The New York Times has a story on car nut Fred Heiler and his son Tim. It seems that Tim wasn't quite living up to his potential in middle school– thanks to girls and video games. But his progeny's Cobra love led to a parental epiphany: "'O.K., bud,' I said in a weak moment, 'if you get on the honor roll and stay on throughout high school, we'll buy you a Cobra kit when you graduate.'" The incentive worked: "Indeed, he began to apply himself in school, and in a couple of marking periods we got a congratulatory note and an honor roll sticker with his report card…. Good grades became the norm all through high school. Tim graduated with honors in 2006. True to his word, Fred bought a Cobra kit from E.R.A. in Connecticut. Father and son built the car together in the garage. "With Fleetwood Mac or Green Day blasting, we'd chatter about car stuff, school or music while we worked, but at other times we'd proceed without speaking, anticipating each other's moves and handing each other the right tools at the right time." The two shade tree mechanics plan to attend a safe driving school together this summer. Cobra? Driving school? Sounds like a plan.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
This “incentive” could also be used as a negative re-enforcer; I’m pretty sure my son would try to get better grades if I promised to build him a car as punishment. Between my skill set and choice of embarassement (Mustang II, Chevy Monza, K-Car), he’d probably end up in an tier-1 university.
Hey I was on the honor roll all through high school!! Still I’m planning to do this project with my dad one day.
while its great the kid got good grades and all that. i have always had a little trouble with kids who get new cars for graduating high school. everyone has to do it and unless you were top of the class you did nothing special. i just dont understand why someone should get a reward for something they have to do.
The real question is how long before he wraps it around a telephone poll.
This actually brings up a more general question: how much car is too much car for a teenager?
Yournamehere: Lighten up. Its not a daily driver, but more than that, the car was a MacGuffin. The real story is the summer that they got to spend together in the garage. Soon enough, the son will be out in, what is laughingly referred to, as the real world, and they won’t have time like that. Cat’s in the cradle and all that.
Note to many of today’s parents: May not have desired effect when child already has new BMW at age 16.
The more you know.
Even if it isn’t a daily use vehicle, I’d still put a Ford small-block 221 in it from a 1962 Fairlane, with carburetor restrictions limiting it to about 100 horsepower, for my sons!!!!
Seriously!!!
These things are absolutely deadly in the hands of anyone but Very Excellent Drivers (VED).
Robert Schwartz
i have spent alot of quality time with my father and have alot of great memories and none of them involved him buying me anything. let alone a performance car.
go on a camping trip or something. if cars are your thing go to a race weekend.
I am glad it worked for you. I got to work with my father in his business for his last few years. The car worked for the Heilers. It wouldn’t have worked for my father and me, because neither of us was at all mechanical.
Different strokes for different folks.
I’m with Robert Schwartz on this. Building a kit car together sounds like a great father-son “bonding” exercise to me.
I wish my father had thought more like this guy. More often than not, when I worked with my dad, all I got to do was hold the flashlight. I ultimately decided I’d rather work alone.
Also, unlike the case where the parents simply buy something expensive for their kid, he would’ve learned something in the process and probably has more respect for the car because he built it.
“if those grades don’t come up pronto, I’m taking you right down to the Chrysler dealer, mister”
“if those grades don’t come up pronto, I’m taking you right down to the Chrysler dealer, mister”
Priceless! Thanks Mud!
insert “rennah rennah goddamit parents these days spoil their children so much i had to buy my first car with money i earned slinging newspapers on the street corner for 8 years and i loved that brown chevette diesel rennah rennah no wonder kids these days are so disrespectful i’m an old crotchety man” comment here.
Seriously though, good for them. Good incentive to work hard, which few kids have, and a good father/son bonding experience, which fewer and fewer parents these days experience thanks to cell phones, myspace and all that crap.
btw I’m 20.
Mrb00st: wtf does “rennah” mean?
But I partly agree. While I generally don’t think it is a good idea to give your kids a car (I worked for my first car) the way this fellow did it seems like a pretty good plan. I think the fact the kid turned wrenches on it himself will give him more appreciation for it than if dad just handed him the keys.
The kid also seems to have no small amount of committment, which will serve him well in the future. It sounds like it was at least two or three years that he maintained his grades. At that age, it is pretty rare to see someone who can stick to something like that when the payoff seems so far away.
A small price to pay to keep the kid from a lifetime of mediocrity. I think the dad realized that.
You know what, good for him. That’s awesome. I commend both the son and his dad.
Good idea building a kit car together. Just wish it was not a high performance vehicle. In todays energy reality, it would make more sense to go for something more relevant to our times. He will pay dearly licensing and insuring it. And gas will be costly too. And it really could be dangerous for his health.
Sounds to me that the father really wanted to build the car and convinced the kid that this was the car to build. So is it really the ‘kids car’? I think every kid should work and pay for his own car and the cost of maintenance/upkeep. Teaches him some important life lessons.
A kid can kill himself, and others, in any car. Better a cobra AND a top notch driving school, than a chevette and whatever most of the idiots on the street got.
Even better – build a plane. It is actually easier to build than a car, but you learn a lot more about judgement and risk assessment learning to be a pilot than you ever will driving.
I’m so jealous I’m sick.
All of it.
“I’m so jealous I’m sick. All of it.”
Me too!
The point is the bonding experience. I still cherish the days I and my brothers work side by side with my father on our small part-time farm. Good for this father and son to have the experience.
My car bonding experiences with my dad were a bit different. We would be driving somewhere, the car would break down, and my dad would look at me to fix it to get it going again. So we would brainstorm together to figure out what component had failed, and how to bypass/fix/jury-rig it.
Always lot of fun on the side of a freeway with cars whizzing by inches away at 70mph.
OK, I’m the father who agreed to buy the Cobra kit if my son got on the honor roll and stayed there for four years. I probably deserve some of the negative comments on this site, but here are a few points for anyone who’s interested.
Selfishly, I also wanted to build a Cobra replica for myself, so this turned out to be a great way to do it AND incentivize my kid at the same time. Yes, he should’ve gotten good grades on his own, but it wasn’t happening, and this goal gave him real focus.
I agree with those of you who don’t believe in giving a kid a car when he graduates from high school. Throughout his first two years of college, Tim was on campus without wheels, and when he was home, he had access to my wife’s or my daily driver only when we didn’t need it. He’s 21 now, has never had an accident (despite helping me put more than 5,000 miles on the Cobra last summer) and has only gotten two minor traffic tickets — those in the very slow daily driver he got himself recently.
He works hard in school (3.2 GPA), and I’ve told him I’ll put the Cobra in his name when he graduates from college and can afford a place with at least a two-car garage. In the meantime, we both enjoy driving the Cobra, and we also have a blast working on other car projects together.
He recently helped me convert my 1965 Porsche 356 to Bosch fuel injection (the original, numbers-matching engine, which we had rebuilt together several years ago, sits on my work bench). The car now starts, idles and runs stronger than it ever did with carbs, and Tim has learned yet another useful lesson about cars.
Sincerely, Fred Heiler