The 17-year-old “car consultant” who makes a living picking out Lamborghinis

“Driving the McLaren 600LT was the worst encounter of my existence.” No, the speaker did not crash the British-born two-seater. Nor did he declare his everyday living-topping trauma with an arched eyebrow. Kiyan Caras was severe.

Driving the McLaren was hell for a single uncomplicated explanation: he did not want to scrape the carbon snout protruding from someone else’s supercar. Great kid. And I do imply kid. Caras is a 17-12 months-aged car or truck consultant. As Taylor Swift—who fled Reading, Pennsylvania for Nashville at 14—reminded us, the haters received to hate, detest, despise. In this circumstance, not entirely without cause …

If you’re like me, your journey to automotive excellence started with a procession of slow, ugly, suggest-spirited, jalopies. The strategy of a Texas teen swanning about in an Audi R8, Lamborghini Huracán, McLaren 720S and Porsche 911 Turbo S is galling. An affront to a long time of tricky do the job and unrealized automotive ambition.

But let us give younger learn Caras credit score. He parlayed boyish fantastic seems, fanboy outings to significant-conclude vehicle sellers, countless numbers of hrs speccing vehicles on Forza and an eternity diving down YouTube’s vehicle-associated rabbit holes into a put in the rarified environment of automotive exotics. Past calendar year, off-roading in his hugely modified Jeep Gladiator (speedy shifter, flame tune, Akrapovic exhaust, throttle tamer, prolonged wind visor), Kiyan befriended a Texan tycoon whose “other car” was a Rolls Royce Dawn. Dissing Goodwood’s galleon as rolling Xanax, the superior schooler suggested the forty-something mud-plugger he’d be happier in a Mercedes AMG GT four-door—Kiyan’s lack of expertise with either car notwithstanding.

Freed from classroom obligation by the, ah, unparalleled pandemic, Kiyan established about manifesting his chutzpah. He situated a box refreshing instance of Stuttgart’s leather-lined rocket ship, arranged a test generate and suggested on alternatives. Accomplished! The AMG GT’s new proprietor compensated Kiyan for his “buy this not that” knowledge with a Versace browsing spree. Kiyan decided that upcoming prospects would pay hard cash. And fork out they have—a grand in the hand and major seat time for the quickly-to-be-a-senior señor. Not lots of clientele, brain. A few so significantly. But sufficient for Kiyan to take into consideration total-time auto consulting gig‚and reject it. “My Mother will get rid of me if I really do not go to faculty,” he admitted.

Make no slip-up: Kiyan isn’t some car-crazed Gen Z get together-goer leveraging white privilege for four-wheeled pleasurable. This child is aware of cars and trucks like a zoologist knows phyla—a discovery I made right after handing him the keys to my 458. Yeah, I did that. And lived to not regret it. Not only did Kiyan drive the Ferrari like a automobile supply service—albeit just one in a bit of a hurry—his specialized information was first price.

Taking turns at quasi-reasonable speeds, Kiyan talked up the competitors, lauding Lambo for developing a Nurburgring slaying “aerovectoring” four-wheel push auto whose “front and again [aerodynamic] flaps shut on the side you are turning into to enhance downforce.” Nearer to my heart: Kiyan’s declaration that “I like purist’s cars and trucks. I do not like computers altering the driving expertise.” And this: “The driver will make the vehicle, the car does not make the driver. If you are gradual with 300 horsepower you’ll be slow with 600 horsepower.”

Apart from the fact that I could not get the teenage auto specialist to call me something but “sir,” it was effortless to forget about that I have received sweaters more mature than Kiyan Caras. He talks about autos with the very same informed enthusiasm as my cigar smoking amigos at the Casa di Montecristo. Then once again, Kiyan’s perspective on automobile tradition betrays his age. “A whole lot of Ferrari fellas acquire them just for the reason that of the name,” he asserted. “Lamborghini proprietors are less about display. Additional like real fans.”

I reckon Kiyan’s acquired it backwards, wife-beater T-shirt-smart. But what do I know? I’m just a man who worked for 30 many years in advance of stumping up the cash—OK, credit—to buy a Ferrari 355B. He’s a child who’s sampled some of the world’s sweetest rides a comprehensive four a long time in advance of the Lone Star Condition will permit him to legally have a daiquiri.

No marvel a bit of conceitedness underlies Kiyan’s unbridled enthusiasm. Supplying a twice-divorced sexagenarian tips about relationship, Kiyan advised me that it is most effective to have a girlfriend just before searching for yet another just one. “You really do not go shoe buying barefoot.” Certainly, well, do you belief a hormonal 17-year-outdated to explain to you which $100K+ car or truck to acquire with what choices?

I guess that depends on how a great deal of a supercar professional you are, or want to be. And which 17-year-outdated is dispensing the assistance. Certain, Kiyan Caras knows automobiles. But his awareness of individuals is confined by his age. In all endeavors, automotive or normally, that’s in which success lies. Hey Kiyan! Very good luck with that.