Dear Forum Dr.:

[Zulu993]

My son is 16 and wants to learn to drive my 993 and join the Porsche club. He's a natural athelete in most sports and excels, but when it comes to his driving, well, I pray alot!!

For no other reason, I feel blessed that he actually wants to hang out with me (at 16-17) and that this could be a great opportuity for us to contiue the bonding process (and have a blast).

What is the best way: 1) to teach him to drive a stick and 2)get him down to the "Q" into entry level AX's? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[harnishclan]

The best way to teach him how to drive a stick is to get him one (993 clutches are expensive) and then find someone else to actually do the teaching. My son is learning stick in a $500.00 924 turbo, and has no chance of sitting in the 993 driver seat for a while.

[Kim Crosser]

Of course, Plan B is to just bring him down and let him drive...

Actually, I'm not kidding. Christy Copeman's son showed up at the Fontana AX last year with no track experience and only ONE DAY of any stick shift experience driving an older 911 with a fairly tricky clutch and what seemed to be very little (or no?) power steering assist. At the end of the day, he won his class in that car. Yes, he stalled it a few times, but that alone isn't going to break the clutch.

Our AX's usually don't involve a lot of downshifting - sometimes none, and especially for a new driver, most of the track can be done while staying in 2nd gear in a 993 (with maybe a third-gear section or two if he is picking things up quickly).

I would suggest having him:
1) Register him for the next Performance Driving School (registrations must be mailed in ON October 12th - no earlier, no later - check the SDR main web site and the forum for announcements). Or see this link for the announcement and registration form: http://www.pcasdr.org/img/2007/Calendar/DSchool/2007_Fall_Dr-Sch_Ad.pdf.
2) Come to the October 13th AX this Saturday and drive it with one of our instructors. I highly encourage new drivers to do an AX or two before doing the PDS - you will get a lot more out of it if you have had a day or two on the track first.
3) If you can find a less-expensive Porsche for the PDS, maybe use that - otherwise, if he isn't doing badly at the AX... well, there aren't a lot of downshifts at the PDS, either.

I concur on the "get someone else to teach him" - no matter how good a teacher you might be, kids seem to listen better and learn faster from someone other than their parents. (Ask me how I know.)