88sirneedsalot

Iam 17 and iam telling you to take him out into a parking lot and see how he does at swaping the car back and forth while in a slide.

if he does ok he might be able to drive it semy safely.

these car require respect, you have to respect the power and be able to judge the roads because they will slide out on just about anything.

good luck to you and your son i hope it all comes out great and iam sure he will love the car but he better respect it or he'll end up in a ditch like most with these cars. iam mean no offense by this its just these car have a tendancy to be wrecked by people who cant drive.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/H...cool_69386.htm

example...

wrenchturner75

these guys are right, what my dad did for me was when i got my first decently fast car an 85 capri with the 302ho and 5 speed i was 17 mind you, he taught me what to do in case of a skid, how and which way to countersteer, tried it on a large open parking lot when wet ( and frankly scared the **** outta me) but he made me keep purposly trying to skid the car until i knew what to do and when and i tell ya it really worked, cause it still works to this day no matter if its dry or raining or snowing, they now have driving schools also to learn these things. giving him a 400hp mustang without having him learn how the car is gonna react in a skid or slide is crazy. and ps if you cant trust him with the car then he shouldnt have it! he has to know that a car has the power to take lives, including his, make him respect it.

1985stang

As with what everyone else has said, if you don't trust him to have it you shouldn't have bought it in the first place.

Iwill speak from someexperience. To the people that say they're "really dangerous cars" or "the *** end is way too light and slides out even in really light rain with stock power", i believe that this is only a problem when people don't know how to drive, or are driving too hard on the street. I've been driving my car in Iowa, inthe sun, rain, sleet, ice, snow for the past two years and have hadno problems with losing control so don't tell me "oh noes, it gets so slippery when it's raining tho" No, it's slippery when there are 6 inches of snow over a nice layer of ice. I've also recieved a whopping 0 speeding tickets or moving violations. These cars can be perfectly fine d/d, so it all comes down to responsiblity.

FoxGT

I will agree with that... I wasn't lucky enough to have my mustang bought for me, I payed for mine from working & got it when I was 17 with an engine & trans that was pretty well done for then rebuilt both.

I would advise the parking lot thing as it's a good place to learn & ask him not to drive it too crazy on public roads, tell him to find an empty parking lot or something. Any kid's going to get on it from time to time. I've owned my '89 gt for quite a long time & still mistreat it badly.

Might also help if you find some things to do to the car with him. Judging from some of my friends with stangs, a few of them had their stang given to them & they don't value the car. I've spent countless hours on my car; rebuilding the engine, transmission swaps, upgrades, & body work (drove into a ditch @ 30mph & fixed it myself). You put alot of time/work into a car you'll generally be a little more careful with it. I still slide corners & go through the gears quite a bit, but I do it in wide areas where i don't put other people or my car near harms way if i don't slide right.

400hp is a bit much to start with so i'd definitely change the tb or intake to lower the power at least somewhat for now, then after a few months or something changing it back.

I'd definitely have some fun in the car with him though. He'll probably look up to you & might help if you ask him (not tell him) to do you a favor & please don't get crazy on public roads. My dad was all against me having any v8 car, but I also do all of the work on my car myself & it makes me value my car so i'm not all too crazy with it... I do still race every now & then & mistreat the car, but I wont do it with other people around just incase I lose control.

Nothing wrong with buying that car for him imo. just need to show him how to play around in it before he tries to learn in the wrong place.