What age did your son/daughter/friend drive your 308/328, Solo?

Our son was 22 when he drove our previous 328 (we've had two). Here are he and his wife's brother around 1999.

 

That would be "never".

He's actually named as an excluded/non-driver on the insurance policy. (Daughter doesn't live locally, so didn't need to exclude her on it.)

 

As she approached her 16th birthday, our daughter Laura began bugging us to teach her how to drive. I took her to a nearby, mostly deserted, church parking lot and ran her through all sorts of exercises with a stick shift Toyota. I made her put it in reverse and do figure eights. I made her ease up to a telephone pole and bump into it, ever so gently. I showed her how the wheels make different tracks when you go around corners. And we practiced using a clutch, over and over and over, again.

There came a time during that sixteenth summer, when the lady that we were renting a garage from wanted to put in a new garage door. In order to do that, I needed to move two cars out of the way, our 308 Ferrari and our '73 Citröen SM. Laura wasn't quite 16 yet, but she said she wanted to help. Moving more than one car was a big production for us. In those days, I only had one battery around because usually, I was only driving one fancy car at a time. First, I had to pick a day to go to the garage and make sure both cars would start. I replaced a coil on the SM, and it worked, and the Ferrari started first thing, right out of the box. Then I contacted the landlady and asked when she wanted to schedule having the door replaced. On the appointed day, Laura and I showed up early in the morning. I had left the battery in the SM, so we moved it first. Laura was afraid of it - Citröens are weird - so I moved it out of the garage and parked it out of the way. Then we moved the battery out of that car and into the Ferrari, and I gave Laura the key. She insisted that I sit in the other seat. It was funny to me; either she would let the clutch out too quickly and stall the engine, or she revved up the engine too much and peeled out, one or the other - nothing in between. We weren't moving these cars very far down the alley, but she had a time of it. She did get it parked, and we locked everything up and went home.

Aong about mid-afternoon, our landlady called to say that the door was finished and complete, and that we could put the cars back away. Laura came along again. This time, she wouldn't touch the Ferrari; I parked it in the garage. But she wanted a shot at the SM. It has a more forgiving clutch than the Ferrari. It was easier for her on that score, but the brakes and the steering are truly strange until you get used to them. All and all, for a 15 year old, she did just fine.

And how many girls will you find who have gotten to drive their Dad's Ferrari and his Maserati, before they were old enough to have more than a student drivers' license? Even if only just a little way down the alley?

 

My oldest son is 19 and has driven our Testarossa and the 308 since he was 16. He cut his teeth on a 5 speed Honda Civic. Our younger son is 15 and will follow in his brothers footsteps. I’ve been blessed with many “things” but little compares to the time spent with my kids toying around with our cars! And remember, it just a car
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When I first got the 308 I struggled on my first drives with shifting smoothly. Basically I was coy and shifting too slowly.

When my 19 year old daughter jumped in, who had been driving “stick” since age 16, she immediately did it right. Basically, she taught me how to correctly shift the car.

My other daughter “chauffeured” her boyfriend around in the 308 until he learned how to drive stick. He has since learned and has driven the car.

… having said this all, I very rarely lend the car even to them!

 

Great looking 308.

 

Maybe it's a little dark to be chiaro. Mine is chiaro:
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Thanks! It’s a 77 Blue Sera and took A TON of work to get it back on the road. 10+ years of deferred maintenance when I bought it and 2 years on our hoist. It’s a dream to drive, all my sons friends DADS always ask if he’s coming over HAHAHAHA!

 

I believe my son was 18. But it was our 355 with he and his girlfriend.
I believe it was her birthday.
It was easier to drive so he followed the wife & I in the 308 up to a Japanese restaurant (Mt Fuji) for dinner.
Stupid me, I dont have any pics.
Though below is the closest he's gotten to solo in the 308 with his brother.

 

We've had our 308 for about ten years now and I'm sure my son drove the car very soon after it got delivered. His son has been conducting tours of the car since he was 6 months old
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About 10 years ago I let my niece drive my 328 when she was 22 - never having driven a stick. I figured she might as well learn to drive a stick in a Ferrari! So, big, empty parking lot and off we went! No more than the usual manual tranny learning hiccups but she was fine with it after 20-30 minutes. I figured that since the car handled my occasional drag-strip, light-up-the-tires starts, it wouldn't have any trouble handling her initial fumbling...and it didn't!

Heck, I also wash it with actual WATER when it's dirty!

 

What's a son - daughter - friend?

I sacrificed all that to own a Ferrari!

 

My oldest first drove the 328 at 16. The youngest at 15 with his learners permit. They’ve both since driven it solo a few times but I honestly only remember one of them. I tossed the keys to him when he went with me to get the DD out of the shop. He was expecting to drive the daily home….

 

Not a story about me letting my kid drive it, but rather my father letting me drive it (technically, my father convincing his friend to let me drive it) which I think everyone will get a kick out of.
So 16th birthday and returning home from having just been issued my first driver's license. Dad wants to stop on the way home and see a friend's new car. New car turns out to be GT4. Dad and friend leave me behind and go for a drive. At some point during the drive Dad convinces friend to let me take it for a spin (Birthday and all, blah, blah, blah....still not sure to this day if any money exchanged hands there or not).
At this point I should say that my Dad believed experience was a young driver's best friend, so he had been teaching me how to drive since age 13. One of our cars was a hefty American coupe with a stick, plus I had been riding motorcycles since age 11, so was very comfortable with manual transmissions.
I'm sure all this information went into convincing the friend to let the kid drive his prized Ferrari.
Anyway, off we went, proud owner talking about the little "180 cubic inch" V-8 engine that made as much horsepower as American engines twice its size. But it wasn't the engine that impressed me that day, it was the handling. After growing-up in various American barges and SUVs, it was literally a revelation. Of course I started out driving it the way I drove my family's boats - slowing dramatically for every corner - to which the friend said, "Next corner don't slow down, in fact speed up a little." Wow! It was like this car had the power to defy the laws of physics.
Now all this is happening in an older neighborhood with pretty narrow streets and lots of on-street parking, but soon we came to a newer, wider street - still one lane in each direction - but fewer houses and parked cars. Friend says "Take a right and let's head back to the house". Since I'd already experienced the God-like handling abilities of this spaceship, I decided to see what the "little 180 cubic inch V-8 engine" could do: I slowly pull away from the stop sign and then just floor it, run it up the tach, into second, back on the throttle, and somewhere around 55 mph (in a 25 mind you) figured-out that Hey! this thing wasn't too shabby in a straight line either. Curiosity satisfied, I look over at the friend...who is white as a sheet. Somehow he manages to to get out the words "Ohhhhhhh-kkkkkkay, let's take it a little easy." I'm sure that's the last thing he expected from a kid who - an hour ago - didn't even have his license!
What's missing from the story is that the "hefty American coupe" I mentioned earlier was a '69 GTO Judge with a 366 bhp/450 ft/lb Ram Air 3 engine and Muncie 4-speed. Unbeknownst to my parents, I had "acquired" a set of keys to it a year and a half earlier and had been joy riding and street racing in it every chance I got. So while I found it quick, the GT4 certainly wasn't intimidating. The little Dino just didn't give you that "OMG the World is Ending" feeling when its throttle pedal was mashed like the GTO did.
And that was the last time I ever got near the Dino. I saw it at the friend's office from time to time, but never from the inside again. It would be many years between that experience and my next Ferrari experience - buying the 308. Unfortunately, my father passed many years ago so I can't repay him for that first Ferrari drive with a drive in the 308. But more than just a first Ferrari drive, what my dad did that day put me on the sports car path and resulted in my daughter growing up in a mid-engine, two-seat, Italian sports car (X1/9); an experience that eventually manifested itself in gear head-like attributes.
So now I'm looking forward to the day that she's ready to take her first Ferrari drive and wondering if karma will be playing the "Paybacks are Hell" card.
- Dave

 

I allow my grandchildren in the 328 GTB but put the seat covers on as just had a re trim.
3 year old Josh will have the car one day.


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Great photos

 

Why does Josh get it and not the girls???

 

good question ….
Josh hugging the car pic.

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I let my daughter take the F-car to her high school her senior year on last day of school

 

Brave

 

He is now 19 and driving MBZ 190E 5sp manual
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