such flashy vehicles (even though the ones I was driving were not always that expensive and years old), as well as seeing the car trying to kill me on a rainy day after I lost the back in a straight line (!) for a very minor mistake of barely pushing the accelerator too much.

I never felt a sense of entitlement driving it, nor was proud of myself driving it. For me, it was an opportunity to enjoy the cars I dreamed of during my teenage, and that I was lucky enough to finally see in the family garage.
Actually it made me even more motivated to earn my own, to now be proud of myself, experience the pride of ownership. Also a way to give a finger to all the idiots who made comments while driving it on the street and only minding my own business.

Now I am onto my second Ferrari which I paid every single dime of it out of a lot of sweat.

The type of mistakes I did while young driving those cars (never got a ticket, always adjusted my driving style to my environment, never put anyone at risk, nor did crazy zigzagging nor very high speeds...), any new owner of an exotic car can do. They are more sensible.

Not doing stupid things and giving you time to learn a car, I guess it only depends on the character, maturity, way of processing things of whoever drives it, young or older. If you have the basic skills and are a good driver at young age (which is not just about controlling your Ferrari but mostly capturing all the risks coming from the other parties sharing the roads and its dangers with you), and if you are mature enough, I see no issue giving an exotic to drive to a young individual.
Exhilaration, adrenaline, that is also dangerous into turning a cautious and responsible driver into a drama. again, depends on who is behind the wheel.

 

Let them drive, don’t be stingy.


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I made bad decisions when I had keys to my dad's range rover as a teen. Heck i drove stupidly in my Infiniti FX. Given keys to the Ferrari At that age and God knows what i would have done. And in all other measures i was scared ****less of my parents - never wanted to let them down, but behind the wheel i felt free and invincible. I suspect it's the same for most

 

I still make bad decisions.

 

Are you kidding me? I was ripping my dad's F40 around the racetrack at ages 14-15 like I was the man! The more seat time and experience you have, the better.

 

One of the first cars I ever drove was my dads brand new ‘03 360, followed by other F’s and plenty of Porsches. First car I ever drove on the track was a 360 CS. I was a good driver, stayed ticket and accident free, and cleaned the cars whenever I took them out so I was pretty much given free reign, like we were “sharing.” Never drove crazy (unless with Dad), but like Baron never felt entitled or tried to act “cool” by speeding and revving. I was just living my dream of driving a Ferrari earlier than I ever expected. Thankfully now it’s gotten to the point where we are lucky enough to share each other’s supercars. I would say, share the passion, !