Dilemma - my 16-year old

[Mustang_289]

My son and I have been building up an 88GT since last August - it's been on the road now for a couple of months. During the whole process of building this car - my son and I have talked about racing. There's a right place to race and a wrong place to race. We have a straight-line track not more than 20 miles from our house.

Well - my son and one of his buddies were doing a little cruising and my son was asked by a ricer, "do you wanna race". Well that's where things started going down-hill. They raced down a somewhat secluded residential road - and apparently a goose was in the middle of the road - causing both drivers to lose control. The ricer got the worst of it and jumped the median strip across the other lanes - luckily no oncoming cars. My son was able to hold the pony from crossing the median strip but did hit a curb at 60+ mph - blowing the front time and wheel. Don't know if anything else was damaged as yet.

Both drivers were charged with wreckless driving - luckily the cop cut them some slack and didn't write them up with wreckless driving & racing.

Here's my dilemma - we've told him that if there was any racing on the streets, or wreckless driving with the car his license is ours. He's got a July court date and could lose his license after the court date. Not sure what to do long-term with my son and the mustang. My wife didn't want us to get the car - as she was always against a 5.0 for a 16-year old. There are a few options that I'm considering - selling the car(least favorite as I enjoy the time with my son working on the car), continue fixing it up and not allowing him to drive it for a while, taking it off the road and making it solely a weekend straight-line car. Has anyone on this BBS experienced a similar dilemma with their son?