Safety ideas for teen proofing the 68???

[XS29LA47V21]

  but really  

I got my first 440 at 14, honestly a couple time between the ditches and getting lucky not wrecking somehow probably served me well.  I am starting early with opportunities with wheels way before they are licenced on the roads and would imagine the wife getting mad when she see us in the pasture doing doughnuts (as a time and place example).  We love cars, I hope to pass on that love .... if that is what they want to get into as hobby.  I will worry waaaay more about meth and the drugs then my kids ability to make choices (hope they are good choices by the way).  

[Cooter]

Too bad you can't install a data logging telemetry or gps . I'd hate to do it to my kid but it's the only way I'd know for certain how he is behaving on the road and treating my  cars.

There's also trust but it doesn't always work.

Whoa! Careful how you refer to "Big Bro" looking in here. There are those who might not see the benefit of GPS tracking.

[skip68]

I think it's a tremendous amount of responsibility to put on on teenager.  It all depends on the type of kid you have.  Is he the more popular, football, go out all the time type or the band/choir geek (more responsible) type?   It's a hard call either way because things happen (showing off) even with the best of kids.  Accidents happen!   Then again there are the kids that would be over protective of dad's car and freak out if somebody even leaned on it.  Bottom line is it just depends on the kid and none of us know him so we really can't make that call.  

[HeavyFuel]

The kid's occasional drive will not provide him enough experience to get the 'feel' of these type of cars, and get really good at driving it.  Driving it every once in a while will most likely create a 'white knuckle' experience for everyone involved.

Don't forget, people expect every vehicle on the road today to handle like.....well......modern vehicles.  The newer stuff all has great handling, brakes, acceleration.......even most full size pickups probably out perform a typical B-body.  So...these cars have targets on them all the time. 

The public's driving habits are based on what todays cars are capable of.  People pull crap now they wouldn't dream of doing 40 years ago, because they know they can get away with it.  A guy pulls out in front of you, or blows through a light, or one of a hundred other things.

A muscle car has a short life expectancy with an inexperienced driver behind the wheel.  I have 2 teenage drivers.....so far so good....and the charger is not in their immediate future.

[Vainglory, Esq.]

Brakes and tires are job 1.

Secondly, I would make damn sure that you're in the car with him at least the first several times he drives it. Be the worst possible backseat driver you can. I think that, even when kids aren't really listening, they're listening. If he "hears" you when he's alone, he should be more careful with it.

[ITSA426]

Send him to an SRT driving course or another similar school.  Brainerd International Raceway offers a StreetSmart teen driving course near us.  I put our loaner teen through it right after she got her learners permit.  SkipBarbers Racing School offers courses for new drivers.  Well worth the money.

My Son went through an SRT driving course, but he was already in his 20s by then.  As a teen he learned to drive in my old Chargers as well as the other vehicles I've owned.  His first road trip was 600 miles each way in a '66 Charger to a meet.  When his grades were good he could drive one of my 66 Chargers to high school.

If your son's judgement is so bad you need to "teenproof" the car I'd say put it up on blocks and drop the insurance until he moves out.  Otherwise just make him responsible for whatever happens to the car while he is in it, and sit back, relax and let him enjoy the car.  Have rules and consequences you can both live with. 

You can also talk to your insurance agent about one of those cameras to monitor his driving.  It's even easier to just lie to him and tell him you had a black box installed any to record unusual events like acceleration, braking or hard turns.

[Darkman]

Depending on what kind of kid he is, I wouldn't do anything. If you're worried to the point where you want to modify the car to make him more responsible with it, then he's not ready to drive it. I am 17 myself and my dad has no problem letting me drive his srt8 or our plymouth with a built 440, just because I have never done anything to prove him otherwise. It all depends on his responsibility

I agree with this 100%! It also depends on how you were as a driver yourself and how you drove cars with your kids in the car at young ages. My Dad had a Chrysler Valiant growing up and I loved that car. He was a responsible driver - always made sure we had our seatbelts on, never thrased out the car, obeyed the road rules. Sometimes he would plant the foot with some encouragement from us kids, but he did it in a controlled environment. All of that rubbed off on me so when I was finally old enough to drive it, I treated it like a baby. Very gentle with it as I didn't want to smash it. I only got the keys when Dad trusted me enough to look after it.

I grew up washing that car every week, helping Dad service/repair it. Last thing I wanted was to lose the car!

[carsnguitars]

Lots of food for thought guys....and teen proofing it was more for safety, yeah a lil throttle limit would be good.

Just to clarify things:

My 2 goals, were to motivate on the grades, as well as teach him about working on cars, & appreciate them.
I am thinking it will take 6+ mos of working on the car together, short drives and lessons. He be almost 18 by then.

I want him to respect the car, the effort required to make it look nice, and learn about cars, all while getting good grades.
My plan was to be with him on some drives and allowing him to run errands and in town drives. I told him no friends in the car at all!

I agree with the peer pressure point, heck I remember me and my friends on some rides!! haha.

Each kid is different, and I wont fully know till we reach that point. I think the bonding and the journey will be fun, and the rest, well time will tell.

[Darkman]

Lots of food for thought guys....and teen proofing it was more for safety, yeah a lil throttle limit would be good.

Just to clarify things:

My 2 goals, were to motivate on the grades, as well as teach him about working on cars, & appreciate them.
I am thinking it will take 6+ mos of working on the car together, short drives and lessons. He be almost 18 by then.

I want him to respect the car, the effort required to make it look nice, and learn about cars, all while getting good grades.
My plan was to be with him on some drives and allowing him to run errands and in town drives. I told him no friends in the car at all!

I agree with the peer pressure point, heck I remember me and my friends on some rides!! haha.

Each kid is different, and I wont fully know till we reach that point. I think the bonding and the journey will be fun, and the rest, well time will tell.

[FJMG]

If a newer car would make you and your wife more at ease then pick up an 06 charger r/t with the curtain airbags.  or a 3.5 l if you really are concerned. Heck just the weight of that car might improve the odds of survival in the event of an accident. Anybody who has registered a car knows that under the age of 25 the odds of an accident are considerably higher. Then reserve the rides in the 68 to family outings.

Notice I did not mention an srt8 

On the other hand, I have let my 17 yr old daughter drive my Srt8 while I am with her and once in a while, on a lonely hwy with nice shallow ditches and no other vehicles in sight I let her "get on it" from about 20 mph, and man the look on her face when that sucker downshifts and the tach swings to 6k is pure heaven.

Now would I let her take friends for a ride without me? Honestly, I am not sure because I do trust her but would probably say no. My only reason would be is that we daily drive old saturns that require a sail to accelerate and until more experience behind the wheel of something with plenty of hp is acquired, I may then feel better.

Fwiw I feel your hesitation.

[Indygenerallee]

And that new SRT8 has traction control whereas that 68 can get squirrelly REAL quick!!

[Kern Dog]

It seems to me that if you want HIM to do most of the work on the car, stuff like limiting the throttle or a rev limiter can be reversed easily. BY HIM.
Tall diff gears, a 318 and an automatic can help.
Regarding safety.... I think that too many people are getting hornswaggled by that crap. EVERYONE on this board has driven an old car and survived. Many of us have wrecked, rolled or burned a few and also survived. The crash worthiness of these cars is pretty good. If I had kids, I'd start them off with an A body though. Many kids get in a few scrapes, and the prices of 68 Charger fenders is about 6 times the cost of used Duster/Dart fenders.

[FLG]

You want him to respect it? Have him buy one.

Im 23 (had my charger since i was 18-19 or so), i fixed it, i paid for it, i put gas in it, i pushed it, i cut and burned my hands on it, and in the end if I wreck it cause im being stupid...its all on me.

I think its not the parking lot showing off that really gets kids killed, its thinking there going to take a 2 ton car with out dated suspension and run it on the highway like its a go kart. Yep i had my occasional highway fun, wound her up to 130mph...best be sure there wasnt another car on the road when i did that.

Have him go to a racing school, he needs to learn not how to handle the car when all is good and dandy...but when the shits hitting the fan.

Ive had tons of fun with my charger in empty parking lots, burnouts, drifting around and having some safe fun. That helps when its slick from rain or you punch it on a turn and have the rear come round the side...you learn the car you know how it should react and you compensate for that and dont go sideways into a pole, you dont know how much grip those tires have until you push them past that limit...and the only way your going to be able to react in those situations is if youve pushed them to those limits before.

Generally youll respect a car if your the one who put the money, blood, sweat and tears into it...otherwise its just as good as driving a rental.

In the end no matter how much work he puts into it, its your car...if (hope it never happens) he wrecks it, he didnt wreck his car he wrecked yours.

[Brightyellow69rtse]

when i was 17 the engine blew in my thunderbird. it had a 3.8 v-6 and i wanted to put in a 302. my dad would only take the loan out for me if i replaced it witha  3.8. having looked back at that many times it was definatly a good move on his part. i understand many kids drive powerful cars. but imo its just safer if they dont have the option 

[1974dodgecharger]

My first car was a 1984 300zx and I won every street race since not many kids could afford such jap cars back then and YES the other big 3 that I raced lost too at the time. I once went 145mph in that car for 5 miles straight and everything was at a stand still....I look back it was scary as FCK!!!!! I got lucky lets put it that way I didnt hit a pebble and go crashing......

You just gonna have to trust your kid....not to be stupid like me....

[Kern Dog]

I once went 145mph in that car for 5 miles straight and everything was at a stand still....

I call bull crap on this one. Cars were limited to the speed rating of the tires by the computer. The BEST OEM tires of that time were the Goodyear gatorbacks or Michelins, and even THOSE had a 130  "V"mph rating. The "Z" rated 149 mph wasnt available until 1988.

[FLG]

I once went 145mph in that car for 5 miles straight and everything was at a stand still....

I call bull crap on this one. Cars were limited to the speed rating of the tires by the computer. The BEST OEM tires of that time were the Goodyear gatorbacks or Michelins, and even THOSE had a 130  "V"mph rating. The "Z" rated 149 mph wasnt available until 1988.

I dont...im sure you can get close to that speed with the right gearing, my charger hit 130 without issue and on 118mph "T" rated tires with room to go. Even if he went for 5 miles at 145mph its only going to take around 2 minutes, the tire just dosnt blow up because your passing the speed rating. Also im fairly certain they base the speed rating in the case that the tire is at its full load rating as well.

Also 300zx's of the time had a speed limiter of 137 (not far from 145) and a quick snip of a wire with those cars removed the limiter.

[1974dodgecharger]

I once went 145mph in that car for 5 miles straight and everything was at a stand still....

I call bull crap on this one. Cars were limited to the speed rating of the tires by the computer. The BEST OEM tires of that time were the Goodyear gatorbacks or Michelins, and even THOSE had a 130  "V"mph rating. The "Z" rated 149 mph wasnt available until 1988.

NOPE it was 145 reading my speedomoeter at the time dont remember the tires I could try to dig up some old pictures it was the 5 speed manual 84 version. MY EYES were NOT bull crap that day I can recall it because after I was done I was scred afterwards, but not at the moment.

[Cooter]

I didn't handle my boy acting like an idiot very well because I was staring at three different sets of lawyers because of him...
Remember folks, today everybody wants to get rich from suing. Years ago, we did dumb sh*t, but noboday had theor f*cking lawyer on speed dial like today....I hope you the best, but I fear the worst. Be prepared to recieve some paperwork form a lawyer if he acts stupid and hits/wrecks/etc. into someone else. Some will say that's what Insurance is for, but remember, most today only have the minimum coverage on their kid, or the one suing wants WAY more than insurance will pay.

[1974dodgecharger]

Just got done doing some reading and googling the N.A. ones had a REV LIMITER, but not a speed limiter and the Turboes had a REV and SPEED limiter. I had the NA. motortrend disabled their speed limiter to hit 153mph top speed in their turbo white version I believe

I once went 145mph in that car for 5 miles straight and everything was at a stand still....

I call bull crap on this one. Cars were limited to the speed rating of the tires by the computer. The BEST OEM tires of that time were the Goodyear gatorbacks or Michelins, and even THOSE had a 130  "V"mph rating. The "Z" rated 149 mph wasnt available until 1988.

I dont...im sure you can get close to that speed with the right gearing, my charger hit 130 without issue and on 118mph "T" rated tires with room to go. Even if he went for 5 miles at 145mph its only going to take around 2 minutes, the tire just dosnt blow up because your passing the speed rating. Also im fairly certain they base the speed rating in the case that the tire is at its full load rating as well.

Also 300zx's of the time had a speed limiter of 137 (not far from 145) and a quick snip of a wire with those cars removed the limiter.

[Charger-Bodie]

When I was 15 and My Dad and I were building my first 68 Charger,I told him I wanted the 383 to go in instead of the 318 he had in mind. He told Me "The only way you will have the 383 in that car is if there are toilet paper in two of the goles instead of pistons". I got into plenty of trouble with the 318 ,never did wreck it though.

[model maker]

A teenager today has too many things to distract them from paying attention, cell phones & texting while driving, i see it ALl the time. They do NOT have the experience to be using a cell phone while driving, they need to pay extra attention because of their INEXPERIENCE. Put him in a 440 it won't be long before some kid in a newer car with ABS etc. will challenge him because he is in an old car & he will just have to prove something. the car has to much power & not enough stopping power BAD COMBINATION when mixed with INEXPERIENCE, CELL PHONES, TEXTING WHILE DRIVING & PEER PRESSURE. he can promise anything all he wants but as soon as he is by himself, you will never know & he knows it.

[lloyd3]

My biggest worry is my only son's fascination with my '68 R/T.  You folks that trust your sons (and daughters) to drive them are hopefully, very-much in touch with the personalities of your children.  As has been mentioned here before, it's a different world out there now. The 60s and 70s were extremely innocent by today's standards, and the distractions are now almost endless (smartphones w/tweeting & texting and video, more sexually-aggressive and more scantily-clad young women, much heavier and faster traffic, etc.) and.... these cars argueably fit under the legal definition of being "an attractive nuisance" (this is the same legal theory that mandates fences around swimming pools).  They attract a surprising amount of attention, and not all of that attention is good. Combine all of that with 45-year old braking and suspension technologies and, IMHO, you're begging for a disaster.  My child is pretty predictable when it comes to the basic human instincts and emotions (as was I), and my track record includes several fairly spectacular automotive disasters.  Thankfully, nobody was killed or severely maimed.  And, quite frankly, because my father was a police officer I was spared some of the usual repercussions of my stupidity.  I somehow lived through my dangerous years, but not all of my peers did.  

When I'm going down a lonely road listening to that big American V-8 digest gasoline, I sometimes think about those that didn't make it.  I'm fairly certain that my son will never get to drive this vehicle unsupervised.  Maybe when he's in his mid-20s, but not before then.

[XH29N0G]

A teen even in one of the less impressive cars is still a problem  I was, and still am, a nerd, not a risk taker. 

I count myself lucky to have avoided killing myself first with a mild 2 bbl pontiac lemans and then with my fathers 383 4 bbl charger. 

The bottom line as I see it (and I have a 14 year old now) is to keep the kids alive and to have them do the right thing if something goes wrong.  I have not decided how to deal with my son, but I am watching.  I suspect it will involve doing stuff with him and hopefully teaching him to respect what the cars can and cannot do, and where his limits are.

Detuning only works to a point.  I would have found a rev limiter or detuning and I do not think my kid would not do the same.  I detuned my dad's 16'9" boat when he gave it to my brother in law to keep him safe.  That lasted until he took it to a shop where they fixed it and told him they took it to 95 mph. 

Another consideration is how they will take it if something happens.  I had a friend who shot himself after wrecking his dad's 427 68 corvette - I think because his dad loved the car, and he was scared of the consequences.  Not saying that will happen again, but it is worth thinking about.   

James
 

[69finder]

Maybe already mentioned;

1) Take out all the seats except the drivers seat.
2) Put a bollix or something that blocks all cellphones, texting etc.
3) No stereo.


DONE! 

And put a rev limiter in er.